by almano » Thu Jul 15, 2010 5:51 pm
Hi Amanda
Yes, I agree – it does look like the EZ81 is in the wrong place. The logical placement would, or should, be next to the mains tranny – if only in order to keep induced hum down (although, being the output bottles, any pick up of mains hum would be minute) – but with this chassis, the EL84’s are actually correctly sitting right up against the mains Tx as far as the wiring goes. It’s certainly not what would be expected as you say, it does indeed actually look wrong.
Presumably this is something they would have changed to a more logical arrangement with later updates of the AC15 – it would make rather more technical sense I think.
It’s all like one of those strange illogical things such as the signal or speaker cables apparently changing the sound of anything. Technically there is no real reason that they should have any particular influence over the sound. Alright you could say the inductance, capacitance, resistance or even microphony of a cable or wire may have a marginal difference somewhere along the line – but, in a technical sense, the difference is fairly marginal. But, something certainly does exist – I’m sure we must all have noticed the difference in sound with changing the guitar to amp cable to a different one. It is only a cable after all, but it actually does, and can, sound different for some odd reason.
Therefore, could this strange valve arrangement you’ve picked up on Amanda have any influence over the ultimate sound from this early version AC15?
It would be really interesting to know if it has. Perhaps if some enterprising manufacturer was to experiment with these odd wiring arrangements, we could actually end up with the definitive 1959 sounding Hank amp – let’s keep our fingers crossed and hope! – or is it all just wishful thinking somehow? - oh well, I can dream at least!
Cheers,
Alan.