1960 Deluxe VS 1959 Harvard - A Fender Tweed Comparison - Ask Zac 90

well hello friends and welcome to
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another Ask Zac today we are going to
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compare
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a 1960 tweed deluxe to a 1959
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tweed Harvard both classic fender amps
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from the same
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late 50s era with very you know
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they're similar yet different
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they have differences in speaker size
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different in cabinet size
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difference in uh the type of power tube
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biasing whether it's cathode on the
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deluxe or
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fixed on the Harvard they uh yeah they
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have some really interesting differences
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so we're going to talk about that
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where they kind of placed in the fender
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lineup from the
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lowly champ all the way up to the tweed
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twin
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and you know I'm going to play them and
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I'm going to play them you know
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cranked up I'm going to play them clean
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and play them everywhere in between
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using my 57 esquire with an added
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vintage mid 50s neck pickup and
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no pedals underfoot just a uh a b
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switch and yeah that's gonna be it
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so thanks all right let's dive in
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i guess let's start with the
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uh you know kind of the the amp lineup
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of the late
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50s so the bottom of the rung amp
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was the champ and it had you know a
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little
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you know had a little six or eight inch
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speaker and it had
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uh had just a single output tube and
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just a volume knob
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okay then the step up from that was the
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Princeton the Princeton had the
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you know had an eight-inch speaker and
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it had the addition
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of a tone control but it was still a
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single output too
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basically nearly the same amp but of
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course Princeton had a bigger cab
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then you get the big jump from the
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Princeton to the Harvard
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now do you get the names because they
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were student model amps prints in
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Harvard
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and the fact they made the Harvard the
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better amp i thought that was
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interesting
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so there are the Harvard was the first
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amp in the lineup going from bottom to
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top that had two output tubes so this
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has two six v6s in it
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and what that does of course it allows
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it to have more wattage it also gives it
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a wider sound and a little bit more
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yeah single-ended amp or amps with only
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one output to just tend to be more a
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little bit more low-phi sounding
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so the Harvard was the first you know
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step up
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up into the double output tube and then
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once you got above the Harvard that was
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the vibrolux and the vibrolux was
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basically the same
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amp as a Harvard except it had the
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addition
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of tremolo and uh that
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nessa uh made it necessary for it to
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have one
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tube difference this has a really
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strange uh
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you know first position uh preamp tube
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that
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is a 6at6 and
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it's basically half of a 12x7 and then
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on the vibralux they had to use a 12x7
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or 12ay7 and they had to use that so
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that they had the other half
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to uh to operate the the tremolo so
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also the vibralux had a bigger cab okay
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but still basically same amp same sound
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to a degree then you jump up from the
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vibralux to this amp to
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the deluxe so of course you get a bigger
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cab
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you get a little more power even though
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those these amps have the same iron in
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them they have the
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the same you know output transformer and
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such
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but uh i guess they put a little more uh
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juice to the the tubes and such
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in the in the deluxe and so you get a
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little more power
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and you also get the addition of a uh
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a second volume control because it has
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two channels so it has a mic
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channel and it has an instrument channel
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so it has a volume control for each and
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a overall master tone control
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while the Harvard has three inputs
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but they're all to the same channel and
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they're just padded as you go from one
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to three so one is full gain
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two is padded sum and three is padded
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more and then it just has a volume
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and tone control so of course you have
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the difference in cab size
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deluxe is bigger you have a difference
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in speaker the Harvard has a p10r
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Jensen and the the deluxe
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had the p12r so you have a 12 inch
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speaker
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and but still very low wattage um
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probably one of the biggest differences
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in the in the sound is actually the way
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that the
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the tubes are the power tubes are biased
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and that
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the the tweed deluxe is cathode biased
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and the Harvard is fixed bias
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what that does tone wise is
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cathode bias will tend to go into
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overdrive
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a little quicker and a little smoother
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also will tend to be more compressed
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and it will tend to be a little looser
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in the base
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of course the opposite is true for fixed
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bias it will be a little more abrupt
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as it goes into overdrive into
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distortion
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it will have tighter base and it will be
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more percussive
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and less compressed so
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that's kind of the lineup so then i
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guess if you were to continue on up the
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lineup from the deluxe
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would be the tremolox and the tremolo x
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had uh
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especially the late 50s tremolox was a
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really cool amp
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it uh it had a big box you know much
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bigger than this
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still had the 12 inch speaker and had
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tremolo and it was
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fixed bias instead of cathode biased and
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it's
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really a neat amp and then you know from
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there you go up to like the
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the 210 super which is a monster of an
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amp
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and then you get into what most guys
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would seem
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you know what would have been seen as
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the professional amps
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the actual gigging amps which would be
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like the pro with a single 15
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the 310 band master or the 410 basement
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or you know the top of the heap which
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was the uh the high powered tweed twin
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of 59 and 60.
