Great Transformer Makers In Europe

[Kitarist]

So as the title says, what are some great transformer makers in Europe?

Or where in Europe can you get USA transformers for a decent price?

Thanks!!!

[soundguruman]

Any Hammond dealer...
Hammond Mfg. - "Classic" Products - International Distributors
(list of European distributors)
Hammond makes a reasonable price, reliable tranny that is used worldwide.
However, GREAT transformers are very expensive. The greater they are, the more $$$ they cost.
And so, if we are talking guitar amps, you don't need GREAT, just reliable...or you may go bankrupt paying for them.
I mean, there are pure silver wire, trifilar, hand wound, Italian Jobs for $20,000.00 that reach 10 Hz - 50 KHz, but you don't need "that" great.
I mean how great do u need?

[Kitarist]

Well i'm just looking for a very musical sounding transformers (something like Mercury Magnetics etc...) You know that "mojo" tone )

Some transformers are top notch in terms of build quality but they just arent so musical as others.

So what do you suggest? Are there any samples of Hammond transformers? I did hear lots of great stuff about Hammond.

[soundguruman]

Hammond is what everybody used, including Fender. It's the industry workhorse.
(before our markets were flooded with ...)
Mercury is a very nice unit. I have used them. The frequency response is more hi fi sounding. Better highs and much cleaner deeper lows.
But, you get what you pay for. The Mercury is double the price, but it sounds twice as nice.

The whole thing is...If you are a professional musician, with years of experience, or an audio engineer, etc...you will hear the difference.
If you are a layman, non-musician, with limited experience, just starting...you may not hear any difference at all.
The difference is detected with a critical / musical ear. The average Joe will hear no difference.
The people who appreciate these subtle improvements are trained listeners and critical musicians.

[Kitarist]

Well i do hear the difference thats the reason i'm asking if they are any great european transformer makers out there

But its not just that tone is different but also the pick attack and overall character of the amp changes.

[JoeM]

....
The difference is detected with a critical / musical ear. The average Joe will hear no difference....

Hey, I resemble that remark!

[pdf64]

A Hammond or Magnetic Components OT will cost about as much as the import tax on a Mercury Magnetics, and the tone may be more to your taste anyway Paper-Vs.-Plastic
There's no substitute for personal experience in these matters - how will you know 'x' is better if you haven't tried 'y' - tempered with a healthy dose of skepticism with regard to snake oil marketing.
Pete

[soundmasterg]

Hammond is what everybody used, including Fender. It's the industry workhorse.
(before our markets were flooded with ...)

Fender used Triad almost exclusively in the 50's and Schumacher in the 60's, 70's, and 80's. I don't know where you got that they used Hammond...I've never seen one on a Fender that was stock....

Greg

[olddawg]

Some people can hear the difference on different colored speaker wire. If an OT is constructed differently it will probably sound different. Better is subjective.

[bb5000]

I used TAD's Hiwatt DR201 replacement transformers for my DR201 clone build, that's TubeAmpDoctor in Germany. Works fine for me

[Bluefinger]

I am using TAD transformers a lot and never had any bad experiences. I'm not sure if they are relabeled Heyboers but they sound good and are very reliable. They don't have the wide variety like MM for example but if they have what you need they are sure worth a try.

[J M Fahey]

Hammond is what everybody used, including Fender.

Where did you pull that crazy idea from?
No way !!!

[Zozobra]

inMADout Transformers

Italian made. The 100W OTs run around £80 delivered and they have decent bandwidth. A few guys over at sloclone have used these and I'm going to order one to fix up my old AOR I have sat around.

[gecko13]

Okay, first of all, are we talking strictly output transformers, or power trannys too? For most of my builds I use toroids for power, mostly the ones from Tube-Town in germany. Prices are great, quality is very good. For toroids that Tube-Town doesn't carry I go to Antek Inc. from the U.S., their prices are great, shipping is cheap, quality is very good. On builds where i use a normal tranny i use these guys Valve Transformers but i have also tried the ones from Amp Maker: Guitar amp kits and parts. Barry at Ampmaker is a really nice guy and his prices are great, I think he has trannys wound by Danbury, doesn't get much better than that.
For output trannys Ampmaker again has some really nice ones as does livinginthepast. At times I have used vintage Grundig and Siemens output trannys from the german Ebay, eBay - eine der größten deutschen Shopping-Websites and they have sounded amazing. Hammond makes some nice output trannys but their European pricing is just too damn high. Hope this helps.

[Kitarist]

Sorry for bumping this but does anyone have any experience with enovaz transformers?

Lo Spaccio di Nova: l'elettronica fai da te nel cuore di Milano

He also sells nice kits and handwounds transformers himself. Prices are great but question is if they "sound" good