Tremolo TMB wonderings...

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Bieworm
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Tremolo TMB wonderings...

Post by Bieworm »

Hey Josh! Happy New Year to you (and all reading this)
Was wondering about a next level Tremolo TMB. Do you think it's a crazy idea to work out ZP's cascade mod for the parallel triodes of V2?
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Re: Tremolo TMB wonderings...

Post by JMPGuitars »

Happy New Year!

Well, you could...but you might be stuck taming it more anyway. V1 is already driving V2, so then it would be V1 driving half of V2 driving the 2nd half of V2. The result will be a hotter preamp, and probably lose some of the smoothness the parallel V2 gives you.

Whether you experiment with that or not, I think you should build the Xtra TMB. That's my main amp, and it's glorious.

Thanks,
Josh
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Re: Tremolo TMB wonderings...

Post by Bieworm »

It's not for me. I bought an SG special from somebody. I took along my prototype tremolo TMB to have a good idea how that guitar behaves, you know. The guy I bought the guitar from texted me later that evening: thanks for buying my guitar... but now I can't stop thinking about your amp. ( he plays a JCM900 50W 2x12, and claims It's his go-to amp of all time)
Next day he shows up at my house with that 900 to replace the flimsy stock Marshall speaker wiring. But he really only wanted to play my amp I think 😉
I handed it over to him to try it at home and practice. He's had it for 3 days now and fell head over heels in love with it 🥰 .. he says he's really disappointed when he plugs in his JCM900 now, after experiencing the Tremolo TMB
He ordered one today, exactly like the prototype, and wondered about a boost switch and no tremolo. I told him he should keep the tremolo because it's part of the sound somehow. He doesn't have to use it.
And I recommended he should try a good push pedal to get that boost. But maybe there is a good way to boost the amp internally?
There is also the option to use the tremolo triode to add another (switchable) gain stage , but I honestly think the tremolo circuit , used or not, has influence on the overall sound and I fear it won't sound the same without it..

I repeat what I told you before... there definitely IS a market for that amp. It is the amp that never was!!!
Last edited by Bieworm on Wed 01/05/22 8:05 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Tremolo TMB wonderings...

Post by Bieworm »

And to take it further.. I ordered 2 transformers from Primarywindings.com. They have a very sexy feature:
18W - 9W - 1.8W switching capabilities by adjusting the B+.. so let's see how that turns out.
http://primarywindings.com/product/amp- ... ma-6-3v3a/
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Re: Tremolo TMB wonderings...

Post by JMPGuitars »

Trust me when I tell you to build an Xtra TMB. He literally asked for it, without knowing what it was called. Build both, your experimental Tremolo TMB Xtra, and the Xtra TMB. The Xtra TMB is a lot like the TremTMB, but has larger huevos.
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Re: Tremolo TMB wonderings...

Post by Bieworm »

Hey Josh

My stubborness aside.. I did some experimenting yesterday with an experimental boost switching on the Tremolo TMB. This is what I came up with, and it seems to work pretty good.
With a simple DPDT switch (or relay for that matter) you can dial in the standard crunch you want and switch over to max gain, ommitting the gain pot.
Didn't play loud yet, so I might have to add a 10k grid stopper on V2...
18W tremolo TMB with boost switch.pdf
18W tremolo TMB with boost switch.png
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Re: Tremolo TMB wonderings...

Post by JMPGuitars »

That's too much effort. Just raise the gain pot to 1M. But you may need to tame it more at high volume either way.
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Re: Tremolo TMB wonderings...

Post by zaphod_phil »

JMPGuitars wrote:
Wed 01/05/22 10:30 am
The Xtra TMB is a lot like the TremTMB, but has larger huevos.
or "huevos mas grande" :lol:
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Re: Tremolo TMB wonderings...

Post by JMPGuitars »

zaphod_phil wrote:
Sat 01/15/22 3:07 pm
JMPGuitars wrote:
Wed 01/05/22 10:30 am
The Xtra TMB is a lot like the TremTMB, but has larger huevos.
or "huevos mas grande" :lol:
¿Qué amplificador tiene el huevo más grande? El EF86 Xtra! 🤣🤣🤣
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Re: Tremolo TMB wonderings...

Post by Bieworm »

JMPGuitars wrote:
Sat 01/15/22 3:48 pm
zaphod_phil wrote:
Sat 01/15/22 3:07 pm
JMPGuitars wrote:
Wed 01/05/22 10:30 am
The Xtra TMB is a lot like the TremTMB, but has larger huevos.
or "huevos mas grande" :lol:
¿Qué amplificador tiene el huevo más grande? El EF86 Xtra! 🤣🤣🤣
Ayayayyy!!! Territorio Mésa Boogie Mark IV en el horizonte 😬
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