HOVERCRAFT amps...real talk

[Ancient Astronaught]

No allegedly, the 20w and 100w heads are modded jet city's, the 50w is a modded epiphone socal, and I'm not sure on the elder giant or other models.

My biggest worry is the lack of gut shots and the owners extended efforts to keep them from being posted. If something that's originally FMV style tonestack and you mod it to "Orange / Matamp" specs, I wanna see proof that you ditched the original FMV preamp PCB and switched it to a Baxandall tonestack with true depth controls style preamp.

[skullservant]

Yeah, I don't quite understand the elusiveness behind it, unless it's just to build hype. Seems like most elusive gear-related things just build hype and maybe thats what duder wants?

[Ancient Astronaught]

Neither do I, and I've seen enough shady builders practice this before to the point where I just avoid them.

Gotta give em credit though, alot of people love their sound. And if Holy Schnikes gives em a thumbs up thats a huge recommendation in my book.

I'm just an uber paranoid person to begin with.

[skullservant]

The Jet City that we both had was definitely an easy modding platform, and the quality of the circuit board was pretty top notch. I was SUPER impressed with Jet City when I opened it up and took a look inside.

[Ancient Astronaught]

That's why alot of people mod them, but I can't see it being easy at all to completely change the preamp to a different style of EQ when its PCB. Sure you can swap component values and increase low end and smooth out high end or possibly change the center frequencies of the eq bands. But not change it completely.

I may be wrong though. :idk

Plus I can't see something be Model T spec with EL84's when the basis of the Model T "tone" IMO is 6550's on the brink of meltdown.

[skullservant]

Yeah, unless parts/chunks of the PCB's are being gutted and then fed into new tonestack PCB's and mounted somewhere. Who knows! Might be all mounted to the pots. Could also be wrong there. I suppose we will never know.

[bronzetalon]

Neither do I, and I've seen enough shady builders practice this before to the point where I just avoid them.

Gotta give em credit though, alot of people love their sound. And if Holy Schnikes gives em a thumbs up thats a huge recommendation in my book.

I'm just an uber paranoid person to begin with.

This is what steered me away from them. Their price was unbeatable but the general unknowns of their amps bothered me. They probs do a sub par job keeping the mods tidy.

[Ancient Astronaught]

The one gut shot I saw a while ago looked pretty tidy, but it didn't look anywhere near as extensive as they claim it to be.

[GAS KING]

No allegedly, the 20w and 100w heads are modded jet city's, the 50w is a modded epiphone socal, and I'm not sure on the elder giant or other models.

My biggest worry is the lack of gut shots and the owners extended efforts to keep them from being posted. If something that's originally FMV style tonestack and you mod it to "Orange / Matamp" specs, I wanna see proof that you ditched the original FMV preamp PCB and switched it to a Baxandall tonestack with true depth controls style preamp.

yep.

I opened my Andromeda.......since I was curious. Epi SoCal with some mods. I'm not tech, so I'm not sure what he did to it.......but it looked well done and clean work.
Didn't look like a whole lot was done to it really....but again, I wouldn't really know anyway....or it was under the board?

Ended up selling the Andromeda in the end......mostly because I wanted to get a sound city on ebay......then to have that converted into a true vintage style hiwatt. :o

[dazedbyday]

I am curious about the amps but I would have to go with Skip on being skeptical. I am all for buildings creating or modding stuff but I like them to be a bit more open. If hovercraft are just modded amps it makes me curious as to how much they are modded and how they can make certain claims such as being orange/matamp style or sunn model t. Have they actually changed jet city to an orange style preamp? Because I'm pretty sure there is more to it then just adding in a FAC. And as skip said with model t power section. A model t is a marshall super bass with a few changes and a 6550 power section running ultra linear. Has hovercraft added in that power section? Otherwise it isn't really a model t. But it all comes down to: if it sounds good it sounds good. But I would rather it be what it is claimed to be.

[GAS KING]

Also, if you check out the website...........nothing specifically says that they are clones of Matamp, Hiwatts, Oranges, Sunns or whatever.....

read carefully.

I don't think they ever claimed to be spot on clones or accurate duplications of any of those amps.

