NAD - Neale Overdrive Deluxe (Australian Amp)

[dohmar]

Hiyas
Today I picked up my new amp.... Woohoo!

Its a locally made amp from Adelaide, Australia (home) by Neale Amplifiers (www.amplifiers.com.au)

Basically, its a D-style amp (Dumble Overdrive Special type preamp + cascading gain with dual tone stacks), 20 watt mono with 6V6's and a reverb tank. Three gain stages, the third one modelled on a Hiwatt OD rather than a Marshall. Footswitch to switch between clean and OD but will get Neale to mod the front to have a toggle switch for the convenience.

I'm just testing it at the moment, we still have some alterations to make both cosmetically and functionally but the next few weeks will be me breaking it in and getting used to the settings. Its got a couple of 1970s russian tubes (the 6v6's) a 70s era british tube (for the rectifier, I think), some other tube I dont recognize as the reverb driver and 2x 12AX7 for preamp 'stuff'.

Andrew, the amp builder, is gonna put some more technical details on his blog in the coming days, which I'll update this thread when it happens, but for now heres what it looks like. Made to match my Avatar 2x12 but we have some obvious refinement to go (ie front panel writing, piping, orientation of mesh, knob and button placement etc etc). All in good time....

Since I also have a 35watt stereo rack power amp from Neale (https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/big-red-amp-custom-rack-power-amp-build.1466904/), I'm considering going full-retard and buying a 3rd Avatar cab, sit it in the middle and run an output to stereo rack fx and then do a W/D/W thingo but I'm not sure if I want to go that mental...tho maybe I should.

Sounds ballsy btw. 6V6's were definately a better choice than EL84's...
The only downside is that my pedal setup just got twice as complicated. Not sure how I'm going to manage...

Comments/questions welcome

-D

 

[nickcoumbe]

Nice

 

[Vai81]

Nice one mate. Following this thread with a keen interest

 

[dohmar]

Thx guys - I'm just breaking it in atm. A few pops and crackles as the metal settles, and I'm going to get Neale to do a couple of mods which are outside of the original specification. That said, its sounding very rounded already and can only improve... and, it looks badass as a dual 2x12 stack....

-D

 

[dohmar]

Well its been a fun week. I've played the amp for hours with each of my guitars. Its a beast of thing. Each guitar sounds different depending on the pickup config. The best thing though, is the touch sensitivity and the dynamics. On both channels the scaling from guitar vol knob 0 - 10 is perfect. And if its at 10, I can lightly touch a string and get a nice clean tone, but if I smash it hard it goes to wild instantly. The harmonics are brilliant, the clean is beautiful, the dirt is crunchy, the reverb is transparent and shimmery - all that stands to gain are a few minor mods.

So far I'm planning a 2nd speaker out jack so I can use full stacks, a line out so I can W/D/W the system with my Big Red Amp (avatar pic), a footswitch mod that will allow me to switch the reverb on and off as well as the channel, along with a front panel switch to do the same. Also going to add a dwell switch for the reverb and add a front mounted clean/OD switch above the 1/4" jack....

Going to refine some of the cosmetics and layout while we do this, but I couldn't be happier with the tone so far - only downside is there is some component somewhere that causes crackling for the first half hour-hour or so of use. Once everything heats up it goes away - one of the downsides of using accurate/vintage components - sometimes they're not always good. No doubt it'll be fixed upon the next mod cycle

Aussies - this amp rocks. If you're in Adelaide, its a no brainer


-D

 

[dohmar]

OK
Got my amp back after the latest set of modifications. The front panel was redesigned, a dwell knob for reverb was added, as was a front clean/dirty toggle and a reverb on/off toggle (for times I cbf using a footpedal). Also added (but not shown) is a Line out from the rear and a second speaker output so I can run 2x 16ohm cabinets @ 8ohm

Cosmetically a few things were moved around and the silver piping was added to match the speaker cabinet.

^ I call that the 'Neale/Avatar Skinny Stack!'

