Testing victorious 24

Tung Sol 6v6 (current production) review

With NOS tubes becoming more scarce, and most supliers lacking reliability, decided to try some current production 6v6 power tubes. 

This ones where clearly a winner in the tone department.

Nice and chimey tone, with good note separation, solid bass, and the mids are warm with definition. When pushed the compression and crunch are musical and not mushy like other curtent production tubes. I feel they can stand up to some NOS tubes.

In terms of Tone control use in my victorious 14, I felt that I could go very low in the tone without going muddy, or high without being harsh... The range was better than any other tubes I tried.

Nice and chimey tone, with good note separation, solid bass, and the mids are warm with definition. When pushed the compression and crunch are musical and not mushy like other curtent production tubes. I feel they can stand up to some NOS tubes.

In terms of Tone control use in my victorious 14, I felt that I could go very low in the tone without going muddy, or high without being harsh... The range was better than any other tubes I tried.

Inside the Spartan 30

Victorious 14 - Casual Blues (Live)

Casual Attraction Playing Casual Blues. Sound recorded Live at Casino Lx. For Guitar a Victorious 14 was used with an american strat with Reilander Texas Pickups, A Leonidas 300STER in front, and an EarthQuaker Devices dispatch master was used for slap-back.
For Keyboards, Alessio used a controler keyboard straight into a Victorious 14 (keyboard model)
More info at: http://leonidasamplification.blogspot.pt/ 
Also check:
http://casualattraction.blogspot.pt/
http://pedroleonidas.blogspot.pt/

Ensaio de som Casino LX

Getting ready...




15 a 21 de Maio - ENTRADA LIVRE!

Runing a vintage (two input) amp with modern effects

One of the things I like on a vintage-styled amp is the use of parallel inputs. In the case of the Victorious 14, I have been using a direct path from the guitar to the High input, and a split, buffered path, through delay and reverb. That way I can get a lot more punch from the amp, and also can use some of its crunch without messing up the effects too much. Also it is okay to use "mix-dry/wet" type of pedal without loosing the direct sound, and also avoiding DSP conversion that some digital units do. The result gives me a great direct dry tone mixed with good warmer and balanced effects tone, and switchable trails (if I bypass the effect input).

Leonidas Amplification - Cabinets

Our cabinets are artisanal hand made in Portugal, using the finest solid wood available, and handcrafting techniques that portuguese wood craftsman are known for.

Mr Casual (Blackheart - tweaking)

Decided to take a new approach on the drive circuit of this amp. So changed the path a bit, and lowered the grid stopper resisance, discarded the bleeding cap, but introduced a 10k grid leak variable resistor for the second drive stage.
In my oppinion, the circuit tone has improved, with adjustable grid control for diferent stages. Including the previous mod for the phase inverter stage.
Now It can get a "matchless-like" vibe going with an alnico speaker... Nice!

Champ 600 - (Second Upgrade)

Afther the other mods, I decided to have a little more tweaking in order to improve this fellow a little bit more.
One of the upgrades was a VMP output transformer,  the exact same model we are using on our Valliant 5.

The tone of this transformer is smoother, louder and has a tad more bottom, and resulted from an extended research made for Leonidas Amps.

The other was an old Oxford AlNiCo 6" Speaker, that showed up to be a very nice addition to this little combo. A big difference from the ceramic speaker.
Even tough it still has a few issues compared to the Valliant 5(like hum, harsher tone...) , with a few mods  it is a nice portable practice amp.

Leonidas Amplification!

Amplificadores de guitarra 100% artesanais, feitos á mão com os melhores componentes vintage para o timbre mais orgânico e puro possível. Circuitos inspirados em clássicos que fizeram história nos anos 50 e 60, mas que continuam a ser desejados.

Artisanal Top Quality Guitar Amps, Hand-build with the best available vintage components to provide the Greatest Purity & Organic  Tone possible. Inspired in classic historical circuits from the 50's and 60's, that are still in  great demand.

100% Made in Portugal!
By Pedro Leónidas &
Vintage Music Parts

Mr Casual (blackheart) more mods

I became used to favour power amp saturation over pre amp distortion... Power amp saturation is where the best tone is. This amp had a drive pot that was giving too much pre amp drive, and by the time the power tube overdrive started, there was way too much pre amp distortion over it. Maybe suited for some styles... but not for me...
I decided to improve the tone a bit, so the amp had more power amp saturation and less pre-amp distortion.
Removed the drive pot altogether and replaced it for a fixed filter that did not overload the second stage too much, keeping it clean and punchy. Also changed the resistance from the second stage to the phase inverter, alowing 3 switchable positions(including stock value), allowing me to drive the phase inverter harder, and pushing the power tubes into sweet organic and punchy tone... Great blues tone!
Also upgraded the ceramic tone caps with silver mica, for sweeter highs.
Another easy to do improovement was to use NOS pre and power tubes... its really a big change in tone... I am more and more convinced that new production tubes, even JJ's (wich are the best tone IMO), cannot get  close to any NOS tube... I mean those things where meant to be reliable, and new production tubes lack both in the durability, strenght, and tone department... The amp became alive afther I swapped the power tubes from JJ to german made NOS... Great tone with an alnico speaker or greenbacks.