Seems like they say a lot of keys words that people want to here, but usually preface it with "based on", "in the style of", "voiced like" etcc...

from the website:
"we reference the Ampeg SVT, Traynor Bass Master, Hiwatt DR405, Marshall Super Bass, and the venerable Sunn Model T, as well as some tricks from the ORMAT era 200 Watt Orange Amplifiers Bass units.."
(in regards to their elder giant)

See what I mean?

[Ancient Astronaught]

Your correct, he doesn't claim to clone anything, and I definitely see what you mean. MY problem is that his claims can mean anything. For example "tricks from the ORMAT era 200w...." could be as simple as installing a depth / FAC switch which is an extremely common mod to those amps. It's all marketing and hype as hes not willing to provide the basis of his claims. You could easily say "EQ controls similar to a Dumble Overdrive" simply because it has a FMV tone stack. What makes me sketch is his insistence of referencing other well known amps, but refusal to say or show what he really does to mod them or in what way his mods make them similar to the referenced amps.

Do you know how many amps can claim to be "based on", "in the style of", or "voiced like" a JCM 800 2203? Dozens. Do any of them make that claim? No, they tell you the differences and what makes them unique.

If he was upfront about his mods and exactly what he does I'd be more inclined to seek one out or possibly purchase one. He doesn't hide the fact that he mods production amps to make his, but he hides what he does to them. Which to me is counter intuitive. If your customer base knows their mods then why not have a list of exactly what mods you can do and how much they cost overtop a base cost for the donor amp? That way I can order from him exactly what I want, instead of a 150$ amp that now costs 650$ but claims to sound like a 20w Model T.

[dazedbyday]

Also, if you check out the website...........nothing specifically says that they are clones of Matamp, Hiwatts, Oranges, Sunns or whatever.....

read carefully.

I don't think they ever claimed to be spot on clones or accurate duplications of any of those amps.

Seems like they say a lot of keys words that people want to here, but usually preface it with "based on", "in the style of", "voiced like" etcc...

from the website:
"we reference the Ampeg SVT, Traynor Bass Master, Hiwatt DR405, Marshall Super Bass, and the venerable Sunn Model T, as well as some tricks from the ORMAT era 200 Watt Orange Amplifiers Bass units.."
(in regards to their elder giant)

See what I mean?

Yeah I mainly ave only seen their posts on Facebook but I went on their site after my last post to check them out a bit more. It specifically says recycled amps which is cool. And as you said a lot of their descriptions are "in the style of" and stuff like that. Kinda shady, but also not really. It is murky language. Though it is probably done for marketing to give some kinda mystique or just hit upon popular buzzwords. I would prefer if they said they just sold modded jet city amps. Of course they probably can't because of trademark. I was listening to the dwarveanaut video and it sounds cool. It is in that marshall soldano territory.

[Ancient Astronaught]

I was listening to the dwarveanaut video and it sounds cool. It is in that marshall soldano territory.

That's the territory the amp is in, even in stock form. The amp its self is a Soldano design, even says it on the back.

I just wanna be clear, I think the amps sound great. The vid of the black one does sound pretty freaking doomy and thick. I just think his business practices are kinda weak.

[Holy Schnikes]

I agree it's shitty about the gut shot secrecy. I emailed him once to ask if he'd mind me posting my Dwarvenaut guts and he asked me to refrain. Strange. Some cosmetic shortcuts too. Labeling scraped off and sharpie labeling on the rear along with strange overlapping tolex technique. Mine were both stock jet city black tolex which was perfect but the Hovercraft method isn't the same. Grill cloth looks a little wonky on some as well. I did notice Nial recently spent a weekend with Soldano's tolex guy and things look much cleaner since then.

That said, I had a look inside and it was very tidy but I couldn't tell what all had been changed. Was a good sounding amp tho, nice amount of gain but not Soldano levels. Was very thick and chewy but had nice attack and clarity, like a mashup of high gain Model T and vintage Orange OR imo.

As far as the tonal descriptions and comparisons, Hovercrafts are simply "voiced" to be reminiscent of those amps. Obviously not changing/redesigning whole output sections at those prices but I'm curious how extensive the preamp changes were. I also wonder where all these Jet City heads are sourced...