New member introduction...Hello DIYER's

[ampman1961]

I am new here but certainly not new to audio, electronics and of course, music. Like many of you, I am very enthusiastic about learning and sharing in projects that fulfill the need to be creative and shape audio into something magical and relishing in the pride of rolling your own.
My name is Billy Yates. I own and operate Venice Amplifier in Venice Ca. I restore vintage guitar amplifiers, Echoplex and Space Echo's. I build a few limited items per year for my own use and select clients. My clients include some very noteworthy individuals in the recording business which I won't go into.
I Co-own Studio Rev, in Culver City Ca. A fully equipped Analog/HD recording facility where I get to concentrate on whats most important in my world...music. Speaking of which, I am a recording artist and guitarist and have played for 40 years. A former member of the Outlaws and occasional member of The Marshall Tucker Band, I have toured and played with some of the most incredible musicians on the planet, from dingy Southern Chitlin joints, to 100,000+ venues. A remarkable experience to say the least. I still play around LA when time permits. My electronic background dates back to my first soldering iron at the age of 7 when I built my first crystal radio set. Then came Ham Radio (N6YW), then girls and Rock and Roll and have never looked back. I look forward to meeting and sharing with all of you in various projects and being helpful and of course a general nuciance as time permits. You folks have really developed quite a remarkable place here and I feel it's an honor to join in.
Hand me that Telecaster....
Billy Yates

 

[alexc]

Hi Billy

Welcome!

Some great professional and artistic credentials there  8)

Especially the part of being a fellow solder and Tele slinger  ;D

Hope you extend your DIY Audio experience - there's some heavy knowledge types and expert practitioners out and about here on a regular basis.

Best regards
Alex

 

[seavote]

welcome!
just repaired my brothers blackface princeton and now i've got tube amp build on the mind. (my first amp repair)i'll have lots of questions for you and the rest of the board

 

[ampman1961]

welcome!
just repaired my brothers blackface princeton and now i've got tube amp build on the mind. (my first amp repair)i'll have lots of questions for you and the rest of the board

Bring it on... 8)

 

[ampman1961]

Hi Billy

Welcome!

Some great professional and artistic credentials there  8)

Especially the part of being a fellow solder and Tele slinger  ;D

Hope you extend your DIY Audio experience - there's some heavy knowledge types and expert practitioners out and about here on a regular basis.

Best regards
Alex

Thanks Alex. I look forward to being humbled by the immense talent on board.
I have my little niche specialties but to be able to hang with folks who do ground up
Builds of daunting projects like a Fairchild 660 is truly inspiring.
To the road ahead...Clink!

 

[maxwall]

Hi Billy,

nice resume.

Welcome , this is a wonderful place indeed. Long time member.
learning here is better than any classroom. The people here are friendly
and helpful. The knowledge , priceless.

and I'd be interested if you could share any info on the Space echo's in possible future
postings. Seems people who owned these usually forgot to turn them off , and they
ran and ran until the tape heads were filed down by the 1/4" tape. would love to
hear your experiences with these ?

I'm currently restoring some Hammonds- tone generators, tube amps etc as well as DIY recording
projects, tube mics, pres' & consoles for studio use. A 100 year list - a lot of rollin my own.

 

[ampman1961]

Hi Billy,

nice resume.

Welcome , this is a wonderful place indeed. Long time member.
learning here is better than any classroom. The people here are friendly
and helpful. The knowledge , priceless.

and I'd be interested if you could share any info on the Space echo's in possible future
postings. Seems people who owned these usually forgot to turn them off , and they
ran and ran until the tape heads were filed down by the 1/4" tape. would love to
hear your experiences with these ?

I'm currently restoring some Hammonds- tone generators, tube amps etc as well as DIY recording
projects, tube mics, pres' & consoles for studio use. A 100 year list - a lot of rollin my own.

Hell yes. Kaspar and I also have that Hammond bond. I just finished getting my M3 restored and working on building an interface from the power amp to drive my leslie 147 amp/cab. Space echo's are a breeze and easy to service...really robust little weasles. Never had one smoke on me yet, but Echoplex's are a different story. They are quite the POS but have a remarkable sound and they are fun. I have repaired about 300 so far. I would rather build 1272's and 1176's to be quite honest. But, people keep calling so I have to keep those SVT's and JTM 45's running...whats a guy to do?
Hand me that Les Paul...no, that one...the one next to the bottle of Patron.
Thanks! Hors D'ouvres anyone?

 

[SaMpLeGoD]

Welcome Billy!

I'm DIYer from almost 2 years so far, and all the knoledge shared here is inspiring!
Friendly people, full of patience with hookie people like me
I love to learn and share what I've learned with the others! and this sharing leads me to build 4x 1176, 2x SSL400 Buss Comps, 2x NEVE 1290, dual Pultec PeQ1, Fairchild PM670... among many others that are working in my studio right now
Be welcome to this "community"

Cheers,

Eddie ;D

 

[Silvas]

Hello and welcome !

