Drake Transformers - do they still make em?

[H Chandler]

We're talking about the ones used in Marshall amps.

When if ever did they stop making them?

Thanks,
Howard

[Chris - CMW amps]

We're talking about the ones used in Marshall amps.

When if ever did they stop making them?

Thanks,
Howard

They did stop making really great sounding ones around '69...

At least till the last (original) 50 Watt JCM800s, no later 50 Watts ones over here at this moment so I can't look.

[jrfrond]

Well, Drake is still around, as I have gotten replacement Marshall transformers from Korg for later models that are branded with the Drake name, most recently for a reissue 1974X 18-watter.

[Steve Conner]

Sure they're still around. They did the transformers for the Hendrix signature plexi reissue, AFAIK.

http://www.drakepower.co.uk/trans.htm

They even do a replacement PT for the Ampeg SVT

[H Chandler]

Can you still get them from Korg?

[dai h.]

I think you have to keep in mind they've apparently been involved a long time with Marshall, but as I understand the transformers changed (mainly laminations??) which is part of the reason why the older ones are more valuable and why a number of outfits came out with transformers intended to clone the sound of the older originals. Also, (I think this just further confirms things) the transformers for the HW series were re-developed (for example, they didn't keep using the same ones they were using in the 1959SLP for the 1959HW) for the series. So although some people seem to think "Drake" automatically means more desirability, better sound, etc. (I guess it also helps when advertising amps on ebay) this is not necessarily so.

[H Chandler]

This is pretty much what I expected.

The reason I've been asking about Drakes, is that a guy I know borrowed one (a drake OT) from some guy while recording in Nashville. It doesn't look like an antique.

I was just wondering where it might have come from.

Perhaps it's a pull from one of the newer reissue amps.

Thanks

[Steve Conner]

I think the deal is that transformer irons have changed. Everyone uses grain-oriented silicon steel now, and they maybe didn't have that back in the 50s and 60s, or it was an expensive specialty material. Now you can hardly get laminations made of anything else. It can handle a higher flux density, so you can use a smaller core and get the same saturation point. However, the question is whether the saturation behaviour sounds the same as the old iron.

Maybe the weenies on the pickup making forum who use mass spectrometers on their magnets and pole screws should check out some O.T. cores too.

[dai h.]

I forget exactly (so this may be wrong, but) I remember reading some thread (about old Marshall transfomers) where the deal was that the lams were cheap. Also something about higher quality being better for the power trasformer but the opposite better for the OT since the cheaper stuff helped to give more interesting distortion. Might have been Bryan from Marstran (Transformers). (This might be wrong also, but) I have of a vague recollection about the lam material(steel) being so crappy that it's not commonly made and maybe you could get it made but you'd need to buy a huge quantity(tons??), so these aspects make it more difficult to recreate the old ones exactly. The replacement Marshall OT I have from OEI I understood uses modern materials but some compensations were made to get them to sound like the old ones, plus they were made tougher (which seemed to mean bigger wire--when I compared to the original JCM800 OT it replaced, the OEI was bigger).

[Steve Conner]

Yeah, that sounds about right. I think it says in the RDH4 that a large core of ordinary iron is better than a smaller one of some fancy magnetic alloy for an O.T. Maybe the cheap and nasty iron that Marshall used to use saturates more gradually and makes lower-order harmonics, or something. Looks worse on paper, measures worse in the lab, but sounds better

I measured some new production transformers a while back, but I've not tried plotting the B-H curves of any of my vintage O.T.s. I do it by feeding 50Hz from a variac back into the speaker winding, and that means inducing a high voltage in the primary that could arc it. I guess I should use an oscillator and power amp to do the test at 25 or 16Hz or whatever.

I was looking into using off-the-shelf toroidal power transformers as OTs, but their saturation behaviour seemed very harsh when I tested them. They have the worst of both worlds: a grain-oriented silicon steel core with no air gap whatsoever.