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Heritage Owners Club

Under the Hood: Carr Rambler


tsp17

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Pegleg,

 

It sounds like you and I have exactly the same taste in amps. I, too, love the Two Rock Amps, the Carr, and recently fell in love with Princeton Reverb. I like the warm sound it produces and am looking to possibly getting a VSA 112 someday (A pretty decent clone of the Princeton).

 

All good choices Katy. I know it is more money, but if you can swing it, look for the Riviara Designed Fender amps that are designated with II, such as the Princeton Reverb II, or the Deluxe Reverb II. You need to look around to find a good one, and it will be a little more money, but you will keep them for the rest of your life.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Replacement speaker cable arrived over the weekend. Finished the speaker change today. As promised here is a close up of the can. New CRex sounds good. Not yet broken in, but gave the amp better balance to my ear and took some brightness off. i can see why others prefer the Wizard though. depends on the application and ear. We'll see as it breaks in. pic is not upside down, the can is. the transformer is bolted to the back panel and when you lay it on the floor it sits upside down. Made in France???

 

IMG_0219.jpg

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All good choices Katy. I know it is more money, but if you can swing it, look for the Riviara Designed Fender amps that are designated with II, such as the Princeton Reverb II, or the Deluxe Reverb II. You need to look around to find a good one, and it will be a little more money, but you will keep them for the rest of your life.

 

Preach on, brother! Get one before the prices of these babies skyrocket.

 

Over the last several years I've learned the truth about Fender's Rivera-era amps. All are point-to-point, high quality builds from the 80's.

 

Currently in the Gitfiddler stable are (2) Champ II's; a recently acquired Princeton Reverb II and my trusty old clean machine, Concert II. All have speaker upgrades and fresh tubes. All have that amazing Fender chime and great tone. They love pedals, extension speakers and being pushed!

 

As I've stated in previous posts, the 80's Princeton Reverb II is one of the best 'grab n go' amps I've ever used.

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Replacement speaker cable arrived over the weekend. Finished the speaker change today. As promised here is a close up of the can. New CRex sounds good. Not yet broken in, but gave the amp better balance to my ear and took some brightness off. i can see why others prefer the Wizard though. depends on the application and ear. We'll see as it breaks in. pic is not upside down, the can is. the transformer is bolted to the back panel and when you lay it on the floor it sits upside down. Made in France???

 

That's the logo for Solen Capacitors, and they are indeed made in France

 

**Edit, if logo part and the 51uF value part wasn't already a giveaway, it is a capacitor :)

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update. the new Cannabis Rex sounds great out of the box and even better as it breaks in. more balanced than the stock Eminence Wizard. better bottom end. My 575MH sounds better than ever. Clean, clear, crispy warm, and alive. My Comins sounds good but not great until i split the coils, then WOW. Steve Carr says that he believes this amp performs to its fullest/best with single coils. not as much bottom end headroom with big jazz humbuckers. see what he means. It does sound really great with my 575 that has a Benedetto B6 pickup though. hard to imagine a 1x12 combo amp sounding better. I dont have a single coil guitar. I dont gig much with the 575 since the Comins cuts through thee mix with my band better and is more rugged.

 

So i think what this all means is that i need an archtop with P90's. don't you agree? i like the 24.75 scale. what do you think 525? 575 with P90?

 

i guess i could just play the comins with the coils split, but the force is strong with my yearning for a 50's-60's jazz machine with p90's a la Kenny Burrell, Grant Green, etc.

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Preach on, brother! Get one before the prices of these babies skyrocket.

 

Over the last several years I've learned the truth about Fender's Rivera-era amps. All are point-to-point, high quality builds from the 80's.

 

Currently in the Gitfiddler stable are (2) Champ II's; a recently acquired Princeton Reverb II and my trusty old clean machine, Concert II. All have speaker upgrades and fresh tubes. All have that amazing Fender chime and great tone. They love pedals, extension speakers and being pushed!

 

As I've stated in previous posts, the 80's Princeton Reverb II is one of the best 'grab n go' amps I've ever used.

 

I couldn't agree more Gifiddler. Since these are 30 year old amps, one needs to pay attention to condition when buying, there are some beat up examples as well as some excellent examples.

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further update: This amp smokes. maybe i'm getting the hang of playing with it, the tone pots, or the Cannabis Rex is breaking in, but, man, oh man...wow.

 

i'm still not 100% sure it is for me, but i can see why people are so devoted to Carr as a builder. it so...so... right there, sweet and hot at the same time.

 

for the first several sessions i could not get a tone i liked out of my Comins, but tonight IT happened. bold, yet with subtlety and dimension. Highly responsive to attack. clear as a bell or with a little more push, slight breakup. I am having a great time.

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this thing would be a chicken picker's dream. I don't have a strat, but i can see why strat players love it. i bet it pairs up great with strat and tele single coils.

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Has to be...look at what $$$$ the Mercury models go for. These terminal strip builds and parts used, especially the caps indicate a no compromise approach. Labor intensive to build, but very repairable/mod-able. Carr practices amp building as an art.

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Bob, remind me which model you have?

Slant 6v

It's a cool amp. 2 channel, clean and crunch. Runs either 2 6v6s in fixed bias for 20 watts, or two 6v6s in cathode bias for 18 watts, or both pairs at the same time one fixed one cathode for 40.

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Slant 6v

It's a cool amp. 2 channel, clean and crunch. Runs either 2 6v6s in fixed bias for 20 watts, or two 6v6s in cathode bias for 18 watts, or both pairs at the same time one fixed one cathode for 40.

Sounds cool indeed!

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