ilovefuzz.com

Posted: **Fri Dec 26, 2014 5:31 pm**

birthofsound wrote:Yeah...I guess he figures there's no need to go into detail about features cause people are buying them anyway.

Posted: **Fri Dec 26, 2014 5:52 pm**

patdcp wrote:Hey guys!
Any idea where i can get a Falcon gut shot,or a schematic or just some info what exactly the guy is doing to the Jet Citys?
Thanks,P

Beats me, but going by these gut shots I'd say the difference can't be worth the extra $

Unless the nice looking head shell is worth that much to you, I would thing that you're better off bringing your jet city amp to your local amp tech and have him retube it, tweak it, bias it, do a handfull of small upgrades,...

I'm no amp goeroe either, but I have a sneaking suspicion that this board hasn't been touched

I spotted one removed resistor, but other than that it can't be more than maybe some slighty different values here and there. At best. New tubes, different pot values, better jacks/plugs,...Who knows

If the guy didnt have anything to hide, he should concider being more open about his mods. Not even the details, most of us woulnd't know a pentode from a triode anyway. But a little less mystery wouldn't harm the company's credibility imo

Posted: **Fri Dec 26, 2014 7:11 pm**

There are a number of bypassed resistors in the mod there as well as some sort of voicing option on a switch. Those will all change the amount of gain as well as the frequencies affected in different areas of the preamp. Mods to a SLO-type preamp are well-documented on the web in terms of what certain positions do when you go up or down in value. If you have the tools and knowledge those mods are very simple to experiment with. If you don't and the Hovercraft price seems worth it then that may be an option to consider.

Posted: **Sat Dec 27, 2014 5:20 am**

The thing is: I´m in germany. So buying a Hovercraft in the US doesn´t make sense for me. Too much money (taxes,shipping etc...). If i would be in the US, i´d buy one. There´s a really cheap JCA50 up for grabs locally, and i´m thinking about getting it and let a tech modify it with Falcon specs. But no one knows what exactly these mods are. The tech is a hair metal guy who modifies a lot of JCA´s towards SLO specs. But he doesn´t know shit about "Matamp" or "Sunn". So i don't know what to tell him exactly.

Posted: **Sat Dec 27, 2014 8:25 am**

patdcp wrote:The thing is: I´m in germany. So buying a Hovercraft in the US doesn´t make sense for me. Too much money (taxes,shipping etc...). If i would be in the US, i´d buy one. There´s a really cheap JCA50 up for grabs locally, and i´m thinking about getting it and let a tech modify it with Falcon specs. But no one knows what exactly these mods are. The tech is a hair metal guy who modifies a lot of JCA´s towards SLO specs. But he doesn´t know shit about "Matamp" or "Sunn". So i don't know what to tell him exactly.

Imo a good amp tech has at least a vague notion of every single type of tube amp, or else he'll know where to look for the right info/specs/schematics.

No offence to your hair metal amp tech, I'm sure he knows his shit. So maybe just try explaining him what sort of improvements you want, what sort of tone you're ater. Rather than basing your wishes on an amp you never even heard in action, let alone tried out?

You could start out by reading this:

http://www.harmonycentral.com/forum/for ... 8/1376418-

And maybe have your tech take a look at that too, and tell him which mods seem to fit your taste and style. Or try convincing him to maybe study a mattamp/sunn schematic for you

I wouldn't be surprised if those mods mensioned in that thread are similar to the Hovercraft mods, if not identical in some cases.

Out of the zillions of different available amps, what's so special or unique about the Hovercraft Falcon that you can't find closer to home

?
If it were a custom or a boutique thing, It'd be easier to grasp, but in the case of a low budget made-in-china amp that's presumeably only *slightly* modded...

Posted: **Sat Dec 27, 2014 8:23 pm**

frigid midget wrote:
patdcp wrote:The thing is: I´m in germany. So buying a Hovercraft in the US doesn´t make sense for me. Too much money (taxes,shipping etc...). If i would be in the US, i´d buy one. There´s a really cheap JCA50 up for grabs locally, and i´m thinking about getting it and let a tech modify it with Falcon specs. But no one knows what exactly these mods are. The tech is a hair metal guy who modifies a lot of JCA´s towards SLO specs. But he doesn´t know shit about "Matamp" or "Sunn". So i don't know what to tell him exactly.
I wouldn't be surprised if those mods mensioned in that thread are similar to the Hovercraft mods, if not identical in some cases.

Out of the zillions of different available amps, what's so special or unique about the Hovercraft Falcon that you can't find closer to home ?
If it were a custom or a boutique thing, It'd be easier to grasp, but in the case of a low budget made-in-china amp that's presumeably only *slightly* modded...

I agree with this general outlook. When you have a builder who seems to primarily make cosmetic mods to obfuscate the fact that his amps are low end models made by other companies with some values changed here and there I question how unique those mods are compared to common knowledge mods from the web. If there was something significantly more special it would be more worthwhile to build amps from scratch and develop a more prestigious brand. Especially since many of these circuits aren't especially complex.

