Can someone give me there opinion, likes and dislike of a celtic edana jtm45 style amp? The price seems very reasonable which makes me worry just a bit about the quality of components. I'm just looking for someone who has experience with one of these amps. Thanks for any help you can give. jeremiah
Ah yes the psychology of pricing.I'm only guessing that he's using Heybour(sp) or Hammond transformers,which are great and much less expensive than Mercury Magnetics.The rest is caps and cans and a good chassis,all of which is easily gotten from multiple sources.Really I think building a quality vintage Marshall or Bassman copy shouldn't be very expensive.I own an original '68 plexi 50 watt and kinda shake my head at some prices various boutique copy makers are charging.You could almost buy the real deal for what some of them charge.You're paying them for about $500 in parts and maybe 4 hours labor.They didn't invent anything.So why $2000-$3000? I have to say I live in Texas and have not seen any celtics around or heard any buzz on them.I sure am glad I bought my plexi when I did.I'd hate to try to buy one now.Finding a good one was hard enough 10 years ago. Good luck!
Didn't the guy who started that, Scott F I think, hang around on the Duncan forums for a long time? He was building Weber and Mission kits then. Maybe he's moved on to something different?
Figured I'd answer myself... Built two Mission kits as my intro to amp building several years ago. Never built a Weber Kit, thought the parts were a bit less than tastes. I use Sozo caps, mallory/sprague, hand selected carbon comp resistors where appropriate, Heyboer trannies in the Edana, alpha pots, fiberglass tag board, cloth covered solid core vintage style wire, high quality sockets, good current production tubes, switchcraft jacks, etc. Not a crappy part in there. I do use two big JJ can caps for the Edana. On the tweeds, I use Mercury Magnetics. On the "california" style amps, I buy my "gray" trannies from teh same guys that make them for the two big boy EL84 boutique guys in SoCal. Incredibly heavy steel. I have a real normal job that allows me to do this for fun. Hopefully one day I'll be able to retire from the real job and build amps full time to keep me busy. As of last summer (after I worked through my backlog), I had to stop building after taking a new job and a personal issue. I don't pay the bills doing this. I'm simply trying to offer a good dependable amp at a fair price and make a small profit doing it. I also work rather slow and take my sweet ass time. I'm not even taking special orders right now. I do hope to finish a few more amps and post them for sale on my site as they come out. I just finished a single ended 6V6 fenderish creation, put it in a 1x12 retro cab and am waiting on a weber 12F125 to come in to complete the picture. I had two offers as soon as I posted a photo on the Duncan board. I wish I had more free time to build more of them. But time is limited and the new job is important for a lot of first responders and they come first.
Cool deal, Scott! I knew you had started building kits. It sounds like you've on to some more custom offerings. Good luck! I've read reviews of your amps, haven't read a bad one yet
Well, if someone wants to learn to build an amp, Bruce's Mission kits are the best. He uses outstanding parts and he's there for folks over the telephone. He definitely helped me through a knucklehead brain cramp or two. When you're doing this for the first time, it's all about support. Bruce is a great amp builder that takes a lot of time with newbies. I cannot recommend him enough to folks.
"You're paying them for about $500 in parts and maybe 4 hours labor." 4 hours of labor, not a chance , try about 16 even if you're good and experienced.
I own two Celtic amps (Edana and Franklin) and love both of them. Craftsmanship is some of the best around and Scott_F tends to be a perfectionist with his work. Edana that Scott built for me uses GEC (Yes originals) KT-66 tubes and has that great early Marshall tone. There is a ‘Sweet” and “Bitch” switch installed into this amp that allows you to switch to a more aggressive ‘Almost Plexi” tone in it. I normally play with channels jumped to get that old Marshall tone and grind up there and Edana play well with Stratocasters, Telecasters, Les Pauls, and PRS’s. I understand that Scott is busy doing other things at present, but send him an e-mail anyway… Maybe, Scott will get back to building these great amps.
