Another NAD, and twinseys.

[War_in_D]

I picked up the Ultra Plus from GC used the other day, but what I didn't mention is that there is a local music store here in town that had an Ultra Plus head w/Peavey 412MS cab that's been on consignement for like 4 years. The reason it's been there so long, was that the guy that consigned it move to the west coast with this job shortly after dropping it off. Not long after the guy left town the amp developed a "squealing" noise once it warmed up, and the shop couldn't sell it that way and they couldn't get in touch with the guy that owned it to find out what he wanted to do. So, it just sat.. and sat... for years! I'd throw a comment out there to the store owner that I'd be interesting in buying it in "as is" condition if the price was right, been doing that for as long as it's been sitting there. Fast forward, and unfortunately with all the Covid mess, not being able to get stock to replentish the store and all the big names requiring any store to stock like $100K worth of their stuff to be a dealer.. They finally decided to close their doors. Damn shame too, great store and the owners are good friends of mine. they had a ton of stuff there on consignement, so they were trying to get everyone to come in and get their stuff. So, one last time... I tell them "hey, if you can get in touch with the guy.. I'm still interested."

Well, I get a message the other day.. "If you still want the Ultra half stack, come get it!" They finally got in touch with the guy, who now lives in Costa Rica, BTW! LOL Anyway, the price was right so I'm the proud new owner of twinseys! I haven't had a chance to open it up yet and see if I can spot anything obviously wrong with it, but I've got a good amp guy that can figure it out if needed.

 

[JackBootedThug]

CYKA BLYAT!!!! AWESOME BRO!!!

 

[jabps]

Those were great looking amps and truly underrated.

 

[ZEEGLER]

Congrats!

Probably a preamp tube.

 

[JackBootedThug]

how's the cab btw? I heard they were really good.

 

[ZEEGLER]

Hmmmm, on a related note, there's a 3120 for sale locally. Are they significantly different to the Ultra Plus, or would it be mostly redundant?

Maybe I should re-watch Kyle's video.

 

[War_in_D]

Congrats!

Probably a preamp tube.

I'm hoping it something like that, if I don't see any other obvious issues.

how's the cab btw? I heard they were really good.

I've had several 412MS cabs, and I would say they are "adequate". At least with Peavey stuff, because they were kind of designed to go with their heads, etc.. I would honestly say, that I haven't really liked them with anything other than a Peavey power section of some kind. What's interesting, and I really didn't notice it until I got home, is that the two speakers on the right have a very definite difference in color to the gasket vs. the speakers on the left.. So, I'm wondering if some of the speakers may have been changed. I'm going to try to look into that this weekend.

Hmmmm, on a related note, there's a 3120 for sale locally. Are they significantly different to the Ultra Plus, or would it be mostly redundant?

Maybe I should re-watch Kyle's video.

I've never played a 3120, and everyone says that the Ultra Plus was the predecessor of the XXX series.. but to my tastes, I'll take an Ultra Plus over a XXX any day of the week. I've owned both, but only owned a XXX once. LOL Not saying they are bad amps, but I personally I didn't care for it.

 

[ZEEGLER]

I've had several 412MS cabs, and I would say they are "adequate". At least with Peavey stuff, because they were kind of designed to go with their heads, etc.. I would honestly say, that I haven't really liked them with anything other than a Peavey power section of some kind. What's interesting, and I really didn't notice it until I got home, is that the two speakers on the right have a very definite difference in color to the gasket vs. the speakers on the left.. So, I'm wondering if some of the speakers may have been changed. I'm going to try to look into that this weekend.

I noticed that too. I was going to mention it but you already noticed it.

 

[War_in_D]

Checking everything out so far I don't see anything obviously visually wrong internally. All the fuses are good, and I'm not seeing any burnt areas or bulging capacitors. It did have a mixed set of power tubes. Two Sovtek 6L6GB's and two no name 6L6's that look like they had been rode hard and put away wet. Not sure if that would cause a sqealing issue (seems more of a preamp tube problem), but I've got the spare set from the other Ultra that I'm going to throw in there an at least rule that out. I picked up a set of new 6L6's for the other Ultra from Nesstone pretty reasonably, I may order another quad for this one.

 

[psychodave]

With GC they could have tried it with a shit guitar …. Making the amp fine. ?

 

[Techdeth]

I picked up the Ultra Plus from GC used the other day, but what I didn't mention is that there is a local music store here in town that had an Ultra Plus head w/Peavey 412MS cab that's been on consignement for like 4 years. The reason it's been there so long, was that the guy that consigned it move to the west coast with this job shortly after dropping it off. Not long after the guy left town the amp developed a "squealing" noise once it warmed up, and the shop couldn't sell it that way and they couldn't get in touch with the guy that owned it to find out what he wanted to do. So, it just sat.. and sat... for years! I'd throw a comment out there to the store owner that I'd be interesting in buying it in "as is" condition if the price was right, been doing that for as long as it's been sitting there. Fast forward, and unfortunately with all the Covid mess, not being able to get stock to replentish the store and all the big names requiring any store to stock like $100K worth of their stuff to be a dealer.. They finally decided to close their doors. Damn shame too, great store and the owners are good friends of mine. they had a ton of stuff there on consignement, so they were trying to get everyone to come in and get their stuff. So, one last time... I tell them "hey, if you can get in touch with the guy.. I'm still interested."

Well, I get a message the other day.. "If you still want the Ultra half stack, come get it!" They finally got in touch with the guy, who now lives in Costa Rica, BTW! LOL Anyway, the price was right so I'm the proud new owner of twinseys! I haven't had a chance to open it up yet and see if I can spot anything obviously wrong with it, but I've got a good amp guy that can figure it out if needed.

View attachment 145435

Hell ya!

 

[War_in_D]

With GC they could have tried it with a shit guitar …. Making the amp fine. ?

The guy that called me from the GC said that when it got returned, nobody there was brave enough to plug it in so they were just going to assume it didn't work. LOL

 

[War_in_D]

Update.. I was told that the amp had a squealing noise when warmed up. After checking the internals for any visible damage and finding none, I did the routine maintenance type stuff.. Cleaned the tube sockets (both power and preamp), cleaned all the pots and inputs/outputs and put a backup set of known good 6L6's in it and after about 2.5 hours with the power on (both with and without standby switch engaged) there is no sign of any squealing as of now.

I'm hoping it was just a bad power tube (had a mismatched quad, and two of them looked pretty bad), or maybe just needed a good cleaning of the sockets. This thing was pretty dirty. I'll mess around with it some more this weekend, but I think I may have dodged a bullet.

 

[Techdeth]

Run them together . One with mids one scooped . It sounds cool with same amp and works

 

[ErikT]

Stereo death!! Haha. Great score.

 

[War_in_D]

Popped the back plate off the Peavey 412MS cab today, and it's got a quad of Peavey 1290's in it. So, despite the difference in gasket colors they appear to be the stock speakers. Maybe a couple were replacements at some point. The cab sounds decent with the Utra Plus head, but I've got an 8 ohm set of Eminence MOW/Governors that came out of an old Splawn cab that I might throw in there to try out.

 

[311boogieman]

Love it.

Congrats man