Blonde Tremolux!!!!!!

[Laroosco!]

HOLY!!!!

Jammed for a couple hours through a Blonde Tremolux tonight with my G&L ASAT Classic.

What a Badass amplifier. This is the Fender for me IMO. It's my first real exposure to a Blonde era Fender and I love it. The volume is perfect for me also. It gives up the goods at just the right time. It would make the perfect little brother for my Route 66

Sounded better to me than any BF Fender I've ever heard. Definitley neck and neck with the Tweeds I've grown to love.

Unfortunatley the owner wouldn't let me take it home.

I was given a chance to buy a '62 Tremolux w/Matching cab for $900 about 4 years ago and I passed it up. I'm kicking myself in the ass tonight.

 

[TheAmpNerd]

Kind of like the Hokey Pokey...

...that's what its all about.

 

[Roe]

it seems that hendrix did use a blonde or brown fender on electric ladyland.

I know david allen makes a clone called brown sugar. Everyone else just makes tweed and blackface amps.

 

[Laroosco!]

Originally posted by Roe
it seems that hendrix did use a blonde or brown fender on electric ladyland.

I know david allen makes a clone called brown sugar. Everyone else just makes tweed and blackface amps.

I've been watching the Brown Sugar out of the corner of my eye for a while.
I wonder how close it gets to the amp I played tonight. Maybe I'll just ask Mr Allen.

Thanks for reminding me.

 

[ROKY]

Originally posted by Laroosco!
I've been watching the Brown Sugar out of the corner of my eye for a while.
I wonder how close it gets to the amp I played tonight. Maybe I'll just ask Mr Allen.

Thanks for reminding me.

Couldn't you find a BF Tremolux head and have the circuit 'massaged'
back to Blonde specs ?

 

[sstweed]

I am starting to think that the older Fenders are for me too. Recently I have been drooling over tweed Bassmans, Tweed Deluxes, Tweed low-power Twins, Pros, Supers. All of them, they all sound great. The Browns I have played through have given me similar chills. I have played a couple browns and they are very cool. Nugent used a Brown deluxe in the studio (Cat Scratch Fever), and Knopfler used a brown Vibrolux during his Sultans of Swing days. The Blackfaced/silverfaced amps sound stiff as a board in comparison.

 

[Laroosco!]

Originally posted by ROKY
Couldn't you find a BF Tremolux head and have the circuit 'massaged'
back to Blonde specs ?

This was going to be my next question. I'm seeing BF Tremoluxes going for a fraction of their Blonde brother's. I wonder how close do they sound to each other in the first place.
Getting a BF and having it "altered" might not be a bad idea.

 

[Ogre]

My first "real" amp was a blonde Tremolux. It was wonderful and I miss it! It wasn't quite loud enough to do the Hendrix and Cream thing, so I traded for a blue sparkle Kustom. UGH!!!

 

[MVrider]

Ogre, you're not the only guy who dumped one of those back in the days before the "more gear than gigs" era.

But (or should I say "butt") those Kustoms sure were comfy to sit on...

The blonde Tremo's are cool if the room is a small one, but... they just don't have much headroom and they give very little volume especially considering you're lugging a head AND a cabinet.

 

[drbob1]

I think brownfacing a BF Fender would be a BIG job. They share tube rectifiers and long-tailed PIs but that's about all AFAIK. Better to sell the BF and buy a copy. Doesn't Victoria make brown copies now, too? Also, the Bandmaster is real similar to the Tremelux, so it might be worth trying to find one of those-one with issues would be less expensive. Also just the head and using an Avatar cab would save you 1/2 the price...

 

[ROKY]

Originally posted by drbob1
I think brownfacing a BF Fender would be a BIG job. They share tube rectifiers and long-tailed PIs but that's about all AFAIK. Better to sell the BF and buy a copy. Doesn't Victoria make brown copies now, too? Also, the Bandmaster is real similar to the Tremelux, so it might be worth trying to find one of those-one with issues would be less expensive.

I tend to agree with this statement.

I'm no tech, but I was looking over the schematics and the
transformers, also seem to be different specs, as well.

So, you could end up paying considerable $$ trying to exactly
nail the sound and feel of the Blonde Tremolux and maybe not
get exactly there(if exactness is important to you..)

Other suggestions :

Look into the Allen amps(already mentioned, I know)as they
are great alternatives in a lower powered Fender Brown circuit.

