# 65 Amps Stone Pony



## WCGill (Mar 27, 2009)

Lots of buzz about these amps. I was pleasantly surprised when one showed up for repairs so I could have a peek and see what was going on inside. First off, find the problem, not hard, one of the 7591 output tubes wasn't lighting up, obviously shorted and indeed testing showed same. It was a JJ so I wasn't surprised as I've heard nothing good about the JJ 7591's and am not a fan of JJ's in general. 

The amp was beautifully crafted inside, stellar workmanship and layout, quite different than what I do. It has a switchable Master volume which is in reality, variable voltage scaling. It also has the "bump" circuit, which changes the parameters of the tone stack, using a rotary switch with different resistor values a/la Dr. Z, Matchless. When the new tubes arrived, it was time to plug in and play and find out how it sounded. Long story short, terrible, as the new JJ's were microphonic so back they went for some Tung Sol's. The tubes rang even with the chassis sitting on top of the cab and since it's a combo, it could only get worse. The Tung Sol's arrived yesterday so in they went, huge improvement but I'm still not sold on the tone. The bottom end is hugely flabby and loose, not even sounding great with single coils, can't imagine a Les Paul. I have a pair of NOS 7591's so in they went, now you're talking! These tubes bear no resemblance to either the JJ's, which are total crap, or to the Tung Sol's. The NOS are bright, spanky with vibrant midrange and a tighter bottom. All in all, a huge improvement, but still there's a wooly bottom end. Using the EF86 for an input tube requires some judicious capacitor selection, not present in this amp.

The switchable master is no prize either, the variable voltage resistance scales the whole amp and the tone deteriorates rather quickly when you overuse it. Again, scaling the output section and PI would be preferable. 

For what it's worth, my take is that it's an expensive amp with very mediocre tone. Me, biased?-maybe but I've been to this rodeo more than a few times, know what I like and I've never built anything that sounded this bad. Looks great though.


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## jb welder (Sep 14, 2010)

WCGill said:


> stellar workmanship and layout, quite different than what I do.


Somehow, I think this sounds different than what you meant, but thanks for the laugh!
The NOS vs JJ results don't surprise me, one guy found on average the JJ's put out about 2/3 the power of NOS. I would expect they are probably just another modern 6L6 variant.
As for the tone, in the future, please try to close your ears and listen with your (empty) wallet.


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## WCGill (Mar 27, 2009)

Ha ha, good catch JB. My innards aren't overly messy but they wouldn't win any "Internet Queen" contests either. I find the 65 rather disorganized and illogical compared to my layouts as it's point-to-point but the wire placement next to the stand-offs rather hides the complexity.


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## numb41 (Jul 13, 2009)

I had one. Sold it quickly. To a guy in TO. Maybe that's my old amp! Worst thing is, I traded a Maz 38 combo to get it. Big mistake.


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## loudtubeamps (Feb 2, 2012)

Just had a similar situation with a new Suhr amp.....still under warranty.
The chassis itself was microphonic with only the output and P/I tubes in.
The tubes themselves were not microphonic.....makes me think lead dress or bad shielded cable within??
Microphonics were most noticable when tapping on the chassis around the choke.
As well, the owner complained that the mains and standby switches got very warm after a few minutes of play time.
All the way back to Californie' it goes......quality control checker must have been on lunch break...or sumptin'?
I hope they tell the owner what they found back at the factory....very interesting!


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

loudtubeamps said:


> The chassis itself was microphonic with only the output and P/I tubes in.
> 
> As well, the owner complained that the mains and standby switches got very warm after a few minutes of play time.
> 
> I hope they tell the owner what they found back at the factory....very interesting!


That is nasty! 

Please let us know what Suhr tells the owner...if he is OK with sharing (obviously).


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## sadowsky13 (Feb 26, 2007)

Don't know about the stone pony but had a 65 soho and now a lil Elvis and they are amazing amps. Very articulate, sensitive to attack and dynamic. Can go from drive to clean with just your guitar volume. They are built like a tank and the customer service is great. I'd be curious if someone modded the amp you had. Most of their stuff is highly praised.

also not sure what your issue is with the master voltage. The tone remains the same throughout and really doesn't change except very slightly if it is turned all the way down which I attribute more to losing some speaker dynamics rather than the tone.

something sounds hinky about the amp you got or there is a problem with it. Dan would be very open to discussing what could be the problem.


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## WCGill (Mar 27, 2009)

Well 2 out of 3 isn't bad but this pony is a dead horse.


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