This place has been the greatest source of knowledge for me...have a great time here !

 

[Whoops]

Hi Billy,

Welcome to this forum, I'm sure it would not take a long time before you are building some 1272 and 1176,
this is a beautiful community and it's really nice from you take time to introduce yourself.

if you have any time I would like to ask you some questions, ans maybe you could help me.
The first is about a Fender type sring reverb , that i would like to build, but instead of umbalanced instrument in and out, I would like to have Balanced Line Levels In and Out. What would be the best way to achieve that?

The other is about the Watkins copycat, don't know how much experience do you have with this units.
I would like to know if theres any copycat with a Mix (wet/dry) knob? and if it's possible to add one to a standard unit?
I find it really hard to use it in my mixes since it always plays the dry signal.

thanks
best regards

 

[tchgtr]

Hey Billy,
  We're already friends. I'm the guy with the giant guitar, and we watched the fireworks from the balcony during NAMM this year while partying too hard at the expense of Moss at Brown Note Amps. I just joined this forum after lurking and learning for a while, and it's a gas to run into you here.
  We gotta hang some day...
All the best,
Jim

 

[MartyMart]

Welcome Billy, glad to have you here and it's such a great place to learn and contribute.

Enjoy !
Marty.

 

[MagnetoSound]

Hey Billy,

You found the funhouse!  8)

Welcome,

Dan

 

[ampman1961]

Hi Billy,

Welcome to this forum, I'm sure it would not take a long time before you are building some 1272 and 1176,
this is a beautiful community and it's really nice from you take time to introduce yourself.

if you have any time I would like to ask you some questions, ans maybe you could help me.
The first is about a Fender type sring reverb , that i would like to build, but instead of umbalanced instrument in and out, I would like to have Balanced Line Levels In and Out. What would be the best way to achieve that?

The other is about the Watkins copycat, don't know how much experience do you have with this units.
I would like to know if theres any copycat with a Mix (wet/dry) knob? and if it's possible to add one to a standard unit?
I find it really hard to use it in my mixes since it always plays the dry signal.

thanks
best regards

Greetings...
Ah yes, the 6G15. This can be done. You might try using a high quality matching transformer from Jensen or Cinemag, but you will have to consider the output circuit impedance to determine the proper transformation ratio. You could use a T bridge also, but both schemes have a certain insertion loss you have to take into account. Try a buffered DI box using the balanced output and see if that works.  In my experience, you can use un-balanced signals just fine as long as the level is hot enough to give good input to your mixer or recorder. Not sure what scheme your recording setup is. Remember, you can use un-balanced lines in short runs without loss as long as the signal is hot enough to drive the load.
The copycats I have worked on...it's been awhile, but from memory, they are like a mixer. You should already have an output balance control. If you aren't getting enough wet signal from the unit, then I suspect it needs to be serviced. The heads on those units are NOT very robust and may need to be lapped and re-aligned. You might want to start a new thread on these subjects to keep this one not so technical.
Cheers,
Billy

 

[ampman1961]

Hey Billy,
  We're already friends. I'm the guy with the giant guitar, and we watched the fireworks from the balcony during NAMM this year while partying too hard at the expense of Moss at Brown Note Amps. I just joined this forum after lurking and learning for a while, and it's a gas to run into you here.
  We gotta hang some day...
All the best,
Jim

Jim...
Great to see you here! That was fun to hang at NAMM. Conviviality was in large supply for sure.
I look forward to seeing you again and hangin here on the forum.
Billy

 

[Whoops]

You might want to start a new thread on these subjects to keep this one not so technical.
Cheers,
Billy

Definitely, I would do that.
Thanks for your words.

The spring reverb would be to interface with the Lavry or apogee converters, that's why I would preffer to have Balanced in and out.

The Copycat sounds fine, its just that there's no mix knob to control wet or dry, it always plays the dry with some effect mixed in, it's has is. I would like to have some more control over it. Maybe other units have a mix knob, this one is a IC300.

Thanks again,
hope you have a good time around here

TS

 

[SSLtech]

Hey Billy... I'm a fan.

I have the same user ID over on PSW, I enjoyed your guitar amp for under $100 videos...

I remember you saying something like: "It's not happy... -it's pissed"

;D

Keith

 

[ampman1961]

Keith...
Good to see you here, small planet we got right? Do you still have the schematics for the line amplifier that allows the Helios 69 to drive a 600 ohm load? I think it was you that sent it to me. My laptop crashed and I have yet to retrieve data from it. I may have to go back to the Helios thread on PSW to get it. Nice to hear from you. I had a blast making that project video on youtube about the amp project. You ought to hear that thing live...it's pretty ridiculous! ;D
Thanks,
Billy

 

[helterbelter]

Welcome ! 

 

[Ptownkid]

Hey Billy, welcome to this wonderful, wonderful place. Nice to have some more amp gurus on here.

Cheers

Bryan