Champ 600 (Upgraded)

 

Found this cheap amp by fender to be a nice bedroom amp, afther a few mods. I did a shoot out between small 5 watt amps, and this was the best potential (and probably the cheapest).
The first issue to be corrected was the baffle and grill cloth (the original was pure crap and was flapping with vibration). So I had to take the baffle out, made a thin frame to sit on top of the baffle and raise the cloth a little, and replaced the "cheap couch" fabic with some brown diamond grill cloth left over I had arround. Nice look, and great tone improvement (by itself this was a tone mod!).
I realised that the speaker was really bad, but I didnt want to spend a lot of money on a new one, so I got a 6" modern Jensen very cheap, and that made quite a change. Same tone signature, with a bit more volume and smoother tone. I belive that an alnico would be best...but I'll leave it like that for now....still have to break in the speaker a little more.
Tubes where chinese crap, really, really bad. Replaced them with JJ's wich was an improvment, but NOS is defenatelly best. So I was lucky and got a nice NOS Brimar 12ax7 really cheap on ebay, and a nice NOS american 6v6gt also really cheap. This made a big change from the JJ's.
The circuit was good for a few tweaks. I replaced the Negative feedback resistor with a pot under the chassis (the stock value is a bit too stiff and closed for my taste) so I can change value according to situation or guitar. I realised that 100k was the best range for a pot in this position.
Replaced the treble cap (wich was ceramic) with a switchable 100pf polystyrene or 500pf silver mica. sweeter treble, and the 500pf pushes a bit of high mids.
Replaced the cathode bypass cap on v1a with switchable 10uf or 3.3uf. that attenuated the bass a bit and gave me an additional position for less bass.
At the end a bit of work and little cash, it became a nice sounding bedroom and practice amp, and is very light to carry arround, that also sounds good with a 1x12 cab if I need extra punch, without being too loud.

300STER II

I built this circuit, based on the the first 300STER, but with a second drive circuit instead of the Fet boost, for a secondary and diferent overdrive flavour. Also handwired point to point, features NOS germanium diodes, and an oil cap for warmer tone. This circuit is also capable of a clean boost, that can be bright or fat. Great with a vintage style amp.

300STER III

300STER III ads a new od channel (germanium diodes) at the end of the circuit, allowing the user to switch between the Boost (also featured in the first 300STER) or the new germanium overdrive sound that is closer to old marshall's crunch. Handwired point to point, true bypass, and also allows a 9v. battery.





Samples:
(home-recorded with an sm57, 20cm away off-axis. the amp is the Spartan30 w/gain set low)

Stratocaster (w/ SCN pickups) - Overdrive 2 - (guitar volume on 10)


Stratocaster (w/ SCN pickups) - Overdrive - smooth mode, (guitar volume on 10 part was played clean, then with overdrive)


Stratocaster (w/ fat 50's) - Overdrive - bright mode, (guitar volume on 10)


Stratocaster (w/ humbucker) - Overdrive 2 - (guitar volume on 10)

300STER (update)

Working on the prototype, I modified the tone possibilities of the overdrive, adding a 3 way switch keeping the bright stock sound, a smooth overdrive mode and sooth with added sparckle. The smooth overdrive keeps the amplike feel, with more bass and a little less sparkle. The effect works with the amp tone and doesnt sound like a pedal was added, sounds more like a cranked amp bluesy tone, also very "Santana-like" with humbuckers or darker single coils. Also works very well pushing other pedals, (like a tubescreamer) into high gain.
A sample of the smooth od was added bellow:



Sample:
(home-recorded with an sm57, 20cm away off-axis. the amp is the Spartan30 w/gain set low)

Stratocaster (w/ SCN pickups) - Overdrive - smooth mode, (guitar volume on 10 part was played clean, then with overdrive, and in the end using only the neck pickup)

300STER

I decided to build an overdrive and a booster combined in a small package. This pedal was designed for use with the Spartan, and built handwired, hand wired, using quality components, and its true-bypass. It works great with vintage styled and other amps, and its gain and tone are perfectly controled with the guitar volume and tone knobs, without loosing punch and keeping natural dynamics and brightness. the circuit on both the booster and overdrive are very touch sensitive and amplike. fine tune switches are used to change some of the cap values, for tuning the frequency response




Samples:
(home-recorded with an sm57, 20cm away off-axis. the amp is the Spartan30 w/gain set low)

Stratocaster (w/ fat 50's) - booster mode, (guitar vol. on 7, 10 and 4)


Stratocaster (w/ fat 50's) - overdrive mode (guitar vol. on 8, guitar tone on 6)

( I apologise for the cliping at the end, but it was a quick setup and I forgot to check the mixer for clipping).

