- Joined
- May 19, 2011
- Messages
- 409
- Reaction score
- 193
Alright folks....had my Retro Rockitt for a couple weeks now and have had a chance to really spend some time and learn a lot. First, Kevin is SUCH a great guy and his communication is incredible. You hear a lot on forums about some boutique builders who basically shut down the communication lines once they have your $$ - not Kevin. He is quick on email and gives you his cell if you have any questions. The amp (#82) arrived exactly when he said it would, taking about 3 weeks, though Fedex screwed up the delivery by a day. Kevin, without me even asking, called them and got me a partial shipping refund for the snafu!
The amp build quality is awesome, the parts are all great. As I have mentioned before, I don't know how Kevin is making money on this but I applaud him for making handwired Marshall goodness available to those of us who can't (or do not want to) drop 3-4k on an amp.
As for the amp - AWESOME crunch tones, AC/DC all the way. I put my good vintage tubes in there and it killed the harsh high end that comes with EH new production tubes (in my opinion). Right off the bat I noticed the tone controls are more responsive/have a better taper than the ones on my Metro kit JTM45. Not sure if this is a function of the circuit or just Kevin using a different brand of pots (Metro has Alphas). I also noticed that the Normal channel is darker than the normal channel of my JTM45, which surprised me....anyone else who has both amps notice this?
The LarMar on the 1987 circuit seems to work better than on the JTM45...the JTM45 gets fizzier while the 1987 doesn't seem to get as fizzy. However, the 50 watts was SO MUCH louder than my JTM45! I wasn't expecting 12 Watts to make that much difference. I couldn't open it up without the volume crushing me...and until my man-garage is finished my wife will not tolerate those volumes. So I installed some new production JJ 6V6s in there (they can handle the voltage). I biased properly and adjusted the ohm output of the amp to be half that of the cabinet....it sounds AWESOME and the volume is loud but perfect. I know some people will cringe at the thought of anything other than EL34s in a Plexi, but I would rather have 6V6s and not choke the tone versus EL34s and have the LarMar turned to 50%...at least until the garage is done.
I know some people have a problem with Kevin charging so little for these amps...but it is a free market. And he isn't the first one to copy a Marshall circuit. Suhr charges 4k for essentially the same circuit (and there is nothing wrong with that either). I bet Kevin would use PEC pots if you asked! So there's my two cents...if you want a hand wired 1987 done just like they did in 1968 look no further than Rockitt Retro. Sorry for the long-winded post. Here are the glorious guts...I was draining filter caps.
The amp build quality is awesome, the parts are all great. As I have mentioned before, I don't know how Kevin is making money on this but I applaud him for making handwired Marshall goodness available to those of us who can't (or do not want to) drop 3-4k on an amp.
As for the amp - AWESOME crunch tones, AC/DC all the way. I put my good vintage tubes in there and it killed the harsh high end that comes with EH new production tubes (in my opinion). Right off the bat I noticed the tone controls are more responsive/have a better taper than the ones on my Metro kit JTM45. Not sure if this is a function of the circuit or just Kevin using a different brand of pots (Metro has Alphas). I also noticed that the Normal channel is darker than the normal channel of my JTM45, which surprised me....anyone else who has both amps notice this?
The LarMar on the 1987 circuit seems to work better than on the JTM45...the JTM45 gets fizzier while the 1987 doesn't seem to get as fizzy. However, the 50 watts was SO MUCH louder than my JTM45! I wasn't expecting 12 Watts to make that much difference. I couldn't open it up without the volume crushing me...and until my man-garage is finished my wife will not tolerate those volumes. So I installed some new production JJ 6V6s in there (they can handle the voltage). I biased properly and adjusted the ohm output of the amp to be half that of the cabinet....it sounds AWESOME and the volume is loud but perfect. I know some people will cringe at the thought of anything other than EL34s in a Plexi, but I would rather have 6V6s and not choke the tone versus EL34s and have the LarMar turned to 50%...at least until the garage is done.
I know some people have a problem with Kevin charging so little for these amps...but it is a free market. And he isn't the first one to copy a Marshall circuit. Suhr charges 4k for essentially the same circuit (and there is nothing wrong with that either). I bet Kevin would use PEC pots if you asked! So there's my two cents...if you want a hand wired 1987 done just like they did in 1968 look no further than Rockitt Retro. Sorry for the long-winded post. Here are the glorious guts...I was draining filter caps.
