Tweed Setting on Lonestar fairly lower volume???

[shawnpurcell]

Hey All,

I just purchased a new 2007 Lonestar 2X12 (100 Watter)

When I switch the power to the Tweed power setting the volume is substantially lower than the Full On power setting. I know that the Tweed setting lowers the voltages quite a bit like a variac would, is this lower volume a normal occurance with this amp or is something going on that shouldn't be?

I'd say that with the 100 watt setting the Tweed Power is about 2/3 or slightly less then 2/3' compared to the 100 watt setting on Full Power.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

Shawn
www.myspace.com/shawnpurcell
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[MrMarkIII]

Eight cylinder cars have more horsepower than four cylinder cars.

 

[ur86d]

What's up shawn,

I asked a similar question on another message board, and this is what i was told by an amp tech who post's there. I'll show my question first, and then put quotation marks and bold the tech's answer. Hope this helps ya.


Q: I was wondering if one of your more tech oriented people could answer this question for me. Or maybe even give me a mathmatical formula so i could figure it out. Either one would be appreciated.

I have a 2007 Lonestar, the one we the added 10watt option. In the manual it states that when the amp is operating in the tweed setting, you enable a built-in VARIAC ; Which reduces the line voltage to around 93 volts. (with a steady 117 at the wall)

So my question is, what does that mean when the amp is set to 100 watts, 50 watts and 10 watts? Basicaly i'd like to know how many watts the amp is putting out in each setting, when operating it in tweed mode. Assuming of course that i have a steady 117 at the wall.


A: "Reducing the input voltage from 117 to 93V will reduce all the internal voltages proportionately, to 93/117 or 79% of the values at the full voltage.

This should give a power output of 63% of that at the full voltage, since power is proportional to the square of voltage.

Although, by reducing the power, the amount of sag in the power supply will also be slightly less, so the overall power reduction will be very slightly less than you'd expect - I would guess you'll get around 70% of the power, in any given setting, although the 10W setting will be less affected than the other two.

I remember getting somewhere around this on my Trem-o-verb, which has the 'Spongy' mode which does the same thing, although I don't know if the voltage ratio is exactly the same."

 

[MrMarkIII]

Well. THAT settles it!

 

[shawnpurcell]

Yeah, I figured that the volume was supposed to be slightly less, it just seems substantially less on my amp and I wanted to make sure that there wasn't an issue. I'd say it's about 60% so that's probably about right.

Thanks for the answer!

Shawn

 

[shawnpurcell]

Now I can search as I have 5 posts

 

[fishyfishfish]

I use the tweed setting on my LSC at lower volume gigs to get a little more saggie grind (Think Deluxe Reverb). It dosen't nessisarily lower the volume that much but it gives me a cranked sound at coffee house volume.

 

[Charlie]

You might want to check your phase inverter tube. Both myself and another board member had a problem with using a Tung Sol tube in this position in our Stilettos. The tube was fine... and worked perfectly elsewhere (Ie v1 or v2) but for some reason the lower voltage made this tubes output drop drastically... much more than it's supposed to.

So if you are having a drastic drop in output volume when switching to tweed mode this might be soemthing you should look into.

 

[simonich]

Yeah, I figured that the volume was supposed to be slightly less, it just seems substantially less on my amp and I wanted to make sure that there wasn't an issue. I'd say it's about 60% so that's probably about right.

Thanks for the answer!

Shawn

Well, maybe. You're talking about a volume drop. The other poster with the tech answer is talking about a power drop, which is quite different. It takes 10x the power to get 2x the volume. So running at 70% of the power will not mean you are running 70% of the volume. Reducing power 30% shouldn't affect volume much at all (maybe 2db and that's it).

You may have another issue with the amp if you really are getting a significant volume drop. I suggest taking to a qualified tech to have it checked out.

 

[medwards1969]

Yeah I play the tweed setting on mine all the time. It sounds great and gives you lower volume that is acceptable for at-home playing, which is what I am doing as I am not a gigging musician. That tweed setting is so recognizable on all those early songs as well.