Fender DRRI tone

[buford]

Does a Fender DRRI have a fairly good bassy low end? All the clips I can find tend to make them sound weak in the lows and lacking warmth. Especially in comparison to the PRRI. Don't want another weak thin bottomed amp. Can't find any local to try and I have a chance to get a good deal on one. thanks

[lowell]

I agree. I actually haven't heard a DR NOT sound that way: harsh. If I had one I might try an upgraded speaker and/or a beefier OT to increase low end. I'd probably do some other circuit mods as well to tame the "coldness" of the amp. Smaller grid leaks and more grid stoppers.

[JoeM]

Right out of the box the DRRI tends to be somewhat harsh. I picked up a used one a couple years ago and after some minor tweaks, including a speaker replacement it sounds great, but even at that I wouldn't consider it to be an amp with a very bassy low end. I could do some more tweaks to it, but if I want low end, my 5F6A Bassman clone has all the low end you could ever wish for and more.

[buford]

I figure for the price I'll buy it and sell it if I don't like it.

[Chuck H]

Well... A 5F6A has a pair of big bottles. There's a mile of difference. Small bottles often sound fine at home or in the store. But fall short in actual band playing circumstances.

Another reason the DR amps (both vintage and RI) can sound harsh is high plate volts. You can't get big bottom without it, but the top end can get shrill. Lowering the voltages on these amps does warm up the tone. But it won't do a thing for the bottom end. For that you could try bass heavy, high efficiency speakers. WRT "a pair of small bottles" amps I think the speaker choice is one of the most critical parameters.

[Brad1]

I managed to squeeze an EVM12L that I had lying around into one. (Had to move the choke out of the way of the big magnet). Also experimented with different tubes, and found some that sounded a bit better. Just those things made it a bit more loud, and added a bit more girth. (And, made it weigh a TON! Kind of amusing watching people try to lift it the first time. A trial lift..."Ugh!" Set it down. "HEY! This is a little Deluxe Reverb...why does it feel like I'm lifting an Ampeg!?")

Anyway, wasn't really looking for more "bass", anyway. That's what "bass players" are for. I try to stay out of their way. Just wanted a bit more projection and a bit more clean before breakup, and this was just enough to get it there, in a small club.

Probably COULD experiment with a few of the other ideas, to see if I could open it up some more, and smooth it out a bit, though.

Brad1

[buford]

Well... A 5F6A has a pair of big bottles. There's a mile of difference. Small bottles often sound fine at home or in the store. But fall short in actual band playing circumstances.

Another reason the DR amps (both vintage and RI) can sound harsh is high plate volts. You can't get big bottom without it, but the top end can get shrill. Lowering the voltages on these amps does warm up the tone. But it won't do a thing for the bottom end. For that you could try bass heavy, high efficiency speakers. WRT "a pair of small bottles" amps I think the speaker choice is one of the most critical parameters.

my HRD had the 6L6 big bottle low end too. I never really expected to get that kind of deepness out of a DRRI. I just wanted to make sure it had some warmth and fairly decent lows. So many clips make these sound thin and harsh so I was looking for hands on experience to help make a judgement. Yet most PRRI clips sound warm and bassy even though most say the 12" spkr in the DRRI has more bass. I've never owned anything with 6v6's, so I would'nt know what to expect.I don't know if the 6V6's are small bottles similar to EL84's , but my H&K 25th has huge low end bass as well as my PV Classic 50/50 pwr amp. So if the DRRI equals them I'll be happy. I'm not sure if EL34's are classified as big bottles but I had a Blackstar HT-40 amp that had terrible low end ( almost cardboard like if that makes any sense) in comparison to my HRD so I would guess that the amp and design would factor in to how well the low end might be, not necessarily just the type of tubes used. I'm not looking for a bass amp by any means, just something warm. I figured also that the tube rectifier might also add some warmth. To my ear, having the ability to dial in the bass some seems to add a bit of depth and clarity to the overall tone. Cutting through the mix is a whole different ball park and all this probably wouldn't matter, but for recording, I feel warmth and fatness sound nice.

[pdf64]

Just to echo Chuck's experience, I went through various output transformers and tube types on my Fender type amp, which runs a static B+ of arouns 420-430V.
The Deluxe OT / 6V6 combination was skewed towards a harsh trebley tone, using a few different types of vintage production 6V6 (no current production though).
Keeping the Deluxe OT but changing to 6L6 got rid of that unpleasant tone, even though the power output only went up a few watts (about 30 compared to 20watts).
Maybe JJ 6V6 would be ok.
The same 6V6 tubes sound great in a 5E3 type amp running a B+ of about 360V, not harsh at all.
Pete

[JoeM]

Well... A 5F6A has a pair of big bottles. There's a mile of difference. Small bottles often sound fine at home or in the store. But fall short in actual band playing circumstances. .

Hmmm. I've even played my Princeton on some gigs and it worked great, so I think that's too general a statement.

[Chuck H]

Hmmm. I've even played my Princeton on some gigs and it worked great, so I think that's too general a statement.

Ok

[lowell]

Its possible that taming harsh highs in the preamp, larger grid stoppers, smaller grid leaks, could make 6V6's sound great at higher voltages. Possible. I haven't tried it. It'd be pretty simple to do though.

[JoeM]

My DRRI has about 420V on the 6V6 plates. I dont think that's unusual for these. It's a great sounding amp. Lower B+ might work better for a 5E3, but they're different animals.

[buford]

Went down to Tampa yesterday to pick it up. The guy selling it bought it 4 yrs. ago and barely used it so it was a bit dusty. Cleaned it up and it's like brand new. Even got the original sales slip since it still has a year warranty left on it. Paid 525.00 which I consider to be a good deal. Must say, it's a nice compact and light amp for grab n go. I can see why they're so popular. Much lighter than the mdf HRD I had thanks to real plywood. Didn't have a chance to crank it up but it seems like Channel 1 has a bit more bass to it. Read something about clipping a bright cap on Channel 2 to equal ch.1 Also, I'm not sure if it's normal or not but the vibrato effects is a little ticky sounding with the volume way down but seems to fade out when the volume is turned up.

[JoeM]

Looks brand new, you got a good deal.

The Vibrato channel is brighter. Very common mod on these is to remove C10 - the 47pf across the Volume control. My trem ticks slightly too, but I hardly ever use it.

[buford]

Looks brand new, you got a good deal.

The Vibrato channel is brighter. Very common mod on these is to remove C10 - the 47pf across the Volume control. My trem ticks slightly too, but I hardly ever use it.

thanks Joe, do you think by clipping the cap it would be the same a ch 1 then.