Suprem Amps?

[WesL5]

Suprem war mein erster Amp kurz vor 1970....genau kann ich das nichr mehr sagen.1x12 Kombo.da war ich noch ziemlicher Anfänger mit der ersten Band und kann das heute nicht mehr ganz vergleichen.Ich hatte keinen Ausfall damit.Nix Besonderes,aber halt noch alte Röhrenschule von damals.Der Speaker hatte eine Metallkalotte....

 

[Deltablues]

Es gab aber eine neue Frage, also nichts Nekrophiles hier.

Ja schon, aber z.T. wird auf die 7 Jahre alte Frage geantwortet

 

[Racing]

Right. Time for an update then. Bought this off of "ebay kleinanzeigen" the other day and it showed up on my doorstep a few days back. That there is the twin EL-34 powered Suprem/Luxor 40 combo.

All in all,having checked it out,a combo with a different twist.

The cab in itself is made up of two separated enclosures. This then the upper part that contains the actual amplifier. Chassis is rather rudimentary to the build FWIW.

This particular unit had also seen the works of some previous "Mr Handyman". In short..repairs had been done in a less than satisfactory manner to say the least.

In turn jacks and a switch had been added to the faceplate. IOW...restoring to stock glory is out in this case.

I did however service the amp enough to get it up and running. Mainly to check it out,and this amp will distort when pushed alright.

This is a manner of putting the amps together that is a telltale for being Suprem. About as hardwired as it gets,and IMO a bit dangerous. The sheaths draped around the resistors is the only point of insulation,and..there´s about 400VDC running through some of them.
Speaking of which,after having handed the bias circuit som fresh e-lytes and a trimpot to make it adjustable i set bias to 36mA@495VDC in idle.

As noted the speaker enclosure is separate. As you can see it is also ported which i find a bit interesting. At the bottom there´s the reverb tank,and i seriously doubt that being untouched. The mere idea of installing a reverbtank together with a speaker sans any form of "bag" to prevent acoustic feedback is a no-no.

The giant green resistor in turn was installed in series with the speaker.

After handing the powerstage a few zener diodes vs the powertube screens asf i focused attention at the preamp and phaseinverter. All of the noval tubes had been replaced,sorry to say with the wrong types.
In turn..i really do frown upon the stock way of putting it together,hardwired or not,so a couple of tagstrips/soldersupports were installed as well. Recycled from an old Hohner actually.

This amp will not become a relay controlled twin channel unit. Each channel with three gainstages,and that brings that the preamp will get another noval socket to make it all come together.

One thing i REALLY frowned upon... them holes in the chassis there. The wiring of the amp was simply run straight through the metal sans ANY and all insulation. This of course has been remedied,and the real culprit here is that the wiring for the powertransformer was run that way too!! A dangerous proposition to say the least!

That said.
One modified Suprem 40 Combo coming up shortly guys.

 

[Racing]

To make this work as i intended i had to install yet an extra noval socket. Ie; an extra preamptube. When building hardwired things tend to look clustered after a while mainly due to the amount of wiring that needs to be installed. As you can see most of it as shielded wiring.

This in turn the powertube sockets. The screens got a zener diode each of 25V/5w,and in turn a massive overkill 100 Ohm resistor each. The trimpot in the middle is the biaspot.

This then is the main preamp. Two channels worth (and a third tube too). As you can see i opted to run a groundbus between the socket centers.

As the faceplate had already been drilled into i thought...to hell with it. Yep. The extra pots needed...

As such i replaced most of the wiring running to and back for the speaker and reverbtank. Chassis had a bend in it that i fixed while at it.

As such i tried the amp out,and it sounded at least decent in its new guise through a separate 212 box. However it fell completely on its face as a combo. Bottom end just flapped around.

Installed a series of relays to make the amp relay controlled. I removed the chassis point for the powertube heaters and rectified that...minus to chassis and positive running for the relays. Works like a million bux.

That switch there controls the whole thing. As you can see a fresh DIN socket was added too. That is for the remote footswitch. A 5 pin one.

Amp still farted itself out as a combo though and i tried a myriad of different speakers to alleviate the issue. Nope...still sounded like crap as a combo and nothing i did seemed to help.

