New owner/forum member of a Hoffman 30 210 Combo

[Matt_F]

Hello,

I am a new forum member from Lakeland, FL. Hi  :).

I recently acquired a 30 Watt 210 combo from a fellow tone junkie who lives near Sarasota. He purchased the combo from Doug years ago (oh yea, hi Doug..hehe) when he had his shop in Florida and this was the "shop" amp. From what I was told this amp was voiced quite a bit differently than the standard 30 Watt and the Master Volume has been taken out of the circuit. Supposedly it is more "Fendery" than the typical 30 Watt but I have not played a stock 30 to compare. So, I was hoping to find out a little information on the amp.

Here's a photo of the amp:



I don't see any serial number on the amp or a tube chart. Anyhoo, thanks for looking and happy new year to everyone :)

Matt

 

[EL34]

Wow, that amp looks like it's in new condition.

I never built any fender combo's that I remember.
All my stuff is closer to a marshall circuit

The amp would be the same as the 30 watt info I have on the library page.
The only way to see if anything is different inside is to open it and compare the board inside to the info on the library page.

[Matt_F]

Hello again Mr. Doug,

I decided to pop the top on my 30 last week and sneak a couple photos with my cell phone (sorry about the poor photo quality). I really, really enjoy the amp and was wondering what makes this blonde baby tick :)

Inside the chassis the "mod markings" say custom AB763 mod and the master volume has been removed from the circuit. I was wondering if you had any thoughts you may be able to share with me or offer me a brief history lesson.. hehe?

Thanks for your time and for helping me make great music month after month  .

~Matt

[Geezer]

WOW!

What a nice, cleanly built amp!

Great work, Doug, and congrats to you Matt, on owning one sweet rig!

Thx for posting the pics.

G

[EL34]

I'll have to pat myself on the back also, I used to do good work 

The picture of the circuit board is not clear enough for me to see resistor colors

It looks to me like all I did was add a fixed adjustable bias to the amp.
The normal 30 watt amps and heads were cathose biased

If you can take really good pictues of the circuit board with a good camera, I may be able to look at the parts and see if anything else is different from a regular 30 watt amp

[Bassmanster]

Is your cathode bias 6v6 design a good small amp plexi sound or do you favor your 18W designs now Doug?
Or...to heck with all amps...use the computer?  :)

Inquiring minds wish to know....

[EL34]

I hardly ever play my stack of tube amps
All I ever do these days is play along with backing tracks that I made
The backing track styles are so varied, I need lots of different types of sounds

My tube amps are way too loud to play along with backing tracks and each one only does one sound
Even the stouts and Schedule 40 is really loud
The sound each tube amp does is awesome, but I am switching between maybe 10 different sounds when playing with Guitar rig

I can go from Surf to Robin Trower with the press of a foot switch and I can play at a volume level that is really comfortable

I know that is probably sad news for the Gorn, but I really like Guitar Rig

[tubeswell]

Wow! You made this Doug?! Tidy work man!

[Bassmanster]

Gorn say:  Not even using the Palmer?  :)

[Matt_F]

Hey guys! Thanks for the responses.

This combo is super well built and has been kickin' these last 15+ years. Still has the KT66s in it. She's loud, punchy  and great reverb.

Here's my feeble attempt at "quality photography". Thank you for taking the time to check it out  . (Extreme Closeup incoming)

[Matt_F]

A few more:

[EL34]

Gorn say:  Not even using the Palmer?

Not in a while, but the palmer still rules for capturing amps tones to a PA or recording an amp without miking a speaker

As for the pictures
It looks like I just changed a few resistor values here and there and added a fixed bias
It's not that much different from all my 30 watt combo amps