Another Garnet question

[Borg54]

Another Garnet question? Who?s got the Schematics? I just picked up what I believe to be a Rebel or Rebel II Base Amp; it?s a stenciled amp with the Russell Name on it, (no paint left, and both the 66 & 75 style knobs). Three inputs V1/12ax7, V2/ 12au7, V3&4/ 6L6GC, TMB, Base speaker is some GB1575 made in Canada. It?s a simple amp, and I would hate to rain on another collectors dream machine. So I have learned the hard way, and I am slowly learning to do my research first before butchering an amp.

But man, this thing with a NOS set of P, tubes sounds better than all of the Traynors that I have ever heard. And the original workmanship is old school and masterfully done. I put a Marshall jackhammer on it, anyway. I emailed them over at Garnet and haven?t heard back. And any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Doug

[Enzo]

Schematic Heaven has 30 some Garnet schematics, several of which have Rebel in the name.

[Borg54]

Checked there, and only found the schematic to the PI and Power amp to be accurate. It is a Rebel, so that puts the year at 1966. Really would like to see the schematic for the preamp. Still waiting for a reply from Garnet amps. Does anyone know if the Russell name out of Winnipeg was associated with base amps?

I did change out three components that drifted over the years, and this thing just came alive (I would like to believe that I kept it original). The tone is reminiscent of the early Marshall's

[Enzo]

Sorry to be nit picky, but if you write to them, call it a bass amp, instead of base.

If it is not too complex an amp, sit down with a pad of paper and a pencil and draw out the schematic from it. I have done this countless times over the years for older units with no schematic in sight. Doesn't usually take all that long, most amps are basically similar in circuit, so you know what the basic layout will be before you start.

[lustandfury]

Here is a thread from another form regarding my Rebel II. I love the sound of it too but like you said the preamp section differs from the schematic. MAinly in the extra 100pF caps that seem to be there to prevent oscillation. Is this what your map has too? I'd be very interested in knowing. I tried clipping these caps and it screwed the amps output and tone up!

[lustandfury]

Sorry the thread
http://www.thegearpage.net/board/sho...ghlight=Garnet

[Borg54]

Sorry to take so long to post a reply, but yes if you decide to keep that stack that one cap sounds good but I found that anything from 100- 300pf worked the best for my taste.

Once I found out what the amp was worth, I put in a more complex tone stack. I went with the Vox AC30 stack and put in a 6272/ef86 stage. Now my power transformer had an unused 6.3v@2a line, you might see if yours does, as this blew down the doors on possible mods. I even had the space and juice for the marshal baby blues breaker tremolo. I also installed the WR power mod, and a three way switchable bias switch on the power tubes.

Now I am looking for the link, but there is a new way to get ¼ power using a virtual cap configuration, this really shouldn’t work but it does. I don’t know if you have ever heard of Carr amps, but this is a take off on how they did there power scaling using ungrounded caps at the cat bias. This make the 6L6GC tubes much more manageable. Also over at 18 watt.com there is a thread and schematic where you can vary the resistance on this mod using a pot, and dude this is the BOMB! That thread is something like “¼ power” or something? Do a search.

Follow this link and enjoy.

http://www.el34world.com/Forum/index...15633#msg15633

My only regret with this amp was that I didn’t keep the speaker. If I would have had another one at the time, it would have been a keeper. Then latter that week after it went out the door, there was its twin cousin. Such is life.

If you keep it stock put a good peddle on the front end. The Rebel can take the punishment.

Doug