Dyna watt circuitry

[EtherealWidow]

So I'm curious. I've played the 5:25 a couple of times and never really heard that "bouncy" circuit that they describe. I've never heard the notes really jump out of the mix and then be compressed back in. Then again, I have the gain dimed along with the treble so I can't really turn up the power section too much in the store. I'm still curious about your guys' opinions. Does the manual over exaggerate or is the circuit really that bouncy?

 

[rwil]

Well here I can easily heard the feature using the clean channel and having the gain at least 11h and +. I can push a chord or note anytime while playing and really jump back from my chair!! Very dynamic it can be. Doing Chicken pickin licks style example is just amazing!
Since i got my strat 2 weeks ago, I'm amazed about that behavior...
It is much less apparent under overdrive it seems, maybe because the overall dynamic can be pretty much reduce and in such case the circuit is not going to accumulate kind of power reserve ready to burst on attack (?).

 

[EtherealWidow]

Ah. I figured if anything it would just be very apparent on the cleaner channels or with less gain in general. Oh well. I guess I'll just have to settle for awesome sounding overdrive by itself... :roll:

 

[J.J]

You can still hear it with the drive up.

As far as I can tell it works like this. A pair of El84 tubes can not deliver a continous 30 watts, they would melt. The Express is set up with a high plate voltage which will allow it to deliver 30 watts, but the power supply has a controlled sag built into which is pushed will drop the output right back to the 15 or 20 watts that EL84s can deal with. So the dyna watt circuit alows the output to hit 30 watts, but after 300 or 400ms (as best I can tell) the volume drops back compressing things. You get a massive initial attack. When you let up the power supply recovers and it is good to go again.

I don't really play loud enough to use it, but I imagine it could give a reall zing to single note soloing.

 

[EtherealWidow]

You can still hear it with the drive up.

As far as I can tell it works like this. A pair of El84 tubes can not deliver a continous 30 watts, they would melt. The Express is set up with a high plate voltage which will allow it to deliver 30 watts, but the power supply has a controlled sag built into which is pushed will drop the output right back to the 15 or 20 watts that EL84s can deal with. So the dyna watt circuit alows the output to hit 30 watts, but after 300 or 400ms (as best I can tell) the volume drops back compressing things. You get a massive initial attack. When you let up the power supply recovers and it is good to go again.

I don't really play loud enough to use it, but I imagine it could give a reall zing to single note soloing.

Yeah I had also been wondering how long you have to let the circuitry rest until it can charge up for the next note. Just wondering because black metal uses a lot of speed picking.

 

[J.J]

Recovery seems about the same as the fall, but I have not spent any real time experimenting. I have been looking for a schematic to see exactly what has been done, but I may have to measure it myself if one doesn't turn up soon.

If there is a gap between your fast notes it will start to recover. It is more sustained power chords that will drag it down.

If you don't like the effect you can get rid of it just by turning the master down enough to stop it kicking in.

 

[EtherealWidow]

See but what do you mean by "gap?" Because there's a lot of straight 16th notes at 210 bpm. :/

 

[J.J]

I'd guess you aren't playing machine gun notes for the whole song :wink: So what I'd expect you to hear is the volume will drop over the for 10 or so notes and then "bounce" back up when ever you let up and hit it again.

If I was in marketing I guess I'd try to market a volume drop as a feature rather than something you have to put up with, but if people like it, what do I know ?

Also, I don't think Dyna watt is active in the 5 watt mode.