# NAD: hand wired tweed content



## blam (Feb 18, 2011)

well, it finally arrived. my amp GAS is cured.....for now......

it took some crazy weather and a derailed train, but she did make it one peace....thanks UPS....











I now have vox tone, marshall tone and the newest to the family, fender tone....

it is a valvetrain 205 tall boy with 112 Eminence Legend in "bedroom beauty" tweed. I ordered it in a 2x8 weber sig configuration but this 112 showed up....not sure how I feel about the mix up, but it does sound fantastic so I may not even send it back for an exchange.

for a small 5 watt amp, she's not that loud. compared to my class5 especially (as they are both 5 watt) 

anyways, this is the fender tone I've been looking for for a few months now. I never really understood "it takes pedals well" until now. my pedal board sounds completely different through this amp vs my vox. this amp loves a dirt pedal or an OD. it also cleans up very nicely with the guitar knobs.

anyways.... some snap shots


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## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)

Oooooooooooooooo!! I love the tweed princeton thing.


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## washburned (Oct 13, 2006)

Congrats on one of the best kept secrets in amps. I couldn't believe my ears when I first played thru my Trenton. These folks make great amps at great prices.


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## blam (Feb 18, 2011)

yup they do sure sound amazing. i got a killer deal on it as well so I'm really happy about it. worst thing is it's almost giving me the boutique bug. now i have some PAS for a trem and reverb

my dog HATES this amp though.... i rung out a few open chords and he instantly left the room howling... must be some high frequencies coming outta this thing he doesn't like.


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## shoretyus (Jan 6, 2007)

Very very nice looking.


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## Clean Channel (Apr 18, 2011)

blam said:


> yup they do sure sound amazing. i got a killer deal on it as well so I'm really happy about it. worst thing is it's almost giving me the boutique bug. now i have some PAS for a trem and reverbmy dog HATES this amp though.... i rung out a few open chords and he instantly left the room howling... must be some high frequencies coming outta this thing he doesn't like.


Great looking amp! The train derailment is something I doubt I'll ever see again in a tracking log. Out of curiosity, what verb/trem has caught your eye?


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## cheezyridr (Jun 8, 2009)

she's very good looking, isn't she?


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## TWRC (Apr 22, 2011)

Nice lookin' amp Brian. You've caught the boutique bug...ruh-oh.


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## blam (Feb 18, 2011)

ruh-oh indeed......very ruh-oh..... luckily my wallet can only support a moderate amount of boutique.

Clean CHannel: I was thinking going cheaper on the tremolo since i don't use it a whole lot and getting a voodoo labs trem. as for reverb, still undecided. Leaning towards a Dr. Scientist mini reverberator. maybe WET. Also considering a TC HoF. the wet is kind of on the short list as it's not very versatile compared to the other 2, however it does have a nice switchable buffer/true bypass which is a nice feature.


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## Clean Channel (Apr 18, 2011)

blam said:


> ruh-oh indeed......very ruh-oh..... luckily my wallet can only support a moderate amount of boutique.
> 
> Clean CHannel: I was thinking going cheaper on the tremolo since i don't use it a whole lot and getting a voodoo labs trem. as for reverb, still undecided. Leaning towards a Dr. Scientist mini reverberator. maybe WET. Also considering a TC HoF. the wet is kind of on the short list as it's not very versatile compared to the other 2, however it does have a nice switchable buffer/true bypass which is a nice feature.


All good choices. Incidentally, I have the Dr. Scientist RRR (really love it!) and just this week got the Tremolessence v.2 which sounds great, is packed with useful features, and occupies a small footprint (I had the Empress before, which also sounds great, but was a bit big and had some features I never used).

