VHT Special 6 Combo Owner's Club

[tjnugent]

A couple of the knobs on my Special 6 are like that, but it doesn't effect the way it works or sounds, so I just overlook it as part of mass production. The amp itself at that price point is amazing, to say the least. I have gone through my tone stack and replaced all the caps and resistors with more expensive parts. It improved the quality of the sound, so do changing stock tubes with premium tubes. I look at these amps as an opportunity to mod the crude out of them to make the amp more like I like... Great platform for that sort of thing.

TJ

[crazyivan]

Originally Posted by tjnugent

A couple of the knobs on my Special 6 are like that, but it doesn't effect the way it works or sounds...

TJ

You said its kind of normal to some pots turn harder thane other on that amp... You have the same "problem"? If it is a common thing I can live with that...

[yonie]

With mine the volume pot is also way lighter to turn. I guess it has to do with the pot being a special push/pull pot next to normal turning.

[crazyivan]

Originally Posted by yonie

With mine the volume pot is also way lighter to turn. I guess it has to do with the pot being a special push/pull pot next to normal turning.

Huh, now I can live with that :))

How long you have it?

[Jupiter]

Originally Posted by yonie

With mine the volume pot is also way lighter to turn. I guess it has to do with the pot being a special push/pull pot next to normal turning.

Mine's the same. I've had it for a couple months and I never even noticed it until I read this thread. It's no problem at all.

[sirbergersworth]

Originally Posted by crazyivan

I just buy my Special 6 combo... great sounding amp! my volume pot is looser (easier to turn) than the tone pot... is this common?

Sorry on my bad english :)

My tone pot is harder to turn as well.

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[sirbergersworth]

I had my S6 combo hooked up to a vintage 15" Jensen C15-N. The speaker is in an old closed back, front ported guitar combo amp (Sound X-305R).
S6 sounded awesome.... as I expected it would.
I was thinking about having a buddy break a new chassis for the x-305r and handwired a deluxe reverb clone in it. Now ,I may make the deluxe a head and convert the combo to a cab only.

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[gwjensen]

Anyone have any experience with the CLASSIC 6. Same wattage, but 12" speaker, no half-power switch, no speaker out. curious how it compares tonally.

[tjnugent]

GWJensen, If I had to guess it is the same amp as the Special 6. The Special 6 and the Classic 6 share the same controls... I do believe. It has one less gain stage than the Ultra, and no power scaling or FX Loop. But, it has that amazing low wattage tone. I think the Special 6 Ultra tickles the high gain heads and was obviously a wise move. VHT has sold a ton of them. Three cheers for VHT.. I hope they are around for a long time. The products they make are well engineered and the designer really listens to the market and connects to the players better than I have seen it in many amp companies.

TJ

[gwjensen]

Originally Posted by Chicago Slim

I'm glad it worked for you. The Legend 105 makes the Special 6 combo sound twice it's size.

I kind of collect 10" combo's, and have a good choice of speakers. Speakers that sounded good in other amps, or even like the 105 in other amps, didn't work. But in the Special 6, the Legend 105 is magic.

I like the stock speaker, but now I'm going to have to try the Legend. Thanks for talking me into yet another piece of gear

[gwjensen]

Originally Posted by srolfeca

I'm not surprised by either response.

My feeling about the Chromeback, was that it was too...

...something? Tubby? In the bass, but also rather harsh up top, and that the breakup behavior was too sudden. Not terrible, just not as good as this amp deserves.

My favourite so far is the Weber sig 10 Ceramic, but even the little OEM Celestion that comes in the AC4TV sounds better to me than the Cromeback, and I hated that speaker in the Vox...

What you like best is going to depend on what tone you're after, and whether you bought the S6 mostly for the BF side of its personality, or the tweedy thing.

Something to think about: amps with a single tone control tend to be picky about speakers, since you have no way to adjust the treble and bass independent of each other.

The best thing I did to my S6, better than tube swaps or speaker changes, was adding external treble and bass pots to the BF tone stack that's hidden inside the circuit. It makes the amp much, much more flexible. Had I done that first, I'm not sure I would have even bothered with a speaker swap.

I think an EQ pedal is essential for these single tone amps. I get a lot of different tones out of the stock speaker with my GE-7.

[dean]

So, it's come to this . . . . Over the years, I have owned a ton of amps - tweeds, blackfaces, reverbs, brownfaces (just sold a '63 Princeton), boutiques (Savage Macht 6 - the best), solid states, heads, cabs, combos - I even once owned a Fender Super Six Reverb that also served as a room divider (if you haven't seen that one, look it up - it's something else). But those are all gone, and I'm sitting here with a Special 6, trying to sort it out.

I am going to lay all the blame for owning this amp on those of you who have posted on this thread - you are all guilty of forcing me to buy one of these! I know they've been around for a couple years, now, so I figured the early users would have some decent advice. To that end, I've already started doing the basic alterations to the amp. Here are a few of the things I've noticed and some of the changes I'll make.

