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Ibanez SS10 Session-Man Power Series Distortion Chorus is a special combo pedal that mixes the FC10 Fat Distortion with the SC10 Chorus.
We're going back in time today, re-visiting the Power Series from Ibanez Guitars, via the rare, unusual and awesome SS10 Session-Man Distortion Chorus! Running in Parallel or Series, these two effects meld smoothly to produce classic '80s-tinged tones with ease...full demo out now, enjoy this one!!
@sounder.studio #guitar #recording #neve #sessionman https://www.instagram.com/p/BpRelp6ndry/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=nqf8smr69pv5
I was not ready for this. I've been fixing up an old (original, but in very poor shape; rusted to snot) Sessionman Vocal, hoping to eventually get a hold of a G250FTR - early era guitar version (only diff, other than model number, vs later Sessionmans is a master volume replacing the Fuzz knob). That restoration has been delayed by my Saturated Fat build. I never expected to have this sweet problem as I have never seen an FTR head for sale locally. Ever. The odd combo, sure. I've only been aware of 3 (FTR heads) in existence (yes there's many more, not rare just that people tend to hold on to them). So you can imagine my jaw drop when one came up on Kijiji a few KM N of me; I wasn’t even looking yet. Not just an FTR, but a fricken spotless near-closet-classic. I mean this thing, and I may be a little skewed by the sorry state of the Vocal head on my bench, is cleeeeeeeeeean. Haven't looked inside yet; can't let myself get distracted from finishing up that SatFat (debugging some power tube oscillation at the moment); it'll keep. From what I can tell from the outside, it has the nicer Hammond output transformer and all the cap cans are Sprague (cardboard) or Mallory (metal); loaded with the good stuff (not that there's anything wrong with other parts used at various periods, but it sure is nice to see the big name stuff in there). It's had the power tubes replaced, but nowhere near recently - vintage Japanese 6CA7s rebranded by GE (m'eh; better than modern EH I guess), just like the ones used on later-era Garnets. Now with the (I'm guessing; confirm later) vintage of this head, I would think it would have had Sylvanias in it from factory (THE tube for these amps IMHO), but it has also been upgraded to 3 prong power cord, which looks almost stock (totally, if one ignores the 2 prong receptacle next to it, and the age of the thing); wondering if this one was maintained by Garnet at some point; he was pretty adamant about updating amps to modern safety specs when they came back for service. The single issue, and it barely qualifies as one, is that it's missing the rear brace - basically a 3" wide board wrapped in tolex. I've got wood (if you must, then yes, in all senses of that phrase) and enough tolex offcuts to rectify that. Oh, and also there's a bit of tolex detached at the seem on the underside; just need to glue that down. So there's nothing pressing, I can play her for a while and make sure everything is good and to my liking. Then book her a physical later. I don't expect to be doing anything, but the one thing that does strike me as an option is to rip out the ground polarity switch and install a master volume. A younger me would have insisted, but since my main bass amp is a no-master Sunn I have been getting used to the lack (and that does have some advantages) and also since this has a switchable dirt circuit, I'm not sure I will require it. Definitely not for bass, but maybe for guitar. The one thing I may do right away actually is replace the feet (original undersized with metal base) with the larger heavy duty ones I tend to throw on all my gear; this thing gonna get shook. Anyway, TLDR because so dang ecstatic.
Continuing with my Garnet Sessionman restoration.
IEC jack installed, redid the mains wiring (removed ground polarity rev switch and put the fuse and on switches on the same side of the AC line vs opposite). Treated the trannies and spots on the chassis with rust converter as well (she was in a state if you recall from earlier posts). I also removed the front face plate cuz I wanted to get at some rust that goes over the lip and under, and I wanted to look at pot codes anyway. The knobs were a bear to get off - the set screws, 2 per, were mostly rusted in. Some Blaster oil and all but 2 screws on 2 separate knobs came out. One of the remaining ones had to be drilled out and the other I managed to get by enlarging the slot.
The switched pots have no date code (1MO LIN AO - unless it's Jan 70 there at the end, which is too early), but the reg pots are all (4): S-360 1MEG DJH1, Aug 71 so Dec 71 (off the OT, RT and choke as I found earlier) stands as newest date; probs a 72. Since these officially came out in 74, and there's a few weird things about it (e.g. neater than normal, for Garnet, wiring) it may be one of the first off the line or a prototype as I speculated.
