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Fender Prosonic amp back in action...

Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2011 6:49 pm
by Blindboy
I acquired one of these http://guitareureka.blogspot.com/2011/0 ... ender.html along with my Casino when a close friend passed and his family gave me my choice of a guitar and amp from his collection. I used it off and on for a while until it started making weird noises and cutting out. Not exactly hurting for tube amps, I put it on the "to fix" list and played through other amps. Now that most of my gear is down at DeaconBlues place, he took it upon himself to poke around in it, and thinks he has gotten it working. :tongue:
I am kind of excited to try it out again... As y'all may know, I have been having some slight volume issues with the TWBB using my 60 watt combo's, and can't afford to buy a smaller amp. :roll: The Prosonic has a switchable rectifier, and on class A setting, it only puts out 30 watts. I had been using it on the class A/B setting, which is 50 watts, so when we gig again, I will give it a try on class A and the clean channel. This, hopefully, may turn out to be quite cool. (I do plan to bring a backup amp, just in case. :whistle: )
Thanks DB! :big_smile: :cool:

(by the way, you can't tell from the pictures, but the Seafoam Green cover is actually a lizard skin pattern. :cool: )

Re: Fender Prosonic amp back in action...

Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2011 1:56 am
by roswellj
That's one nice looking amp. Can see that paired up with one of the surf green 50's reissue strats that I sometimes see floating around.

Re: Fender Prosonic amp back in action...

Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2011 9:00 am
by 12bar
So, at least something good from the fire... :thumbsup:

Re: Fender Prosonic amp back in action...

Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2011 10:06 am
by VikingBlues
Good work by DB. :thumbsup:

Hopefully it'll solve your volume issue. The switchable rectifier and power amplifier bias scheme would appear to give you quite soem flexibility.

I also saw this mentioned about the amp - dunno what it's about :icon_whoknows: (amp mods are way out of my experience) - but in case it would be of interest:-
***Very important tip for the real tube amp player!,... order yourself two (2) Groove Tubes 5751 tubes and place one (other as backup of course!) in the #2 valve/Reverb position. I wont explain why here,..Google this subject and you'll see why SRV, Eric Clapton, Eric Johnson and their Techs know about it!

Re: Fender Prosonic amp back in action...

Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2011 10:21 am
by MikeJackal
It makes you amp sound the best in the world for 3 minutes 29 seconds then it explodes like the 4th of July (or the 5th November for this side of the pond).....Guess I need to take my meds, some very silly posts coming from me the last few days.

Re: Fender Prosonic amp back in action...

Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2011 1:45 pm
by Blindboy
MikeJackal wrote:It makes you amp sound the best in the world for 3 minutes 29 seconds then it explodes like the 4th of July (or the 5th November for this side of the pond).....Guess I need to take my meds, some very silly posts coming from me the last few days.
:lol: :rofl:
roswellj wrote:That's one nice looking amp. Can see that paired up with one of the surf green 50's reissue strats that I sometimes see floating around.
:drool: Yes indeedy!
@VB... I am hopeful that this amp will be versatile and sound cool. As for the mod mentioned, I don't know... it may just be buttsmoke. I don't think SRV or Clapton were big users of this particular amp, and I never heard of a mod, especially one as simple as described, that is essential for ALL tube amps. :icon_whoknows:

Re: Fender Prosonic amp back in action...

Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2011 4:57 pm
by losaavedra
This post from Bb has got me yearning over tube amps again. How is it that the clunky old 30W valve job, pushed thru' a single 12", neither of which do I any longer have, that I used many years ago for many gigs (never with a 'volume' problem ... quite the opposite actually) sounded, at least as I remember it, so much better than I can get today from a heck of a lot more Watts ... somewhere between 175 and 400, with my current solid state gear. Trolling around the net I found this ...

http://g.landry.myweb.absamail.co.za/elvee-20.htm

... so, ignoring the tedious electronics stuff, I think the intro pretty much explains what it's all about with tubes vs. Solid State. So it's 'me too' now as far as trying to get hold of a 20-30W valve head from somewhere. Bit like G.A.S., I've now got a nasty attack of A.A.S. (first A for Amp!) coming on!!!!

p.s. Yes I know I write idiotically long sentences ... sorry ... but then I talk like that too!

Re: Fender Prosonic amp back in action...

Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2011 4:02 pm
by oneeyedslide
Seafoam green!! Gotta sound good!! Cool looking device. I want to check out VB's tip on the mods. The reverb tubes are generally 12AX7s which are also preamp tubes. It may have to do with dialing in clean headroom. I'm probably all wet (reverb?) on this though.
5751s are the same basic tube as a 12AX7 but have a less aggressive attack and "perhaps" a bit less gain. I've read they are good for Blues, but that's got to be a pretty subjective thing.
losaavedra wrote:So it's 'me too' now as far as trying to get hold of a 20-30W valve head from somewhere. Bit like G.A.S., I've now got a nasty attack of A.A.S. (first A for Amp!) coming on!!!!
I feel your pain!! Tubes are drugs, alcohol, and pretty women for your ears!! Gotta be bad for your health! Probably be outlawed soon worldwide.

Re: Fender Prosonic amp back in action...

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 8:59 am
by Blindboy
Well, I wrung the Prosonic out tonight at our July fourth gig, and have a tentative report for y'all.
The clean channel, with P-90's is brilliant! I have no complaints at all! The gain channel, on the other hand, is taking a bit more effort to sort out. It is, so far, too dark. The clean channel is better than my tweed BluesDeville, but the tweed sounds better, more sparkly, on the gain channel. Maybe I should run them both at the same time. :big_smile:
I will have some soundbites later on in the week to illustrate what I mean. I guess I still need to look for a 15 watt amp. :cool:

Re: Fender Prosonic amp back in action...

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 2:17 pm
by DeaconBlues
I love the smell of warm tubes at midnight. :cool:

Re: Fender Prosonic amp back in action...

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 6:48 pm
by VikingBlues
Blindboy wrote:clean channel, with P-90's
:drool: :drool: :drool:
Blindboy wrote:I will have some soundbites later on in the week to illustrate what I mean.
Eagerly waited for. :D

Re: Fender Prosonic amp back in action...

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 9:06 pm
by 12bar
Blindboy wrote:I will have some soundbites later on in the week to illustrate what I mean.
Not too later, holidays are coming... :drool: