Well, I said I would try to put up a demo of the EH 44 Magnum through the Lil' Buddy, my "sit in amp." I threw this together today. I had to cut parts of the audio where the recorder had not yet adjusted to the level change between my speaking and playing through the amp and it overloaded the recorder. Also, you should not judge the volumes against each other, just the way it sounds through the 4 mics.
Upon listening I noted that my random blues noodling was not particularly refined. This quick and dirty audio with photos took a while today and I am too lazy to redo it. I am not impressed with how I sound, but the focus is on the amp anyway.
No effects, noise gates, or anti feedback: just the mics to the EH 44 Magnum using an impedance matching transformer with the Ultimate 58 and 57. I did the demo in a small room at my home and was not able to turn up as much as on a stage due to feedback starting. I usually put the speaker 15-20 feet or 5 or 6 meters from where I stand on a stage. You can hear a little ringing with the 57. ----------
Very good. Now I'm running a VOx ac clean as similar configuration which is awesome (with 2 cabinets with lilbuddy), but an ehx44 as backup would be nice for me too. The main issue is the ehx44 impedance which is 8ohm minimum, so will drive only one of my cabs...
Last Edited by Dox on Feb 03, 2018 3:19 AM
Nice sound!Thank you for test. Will it sound loud enough with bigger cab (for example 2*10")? ---------- Konstantin Kolesnichenko(Ukraine) http://kolesnichenko-harmonica.com/
Many thanks for this dougharps, and I´m glad if I was one who pushed you a little bit towards this demo. I am seriously going to delve deeper into this solution, if not my present options turn out to be feasible. From what I hear, this is definitely enough grittiness to work in a blues context. Much appreciated.
@Martin, do not underestimate the cabinet! dougharps uses a cabinet with a lil buddy speaker which is an awesome speaker for blues and very harp friendly! I have 2 cabinet with this speaker and is awesome. With a different cabinet the sound can be a lot different.
The Lil' Buddy is 8 ohms and the EH44 Magnum needs 8 or 16 ohms, so you could put 2 - 8 ohm speakers in series (16 ohms). However, my understanding is that the 44 Magnum puts out more power at 8 ohms than at 16 ohms. I have never tried 2 in series.
The easiest solution is a 4 - 10" cab wired to be 8 ohms by mixing series and parallel wiring. You could also wire a 2 - 10" cab in series (16 ohms) linked in parallel to a separate 16 ohm speaker to equal a total 8 ohms. Or you could wire a cab with 2 -10" 8 ohm speakers in parallel (4 ohms) put in series with a 4 ohm speaker or cab. Or you could wire 2 - 16 ohm speakers in parallel. The Lil' Buddy is 8 ohms and it seems to work really well with harp when turned up. Other speakers each have their sounds, but some may not work as well with harp.
Carrying cabs with 3 or 4 speakers in combinations gets unwieldy. The whole point of this little amp in my opinion is light weight for easy load in or as a backup for your tube amp.
If I wanted to move more air with the 44 Magnum amp I would probably use my 12" Cannabis Rex cab. It is a small cab and not too heavy, but not as small and light as the one in the video. The CRex sounded a little brighter in my home when I tried it, but pretty loud and still good. Sometime I will give it a try in a club to see if I can get more volume with it than the 10" Lil' Buddy.
When I used the 44/Lil' Buddy with Kilborn Alley it was in a club of a size that was approved for around 100 people. It was audible throughout the club. I tilted it back and bounced the sound off the ceiling to avoid beaming it at someone.
One last point: all the mics I used have volume controls that I adjusted to get volume just short of feedback at the 11 o'clock setting on the 44 Magnum. On a larger stage I would have turned the amp up a little more (1 o'clock is about the limit) and then used the volume control to get it in the zone. Amp and mic volumes can be tweaked interactively to maximize stage volume.
Occasionally I have flipped to the bright setting if a harp is not cutting in the mix. ----------
Doug S.
Last Edited by dougharps on Feb 03, 2018 7:53 AM
24vdc. I built a 12vdc portable amp using a 12v sealed battery, a 60W audio amp and 2 Alnico 6x9's out of a donor organ. Another 12v battery in series would give me the 24 and the Magnum is built for musical instruments. I'm interested. I'd probably have the 1st one on the block.
