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I'm a little surprised that no one has mentioned any Sovtek amps. I've picked up a Midget 50H off of ebay a few years ago. I didn't really know much about it aside from people recommending it, and saying "it sounds like a marshall/mesa amp". Paid probably close to $400 for the head (can't remember, but it was close). Single Channel Amp with the usual TMB tone stack thing going on, Gain and Master Volume and Presence. No FX loop. 4/8/16 ohm out, and a voltage switch so it can be used internationally(!!!) Really nice and simple amp really, and everything i've read about it boasts it's "mil-spec" construction cause the amps were apparently made from an old soviet military factory or some poo poo. Bads: - Plastic nuts on the jack like to break. I've replaced a few with beefier metal nuts i bought at a home improvement store. - It has two inputs for Hi/Low gain, but plugging into the high gain defeats the plug for the low gain (or does it work the other way? i can't remember cause i saw it from the schematics years ago) so you can't plug into both inputs and kinda use an A/B box to switch. Goods: - Low Input has amazing tone IMO. People tend to compare it to a Fender in sound. - Hi Input makes a crazy, hairy sounds distortion or tamer tones. - Seems to LOVE pedals, even without an FX loop. - Sturdy as hell in construction - BIG rear end TRANSFORMERS - LIKE SERIOUSLY, BIG I've used it in practices and gigs, people are surprised to see my little amp growl the way it does. I also lend it to a couple friends when ever they gig, they like to plug into Hi input and get a REALLY nice sounds out of it. I have it through an Avatar 212 cab i loaded with Carvin V30 clones i bought at closeout. I never thought about upgrading since. 
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Sep 25, 2010 19:58
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 15:07 |
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You'll probably be fine with a combo setup, since it doesn't look like jamming out or gigs are a priority right now. Though i dont know jack about bass amps 
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Sep 26, 2010 00:26
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If you wire it so each speaker has it's own lead then i guess so.
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Oct 12, 2010 00:47
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Declan MacManus posted:I used to have a Traynor 50 Blue. They stopped making that? I used to lust after those amps soooo much. a little research pulls up this. The Modern Sky fucked around with this message at 13:32 on Feb 9, 2012 |
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Feb 9, 2012 13:29
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I've never had a chance to play one, mostly because they weren't available at the shops i frequented at the time. If i really want to play one, there are some shops that carry them, but are a bit of a drive from me. I live in the suburbs by NYC, so selection would get more interesting the closer i venture to the city. I also have a habit of being happy with things i bought sight unseen.
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Feb 9, 2012 22:25
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So i just got this back. Powertubes went out and fried some parts, all better now. It's running some Svetlana 6L6s I'm not a big fan of, but I don't have the money for JJs at the moment. Now for some reason, the guy who dicked around with the amp found it necessary to rewire the inputs. Since getting it back I've noticed a really loud crackling sound when I bring the volume knob all the way down on my guitar and when I switch pickups. It only does this with the Low gain channel, the other works fine. I'm think it's a grounding issue, but I really know fuckall about electric circuits.
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Aug 24, 2013 16:14
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Declan MacManus posted:Try cleaning the pots first. If it was a grounding issue you'd probably be hearing the hum even with the pickups turned up. If you're handy with a soldering iron and know how to discharge capacitors then you can crack it open and make sure everything's all nice and clean but if not just take it to an amp tech. It's not some random crackling sound, it's a definite loud pop when I'm turning my guitar volume down from 2 to 0, so where no signal begins to come through or a momentary break in the circuit results in this noise. And only in the Low gain input. I'll have to try it on another guitar to see if it happens again. Also, I can't afford to retube it with tubes I want, sure as hell can't afford the bench fees to get an amp tech to look at it right now. I'd like an idea of what's the problem and the likelihood I'd get electrocuted. High gain input works perfectly tho. But discharging the caps sounds like a good lead: Some amp guitar site after some googling posted:Soft popping when switching pickups (happens most often when there is a preamp in the guitar). The Modern Sky fucked around with this message at 17:06 on Aug 24, 2013 |
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Aug 24, 2013 17:02
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A few months ago my amp blew it's fuses at the start of a gig, and I had to borrow some pa being used as an amp. Skip ahead a while and I finally take a look at my amp. Blown fuse and odd smell coming from the back. I think I blew the tubes too. poo poo. Fast forward, I left the band and finally set aside some time to look at it better. I also bought some new fuses and a set of JJ GC6L6s for it. I play it on the high channel and hear a cracking and popping. I look at the chassis, which I took out of the cabinet to make the tube swap easier, and I see the powertube flash white too. I turn it off, let the amp cool down, I check out what's happening with the low channel. No pops, no flash, but a sizzle comes in and fades out. So I'm kinda pissed since I spent a year without my amp while a guy took a look at it. He's not a super pro amp repair guy, but he's modded and maintained all the amps at the practice space I used to go to. But when I brought him my amp after the powertubes failed years ago, he replaced some resisters and he ended up loving around with the inputs on the amp. I can't remember if he said he had to to get to the board, but the amp was kinda weird ever since. Prone to some pops, especially when rolling back the volume and it suddenly cutting when i get to 0. I don't want to bring it back to him, but I don't want to pay $300 to have someone better fix it. tl;dr: My Sovtek Midget 50H is a headache sometimes.
