The Page Stairway Supro amp Mystery.

[garbeaj]

I believe you are correct Leon...I've never played through a 1624T (scarce as hen's teeth, even at the larger vintage guitar conventions) and I have no doubt that for volume my 1482 would be completely non-comparable to some of the great Supro and Valco amps you've played through...

That said, the clips that I have heard on YouTube of 1624T amps or any of the other models that are constantly passed on as "The" Page amp seem to have a tonal characteristic that is virtually identical to my Silvertone 1482. I think the Page mystery amp will remain a mystery. Which is good in a way...so much has been revealed in the last few decades and with the advent of the internet that music is rarely mysterious anymore:)

[LeonC]

Yeah there are definitely some similarities with the 1482, as there are with other amps with a pair of cathode-biased 6v6s some 12AX7s up front, low filtering and voltages...but if you got to sit in front of them and hear them side by side, you would not confuse them. Both really cool little amps.

[garbeaj]

Yeah there are definitely some similarities with the 1482, as there are with other amps with a pair of cathode-biased 6v6s some 12AX7s up front, low filtering and voltages...but if you got to sit in front of them and hear them side by side, you would not confuse them. Both really cool little amps.

I know that mic'ing has one hell of a lot to do with the sound that we hear primarily on the Led Zeppelin album...I know that the mid's are very pronounced on the guitar tones on that record and mic'ing does certainly have the ability to emphasize whatever frequencies you choose.

I know you are probably way busy and likely too busy to do this anytime soon, but I would make a request for a clip of an amp (either an original Supro/Valco or one of your own builds that you feel is close to what you hear from Page on the first album) and a Telecaster. You obviously know mic'ing very well...do you think you could try to emphasize mids as much as possible with mic'ing? I feel this would give the best representation of a first album Page tone from an amp and guitar like this.

[LeonC]

Well, heheh, I think you give me too much credit. I know a little bit about micing and certainly have some experience but I'm hardly a pro and wouldn't claim any serious level of expertise. But from my experience, I can tell you that the Pot-o-fone ribbon mic is way more accurate at capturing the sound in front of it than say, a Shure SM57. The Shure is a great mic and I've been using them since I started in the mid-70s, but...in comparison to a good ribbon mic, they're really mid-rangey.

The thing that really stands out about the 1st album to me--particularly evident on Communication Breakdown and Good Times / Bad Times--is the boxy/thin quality of the tones. Compared to a big 4x12 or 4x10 or even a 2x12, man it sounds boxy...but in such a cool, musical way, it seems perfect for those songs. Or maybe we've simply become trained to hear it as perfect having listened to those recordings for more than 40 years But I love those tones! I'll try to cook something up like that one of these days. Amazing what you can accomplish with mic placement...

[garbeaj]

You are exactly right Leon...when you say "Boxy and thin" you are right on the money. That's how I've always described it. If memory of past interviews serves, I seem to recall that Page did use an SM57...one close mic'ed and one distance mic'ed.

The closest I've come to these first album tones (and "Communication Breakdown" and "Good Times Bad Times are indeed prime examples) involved using my bass, middle and treble controls to try to achieve "boxy and thin". Bass was usually kept very low-no higher than "3". Then to achieve "boxy" it was always Mid full up. The more "Mids" the more boxy. and then the Treble control would be up relatively high...not all the way, but between "6" and "8' usually. Of course this can be somewhat accomplished with close mic placement at certain points along the cone. As I understand it there are no bass, middle or treble controls on most Supros and Valcos? There aren't any on my Silvertone...

[LeonC]

Well I finished up (pretty much) my Coronado 1690T clone. Man, what fun! I love building stuff! Anyway, I'm happy with how it's turned out but it wasn't w/o a little pain here and there. The biggest issue is vibrations from the cab passing through into the chassis, causing microphonics and weird sonic artifacts. This is a loud, gainy amp, that trem channel is on the verge of oscillation; so it's really important to do stuff to isolate the chassis, if possible, from excess vibration. If I had had the chassis designed specifically for this build, I can think of a few things I would have done differently. The next combo I build along these lines will probably have the chassis mounted on rubber grommets. They'll eventually wear out (though probably not in my lifetime) but they can be easily replaced.

Anyway, after taking some additional measures to isolate the chassis, and after adding a little 500pF ground reference on the trem channel, I think I've got this guy dialed in pretty good. I also changed out the linear taper pop on the tone knob for an audio taper because at one point in the throw, the thing was sounding more like a switch than a pot and I wanted to spread that point out a bit more. So the audio taper is working out better...all I had was an extra Alpha...but I really prefer the sound of CTS pots so I think I'm gonna change that up one of these days too. Finally, I ordered some smaller knobs...the ones I had cover the labels on the pots; not that it really matters to me...I know which is which, but it'll be better aesthetically. Anyway, enough babbling.

Here are some shots of the finish product.





And here's a quick and dirty video I did yesterday. Garbeaj - sorry I didn't make my best effort to cop that JP sound...but you can still hear it pretty easily, I think.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nqd32WXWefM[/youtube]

[bigsmitty]

nice amp

[garbeaj]

It looks great Leon...I'm still not hearing THE sound, but I do think the amp looks great and probably sounds very close to many old Supro/Valco amps like the 1690T. Throw an old Supro badge on there and you've got the cosmetics really close...

[LeonC]

Thanks gents!