Hey guys,
So as you know I bought Attila's Elk tube amp and have been fiddling for a bit on it... Now that I know a bit about the ol gal here are some thoughts..
So on first appearance... it is in great condition, looks like it hasnt seen much action at all. Tolex is fine with minimal scratches, even the 2x12 cab is good. This is built like a tank. The head casing is solid wood (not very thick though, about 15mm) as is the cab (seems thicker but who knows..). The chassis is clean and seems like a decent enough metal..
So Attila opened her up for me at his place and we had a quick look inside. I naturally had to give it another inspection when I got home... nice and simple design by the looks of things (not that I know much about these things) and all looks original with maybe the exception of maybe 1 or 2 parts that may have popped (I suppose, as the metal is stained black a bit).
So none of the oil filled caps appear to be leaking, then again, they are so old, maybe theyre all dry??
Moving to the cab, it is loaded with 2x12 inch "no name" brand 8ohm speakers with what seems like alnico Horseshoe magnets and wired in parallel.
Now to the sounds.. so I gave it a substantial workout at home. On starting the ol gal up, there is a bit of hum... Nothing unusual though, similar to my Laney hum (although the laney hum is gain related, this is there irrespective of volume, dried filters or whatever they called? or could this be a grounding issue.. the cable the plug is on doesnt have a ground... oh and the ground switch on the amp doesn't seem to do much in any position... could this be faulty?). The sound differs quite radically depending on which guitar im using. it seems to appreciate medium output buckers and single coils the most. This difference isnt quite that noticeable on the Laney. So with the single coils and particularly the neck pup... The cleans are really nice, more treble voiced but with enough bass to keep me happy. havent had the chance to crank it loud but I am quite keen to see whether there is any break up.. particularly with the speakers. My Laney through the cab seems a darker amp... so these speakers definitely did tone down the laney, I could take heads off with the laney on clean...
The amp gets a lot noisier (hum increases in volume) when the Reverb is activated, not sure why, the hum just gets louder.. could this be a tube issue?? The tremelo is an interesting effect... cool enough and works well... not that I would use this much.. It really is simple with just a bass, treble and volume setup with a intensity, reverb setting. Then this is duplicated but without the effects, the "normal" channel.
Now... i HATED my TS808 with the Laney, it just sounded terrible to the point of my wondering what on earth people saw in the TS. Well.. through the elk things changed... and I have seen the light.. Holy shart what a cool overdirve sound with the TS. Now maybe you tube gurus could give me an explanation as to why this pedal would sound so different on 2 different tube amps? Is it just the different tube configurations??
Anywho in summary, I would say this, different sounding amp, really nice tone, (depending on the guitar ???), and Ihave found a new favourite sound for classic rock with the TS...
As discussed with Mike, part of the allure was the potential to upgrade this thing etc thereby weening myself onto tube amp functionality, the other was I really needed a 2x12 cab,.. So either way a win win situation.
Mike ifyou have that Wiring config, would appreciate it man.
enough mumbling though, here are gut pics