I think the amp looks bloody nice now and it sounds brilliant too. Totally happy with the end result, couldn't recommend the amp builder enough - Andrew Neale at www.amplifiers.com.au

The cabs are by Avatar Speakers, vertical 212T's with Hellatone 30 (G12H30)/60 (Vintage 30) combo. One cab is open back, one is closed. I love them. I bought the trim/fixtures from them to give to Neale Amps so it matched the cosmetics. Best value for money bar none. www.avatarspeakers.com

Signal on clean goes via the top 'gain' knob (gain1) through the BMT tonestack then out through the master volume for that channel (gain2)
Signal on OD goes via the top 'gain knob' (gain1) through the top BMT tonestack, then down to the second row to the 'drive' knob (gain2) through the bottom BMT tonestack then out through the master volume for that channel (gain3)

From the amp builder:
"The Rock/Jazz and the Deep all happen in the Clean tonestack. The reverb takes off from the first gain stage, goes through its own power driver (drives the transformer), the reverb recovery comes back in just before the Clean Volume control. The Overdrive is serial – it takes off from the Input to the Volume control, and when it’s switched in, the Level control feeds the power amplifier"

Comments welcome

-D

 

[dohmar]

Yellow = Clean channel flow, Red = OD channel flow, Blue = Mixing

Front was redesigned to make the controls a bit more symmetrical and to accomodate the extra knob and 2 switches.

I'm thinking of getting him to build a 5e3 head for me, but not sure what a 2nd channel could/should be - anyhow thats a project for next year, I'm going to be occupied with this one for quite some time

-D

 

[gtrplr71]

I really like 6V6's as well. I just now realized both of mine are 6V6's. Any clips? I would love to hear it.

 

[Rick330man]

Interesting amp. I've never heard of or seen them here in the States. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Australia runs on 220. Are these amps made stock with a selector that let's you choose 110?

Thanks.

 

[kingdavidy2k]

Does he make Princeton Reverb type amp?

 

[Coldacre]

very cool looking amp! great to see you supporting an Aussie builder too. a sound clip would be nice to hear

 

[dohmar]

Interesting amp. I've never heard of or seen them here in the States. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Australia runs on 220. Are these amps made stock with a selector that let's you choose 110?

Thanks.

Nope, being an australian amp the transformers used are 220v native, though Im sure to convert to 110v would be as simple as replacing the power transformer with an american 110v rated transformer.

-D

 

[dohmar]

Does he make Princeton Reverb type amp?

I'm pretty sure he can make any amp as long as the specs are provided (ie you tell him you want a Princeton Reverb, he'll dig up the schematics and then chat to you about what you're after in terms of power/features etc)

Send him an email, he's pretty good with replying

Cheers
-D

 

[dohmar]

very cool looking amp! great to see you supporting an Aussie builder too. a sound clip would be nice to hear

I'll try and get something together, I have a Zoom camcorder around here somewhere...

-D

 

[Coldacre]

I'll try and get something together, I have a Zoom camcorder around here somewhere...

-D

a camcorder?

its 2017 son. just use yer iPhone and whip it up to youtube

 

[dohmar]

a camcorder?

its 2017 son. just use yer iPhone and whip it up to youtube

Nah, the zoom has a proper a/b mic that doesnt suck when it comes to recording audio. I pulled it out the other day but I dont have a tripod. Gonna get one in the next week or so - want to point the camera at the controls while I play so you guys can see the difference in settings (that and I'm pretty shithouse at playing guitar so its kinda embarrasing and i might need a beer to get some liquid courage into me)

-D

 

[Vai81]

Nah, the zoom has a proper a/b mic that doesnt suck when it comes to recording audio. I pulled it out the other day but I dont have a tripod. Gonna get one in the next week or so - want to point the camera at the controls while I play so you guys can see the difference in settings (that and I'm pretty shithouse at playing guitar so its kinda embarrasing and i might need a beer to get some liquid courage into me)

-D

Keen to hear a clip too. Don't stress about the playing, I'm a pretty ordinary player too.

If it makes you feel any better, I'll post a clip of me playing my daughter's pink Hello Kitty Squire if you post a clip of you playing the amp

Deal?

 

[dohmar]

Keen to hear a clip too. Don't stress about the playing, I'm a pretty ordinary player too.

If it makes you feel any better, I'll post a clip of me playing my daughter's pink Hello Kitty Squire if you post a clip of you playing the amp

Deal?

Deal. I'll even play my own Hello Kitty Squier with a Bareknuckle 'Juggernaut' pickup in the bridge with a push/pull serial/parallel switch in drop C

-D

 

[Vai81]

Deal. I'll even play my own Hello Kitty Squier with a Bareknuckle 'Juggernaut' pickup in the bridge with a push/pull serial/parallel switch in drop C

-D

Awesome, I have the same axe... Minus the mods!

 

[dohmar]

Awesome, I have the same axe... Minus the mods!

The knobs actually go to 11

-D