• If you have bought, sold or gained information from our Classifieds, please donate to Group DIY and give back.

    You can become a Supporting Member which comes with a decal or just click here to donate.

SOLD: newly built Gates SA-39B 'tribute' compressor/limiter

GroupDIY Audio Forum

Help Support GroupDIY Audio Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

emrr

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 12, 2006
Messages
8,525
Location
NC, USA
A modern variation on the Gates SA-39 limiter, built recently by David Pendrill of the UK (DaveP on GroupDIY), and tweaked a bit by myself.    I'm acting as his sales agent, as I have it here in the US. 

This is a completely hand-built tube audio limiter with point to point construction using modern parts.  DaveP even cut all the metalwork himself!  A fantastic looking build in my opinion, with a nice smaller 3RU footprint. 

I have owned, restored, and modified about ten of the original, and this sounds like it fits in the 'family of sounds' those units provide.  It’s currently taking  a test drive at Mitch Easter’s place Fidelitorium, and his immediate quote was it’s “killer”.

It has expanded attack, release, and threshold controls not available on an original which give a much wider color and control palate. 

It uses a 600 ohm T attenuator on the input, more like the early Gates SA-39's, and a six step output attenuator with 6 dB steps. 

The threshold control runs both above and below the original,
allowing you to overload the amplifier stage more greatly, or get a much softer/smushier sound with low thresholds. 

The release goes fast enough to get into distortion territory as well, several steps faster than an original. 

If you run lower threshold, slower attack, and moderate release, it begins to behave more like a Sta-Level type compressor. 

The noise floor is very low, as good as any real SA-39 I've ever measured. 

It differs from the original circuit in a few ways, having a different type output tube that provides a bit less overall power, and a different approach to the regulated tube power supply section.  This tube regulated PSU provides regulated DC to the entire amp, where the original only supplies regulated DC to the earlier stages.  The tube filaments are all DC as well. 

Here's a  link to discussion about the build.

$1995 plus shipping and insurance  SOLD

11102041265_e932188ea3_b.jpg


11102138464_b24ebcc29b_b.jpg


11102059245_70d4346d63_b.jpg


11102152614_69bd7fec80_b.jpg


11102072825_d1b1839092_b.jpg


11102168704_8617e84e77_b.jpg


11102154246_46e6ea48c4_b.jpg


13877650233_e3f70bdae0_b.jpg
 
Doug!....Awesome!  And a big kudos to your partner in crime!
I guess you got tired of resurrecting these  giant old beasts from the dead?  haha  It's probably easier to just build one from the ground up?
Saving my pennies, starting now.
JJ
www.BoogieTracks.com
 
Hey!  Long time!  Still resurrecting them, but market has changed so much and I don't sell on ebay anymore, all vintage gear sales are private network or forum listings these days.  DaveP does great work, with a twist on the classics. 
 
Hey Doug,

Are these new units built to order?  Or are you guys building a few to have on hand?  I believe this thing just jumped up my list.  Do these have enough gain for a Bass GTR Line In via transformer box?....or possibly an active DI box?

Thanks!
JJ
www.BoogieTracks.com
P.S.  Is this where you spend most of your gear techy time these days?  I haven't noticed many posts on other burnt out sites.  But then again,  I'm pretty burnt myself.  I'm just now getting on board in this place.....
P.S.S.  I sent a guy to you with an SA39.  Hope it works out!
 
They could be built to order.....I'm sure Dave would like to sell the first one first! 

Somewhat less gain than an original, but should be plenty for an active DI to drive.  Ratio and threshold are the same thing, so lower ratios buy you lower signal level requirements for compression.

Yeah, this is the best place to tech out that I know of, at least for studio gear. 

We've talked with the SA-39 guy, he may take it to Dave in France.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top