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so that was kind of the uh you know the
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the
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the fender lineup of of amps
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and uh yeah so i thought it was neat to
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have these two
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that are kind of close in the lineup
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there's only like i said the only amp
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that's kind of between these is the
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vibrolux which is the same amp as the
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Harvard except it has a
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tremolo on it it's always confusing how
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fender used the word vibrato
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when they were actually talking about
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tremolo but that's a
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that's another story so here let's just
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let's just hear it
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so i think we'll uh we'll start with the
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the Harvard
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and uh and we'll just kind of go back
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and forth play like some neck pickup
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stuff and some bridge pickup stuff
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and then i will start turning the amps
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up so right now
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they're set at five or below
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and uh yeah i think the the
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the deluxe is set at four with the tone
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about six o'clock or no at six
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and the uh the Harvard i think the uh
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the volume's around five and the uh the
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tone looks like it's around five
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or so so let's hear it we're going to
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hear the Harvard first
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on the neck pickup on the ole esquire
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okay so just from playing that big e
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chord
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you can hear you know the beginning of
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the difference
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how this amp has a wider frequency range
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and it's a little more open in the
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mid-range
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and the Harvard over there has
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it said it's tighter it's not as wide
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frequency
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range wise and it's more focused
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sounding so of course the Harvard is
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most famous for being
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you know the amp that Steve cropper used
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on all the early stacks
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stuff and of course later on he switched
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to super reverb
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but uh that's most the stack stuff pre
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66
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is the Harvard the tweed deluxe has you
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know because it was
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uh a much more popular amp and there
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were
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many more sold uh the tweed deluxe has
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you know so many users whether it's you
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know Larry Carlton
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on steely Dan stuff or you know the
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eagles like
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joe Walsh and and don felder using them
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you know famously on you know on eagle
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stuff
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and all sorts of things in between these
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are both you know really
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classic amps i think also ace freely uh
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apparently used a harvard a bunch on on
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kiss stuff
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so i thought that was uh interesting so
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yeah because
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a les Paul into that Harvard which uh
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when i interviewed Greg martin he uh he
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used my Harvard and he had his uh
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real 58 uh you know sunburst that he uh
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he played on that true tone lounge that
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i did and that that was a lot of fun
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all right let's uh let's go to the
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bridge pickup
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uh we're still let's see this is the
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deluxe first
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[Music]
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[Music]
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of course i landed on the Harvard and
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again you know i was playing repetitive
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stuff just
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and going back and forth so you could
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hear open mid range
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you know wider frequency range and then
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the more focused sound
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i both amps are great but frankly i hear
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more people talk about how the Harvard
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you know really does well in the studio
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because it is a smaller sound so
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all right let's uh
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let's crank it up some so you can hear
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you know what these things sound like
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distorted
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so let's turn this up to like
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nine we're gonna
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yeah set this up to about 10. okay so
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now you're going to hear
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how the amps overdrive and we're
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starting with the Harvard
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and you're going to hear the yeah
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just the way that they'll compress and
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the way they'll act when
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when cranked up let's see
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[Music]
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[Music]
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so
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[Music]
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[Music]
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[Music]
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very you know still in the same family
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they're brothers but they are they're
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they're very different
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uh you know let's see
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that was a Harvard
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[Music]
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let's turn this up a little bit more
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let's make a little more fair
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so now we've got the the deluxe on on 10
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i think the Harvard was a little louder
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[Music]
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Harvard now
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all right i think uh
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both really cool amps both you know they
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they have different you know kind of
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strengths and and weaknesses uh
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i will say that at the end of the day as
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much as i appreciate the deluxe
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i i like the Harvard a little bit more
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uh
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because it tends to stay a little uh
14:07
a little tighter in the base
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now the uh the deluxe let's see which
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I'm gonna switch to now
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[Music]
14:36
i don't know yeah they're both really
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cool they're both really really great
14:39
amps but yeah you're hearing
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the difference between cathode biased
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and fixed bias you're hearing the
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difference between
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a bigger cab versus a smaller cab a p
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you know 12 r versus a p 10 r
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and yeah but both both really cool amps
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and both uh
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you know really uh really fun vintage
15:03
amps
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i have to say something uh so so this uh
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deluxe i borrowed from Dan strain
15:09
and i brought it you know to the house
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here and and i compared it against my
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Harvard and i thought my
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Harvard sounded terrible so
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then i remembered that a couple months
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ago that this company
15:22
called audio tubes direct they said hey
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we really want to support the show and
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this was you know before i had really
15:29
set up much
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and they said can we send you some tubes
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for one of your amps and i said yeah i
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would i would love some new tubes you
15:36
know for my Harvard
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so they gave me all the tubes except for
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the 686 which of course they don't make
15:40
so i just found one off
15:42
eBay but they gave me a pair of six v6s
15:44
which i like the tongue saw reissues
15:47
so they gave me a pair of these and a a
15:50
mullered
15:51
reissue you know preamp tube and then a
15:54
you know a i think it's a softec
15:58
uh 5y3 rectifier and i put all those in
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the amp and i had some old
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you know rca tubes in it and wow it
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really woke up the amp
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and because i was about to not do this
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video because
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frankly my Harvard it sounded so bad
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that i was i was about ready to you know
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start talking to Dan and say
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hey can i sell one of my children to get
16:20
your uh you know get your tweet deluxe
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from you
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but uh so thank you to audio tubes
16:26
direct
16:26
uh for the tubes for supporting the show
16:28
that way that made a big difference it
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made this uh
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video possible so thanks those guys
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well i hope you enjoyed uh the video and
16:37
uh
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yeah and uh you know because again you
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know even i don't get that many times
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where i can compare
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you know to you know vintage amps that
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are you know from the same you know just
16:47
a year apart and
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and such that it was really fun for me
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and i hope it was for you too
16:51
all right guys thanks a lot bye-bye