BKP Abraxas set, AC30CC (with Mercury Magnetics O45RS-L OT upgrade), Muddy Water blues

Bare Knuckle Pickups Abraxas set in my 1990 Gibson Les Paul standard, played into a Vox AC30CC set fairly clean with the channels mixed to taste.

This is one of my customers' amps that came back in for a service - I upgraded it around two years ago with a Mercury Magnetics 045RS-L output transformer which has totally transformed the amp's tone. The owner has subsequently replaced one of the alnico blue speakers with a vintage G12H-30 (014 cone) which gives the amp's tone more depth in the bass end (its a nice mix actually).

I just ran through a few blues licks starting with the Muddy Water Blues riff and just jamming it from there - plenty of mistakes and ropey playing, but you get the idea of the tonal possibilities from the BKP Abraxas set and the AC30.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• HTH
• tube
• valve
• AC30
• AC30CC
• EL84
• class A
• BKP
• bare knuckle pickups abraxas
• abraxas
• point to point ptp hand wired
• Muddy Water Blues
• AC30 clean
• mercury magnetics
• 045RS-L
• 045RS
• radio spares OT

[Seeyahomies]

Do you remember, if he combined the speakers in serial or parallel?

[TeleCustom72]

@Seeyahomies: can't remember if the speakers were series or parallel, but they were in the stock configuration (whatever that happens to be).

[Seeyahomies]

@TeleCustom72 I believe it was in series. I just putted 1 blue alnico and 1 G12H30 in my AC30 6tb in series, and it sounds like a dream! Its a very, very nice mix!

[TeleCustom72]

@Seeyahomies That would be a nice combination I'd imagine, nice job dude.

[rw5791]

people say these x-formers are not true to the originals but I say the harmonic content cannot be denied.

MM radio spares..If lovin' them is wrong then I don't wanna be right.

[spentonmediocrity]

@TeleCustom72

I have my 1965 Univox U45b,the notes bloom and the amp sounds warmer than any new amp I've tried including boutiques,NO harshness anywhere whatsover with tone cranked(again,vintage alloy),just lacks punch when cranked due to puny OT size.MM offered to modify the winds on their Gibson equivalent and the service was stellar.I may take them up on it,10 watts is giggable when miced and i can always get the cranked amp tone,no worries being told to turn it down.

Thanks again.

[TeleCustom72]

@bootlegapples There is definitely something that MM do where all their OT's have a very musical top end - I can only put it down to the alloy in the laminations.

[bootlegapples]

@TeleCustom72

Hi,being a tone/timbre nut I must ask.

I noticed that modern amps generally have a harsher upper mid response than vintage amps (1960's and older) and the new Vox's are no different(Night Train comes to mind).

In your experience do the MM OT's smooth out these upper mid spikes?

MM claims to use vintage correct alloys and at least one transformer expert is on record stating that modern alloys create harsher upper mids (like I observed independently).

Your thoughts?

Thanks

[TeleCustom72]

@aaronettlin: Its a while back, but I seem to recall it was a drop-in replacement. However, there was a small amount of wood that needed chiselling away in the cab as the OT was bigger than the stock one in the AC30CC. Nothing that five minutes with a chisel didn't solve.