Favorite amp circuit?

[Quencho092]

I know many people may have a favorite amp or setting on it, but little do most of us know that many different amps have the same or a similar circuit. I just found out that a 68 silverface bassman has an ab165 just like almost all of the blackfaces (with an exception to the aa165 and the aa864. a good guess would be that the aa864 was designed for the '64 blackfaces, the aa165 was the original 1965 model, and the ab165 was the beta model (late 65-68 silverfaces..)

What's the diff between the ab165 and the aa165 besides the bias control? And how does this affect tone?

Anyone know anything about marshall circuits, and which ones are the holy grails of tone?

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Favorite amp circuit?

When tubes were being pushed for use in consumer audio gear in the late 40's, early 50's, companies like RCA, Phillips, Sylvania, would show companies like Fender how to make a power amp circuit, using their tubes. Those early amp companies basically adopted those circuits as the circuits for their guitar amps. Further into the 50's and 60's, the circuits became more fine tuned, often losing some of the magic of the initial design. That's why early vintage amps have become so favored.

Just generally speaking, the holy grail years of Fender were 54-67 Tweed to blackface era. All point to point wired....no printed circuit board.

The holy grail years of Marshall were 62-73 73 was the transition year from point to point to circuit board, so you've got to check any 73 Marshall you buy to see if it's an early one or later one. Honestly, even the 74-82 Marshalls sounded just about as good because the PC boards had big tracers and decent components, so you hear less difference than you would on a later marshall with tiny components on complex boards.

 

[texasguitarslinger]

Re: Favorite amp circuit?

'59 Bassman :smoker: