The Blue Angel Appreciation Thread

[AMG1]

Stock speaker.

The other night I put a Hot Cake in front of it. Huge Sound.

I have put an 808 and TS9 in front but mostly use the amp straight.

Ever notice that the Angel likes single coils? I think my Fenders and G&L's make the most of the amp.

 

[Porkchop Xpress]

Stock speaker.

The other night I put a Hot Cake in front of it. Huge Sound.

I have put an 808 and TS9 in front but mostly use the amp straight.

Ever notice that the Angel likes single coils? I think my Fenders and G&L's make the most of the amp.

It depends on what I am going for. Right now I have been using a couple G&Ls (Legacy and SC-3) which are single coils. They sounds incredible and give me that SRV chime and Keef squash. With my Guild Bluesbird I get an incredible singing tone from the SH-1 humbuckers. Think Carlos Santana, well, almost. :wink: The humbuckers still sound great through the BA, but I have been favoring single coils for the bluesy stuff lately. My '77 Les Paul is probably my least favorite through the BA. It screams through the MK IV though.

 

[AMG1]

Oh yeah everything can scream through a MKIV which is probably my favorite amp of all time ( For now anyway I'm sure you know how that goes at times ).

Getting back to the BA I think its the lower output pickups that make it shine. Rather than the pickups pushing the amp the amp pushes itself. When I use my RI Strat the higher volume settings I have to use when going in straight wakes the whole thing up. Different than pushing it with a pedal or stronger pickups.

 

[waxnsteel]

God I love this amp

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Anyone know, can you replace the baffle in the 2x10" to get a 12" in there? I like the way the amp sounds, but I'm more of a 12 guy. I'd really just like to get a head shell for it.

 

[Anonymous]

The other night I put a Hot Cake in front of it. Huge Sound.

This is hardly surprising. Hotcakes are made where I live, and of lots of local guys who use them them, AC30 users particularly like them. The 84 setting of the BA isn't miles away from AC30-ville...

Took my head into the studio a couple of months ago. I recorded my rhythm parts with my Fender Custom Vibrolux Reverb and the BA on EL84 setting, panning them left and right. Sweet, sweet tone.

 

[AMG1]

The other night I put a Hot Cake in front of it. Huge Sound.

This is hardly surprising. Hotcakes are made where I live, and of lots of local guys who use them them, AC30 users particularly like them. The 84 setting of the BA isn't miles away from AC30-ville...

Took my head into the studio a couple of months ago. I recorded my rhythm parts with my Fender Custom Vibrolux Reverb and the BA on EL84 setting, panning them left and right. Sweet, sweet tone.

Your so friggin lucky! I must have waited a month for my Hot Cake.

Generally when someone gets them in stock they dont last. Cool Pedal!

 

[Anonymous]

Well, I'm lucky in that I can call up g2D or Paul Crowther (hotcake) and get something made or modded whenever I want.

the negatives to where I live include: a small market ensures no major discounting, a distinct lack of boutique brands (eg: one suhr guitar in the entire country), generally poor and conservative stock selection by shops, lack of expertise amongst local dealers...

 

[AMG1]

I hear ya! We can can get lots of stuff easy over here.

Crowther has other pedals.

Ever try that Prunes and whatever pedal. Sorry cant remember the name.

Whats up with that one . Know anything.

 

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I've used it. It's a 'harmonic generator/intermodulator, whatever that is. Basically, it's designed as a bass overdrive/filter. Sounds cool on guitar, in a not-quite-fuzz-not-quite-filter kind of way.

One cool thing we have: hotcake tshirts.

 

[Porkchop Xpress]

bump for the Blue Angel.

 

[strngbndr]

Hi Guys,

I am interested in a BA and I was wondering if anybody ran it with 2 of 4 EL84 tubes for a lower wattage output. Thanks.

 

[musicbox]

no good. its not push pull, its cathode biased class a, all tubes need ot be running or say goodbye to your output tranny. i have a blue angel that i can sell you! black with wheat grill, 4x10. very nice shape, with jj/testlas. plus im in canada as well. $950 canadian or $800 u.s. the 6v6's at 15 watts is pretty much low enough, 5 watts wouldnt offer THAT much less headroom and deffinlty no difference in volume.

 

[AMG1]

I agree !

Thats what the 6V6's are for! They get a nice pushed sound at lower volume. They get flabby only if your trying to get them to do what the next step is for. Meaning the EL84's.

 

[prsangel]

no good. its not push pull, its cathode biased class a, all tubes need ot be running or say goodbye to your output tranny.

the 6v6's at 15 watts is pretty much low enough, 5 watts wouldnt offer THAT much less headroom and deffinlty no difference in volume.

It will fry the tubes but i think the tranny would be OK. You could do it if you replaced the resistor for the el84s with a different value (not sure what). The LSS works like this so it can be done. I would be interested in running it on only one tube too, 5W with one 6v6 or el84 would be quite a lot quieter than even 15, you would hear the difference with a band although it wouldn't exactly be bedroom volume.

 

[musicbox]

No....it wouldnt be alot quieter...infact, I don't believe youd even achieve 3 dbs of difference which the human ear isnt even sensitive enough to hear. Once again, the volume difference between 5-15 watts is negligable, and the only differnece would be in the apparent headroom. INFACT, the volume difference between 1-15 watts is probably no more than 6-8 decibles.

 

[prsangel]

You don't hear much difference if youre playing it on its own, but if you try it with a band you will hear a very big difference. The human ear can easily hear +- 1db in a mix, where do you get the idea that you can't hear 3dB? ONCE AGAIN if you think you can't hear the difference between 5 and 15 watts (which is almost 5dB) with a band you have obviously never tried it. INFACT the volume difference between 1 and 15 watts is nearly 12dB, which would be enough to go from inaudible to loud compared to the other instruments in a typical small gig.

 

[musicbox]

:roll: seriously man. go look it up. 1 db eh? those are some mighty fine ears you have! and 12 db differne in 10 watts! thats incredbile! whada you recon the db differnce between 50 and 100 auta be then?

 

[prsangel]

Go look it up yourself, since you clearly don't know how to work it out.

Do the math for 15w vs 1w: 15/1 (= 15 obviously). Take the log base 10 (= 1.18 ). That's the number in Bels. Decibels are 1/10th of Bels, so the difference = 11.8dB.

+-1dB is often easily audible in a mix - go and ask a mixing engineer. 3dB is really quite a lot, possibly the difference between too quiet and too loud - even though that's about the smallest difference you can reliably tell in isolation.

15w vs 5w gives 4.8dB difference (log 15/5 *10). Its not the difference of 10 watts that matters, its the three times the power which does. The same 10w difference between a 50w and a 60w amp for example is almost inaudible because its only 0.8dB.

The difference between a 50w amp and a 100w amp is 3dB all other things being equal (2x the power is always equal to 3dB), and there is a significant difference in a stage mix. But in isolation they will seem about the same volume, especially as both will be very loud and its harder to judge relative volumes at high levels without a reference.

Have you played various amps of different power ratings with a band? Of course if you only play in your bedroom you'll think there isn't much - a cranked 5w amp through an efficient speaker is loud in a small room, and even 50w or 100w won't seem that much louder. My ZVex Nano (half a watt, into a Marshall cab) is too loud to crank right up with kids asleep in the next room. But it would be completely lost on stage the minute anyone else plays a note.

One reason I love the BA is because the difference between 15w and 38w is just right to get power stage overdrive at 15w when I want it without taking everyones head off, and 38w is also enough to keep it completely clean at the same volume as the drummer when I want it. And thats only a 4dB difference (log 38/15 *10).

The reason I was maybe interested in running it on one 6v6 and two el84s is to get the same sort of thing but at practice volume, or for acoustic type gigs. A single 6V6 would give about 3 or 4w at the plate voltage the BA uses, and running two el84s in push-pull would still give 15w.

 

[Mincer]

Hello all! New here...

I have a 94 (?) BA 1x12 with the blue leather/tolex covering and the shock mount system & I use it mostly on the 6v6 setting with a TS7 Tubescreamer and Line6 DL4 delay.

In the manual, it states

"It is prefereable to use the 4ohm speaker jack when PROGRESSIVE LINKAGE is set to the 6v6 position. This will reduce strain on the tubes thus prolonging their life as well as improving the response over a wide range of frequencies. It is not mandatory...merely a suggestion, as the impedance loading is correct when this scheme is followed. This suggested match up between tubes and speaker impedance will also produce the greatest amount of headroom and the most well balanced tone."

Later in the manual it states:

"Keep in mind the greaterclean headroom is always achieved with proper impedance loads, ie, an 8ohm speaker connected to an 8 ohm jack."

Now, I generally use my BA in the 6v6 setting, but doing that, these 2 statements tend to contradict each other. In the first statement, the impedance load is not correct, as the BA has an 8ohm speaker, not a 4ohm one.

I know the tone can be affected by connecting the speaker to a different jack, but which is correct? Exactly what happens with the tone?
If I match speaker to jack (8ohm), then am I getting the widest range of frequencies and highest headroom? If so, then I am guessing the first statement mentioning the 4 ohm jack is wrong.

If anyone can clarify, I'd appreciate it!

 

[musicbox]

Always seemed a bit confusing, but from what I can understand...
6v6: plug the 8ohm speaker load to the 4 ohm output jack
el84: plug the 8ohm speaker load to the 8 ohm output jack
Progressive Linkage: plug the 8 ohm speaker load to the 8 ohm output jack.

In an ideal situation, the 6v6 would be used with a 4 ohm speaker load, as this is the correct load for the tubes. 8 ohm is safe, and they included it as the stock load because the el84 and prog settings ran at 8 ohms, and a slight mismatch is ok with the 4ohm output of the 6v6. If the speakers were 4 ohms, it would be a bad mismatch for the el84 and prog settings.