18 watt Selmer Zodiac

ChrisU · Post by **ChrisU** » Sun 12/17/06 8:55 pm

No, not quite but I made a 2 x 12 combo cab for my 18 watt standard using an old Selmer Zodiac croc skin cabinet. I turned the baffle upside down, filled in the control panel hole and cut a new one along with the vent slot. I also had to repair a few other parts of the cab. All I am waiting for now is a set of castors and I will probably make a spec plate for the rear panel.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v173/ ... 8wside.jpg

caseylutton · Post by **caseylutton** » Mon 12/18/06 12:26 am

I played a Zodiac 30 once about 10 years ago. It was maybe the best amp I ever heard. 3-D tone, you could just about reach out and wrap your (fill in the appendage of your choice) around the tone. They wanted a lot of money, I shoulda bought it.

Prophet · Post by **Prophet** » Mon 12/18/06 4:24 am

Hey,

I have a Croc Selmer Zodiac it is better than an 18 watt & very rare. I hope it was total dead & missing all the guts. It is worth $5000.

Tony

ColinM · Post by **ColinM** » Mon 12/18/06 4:42 am

I was in a shop about 12 years ago (buying the guitar which is my avatar, BTW) and the assistant plugged me into a Zodiac 30. It was a bit beat-up; it had lost the 'Se' from its logo. I thought it was the best amp I'd ever heard (it's still up there - and I've heard another one since then

). The price tag read £400. I decided there and then to forego the guitar and buy the Selmer. Too late - the assistant himself had bought and paid for it the previous day. He just wanted the satisfaction of hearing yet another customer drooling over it

.
I have a croc-skin Bassist Major head which cost me £88 on Ebay. It's an el84 - ez81 design, but based around a PCB (in 1963!). You need to use a treble boost to get the tone, but when you do - wow! My lapsteel instantly has that Lindley tone

. Now if only I could play like him....

Regards, Colin

krash · Post by **krash** » Mon 12/18/06 8:34 am

are you talking about this?

http://schematicheaven.com/bargainbin/s ... win30w.pdf

ChrisU · Post by **ChrisU** » Mon 12/18/06 9:30 am

The cab I used came as just the bare cab, no back panels and a partially stripped off non original tolex. The corners were chipped and worn away and the lower rear edge was missing. The Zodiac Twin Thirty is an excellent amp, I have a Selectortone Automatic which is similar but with a 15" speaker. I just need to find a source of the red/cream tolex and suitable grill cloth.

Post by **zaphod_phil** » Mon 12/18/06 9:53 am

krash wrote:http://schematicheaven.com/bargainbin/s ... win30w.pdf

Aha, a couple of winning factors appear in this schematic. First there's pentode in each of the preamp stages. Next one is the paraphase PI - I had guessed I was going to see one of those. People go nuts about the tone of amps that have a paraphase PI - the Vox AC50 is another one. A pity the Selmer is so badly pixellated.

krash · Post by **krash** » Mon 12/18/06 10:22 am

similar amp, better quality pic

http://schematicheaven.com/bargainbin/s ... ic_25w.pdf

Post by **zaphod_phil** » Mon 12/18/06 11:04 am

krash wrote:http://schematicheaven.com/bargainbin/s ... ic_25w.pdf

Similar, but quite different. It uses a paraphase/concertina PI, and the power amp is different too. Still there's a lot of similar stuff in the preamp, with the EF86 and tone selectors.

Prophet · Post by **Prophet** » Mon 12/18/06 12:08 pm

Hey,

You missed the best part of the amp, the Tremolo has a blinking eye that winks in time to the speed of the trem. Here is a picture of my Zodiac.

http://www.vintagehofner.co.uk/gallery/ ... zod30.html

Its the amp on the bottom of the page, the speakers are Goodmans not Fanes.

Antonio

PeterS · Post by **PeterS** » Mon 12/18/06 12:32 pm

paraphase PI

Is that the same as a split load PI?[/code]

Post by **zaphod_phil** » Mon 12/18/06 12:45 pm

Nope. If you look carefully this PI uses a pair of triodes, each somewhat like a gain stage. The output from the first triode feeds one of the power tube grids and also the grid of the second triode (via some attenuating resistors). Then the output of the 2nd grid feeds the secind power tube. Some National amps and the famous Jimmie Page Supro/Valco amps also used this type of PI.

PeterS · Post by **PeterS** » Mon 12/18/06 2:11 pm

Are we looking at the same schematic? ZodiacTwin30w?

http://schematicheaven.com/bargainbin/s ... win30w.pdf

I don't see what you are describing (which incidentally a lot of 50's Gibsons have too), I see a split load PI, the final triode has 100k plate load and 100k on the cathode, plus a 2k2 to provide grid bias. Output tubes are connected to the anode and cathode loads respectiviely...

Post by **zaphod_phil** » Mon 12/18/06 4:41 pm

Dangit, you're right. With that horrible schematic I missed the fact that the resistor right at the bottom was 100k. There's also some funky stuff then happening with the triode in front of it as well then, where the NFB comes in. Almost like it's cathodyne (aka "split load" ) PI too....

KT77 · Post by **KT77** » Mon 12/18/06 5:58 pm

I'm in the process of evaluating building one into a head cab.....(a Zodiac 30 to be precise)
Anyone w/ a 'selector-tone' circuit got any hi-res pics of the switches/layout & adjacent circuitry?

Chappy · Post by **Chappy** » Mon 12/18/06 7:02 pm

Prophet wrote:Hey,

I have a Croc Selmer Zodiac it is better than an 18 watt & very rare. I hope it was total dead & missing all the guts. It is worth $5000.

Tony

Tony

Could you be a bit more descriptive as to how this amp sounds through each of the two channels? Is it a nice bluesy compression?

I was already thinking of building an amp with a pentode in stage 2 or 3, and this thread is starting to convince me to do so.

Chappy

dotfret · Post by **dotfret** » Mon 12/18/06 8:51 pm

These were real favourites in the 60s. Definitive sound is the Animals version of House of the Rising Sun - but there are lots of other examples. Very bluesy...

Post by **zaphod_phil** » Tue 12/19/06 4:21 am

I've almost bid for a Selmer on eBay a couple of times, but their fugly looks put me off!

Donations

Links

Welcome

18 watt Selmer Zodiac

18 watt Selmer Zodiac