Members LARRY L Posted December 18, 2009 Members Share Posted December 18, 2009 I own a couple of DRRI's and been wandering how they compare to an original. I notice a smoother deeper reverb tone and perhaps a little less bright and not so loud tone. Less harsh overall. The store wanted $1500 for the not so great looking amp. A bit beat up. (I know he got it for at least half that.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members metallica_00 Posted December 18, 2009 Members Share Posted December 18, 2009 I had a chance to play a '65 vibrolux reverb not long ago. Went to the guys house and didn't bring a guitar - was taking the train in from the city and didn't want to lug it around. Turned out the guy was a lefty (doh!!!) so I could only watch him play them. Luckily he was a berklee prof so it wasn't so bad! The '65 was really nice, a bit apples to oranges but compare to my drri the drri could hang right with it on the clean tones but the vintage vibrolux had way better sounding cranked dirt. He also had a divided by 13 ftr37 which has separate fender and Marshall channels and frankly I liked that amp more than the old vibrolux. Everything about it was pretty perfect. I dunno. The old amps are sweet. The modern production fender reissues aren't THAT far off. The new boutique amps are there as far as tones but more features and you're not dealing with an old amp of course. Just IMO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members csm Posted December 18, 2009 Members Share Posted December 18, 2009 I own a couple of DRRI's and been wandering how they compare to an original. I notice a smoother deeper reverb tone and perhaps a little less bright and not so loud tone. Less harsh overall. ... all of which could be accounted for by worn-in speakers and tubes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members metallica_00 Posted December 18, 2009 Members Share Posted December 18, 2009 And, I wonder if you cut the bright cap in your drri if it becomes less harsh/more smooth like the old one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Wyatt Posted December 18, 2009 Members Share Posted December 18, 2009 The tolerance for a vintage amp are estimated to fall without design specs are as wide as 20%. That's because the caps are slowly and randomly drifting lower in value and the resistors are slowly and randomly drifting higher in value. So, no two 1964 DR's are ever going to sound the same. That said, $1500 is a still if the only problems are cosmetic, some early SF's are starting to approach that. A clean '64 on would fetch $2000+. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LARRY L Posted December 19, 2009 Author Members Share Posted December 19, 2009 And, I wonder if you cut the bright cap in your drri if it becomes less harsh/more smooth like the old one. I've been toying with that idea. Last night I stuffed a hunting sock around the back of the speaker inside the frame. It wrapped totally around the coil. I ended up with a little less shrill perhaps 2 db less volume and slightly perhaps, warmer tone. I was concerned it would muddy the tone but it did not. I could still get the harmonics and pinch harmonics out of it. (Jenson C12 stock speaker) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LARRY L Posted December 19, 2009 Author Members Share Posted December 19, 2009 ... all of which could be accounted for by worn-in speakers and tubes. BTW I liked your pub performance you posted on the PP forum. You sounded great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members metallica_00 Posted December 19, 2009 Members Share Posted December 19, 2009 I'd like to get mine modded so the reverb works on the normal channel too. I don't have much trouble with the brightness of the vibrato channel playing clean as it can be easily tamed using the guitars tone knobs. I use an a/b switch to use my overdrive pedals on the normal side, and you don't get the top end fizz, but you lose the verb which I love. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members neffrocks Posted December 19, 2009 Members Share Posted December 19, 2009 1500.00 for a real '64 DR? You're crazy if you don't buy it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Wyatt Posted December 19, 2009 Members Share Posted December 19, 2009 I'd like to get mine modded so the reverb works on the normal channel too. I don't have much trouble with the brightness of the vibrato channel playing clean as it can be easily tamed using the guitars tone knobs. I use an a/b switch to use my overdrive pedals on the normal side, and you don't get the top end fizz, but you lose the verb which I love. That raises the noise floor on both channels significantly. It's one of the reasons the Custom Vibrolux Reverb is such a noisy amp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LARRY L Posted December 19, 2009 Author Members Share Posted December 19, 2009 1500.00 for a real '64 DR? You're crazy if you don't buy it. I just went on a link yesterday that graphed the going price since 2006 from e bay. They peaked in in 2007 over $4000 then fell to about $2500 a year later. This one has a replacement speaker and the grill cloth looks replaced and is stretched wierd. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LARRY L Posted December 19, 2009 Author Members Share Posted December 19, 2009 I'd like to get mine modded so the reverb works on the normal channel too. I don't have much trouble with the brightness of the vibrato channel playing clean as it can be easily tamed using the guitars tone knobs. I use an a/b switch to use my overdrive pedals on the normal side, and you don't get the top end fizz, but you lose the verb which I love. I use the normal to run my harps through with a cheap zoom pedal for some effects. Then mike the amp to a PA. Check out the home made holder for my EV468 mike. The holder strap has a bend on the other side of the handle so it stays put right in the sweet spot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members metallica_00 Posted December 19, 2009 Members Share Posted December 19, 2009 That raises the noise floor on both channels significantly. It's one of the reasons the Custom Vibrolux Reverb is such a noisy amp. Really? Good/interesting to know. I guess it might just make sense for me to get rid of that bright cap. Or get an old Princeton Reverb/boutique version. Single channel and no bright cap. I kind of need a smaller amp anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LARRY L Posted December 19, 2009 Author Members Share Posted December 19, 2009 I had a chance to play a '65 vibrolux reverb not long ago. Went to the guys house and didn't bring a guitar - was taking the train in from the city and didn't want to lug it around. Turned out the guy was a lefty (doh!!!) so I could only watch him play them. Luckily he was a berklee prof so it wasn't so bad!The '65 was really nice, a bit apples to oranges but compare to my drri the drri could hang right with it on the clean tones but the vintage vibrolux had way better sounding cranked dirt. He also had a divided by 13 ftr37 which has separate fender and Marshall channels and frankly I liked that amp more than the old vibrolux. Everything about it was pretty perfect.I dunno. The old amps are sweet. The modern production fender reissues aren't THAT far off. The new boutique amps are there as far as tones but more features and you're not dealing with an old amp of course. Just IMO http://www.waynereno.com/index.htm "Rebuilding a DR by Mikey Mann", now that Deluxe would be my amp, if I could afford it or new more about electronics. The "bit mo kit" has been my only experience at tweaking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LARRY L Posted December 19, 2009 Author Members Share Posted December 19, 2009 That raises the noise floor on both channels significantly. It's one of the reasons the Custom Vibrolux Reverb is such a noisy amp. Does the bright cap, when removed, help with the harshness? I thought about adding a toggle. Does it warm up the bass response? Will you loose the clarity? I must go for now but will be back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members metallica_00 Posted December 19, 2009 Members Share Posted December 19, 2009 Does the bright cap, when removed, help with the harshness? I thought about adding a toggle. Does it warm up the bass response? Will you loose the clarity? I must go for now but will be back. I don't know if it changes the content of the mids and bass, but I believe it eliminates some of the brightest highs. I guess you could possibly put an intermediate value cap in there that would be halfway between nothing and what's there now, but I don't know. So it should help with the harshness in the high end at the very least, if you find that to be a problem.I don't know if you use overdrive/distortion pedals at all, but at low/moderate volumes almost any pedal is super fizzy. Most people cut the bright cap because it gets rid of that fizz and makes the vibrato channel more pedal friendly.I might try it the mod sometime...after all, easily fixable if you don't like it. But I'll probably electrocute myself so I might just have a tech do it if I eventually have to take it in for tubes/bias. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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