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Feb 14, 2015 20:52
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I don't want to risk blowing my amp right now to get a vid. I will describe it as a loud sharp pop or crack when I'm playing on the HI Gain input, and a quiet crackling that fizzles out in the Low Input. The white sparks only appear when I'm playing through the high gain input.
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Feb 14, 2015 23:18
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It's random, except when I'm on the high gain, it seem to do it more often the harder i'm driving the tubes. It's only when the signal is coming through. I'm going to have to check the pins at some point. I think I know what you're describing with the flapping flag sound, and I'm going to say it kinda does.
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Feb 15, 2015 06:27
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no dad im not gay! posted:Try different power tubes. Just because they're new doesn't mean they're any good. Well, i found the original tubes they came to me with (just some sovtek 5881s). I swear, if those tubes i got aren't any good... I've got to check the pin connections still, i've had no time to pull the amp chassis out.
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Feb 24, 2015 09:44
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no dad im not gay! posted:It's common with new stock tubes, sadly. Either they're defective from the factory or from being knocked around in transit. If the 5881's in question were the ones that were in your amp when you the fuse blew I wouldn't use them. I'm sure your guy replaced the grid screen resistors after the power tubes failed in a spectacular fashion. Can't explain the input issue. no, the 5881s were in the amp when I bought it years ago, I only changed them out because I wanted a better sound. They should be in fine working order.
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Feb 25, 2015 03:30
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So I took the snow day to finally pull out my amp head and check the old 5881 tubes. I was actually quite surprised that they functioned fine, but I was not surprised to find they sound like hot garbage. Whatever. So i turn it off, wait for it to cool, swap back in those new tubes, and it's working perfectly. Or as perfectly as it was functioning before. No spark, no fizzle. Nice tone. Needs to be biased though. So my only complaint with this amp would be from the hack job done to the low input during it's last big repair. I have no idea why he pulled the jacks out so badly, he couldn't figure out how to get them back together afterwards. Now, whenever I use the low gain input and turn down my guitar, it has a horrible static sound that gets louder as I approach 0. Only when the volume knob on my guitar is turned. Both pickups. Two different guitars. Only the Low Gain input. I loved my clean sounds from this amp, and it kinda makes it harder to work with if it screams bloody murder when I turn it down.
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Mar 2, 2015 02:11
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hey everyone, i gotta question on biasing my tube amps. Plate Voltage is measured from Pin 3 on the output tubes of a 6L6 amp, with my other connection to ground, and from pin 8 i'd measure the mA that would be the bias I'd be setting. 1 ohm resistors are in there somewhere. Electrocuting myself is optional. I've got a gig ready MIG-50H, and another in need of adjustment, along with a EH MIG-50 that might have to be retubed. Is there anything else I should know before i proceed with this? I feel like there still something I'm not clear with but I cant tell what. I'm not looking to get a collection of amp specific tools for my multimeter, and I'm already aware my particular pair of amps likes to run really high plate voltages. I use JJ's 6L6GC exclusively.
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Dec 16, 2019 19:58
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Catastrophe posted:Amp Guts What's going on with those potentiometers? Are you able to bias those individually or something?
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Nov 9, 2020 19:32
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I didn't know that about them, but i did enjoy the charm of the Electric Amps website looking into this a little bit and how 1997 it still is, and how they clowned on Matamp UK before changing their name. Looks like I missed some drama. I mean look at this.
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Nov 10, 2020 00:06
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so, would anyone help me diagnose something? I have 2 Sovtek Mig-50Hs, one is a head I've had for years, and the subject of the question, the second is a backup I bought for a good deal, and will serve as a reference. My older Mig-50H had a problem since coming back from a repair some years ago where, when plug straight into a guitar, no pedals, it makes a lot of noise when I lower the volumes on my guitar on the clean channel. When I lower the volume on my guitar through pedals, there's no noise. This leads me to believe there's some problem with grounding which is taken care of when I play through my pedal boards. This happens with any guitar, only on the clean channel. Am i correct to assume this a problem with the ground somewhere in the input for the low channel? From what I can tell of the schematic, the high channel adds a gain stage at the start of the low channel, so the whole grounding issue is taken care of again. If there's any good news, the amp tech who fixed it after it blew a tube, some fuses, and a couple resistors, is out of business. I dont know why he thought it was a good idea to disassemble the inputs in the first place. I've looked at the two side by side, and it LOOKS right to my eye, but I'm not an amp tech, just someone with a soldering iron and enough curiosity.
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Nov 14, 2020 04:12
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 15:07 |
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Yep, that checks out for some reason there's a resistor in the schematic BEFORE the Low input that to my untrained eye looks like it would be doing that job. This in particular is my favorite kind of trouble shooting, figuring out what the last guy messed up. The amp never behaved this way, and my other one doesn't either, but there were many revisions of these amps while they were being made. Still it's weird it's making a scratchy pot sound when rolling my volume on my guitars. I have an old Mig-50 that makes a lot of buzzing that's effected by the Mid knob. I'll have to look into that too.
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Nov 14, 2020 18:57
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