Suggestions for guitar jazz amp

[rongon]

In the '60s a lot of the NY studio cats used Ampeg Gemini II amps. They had a club, each member bought a Gemini and planted it at one studio; any member of the club doing a session at that studio could use the amp. They had a key to operate the on-off switch on each amp to keep unauthorized players from using them. So there were identical Ampeg Gemini amps at every major studio in NY. A lot of jazz tracks and film scores would have been cut with those amps, as well as pop singles.

Were those the old Gemini II amps with the dark blue checkerboard Tolex? Like this?:

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.

I've played through those. They're really good. Cleaner and punchier than my Reverberocket 2 (12" spkr, about 20 watts), but similar.

I briefly had a beautiful Gemini G-20 with two 10" speakers. It was so darned heavy I couldn't use it. I was trying to lug a tube amp around NYC at the time, often in taxis, so that Ampeg just wouldn't work. But it was the best sounding guitar amp I ever had. I really wish I could have that one back.

Here's the circuit, for what it's worth:

And here's a picture (sorry, it's kinda blurry):

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.

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[rongon]

No feedback, its very linear as is, no need. There is local feedback since there are no cathode bypass caps.

schematic

Very nice. It looks like it should sound very nice indeed.

I really like 12AT7 as a phase inverter, definitely. Very smooth gentle breakup. Works great in both hifi and guitar, now that's unusual! (Except for hifi you don't let it break up...)

I've never tried a 12AT7 in a hifi amp. I guess the high mu would help with balance in an LTP, and so reduce even-order harmonics. The question is how much 3rd and 5th order there would be. Now there's something to search this site for...

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[Mr. dB]

Were those the old Gemini II amps with the dark blue checkerboard Tolex? Like this?:

Yes.

 

[multi-volti]

German AER 60W SS amp...don't think there are schematics as it's a commercial item.
(Frank Vignola, Vinny Raniolo live sound, don't know what gear on recordings...unless it's a live recording like 'An Evening with... (F.V. & V.R.))