Posted: **Sun Dec 28, 2014 11:52 am**

whoismarykelly wrote: I agree with this general outlook. When you have a builder who seems to primarily make cosmetic mods to obfuscate the fact that his amps are low end models made by other companies with some values changed here and there I question how unique those mods are compared to common knowledge mods from the web. If there was something significantly more special it would be more worthwhile to build amps from scratch and develop a more prestigious brand. Especially since many of these circuits aren't especially complex.

Exactly. Or at the very least, if those mods were indeed something more than a handfull of caps and resistor with lightly different values, and worth the upcharge...I would think that the builder would mension it, or even use it as a selling point. If I made a conciderable improvement to a low cost amp by adding a gain stage, a third channel, a build in reverb, or whatever...I'd probably want to boast about it

...Which is another reason why I think the whole concept is primarily based on the nice looking headshell and just clever marketing :s
Clever marketing, for the most part towards the doom/stoner niche. Which is kind of ironic, knowing that the 'founders' of those genres played on literally any amp that was loud, cheap, and easily available. As well as totally un-hip at the time

I'm not judging anyone here. If anything, it's a damn clever business model if you ask me. They just cater to the crowd that love a really nice looking amp, and can't afford a boutique or custom one. They don't lie about the fact that they just mod cheap heads, and everyone's free to either take or leave it

For all I know, those epi/JC/peavey heads are just a handfull of mods aways from sounding stellar

Posted: **Sun Dec 28, 2014 12:12 pm**

Fun fact:

I asked for these mods of the JCA50h towards a Falcon, you guys were answering recently.

AND: I´m not one of these guys that can´t afford the real deal. I own a Matamp Gt2, a Verellen Skyhammer, a 70s Orange OD 120.
I don´t like the toyish and cheap look of the Hovercrafts. It´s just that i can get this JCA for veeeery cheap and liked the idea of having an Orange/Matamp-ish amp as a backup, or as an amp i can leave at some jam places that are not that safe. You get the point? ;-)
it´s not always about the doom hipster that can´t afford the original ,haha

Posted: **Sun Dec 28, 2014 12:34 pm**

patdcp wrote:Fun fact:

I asked for these mods of the JCA50h towards a Falcon, you guys were answering recently.

AND: I´m not one of these guys that can´t afford the real deal. I own a Matamp Gt2, a Verellen Skyhammer, a 70s Orange OD 120.
I don´t like the toyish and cheap look of the Hovercrafts. It´s just that i can get this JCA for veeeery cheap and liked the idea of having an Orange/Matamp-ish amp as a backup, or as an amp i can leave at some jam places that are not that safe. You get the point? ;-)
it´s not always about the doom hipster that can´t afford the original ,haha

I can totally relate to that. But fwiw, I used to have an early 70s Orange OD 120 too...And I fail to see any sort of similarities to a new Jet City head

Not sure about your other two amps, but the Orange is a 120Watt single channel monster powered by four EL34's, right? You'd probably have to mod the shit out of that JCA to come remotely close, probably more so than the Hovercraft guys do.

If I were you, I'd snag that cheapish JCA and not worry about tweaking it, especially not if you have such an epic amp collection for when you really mean business. Throw some peds in front of it and don't worry about NOS caps or whatever other bullshit that doesn't matter in the real world

Posted: **Sun Dec 28, 2014 12:39 pm**

This.

Posted: **Sun Dec 28, 2014 12:59 pm**

Hell, the whole modded Marshall craze of the 80s was in large part because the amps were available, affordable enough, and a good platform for mods. This goes for Jet City amps now, and given that the basic architecture is modded Marshall, why not mod towards other amps on that family tree? Only reason I can see is if the original amp can be had for less than the Jet City with mods, like a Laney AOR.

Now the JCs do seem like a weird base for the whole Orange/Matamp thing. Wrong PI, eq, gain staging. Then again, the current Orange company is doing them wrong, too. Could probably decently fake a Sunn Model T, though, as the preamp sections is a bit more Marshall-y.

Posted: **Sun Dec 28, 2014 1:04 pm**

But hovercraft selling them as "Matamp/Orange " style...and the users say they sound like them.

Posted: **Sun Dec 28, 2014 1:50 pm**

If you add a ton of bass saturation to any circuit it can get homogenized into the Orange camp because all the high end detail gets lost and that's usually where a lot of an amp's character is. Maybe people think these amps sound like their idea of a Marshall or something but an OR120 doesn't have even remotely as much gain as one of the little Jet City heads. If anything they might sound like an Orange head being totally changed by the sound of a distortion pedal feeding it.

Posted: **Sun Dec 28, 2014 3:07 pm**

Yeah,but that´s also an idea i like: Having the tone of an Pedal-Boosted OR120. One pedal less in front of the amp. This is what attracts many people, including me,

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