New Amp Day - David Grissom DG 30

[Tahlee]

I am willing to admit that I may have a problem. I am addicted to tube amplifiers. At this point, I’m not ready to seek help for it. I am embracing it.

 

[Tahlee]

 

[goat-n-gitter]

Sweet! Looking forward to the tone report.

 

[watelessness]

word!

 

[Alnus Rubra]

Congratulations, that is going to be so much fun!

 

[sergiodeblanc]

Bangin’! I hope you enjoy it as much or more than I did.

 

[veinbuster]

Bangin’! I hope you enjoy it as much or more than I did.

He can do better than that.
It was only worth a blue guitar to you.

Cook those tubes Tahlee.

 

[sergiodeblanc]

He can do better than that.
It was only worth a blue guitar to you.

Cook those tubes Tahlee.

I did say “or more”.

 

[bodia]

Aw yeah!

 

[dmatthews]

That's killer, congrats!

 

[Tahlee]

Thanks, guys. I’m really happy with it.

I almost bought one back in 2015 but I bought the PRS 25th Anniversary head instead since it was limited and I knew that I could get a DG 30 in the future. I mentioned on a thread that I wanted one of these heads some day.

Sergio told me that he has a DG 30 so when some day comes to keep him in mind. I know that he loves Santanas. I have two but I had forgotten that I really don’t like having 24 frets. So, I offered him a trade: my Santana 3 for this head, and he reluctantly accepted. I say reluctantly because the guitar is teal and falls in the category of “blue guitars”.

When the head arrived, I marveled at how much effort Sergio put into safely packing it. He invested some time and really went the extra mile. The head was in a padded cover and in a box. Then that box was inside a larger box with cut to fit styrofoam surrounding it. Each tube was pulled and wrapped in bubble wrap. And, he included a tube diagram so that I would know where they went. Oh, and he gave me a fancy electrical cord for it. One of those expensive ones. If you ever have the opportunity to buy from or trade with Sergio you will not be disappointed.

 

[Tahlee]

I am going to buy the David Grissom cabinet, but until I do I am running it into a Gibson open backed cabinet with two 10” speakers and two 12” speakers.
I bought that Gibson Super Goldtone half stack 16 years ago.

 

[RickP]

Awesome! I can’t wait to hear your take one it, and the Grissom cabinet too. I had an old Gibson combo many years ago the had two different sized speakers in it. They like that sort of thing!

As you have a 25th/HXDA, I’m looking forward to your review on how they compare.

Edit: Just noticed those are EL84s in there. That a whole new world, too. Really curious now!

 

[Tahlee]

Awesome! I can’t wait to hear your take one it, and the Grissom cabinet too. I had an old Gibson combo many years ago the had two different sized speakers in it. They like that sort of thing!

As you have a 25th/HXDA, I’m looking forward to your review on how they compare.

Hi Rick. I haven’t had enough time with it to fully explore it, but my first impression is that it’s a different animal altogether. The Reverb makes the clean settings more lush and I find EL84’s to have a cleaner clean sound than EL34’s.

So, my first impression is that my 25th Anniversary (almost an HX/DA) is all Marshall all the time, whereas I feel like the DG 30 has prettier cleans. My immediate thought was that this could be an amazing amp for my pedals. Just a beautiful clean sound for me to build upon.

Again, I haven’t given it much love yet, so I’m sure there is much more to it. I have a feeling that she also likes to get dirty.

Here is my 25th Anniversary and the DG 30, on a little bench until I get the cabinet. The bench matches my plywood floor.

 

[Tahlee]

The diagram says JJ above the pre-amp tubes, so I think that’s the brand they used. Mine has Brimar 12AX7s and the 12AT7 for the Reverb is a made in USA JAN Philps tube.

 

[RickP]

The diagram says JJ above the pre-amp tubes, so I think that’s the brand they used. Mine has Brimar 12AX7s and the 12AT7 for the Reverb is a made in USA JAN Philps tube.

SOLID improvement in tubes and tone. Someb-ergio invested in a really nice upgrade!

 

[andy474x]

The diagram says JJ above the pre-amp tubes, so I think that’s the brand they used. Mine has Brimar 12AX7s and the 12AT7 for the Reverb is a made in USA JAN Philps tube.

I think there were some that came loaded with Brimars, kind of a limited edition thing. Or maybe Sergio just put them in later. Either way, solid acquisition!

 

[sergiodeblanc]

SOLID improvement in tubes and tone. Someb-ergio invested in a really nice upgrade!

I think there were some that came loaded with Brimars, kind of a limited edition thing. Or maybe Sergio just put them in later. Either way, solid acquisition!

I never opened it up until I had to ship it off, so it wasn’t me that bought tubes.

I got it from @Rider1260, who got it from Bodia, and it was actually Bodia that bought all the fancy pants stuff for it ie: cover and cable.

 

[RickP]

I never opened it up until I had to ship it off, so it wasn’t me that bought tubes.

I got it from @Rider1260, who got it from Bodia, and it was actually Bodia that bought all the fancy pants stuff for it ie: cover and cable.

Ahhhh! And I bet he did the tubage. Whoever did it did a good thing!

There might have been some limited editions, but all the charts and amps I’ve looked at had JJ pre tubes. The original HXDAs came with Winged C power tubes, but I am not up on the DG series. For my savings account’s sake, I might need to stay uninformed!

The tube chart shows a Sovtek rectifier tube, and the power tubes there are Russian too, I think. They might have been Sovteks too.

 

[sergiodeblanc]

Ahhhh! And I bet he did the tubage. Whoever did it did a good thing!

There might have been some limited editions, but all the charts and amps I’ve looked at had JJ pre tubes. The original HXDAs came with Winged C power tubes, but I am not up on the DG series. For my savings account’s sake, I might need to stay uninformed!

The tube chart shows a Sovtek rectifier tube, and the power tubes there are Russian too, I think. They might have been Sovteks too.

Dunno... I think he may have bought it secondhand? It might be the only positive example of “previous owner” in the history of mankind.