Mercury electronics

[frobro808]

i was thinking about picking up the kit for my amp but i wanna know if its worth the $300?
anyone?
-frobro808

[frobro808]

sweet!!! i gained my second star! i got it here before the SD forum!!!

[sumgai]

Need a wee bit more detail there, 'bro. Like, what kind of amp, and which kit?

[frobro808]

its a peavey delta blues 115

[frobro808]

OT P (output)-DELTAB-O Delta Blues -- Upgrade! -- 8 & 16Ω taps 235.00
+
PT (power transformer i think) P-DELTAB-P Delta Blues -- Upgrade! 160.00
+
C P-DELTAB-C Delta Blues -- add this choke to your amp for improved tonal richness 40.00
___________________________________________________________________________
$435

...kinda steep so is it worth it? it'd be that plus shipping to hawaii which is god knows what

[sumgai]

I've always known Mercury to be expensive, but those prices are right up there in Monster Cable land!

I dunno what your Peavey amp would fetch over on the islands, but here on the mainland, it'd be less than the $435 you're talking about.... IOW, if you buy and install these parts, you're gonna be upside-down in terms of resale value.

If you can stand that, and if you buy into the hype about superior tone and all that cruft, then sure, go for it. But if you're askin' me if I'd do it, I gotta answer "nope".

HTH




sumgai

[frobro808]

I got mine new for $600 a few years ago so I'm sure the resale has gone down drastically. But I do appreciate the honesty greatly thank you. I was thinking that I wanted to maybe take it in to get it rewired and at least slightly modded. I grown very fond of the giant speaker and after doing the guitar, I know that the amp is waaaaaaay outta my league. Any suggestions or should I think about just going with the 12" crowd and the tight low end?
I guess to be specific, the things I love about the 15" would be the aggressive lows and mellow highs. I like it for our rockabilly stuff. but when we go harder or more modern, I gets thin and the low end flubs a bit much for me.
Are there any recommendations to fix this without having to get another amp?

[4real]

Here is what I use...



I use a fender Hot Rod (not renown for it's low end capabilities and single 12" speaker) and have had a 15" ported sealed bass cabinet for over thirty years and has been really useful with a couple of amps.

In practice my bass player can just brings his guitar down here and use my old SS roland with this cab with ease.

For 'band stuff' you are moving more air and getting the amp off the floor...it's less 'directional' and puts less strain on the little speaker in the combo to handle the power...plus great low ends

Compared to building an amp, an extension box could be your answer...and of course you can always use it without for ease of travel.

For a little while (30 years or more ago) I had come across an old valve amp and used a combination of my old roland GA60 with aluminium coned 12" and the valve amp into this cabinet, running stereo out of an old EH 'clone theory'. The roland and 12" gave great clear highs, the valve amp gritty low ends and of course a wide chorused kind of sound...I got a banging on the door, and there was this guy who just had to know how I was getting that sound he could hear in the street!!!

Unfortunately, the old amp was not safe and almost electrocuted me...so you have to be careful with those old amps or building things yourself...it wouldn't have been a particularly roadworthy rig anyway...but still the sound was huge and the extension speaker box really earned it's keep (was a coffee table for 5 years LOL)

My brother used to make them...they are designed for bass and tuned and was designed by some guy named "woodley" and we always called the woodley boxes. It's a 15" (I think it's 60 watts) paper cone with an expanded metal grill. Inside it has two ports and a combination of insulation and calculated measurements to clearly bring out tones as low as the low e on a bass...or so I read.

The design was probably found in a Mag in the 70's so I don't know if I can tell you the exact dimensions...but there seems to be a standard measurement for combo amps bacause both the old roland and my hot rod make a perfect 'stack'...I am sure there are lots of places you can find speaker box designs and ways to design them to get a good sound.

I rarely take it out these days...but for sure if playing with a drummer I'd need that big spread of sound to compete...volume is only a part of the story and the problem I have with a 12" combo is that the sound is very directional and it can be plenty loud enough right in front of it if it is pointing at you...but others and the audience might not like it. With more spread your sound can sound 'bigger' without being louder.

I saw some rockabilly acts on the weekend at the car show...they certainly seemed to use a lot of speakers...hadn't thought about it before for that music. Dick Dale always used high powered 15" equipped fenders and they do help with clean toned sounds with a lot of low string work...rockabilly, surf, country...etc

[thetragichero]

if you can get all of the nitty gritty specs of the ot and pt, may i suggest seeing which transformers at classictone would be compatable?
i believe they only have drop in replacements for marshall, vox, and fender amps, but you might find that one would work for your peavey

[frobro808]

First off... That's beautiful
When you run an ext cab, does it shut the existing speaker down?

As far as the ot an pt specs go, what exactly am I measuring and how do I do it?

[4real]

Jan 14, 2011 2:43:46 GMT -5 frobro808 said:

First off... That's beautiful
When you run an ext cab, does it shut the existing speaker down?

As far as the ot an pt specs go, what exactly am I measuring and how do I do it?

Thanks...

Yeah both speakers work together, the amp may be a bit bassier but this can be adjusted with the tone controls. The better bass response of the box means the 12" tends to favour the highs and vs a v.

Both of my amps have extension speaker jacks...the fender has it's hidden inside on the chassis...it is important that you have the impedance's right and match them...on both of my amps the impedance is for an 8 ohm extension speaker.

As I have my newer fender that I play now and the roland (kind of a jazz chorus model without the chorus so not bad) I could combine all three to have two amps in stereo, 2 different 12's one with a chrome dome and the 12" and over 100 watts of power...never needed to do it, but I am sure if I really wanted it would be a huge sound and extremely loud.

But this small stack is a good size, you can see by the size of the guitar that it's not huge and breaks down easily and you could find that a little money spent into this (not much if you are into building things yourself (it is only chipboard after all)...the speaker in it was second hand and rated at 60 watts which is decent for this application. It is a different sound also from the open backed sound of the combos which is good...a really tight low end and the sound ported forward reflecting of the back.

And, if playing bass through a guitar amp, you can really do a lot of damage with a little speaker not designed for those frequencies...but with this thing low ends are fantastic...I like the sound he gets playing through this than his real rig at his place...good high end definition with a really deep thump.

...

I've been tempted to mod my hot rod and there are a lot of things out there...the volume control mod would be really nice as this is a real problem on these amps...and there are all kinds of tings up to including completely hand wiring everything. But the cost of the amp and the components will generally enable you to buy an even better amp or perhaps a decent second one.

I dare say though that a speaker cabinet will have great improvements for less...just make sure your amp has that facility and what you need...look into cabinet types and designs to get the most from it...my bass box was built to a formula and really does appear to work well...it's not just a "box" but there are sites that give you the information to make a good design if you check things out.