How does the quality of these guts look to you guys?

[Shreddy Mercury]

Hmm, with all of ya'll hating on these amps so much, I'd hate to post what the inside of my Red Bear looks like after I got in there and replaced the pots, all the sockets and converted from can style caps to axial caps that I had to mount on a piece of turret board.

But, maybe I should so you guys could point out if in my amateurism if I have a couple leads too close together or need to use some shrink wrap on some stuff I had to put in. At least I haven't fired it up yet lol

 

[s_swanson]

Hmm, with all of ya'll hating on these amps so much, I'd hate to post what the inside of my Red Bear looks like after I got in there and replaced the pots, all the sockets and converted from can style caps to axial caps that I had to mount on a piece of turret board.

But, maybe I should so you guys could point out if in my amateurism if I have a couple leads too close together or need to use some shrink wrap on some stuff I had to put in. At least I haven't fired it up yet lol

This guy is supposed to be a professional amp builder though. That soldering doesn't look like the work of a professional.

 

[BSRIAudio]

This amp looks a lot better than the one posted a week or two ago but I honestly don't see much in that picture that causes alarm. Every vintage Fender looks just as "messy" as that and they generally work fine. Gain is an additional factor when considering noise and lead dress but, as mentioned above, an amp doesn't have to be pretty to sound good. You just want to keep your crosstalk between leads minimal. Yes you could take 30 minutes and wire each of those toggles more neatly like in a SLO but it wouldn't effect the reliability or tone of the amp. It would just drive the price up. You'd give the armchair amp builders less to criticize though.

With regards to people posting their Marshall builds that are neater than the Blades amp, its extremely easy to copy that old design and make it look neat because every offboard lead joint is hidden underneath the board. Great fun when you're wiring up for the first time. Fucking miserable when you go to troubleshoot or repair the board. Working with all those hidden joints is a huge pain in the ass. One of the reasons I like Joyce-style Hiwatt wiring onto the sides of the turrets much better than the Marshall-style under board wiring. With all the joints up top on the Blades board its a lot faster and easier to see what is going on and get in to make a mod or repair if necessary. It doesn't look as pretty, but that doesn't matter in the grand scheme.

You could do plenty of little things to pretty up this build but I suspect this guy is more interested in getting to the part where he installs the cupholder in the headshell which is what we're all most excited about of course

 

[metalmaniac93]

The master himself!!! I would never buy one of his amps period!!!

 

[BSRIAudio]

LOL. That is ridiculous. Does he own a tattoo shop or did he just take the amp into the tattoo shop for a photo shoot?

 

[metalmaniac93]

LOL. That is ridiculous. Does he own a tattoo shop or did he just take the amp into the tattoo shop for a photo shoot?

Yes, he does own a tattoo shop.

 

[Bloodrock]

And his tats look sloppier than his amps....

 

[Racerxrated]

I've seen worse.

Now there is an awesome company slogan.

LOL! Exactly

Priceless!!

 

[Racerxrated]

Hmm, with all of ya'll hating on these amps so much, I'd hate to post what the inside of my Red Bear looks like after I got in there and replaced the pots, all the sockets and converted from can style caps to axial caps that I had to mount on a piece of turret board.

But, maybe I should so you guys could point out if in my amateurism if I have a couple leads too close together or need to use some shrink wrap on some stuff I had to put in. At least I haven't fired it up yet lol

This guy is supposed to be a professional amp builder though. That soldering doesn't look like the work of a professional.

Yup. You guys who aren't familiar with the whole saga, just google "Billy Blades" and take your time perusing his threads on metro/Marshall/gear page forums. After reading all that let us know what you think. I will admit that the tone sounds good, and if it were anyone else I would probably have considered trying one. But he's fn crazy, and when he goes out of his way to rip on people who haven't done a thing to him...at some point he even claims to have met Jose A ....he passed away when this clown was probably in grade school. And somewhere else he says he talks to Jose's ghost about tone....no shit. He probably does talk to imaginary friends though...

 

[Deanmachine]

The amps,persona and gut shots are uglier than hell..