• Straight out of the box, the amp sounded decent, but I was surprised at the lack of power - then I remembered it had a Pull Boost, and that changed everything. As you all have mentioned, this thing can get pretty loud. But I like the way it can be manipulated.
• The sound was a bit muddy or muffled, and I attributed that to the new speaker and the stock tubes. I'll play it awhile with the stock speaker, but the tubes will be replaced with some I've got on order.
• After running the amp for about a half hour, I found that plucking the low E string on my Tele was creating some very harsh breakup and distortion through the amp - totally unusable! Today when I re-tried the amp, the problem was gone - until the amp had warmed up for about 15 minutes. Then, the distortion returned. It likely is the tubes, so we'll see if that issue is resolved when I swap in some decent glass. The problem could also be exacerbated by the speaker..
• I remembered that I had homebuilt 10" speaker cab in the basement, but wasn't sure if it was loaded or not. Turns out there was an old 10" Mojotone 8 ohm speaker in it, so I tried that out. It gave the amp a much more focused and articulate sound - much improved to my ears! I have my eye on a couple of the recommendations by the posters here (Weber Sig 10 and Emi Legend 105), but if the Mojo speaker holds up, I'll wait on one of those.
• I was surprised at how chimey the amp was - not what I'm used to, but not really unpleasant at all. I can see where some of you recommend going without pedals. When I get my swaps in place, I'll try running my Hall of Fame Reverb through the amp to see what we have. Plus, I think the different speaker and tubes will alter the initial sound of the amp - we'll see.
• I partially opened up the cabinet to get to the tubes and take a look at the speaker, and I decided to remove the wire screen for the sake of convenience. If I decide to do any internal mods, I'll have to drop the chassis, but for now, your pictures will take care of my curiosity. I thought the construction was quite nice for such an inexpensive amp.

So far, there have been no surprises - just about everything that's been written here is spot on as far as what I should have expected. I'm looking forward to trying my Strat through this amp, and when I get my '59 Guild T-100 project finished, we'll really see if this amp will be a great fit. I do like how responsive it is to the controls on my guitar - I can do a lot of tone-shaping with just the volume and tone controls on the Tele. So far, the potential is there - this is a platform that has all sorts of possibilities!

Thank you all for the great info you've provided, so far, but remember, I'm still holding you all responsible for any additional GAS that I might incur relating to this amp. I'm looking forward to getting the Special 6 sorted out, so keep the ideas coming!

Dean

[sirbergersworth]

Originally Posted by srolfeca

The best thing I did to my S6, better than tube swaps or speaker changes, was adding external treble and bass pots to the BF tone stack that's hidden inside the circuit. It makes the amp much, much more flexible. Had I done that first, I'm not sure I would have even bothered with a speaker swap.

Is the process of adding a bass and treble pot documented? I would love to do this mod.
Does the tone pot become a mid control?

Any technical direction would be appreciated greatly.

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[srolfeca]

Originally Posted by sirbergersworth

Is the process of adding a bass and treble pot documented? I would love to do this mod.
Does the tone pot become a mid control?

If you search the this thread, I believe you'll find the deets.

The tone control doesn't change, although I suppose you could do that if you wanted. The thing is, having the tweed tone control after the BF bass and treble controls, actually works quite nicely: The bass and treble shape the bass/mid/treble balance to suit the speaker and/or your guitar (lowering the bass a little does wonders for humbuckers through the S6). With that balance set, the tone control works as a slope control, to tweak the overall brightness.

BTW, if you wanted a mid control, it's just a matter of replacing one more resistor with a pot. The only reason I didn't do it, was a.) the chassis is pretty crowded already, and b.) I liked how it sounded with just B/T. Don't forget, when you want more mids, there's always the boost control...

[sirbergersworth]

Originally Posted by srolfeca

If you search the this thread, I believe you'll find the deets.

The tone control doesn't change, although I suppose you could do that if you wanted. The thing is, having the tweed tone control after the BF bass and treble controls, actually works quite nicely: The bass and treble shape the bass/mid/treble balance to suit the speaker and/or your guitar (lowering the bass a little does wonders for humbuckers through the S6). With that balance set, the tone control works as a slope control, to tweak the overall brightness.

BTW, if you wanted a mid control, it's just a matter of replacing one more resistor with a pot. The only reason I didn't do it, was a.) the chassis is pretty crowded already, and b.) I liked how it sounded with just B/T. Don't forget, when you want more mids, there's always the boost control...

Thanks. I will do a search.

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[sirbergersworth]

Originally Posted by srolfeca

If you search the this thread, I believe you'll find the deets.

The tone control doesn't change, although I suppose you could do that if you wanted. The thing is, having the tweed tone control after the BF bass and treble controls, actually works quite nicely: The bass and treble shape the bass/mid/treble balance to suit the speaker and/or your guitar (lowering the bass a little does wonders for humbuckers through the S6). With that balance set, the tone control works as a slope control, to tweak the overall brightness.

BTW, if you wanted a mid control, it's just a matter of replacing one more resistor with a pot. The only reason I didn't do it, was a.) the chassis is pretty crowded already, and b.) I liked how it sounded with just B/T. Don't forget, when you want more mids, there's always the boost control...

Do you think it is in this thread or the S6 mod thread?

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[gwjensen]

I currently have a JJ 6v6 and 12ax7 tubes. Any recommendations for a change? Interested in current production tubes, not expensive NOS. Thanks

[tjnugent]

I tried a lot of tubes with the Special 6 Ultra and what I liked best was the 5881 power tube. It had the umf of an EL34, but was a we bit more compressed and a lot more tonally balanced. Very smooth sounding combination.

TJ

[sirbergersworth]

Originally Posted by gwjensen

I currently have a JJ 6v6 and 12ax7 tubes. Any recommendations for a change? Interested in current production tubes, not expensive NOS. Thanks

I really enjoy my tung sol 6v6 and the JanPhillips 5751. I also really like the svet 12AX7 I have as well.

[gwjensen]

Originally Posted by tjnugent

I tried a lot of tubes with the Special 6 Ultra and what I liked best was the 5881 power tube. It had the umf of an EL34, but was a we bit more compressed and a lot more tonally balanced. Very smooth sounding combination.

TJ

Thanks, TJ. I would have to remove the speaker as the combo won't fit a larger tube. I'm actually looking for other 6v6 alternatives if you have any thoughts on that.