Try out a Menatone Dirty Blonde pedal- it's actually an excellent
pedal, and most cost effective . Run it thru your Dr.Z amp and
you may be *quite satisfied* with the results .

My last suggestion is the TopHat Super Deluxe
33 cathode-bias watts, 2 6L6s(also accepts EL-34s)

This is a fantastic medium powered amp that gets really excellent
grind and has an excellent master volume.

 

[Laroosco!]

Originally posted by MVrider


The blonde Tremo's are cool if the room is a small one, but... they just don't have much headroom and they give very little volume especially considering you're lugging a head AND a cabinet.

I could really care less about lugging a head and a cab..no problemo. If I can gig with a Deluxe Reverb I can definitely use a Tremolux.

It might not be enough volume for you but it was just fine for me. If I needed more volume I could always use my Route 66. It had just the roghht amount of headroom ffor me. With the volume at noon I had plenty of room to move on the guitars volume knob and till haad enough headroom to hit it with a clean boost. That's all I need.

 

[PlexiBreath]

Originally posted by Laroosco!
This was going to be my next question. I'm seeing BF Tremoluxes going for a fraction of their Blonde brother's. I wonder how close do they sound to each other in the first place.
Getting a BF and having it "altered" might not be a bad idea.

Probably not possible without a lot of work, if this is one of the blonde Tremoluxes with the octal 6BQ5 (EL84) power tubes it's a rare bird and too different than the BF Tremoluxes.

 

[Moods]

I played with a '62 6G9-B Tremolux as my main amp for a couple years. Great amp! The earlier 6G9-A doesn't compare... I had both. You will not replicate the tone of that amp without the iron. The PT in my 6G9-B was a Triad. Same as the tweeds. That amp would rock like a JTM 45 through a cab with Celestions. It was easily as loud as my JTM with more than enough headroom for gigging. They are whimpy through the stock Oxfords speakers but they still sound kool.

The Tlux sounds killer with a strat in the normal channel and buckers through the bright channel. You can bridge the channels together like a Marshall or Bassman.

I still have access to my old one. It's a great amp and I do use it from time to time. Get an original. The Allen isn't based on that type of circuit. The brown Vibrolux was basically the same circuit in combo form.

Good luck!

<M

 

[LesFender]

Did you see what the power tubes were?I hear the 6bq5s are more desirable.I had a 6v6 version that Nancy Griffin now gigs with.It was o.k.but not my cup of tea.If we all kept all the great amps we had we would have to change our names to Gil Southworth or something.

 

[LesFender]

Or maybe 6L6s,but it was not real strong.

 

[jcs]

i am an owner of a 62 bandmaster(6g7a) and 63 tremolux(6g9b) as well as a 71 marshall 50 and 65 princeton..

both brown amps are way more marshally with the bandmaster having ss rectifier,it is quick in response punchy and loud and it has a presence knob so it is very easy to tune the highs..

the tremolux has a gz34 rectifier is not quite as loud but a bit more sag,in a great way and like a jtm45,but no presence knob...

both are plenty loud with 4x12s and all you have to do is sub a 5751 or 12at7 or 12ay7 in one of the channels and you have loud and clean way, more blackface but still middy like a blonde fender..

btw, the ot are the same only different impedance 125a7a 8 ohm and 125a6a 4 ohm..

the bandmaster usually have a bigger power tranny though and run higher plate volts...

i prefer rca 6l6gc in the bandmaster and big bottle 7581 in the tremolux,both amps kick butt

 

[Red Planet]

I thought the Blonde Tremoluxes had 6L6's in em?

 

[Laroosco!]

Originally posted by Red Planet
I thought the Blonde Tremoluxes had 6L6's in em?

Only looked in the back when I was plugging in the speaker cable. The tubes looked like 6L6's to me. They were short like 5881's.

I'm gonna check that the next time I see the amp.

Last night he offered to sell the amp to me so now I am sweating bullets trying to come up with the money

 

[Red Planet]

Better snatch it up.

I played one a while back. Pure Marshally Tone or should I say Fender. The one I saw had 6L6's in it. I dont ever recall seing a Blonde Tremolux with 6V6's or EL84's. Anyone care to expond on that?

Fender had the Tone down on these but were trying to make a cleaner sounding amp so they moved on.

I've found over time I'm really not a Blackface kinda guy. Too stiff for me.

If you dont buy it let me know I'll take it.