Now. The output transformer of these units are REAL small for a "50 watter",and i finally caved in and tried an output transformer from an old Dynacord i had scrapped.
Difference was like night and day!! NOW it was all of a sudden all there!! NOW the amp started to respond as it should.

http://iloapp.elegic.com/data/_gallery/public/36/141132192906731800_resized.jpg

With the "new" Dynacord output transformer in place i had myself a whole new ballgame to cater to so...i redid that there with the bassreflex tube and the speaker. Still haven´t arrived on a final solution,but now i´m at least at a point where it´s down to a matter of taste instead of something being wrong.

Added a set of casters too. Amp weighs in at 26kg...and hence a set of lockable wheels make for a difference.

Replaced the white backing Dymo labels with silver ones,and now at least the faceplate looks more business i guess.

Nice little project that threw me a curveball as far as that output transformer business...but that out of the way what we have here is a two channel rocknroll amp that provides ample distortion like it was anybodys business..and this thing now ROARS when called upon!
A true rocknroll amp for coffee money..

 

[Racing]

 

[Racing]

Small update on the Suprems

This is an early -60´s Suprem Piccolo i modified the living crap out of. REAAAAL small combo which in essence is a dual purpose unit since the makeover. Dual purpose in as much that as a combo it´ll work for "around the house training",and as you get to rehearsals all you do is plug it into speaker cab of choice.
Basic issue being that the onboard speaker simply won´t cope as volume goes up.

This one differed a little from schematic as the phaseinverter was a longtailed pair instead of the according to schematic concertina.

With a little work though these units turn into real portable small amps. Net weight of the unit is a mere 7kg!

 

[Sir Adrian Fish]

Hier mal ein Pic eines Modelles.

Tre chic... ,

Habe gestern Abend meinen ersten Amp, einen Suprem Röhren-Combo, eine genaue Modellbezeichnung ist leider nicht bekannt, nach über dreißig Jahren aus dem Regal geholt und getestet, ob er noch funktioniert...

Das nenne ich mal deutsche Wertarbeit. Er brummt zwar ein wenig, wobei er das u.U. auch schon vor dreißig Jahren gemacht, hat, das erinnere ich leider nicht mehr, und die Potis kratzen ein wenig, wenn auch nicht im Übermaß, aber er funktioniert.

Zwei Kanäle, Eingang Klinke und noch irgendetwas, jeweils 1 x Lautstärkte, 1 x Tonregler und das ganze pro Kanal noch mit einem Federhall. Der Sound ist besser als ich erwartet hatte und er macht nach wie vor noch ordentlich krach....

 

[History]

Hallo sir adrian,
Das ist der Piccolo, ich habe auch einen, allerdings mit Hall.
Hier noch eine Bild aus einem Lindbergkatalog von 65

 

[Sir Adrian Fish]

Hallo sir adrian,
Das ist der Piccolo, ich habe auch einen, allerdings mit Hall.
Hier noch eine Bild aus einem Lindbergkatalog von 65

N'Abend History.

Vielen Dank für die Info. Dann dürften wir ja das gleiche Modell haben - meiner verfügt ebenfalls über einen (Feder-)Hall. Der Bezug ist ebenfalls zweifarbig, allerdings hätte ich diesen nicht als Kunstleder identifiziert. Ich wüsste allerdings auch nicht genau, um welchen Stoff es sich tatsächlich handelt.

 

[History]

Das ist meiner:

 

[Knallcharge]

Das Gute an den Amps ist vielleicht die Tatsache, dass sie in erster Linie nicht für Gitarren gedacht waren.
Zu der Zeit, als solche Verstärker gebaut wurden gab es in Deutschland zig gute Hersteller von Instrumentenverstärker in Röhrentechnik.
Zu nennen wären da unter anderem nicht nur Suprem, sondern auch Hohner, Dynacord, Schaller, Klemt und und und.
Soundmäßig waren / sind die Teile den Hypeprodukten aus den USA und dem Vereinten Königgreich oftmals überlegen.
Die Fertigungsqualität war um Welten besser. Vor allem optisch verfehlten sie das Ziel des damaligen Zeitgeistes um Lichtjahre.

Ich möchte damit nicht sagen, dass alte Fender oder Vox Produkte (whatever more) keine guten Produkte waren.
Selbst besitze ich auch einen Vox, aber einer der aus dem Jahr 1998 kommt, also unter Korg in GB bei Marshall hergestellt worden ist.
Mechanisch und vom Aufbau her waren vor allem alte Vöxe grauenhafte Kisten.