Stratocaster (w/ fat 50's) - both modes stacked (guitar vol. on 6)

Spartan 30 (w/ samples)

Spartan 30 is a custom designed amp model, based on vintage british circuits.
This is a vintage style amp, and from coupling caps to transformers, uses the exact same methods
The amp is hand wiered with top components, and features vintage style UK hand-made transformers, vintage oil caps, carbon resistors, and NOS tubes, wich all make the tone vintage style smooth, organic and natural.
The chassis was custom designed and made of 1mm (non magnetic) staineless steel. Both the head and matching cab are custom built from top quality solid wood.
The amp has two distinct channel modes, wich are switchable on the top of the chassis. One mode works like an 1960 AC30 (channels sum out-of-phase), the other "stock" mode is a juicier, more muscular sound, with plenty of gain and articulation.
It features 3 channels, being the first an Ef86 pre, the second a linkable (with channel3) 12ax7 pre, the third is a 12ax7 1960 top-boost-like channel, with the diference that in this channel (in "stock" mode) you can bring the Eq all the way up and still have a very balanced response.
All the 3 channels can be blended, using patch cable method, for mixing diferent flavours of the three.
The bias adjust pot, can be accessed from the top of the chassis, and adjusted within safe values. Also there is the option for working the power section in Pentode or Triode operation (for diferent sounds and dynamics).
The head cabinet offers an improved ventilation, while protecting the amp, and displaying vintage style look's. The matching 212 cabinet has 2 alnico blues series-wired for 16ohms. But the amp also excells with Alnico gold, G12H, and g12M speakers, all with different tastes.

Features:

Power Output 30 Watts Pentode/ 15 Watts Triode
Output Tubes 4 - EL84
Preamp Tubes 1 - Ef86, 3 - 12ax7
Rectifier 1 - Gz34
Controls (Channel 1) Ef86 Pentode/Triode, Volume, Bright, (Channel 2) Volume, Link, (Channel 3) Volume, Treble, Bass,(All Channels) Cut, (Power section) Pentode/Triode.
Additional 2 distint modes of channel operation (Stock/AC30 style), acessible user friendly bias adjust pot, patch cable channel blending, 8 and 15 ohm outputs, Fx loop on channel 3.

Samples:
(home-recorded with an sm57, 20cm away off-axis)

Stratocaster soft blues - low volume in pentode mode


Stratocaster w/fat 50's single coils


Deluxe HSS Stratocaster w/scn single coils - country


Stratocaster rhythm - ef86(channel 1)


Stratocaster jazz - ef86(channel 1)


Stratocaster funky jazz impro - ef86(channel 1)


Deluxe HSS Stratocaster w/scn single coils - blend channel 1 & 3


Deluxe HSS Stratocaster w/scn single coils - bluesy funk


Deluxe HSS Stratocaster w/scn single coils - triode

Leonidas Spartan 212 cab

This is a matching cab for the Leonidas Spartan 30, using two alnico blue speakers (series wired for 16ohm).
The cabinet is hand crafted solid wood and matching the Spartan design.
There are noticeable tone beneficts from running the amp with this configuration, that allows using the 16ohm tap of the output transformer.

Carvin Nomad With Alnico Gold

This speaker change, made the amp sound more detailed, and improved also the low end, and top end response, compared to the greenback, wich focused more on the midrange. Since the amp is a very small box, and the speaker is very efficient (100db), I had to use a cover to prevent feedback to the reverb tank. With this speaker, the amp is very loud, and I had to increase the negative feedback a bit (compared to when I was using a greenback) to smooth things out.
When used with a 1x12 extention, I like the G12h 55hz heritage speaker in open back cab, wich combines perfectly with the gold and improves the response of the combo.

212 Cabinet for "Mr Casual" (Modded Blackheart)

Ideal for small gigs, this little amp sounds great with this 212 cab, wich I loaded with a pair of celestion g12m greenback speakers, series wired for 16ohm. I really like the greenback response with this amp, it is particularly warm and round, and with this setup has a good articulation and frequency response. Since the greenback has 98 db sensitivity, also makes it a good choice for pushing the tubes amp without being too loud.