Off Topic NAD! Ibanez TSA15 Combo!

[whitestrat]

Great little combo. 3 channels. Clean, Driven, Boost! Only drawback is there's no reverb, but it sounds so good, I hardly noticed!

Beauty of this amp is that it's 5w/15w switchable, making it great for jams, small gigs AND bedrooms!

The TS circuit is built into the preamp, and 2x 12ax7 tubes, and powered by 2x 6v6 tubes. GREAT cleans, awesome crunch tones, and there's an efx loop, so you can throw in a harsher sounding distortion, and still retain the gainboost and the 6dB volume boost! 1x12 Celestion Seventy80 speaker. Some say it sounds thin, but I think it's really nice, especially when ythe amp is cranked. It doesn't break up much even on full volume, and that's where the TS circuit comes in handy!

 

[threeminutesboy]

what a nice little amp, congrats Lionel

 

[Purple ASS]

Thinking of snagging one of these myself...but was worried that it was too cheap. Please let me know how you get on with it.

 

[Spudmurphy]

great idea having the tube screamer built in. What are the cleans like?

 

[mantrarock]

Really interesting. Have you tried it in a band setting?

 

[whitestrat]

great idea having the tube screamer built in. What are the cleans like?

Very nice... Sounds like my princeton reverb. 6v6 tubes.

Really interesting. Have you tried it in a band setting?

Not yet. Just got it. Haven't even had time to fully break it in.

 

[GHWelles]

I have one of the old Marshall Studio 15's with the same tube configuration. (2 - 12AX7 and 2- 6V6).
I find the sound of the amp is very sensitive to what tubes are used, and to the bias settings.
Believe it or not, it sounds best with the power tubes mis-biased so one tube works harder than the other. You get sweeter sounding even order distortion, but you have to balance it agasint a loss of bass. NOS Sylvanias work the best.

 

[ohdamnitsdevin]

What do they retail?

 

[GHWelles]

I just try and find good ones on ebay and take my chances:

sylvania 6v6 | eBay

 

[whitestrat]

I have one of the old Marshall Studio 15's with the same tube configuration. (2 - 12AX7 and 2- 6V6).
I find the sound of the amp is very sensitive to what tubes are used, and to the bias settings.
Believe it or not, it sounds best with the power tubes mis-biased so one tube works harder than the other. You get sweeter sounding even order distortion, but you have to balance it agasint a loss of bass. NOS Sylvanias work the best.

That's assuming both amps have similar architectures. I don't know enough of the TSA15 to compare, and Ibanez isn't very forthcoming about it. I don't think it's a Class A, more like a AB. I'll do the tube thing when the current ones die on me. I don't like to interfere with existing designs unless they don't work, and the current ones are working fine for me.

 

[GHWelles]

That's assuming both amps have similar architectures. I don't know enough of the TSA15 to compare, and Ibanez isn't very forthcoming about it. I don't think it's a Class A, more like a AB. I'll do the tube thing when the current ones die on me. I don't like to interfere with existing designs unless they don't work, and the current ones are working fine for me.

Yes I am sure they are not the same. The Marshall is a single channel master volume amp with a unique bias circuit and the Ibanez is three channels with a tube screamer. It is fun to try different tubes though