NGD: Super Clean VIPER!!

[Dante]

Tomy - YES. I have hooked up my 1x12 Thiele cab and my 4x12 H&K cab to this little beast already. The thing about external speakers is, they don't get the Vericab voicing at all, just clean signal (to use the sound of the actual speaker cab). My Thiele was a bit bright (big magnet on that EV speaker), and my H&K 4x12 was pretty transparent, but not as loud as the Viper because the sound was distributed to four speakers instead of one.

I think I prefer the 4x12 cab.... I'm going to try using that without the Viper's internal speaker running.

[Dante]

BUMP: I took the Viper chassis out today to inspect the innards after I noticed the input jack is pretty floppy. I tightened the jack nut, but all that did was make it harder to put the plug in...still a bit wobbly when fully inserted. Pretty ingenious design really, the amp chassis just sits on a shelf in the back of the speaker cab. I shoulda taken pix, that would help you understand what I mean.

Anyway, as i suspected, the jacks are those 'boxed-in' kind that attach directly to a pcb. Awesome...nothing's easy sometimes.

So...while inside, I wanted to see what kind of tubes were in there, because they sound AMAZING. I don't want to change them, because they sound that good. First, they are not easy to change. You have to remove the little tiny reverb tank just to reach inside, and it's still not easy. I flashed my light in there, to get a good look at the print on the tubes - one is encased in a shield with a ground wire attached, so I'm trying to read the other one. It's got green writing, kinda Old English looking font...can't make it out....the writing is on the far side of the tube.

I end up taking the tube out, and I can honestly say that I don't have any of these tubes in any other amps, nor have I ever. The green print says: Baldwin Pianos and Organs

I take the ground shield off the other one and pull it out; yup, another Baldwin. Apparently, these organ tubes sound great in a Viper. I think Kim landed a box full of Baldwin tubes a while back.

[Kim]

Yeah that chassis design is a bit weird when you're used to seeing the normal rack preamp boards.  But it all seems to fit together and make sense somehow.

Baldwin tubes, huh.  Never heard of those.  Obviously rebranded; can you see if there is any of the original printing under that?  I had a bunch of Wurlitzer tubes that sounded great and were actually rebranded RCA tubes (made in USA circa 1960-63).   Remember there's very few actual tube factories in the world still in production.

[Dante]

WURLITZER. That's what it was. I knew you had some organ tubes....like a box full.

I would imagine that these organ companies would want quiet tubes, not high gains. If so, I might be trying some Tung Sols and possibly a GE. I know that this amp uses one tube for the 'clean' or GREEN channel and both tubes for the 'gain' or RED channel....like a gain stack. Gotta figure out which tube does what, I may be in the market for a tube cocktail. Like a Tung Sol for the cleans and a JJ or something for the stack.

For now though, I ain't fixin' what ain't broke. It sounds killer.

[Kim]

The Viper just isn't nearly as easy to do some tube-rollin' with as a rack unit. 

If anyone was to do some modding to the Viper (very debatable, as some would consider it a violation of a rare amp) I'd definitely suggest moving the tubes to the outside of the chassis to make it easy to swap tubes.  Hey I have a great idea how to accomplish that mod without defacing or devaluing the amp.....   >:D

[Dante]

Uh, I think I'll pass on that 'mod' and leave the tubes inside. 

Funny thing; the manual actually recommends replacing them every two years

[tomy]

Hi Dante,
I'll check what tubes are inside my viper next week when i'll Come back home. I think previous owner never change it before as they still sound great, I also remember they are pretty hard to change.

Hey Kim, I' d be OK to test your mod on my viper !
Let me know

Cheers
Tomy