The reason I asked is because I keep seeing the ad here on GC (at the top of the page) for Swampdonkey amps, so I checked them out. On their site I saw that they build a tube driven verb/trem unit, which I thought looked very intriguing. I thought perhaps you had done the same. 
Here's a link to it: http://www.moose-meadow.com/swampdonkeyamps/effects.htm

I have sometimes thought about getting something like this, as I opted for an amp with no onboard verb/trem (less parts, less problems, easier grab n go, etc). I have a strong affinity for Canadian made products, so this one caught my eye.

I don't usually get hung up on aesthetics, but I did run into one speed bump. My amp is covered a deliberately understated black tolex, and I was hoping Swampdonkey would build me the effect unit in black as well. I thought together they would make a nice, tidy looking stack. However, they wrote back saying they'll only build 'em in brown.


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## blam (Feb 18, 2011)

thanks for the link. I saw them at the guitar show last fall actually. I did not consider anything like that to be honest, as i figured it would be out of my price range. I can't say I love SD's color scheme, but if a person was ordering direct you could probably get them to do something different.

for an idea on cost, the valvetrain spring thing reverb head is all tube with a reverb tank and it runs $800...


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## Clean Channel (Apr 18, 2011)

blam said:


> thanks for the link. I saw them at the guitar show last fall actually. I did not consider anything like that to be honest, as i figured it would be out of my price range. I can't say I love SD's color scheme, but if a person was ordering direct you could probably get them to do something different.


Yeah, the unit is quite pricey, $1000. I could pick up a decent second amp in that range.

I figured though, that if I sold the RRR and Tremolessence, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to jump up to the tube unit. However, at a 1K price tag, I was surprised they wouldn't budge on the tolex colour.


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## Swervin55 (Oct 30, 2009)

Brian:

Congrats on the amp. Juicy. I can understand looking for a trem unit for this. Personally I think tweeds and tremelo's go together like bread and butter. I would also think that the switch up to a 112 is a very good thing. I'm a big fan of 12" speakers.

woops: Brian, not Brain


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## blam (Feb 18, 2011)

yikes. $1000 is steep... I could get a 2nd amp with reverb and trem and run it in stereo at that price!!! really surprised they wouldn't budge on the tolex.

Marv: thanks. I was actually playing it last night next to my AC15 and went to hit the tremolo switch on my board...heard nothing....then realized that the trem was built into my ac15!!! I was worried the 2x8s would break up too early actually, but since i ended up with a 12" it's not something I have to worry about anymore. this amp is very big and full sounding with the 12". i tried a fender 24 reissue with the 8" and I wan't too impressed with the little 8". the EC champ had the same problem, but the trem on the EC was absolutely awesome.


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## Swervin55 (Oct 30, 2009)

A friend of mine has a Swart Space Tone which is also a 5W single 6V6 and make no mistake here, Swart makes superb amps. But the ST has an 8" speaker and sounds terribly "choked". Plugged into a single 12 cab, different story.


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## blam (Feb 18, 2011)

yes, I remember that one. it does sound small especially next to your AST. so do the fender EC and 57 reissue when I checked them out. the larger cab and 12" speaker make a huge difference on this amp.


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## neldom (Apr 29, 2009)

Train derailment! That happened not 10 minutes from my house. Had I known this amp was out there I would have called my wife and had her out sifting through the wreckage.
Dangit! Next time...


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

neldom said:


> ......I would have called *my wife *and had her out sifting through the wreckage.
> ........



Finders...Keepers

(BTW...is this old phrase/saying still used?)

Cheers

Dave


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## starjag (Jan 30, 2008)

Killer! So many more options with the 1x12, specially with the tallboy format.


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## blam (Feb 18, 2011)

neldom said:


> Train derailment! That happened not 10 minutes from my house. Had I known this amp was out there I would have called my wife and had her out sifting through the wreckage.
> Dangit! Next time...


hahaha. that one really pissed me off... im just glad it arrived in once piece after all is said and done.



starjag said:


> Killer! So many more options with the 1x12, specially with the tallboy format.


yup. very nice to have it. it has an 8 ohm and a 4 ohm connection as well.


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