Jimi Hendrix' Gear and Mods at West Coast Organ and Amp

[revolver1]

Has any one done a circuit lay out for this? I'd love to give it a go. I am quite new to pedals, I built a grey wah a few months back and that turned out O.K so I'm into the idea of giving the West Coast fuzz a go.

Slightly off topic but may be of interest to some. I picked up a Vox Superfuzz clone from a small, one man pedal company based in Spain called ananashed. Suprisingly cheap for a pedal of this quality and Pedro was a really great guy to deal with. Any way this was supposedly the fuzz Townshend used on Live at Leads and I gotta say it is an amazing pedal, really mind bending sounds.

It's going to take something quite incredible to kick this off my board. Maybe the West Coast Fuzz?

[masonbeckham]

Revolver,

Check out Xplorer’s post on page 107. Has the layout and pictures of his build. This circuit is definitely worth it to say the least! It is absolutely the best fuzz circuit there is!


-Mason

[revolver1]

Thanks Mason,

Just been going back over the thread the last couple of days and it's all there. Some how I missed alot of it. Gotta get me one of these.

[jazz1]

What happened to this nice forum ?,
did we move from J.Hendrix gears and mods up to trade with some Covid vaccine passports ?,
anyway -nanablangy- kiss my non-vaccinated ass !!! (at least for several times !!!)

[revolver1]

Agreed....

[daveweyer]

Well this was and still is a nice forum, even though there are not so many posts as before. We should still thank George for hosting this place, because it assuredly takes time and energy.

Yeah even though the virus funny business cost a lot of discussions by wrapping folks up in opposing narratives and various kinds of hysteria, the loss in interest has more to do with the amp and parts side of the business. Cloning old Marshall amps is still pretty rigorous, and I doubt the money is there to make it worthwhile, especially now, with supply issues and huge inflation.

But Xplorer and the others are still building, and the Hendrix Foundation is still working to recreate some of Jimi's original West Coast gear, so the spirit of this forum is very much alive and well. Fans and builders still check in now and again, so this can go on for a while, as long as George decides to keep it going. I check in too every so often to see how personal projects are coming along.

We remembered Jimi on the 18th; the seed he planted still has a lot of growth around the world.

[nikniknik]

Hello,
this is not my first post, in the past my nickname was niknik, but I forgot the login informations, and so I did a new account..
I'm from Italy, so please excuse me for my bad english
I'm planning to build my second West Coast amp, using an original dynaco 431 OT, a 550v/600v b+ PT, 4 x 6550 tubes, 12at7 driver, and a screen voltage regulator, using a 6GF7 tube (if I find a correct novar socket..), like the quantum amp.
My previous West Coast amp is a really awesome sounding Marshall (thanx so much Dave!), so for this new build I would like to go beyond, with 600v/300v plate/screen voltages, and maybe a more efficient driver (5687?).
Now my question: which choke value do you suggest me for this kind of build?
I'll be happy to share all my progress

[PhilSt]

Hi everyone,
I just found this Video. It is from the 1st BOG Show 1970. I think it Shows Jimis amps from the back...but it is really bad quality
But I thought it is of interest for us BOG geeks
It is around the 1:40 mark

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5g6znr

Oh and check out the pedal order at 4:20
Octavio first! Like I pointed out in a other thread.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New year to all.

Cheers Phil

[daveweyer]

Good one Phil.
Xplorer posted the same link way back in the West Coast pages somewhere, but no one seemed to notice the effects chain order.

[yladrd61]

The effects order is different in several other photos, also on the various audio recordings that have been released there is quite a bit of difference in guitar tone between the sets and shows. They managed to capture the best material on the original Band of Gypsy's album, which was released to get Jimi out from under a previous Contract obligation ... This thread is a gold mine to those of us Jimi fanatics who are obsessed with the magical guitar tones that were created at those shows at the Fillmore East. We are very fortunate to have input from the person who helped Jimi get to that place !!!

[FloPoeKo]

Good one Phil.
Xplorer posted the same link way back in the West Coast pages somewhere, but no one seemed to notice the effects chain order.

Dave, happy easter! I don´t know if this already has been covered, but: How did you go by matching power tubes back in the day (say before 1970´s) when replacing them in a guitar amp? Did you "simply" check current draw of each tube within a certain margin deemed satisfactory and check the output-waveform with as scope or did anything go beyond that?
That really would be an interesting story in the age of computerized curve tracing...

Kind regards, Florian

[MidnightLightning]

Tone check and critiques:

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRwuPtsJ/

[daveweyer]

There were a couple things to consider; one was the current at idle, and the other was the current at power. A curve tracer would have been nice, but we just used current matching, checking to see if each tube conducted the same current in operating power conditions. You can do this simply by putting a 1 ohm resistor in the cathode circuit of each tube. It is then easy to watch and compare the current in each tune at all operating power levels. You must have a balanced phase inverter for this, and the Mullard style cathode coupled phase inverter used in Marshalls was never balanced. 82K and 100K plate loads were only approximate fixes for this circuit. You had to put a trimmer on one or the other of the plate load resistors to get balance. Either that or use a true constant current source in the cathode of the phase inverter tube, but that was not practical in those amps.

So much for matching output tubes in old Marshalls............

[FloPoeKo]

There were a couple things to consider; one was the current at idle, and the other was the current at power. A curve tracer would have been nice, but we just used current matching, checking to see if each tube conducted the same current in operating power conditions. You can do this simply by putting a 1 ohm resistor in the cathode circuit of each tube. It is then easy to watch and compare the current in each tune at all operating power levels. You must have a balanced phase inverter for this, and the Mullard style cathode coupled phase inverter used in Marshalls was never balanced. 82K and 100K plate loads were only approximate fixes for this circuit. You had to put a trimmer on one or the other of the plate load resistors to get balance. Either that or use a true constant current source in the cathode of the phase inverter tube, but that was not practical in those amps.

So much for matching output tubes in old Marshalls............

Dave, it´s as always been a thorough lesson on how things were done back in the day...Thanks a lot for chiming in!

[ampgas1988]

Hi guys just trying to catch up on all the info here some amazing info thanks Dave! I was wanting to build a west coast fuzz I just want to clarify this is the fuzz at Woodstock that is what I am aiming for. Any assistance would be appreciated I’m going through all the posts so basically the red fuzz with the white knobs is indeed the 3 transistor fuzz? Any help would be appreciated and cannot be built and fit into a fuzz face?