It really is a(n early - Fuzz vs Master volume) Sessionman guitar chassis under there (there's overlay on the rear as well that I peaked under when doing the IEC jack).
Mounted and wired in the IEC power jack for the Garnet Sessionman VocalI recently acquired and have been restoring.. Ground reverse switch and death cap removed (a nice 47nF film cap - save that for something else). Out of green wire so had to use blue for the ground; obvious enough. Powered on with all tubes pulled (the 2 original Garnet/Mullards that were left) to check voltages. Heaters are all 6.35V; AXes (no AU for the verb; it had an AX in that spot; we'll see what works better later) all had 450-500 on the plates (which is high, but with no load that’s expected) and the 6CA7s had 550. Bias is at -47; 6CA7 based Garnets were in the 45-5- range stock. Looks like I didn't mess anything up and there’s nothing really wrong with her, other than cosemetics, neglect , and 1 bad power tube that I didn’t get in the deal anyways. An interesting thing tho: see that last pic. I loosened the fuse holder and the labeling goes all along the chassis rear. Kinda wanna pull the front faceplate to see what's there (don’t remember if I mentioned or posted a pic that shows it, but there are empty holes in the chassis under both face and ass plates); I gotta unmount a few pots at least to check dates codes anyway. Quite sure it'll be a Sessionman Guitar label scheme (the extra holes and preamp tube layout look like they’re for that). I think my Rebel and @nomoremicrophones ‘ Revolution III were just silkscreened chassis. Can't recall what my old Sessionman Vocal was - I only have pics of it assembled and it kinda looks as though the faceplate is glossy like the overlay on this one; it's a thin aluminum plate with a glossy plastic layer. I wonder what models/eras were direct on chassis vs overlay? If later ones didn’t have an overlay it would certainly lend more credibility to the age of this thing being closer to the date codes on the iron (nothing on the caps), which is 3-4 years before production of these officially started.. I guess the next step is to throw tubes in and see how it goes. Turns out I cleared out those EL34s I had (forgot I sold them). Also vintage Sylvanias, as was original equipment, (or any 6CA7 really) are just too much money. So after some review checking, I think I'll go with JJ 6CA7s vs EH (the other current prod option); worry that I'd find EL34s too lean and crunchy in this amp. ...Ya know, it does occur to a me all of a sudden, that if the chassis is drilled and labelled for the guitar version, and since I do really want the early G250TRF with the trem, verb and Stinger fuzz (later versions replaced the fuzz knob with a master volume), then I could totally build it into here... and put a master volume in the empty ground reverse spot on the back. It’d be a shame (also a bitch) to mod it that drastically tho; especially if it really is a pre-production unit., I have never seen a G250TRF in head format for sale (though I do know of 1 person who has one); only a couple combos. Gotta convince The Whiff to go visit her fam in Winnipeg, I guess.
Bit of progress on my Garnet Sessionman restoration.
I scrubbed the tolex a few more times,and reglued some bits (put a few nails in here before to reinforce the cab; the box is more solid than I first thought).
Started looking at the power input section to see what’s there and how to convert to 3 prong cord. Removed the death cap and 2 prong (left some slack, the B&W wires) - no sense doing extra work. Roughed in the IEC jack (corner and screw holes - didn’t want to bust out the dremel - just cleaned the basement and don’t wanna get steel dust everywhere and it was too late to take it outside). Looks like I can just connect those existing B&W wires to the IEC jack, bypass (remove) the ground polarity switch and connect IEC ground to the spot where the death cap was (solder lug on one of the PT bolts).
Lastly, got some chrome paint and did the reverb tank and handle anchors; BLING! Decided to not paint the corner protectors; they’re just gonna get scuffed and will look horrible (I an always change my mind later). I will put the worst 2 corners on the bottom rear, the rest aren’t as bad. Will add 2 new corners on the top rear (currently none; can’t put any on top front due to the angled bit there).
Also, this amp seems to be a very interesting specimen. The first thing I noticed (see pic in my earlier post, linked above) is that the wiring is super neat, like almost Hiwatt/mil spec neat, with the straight wires with nice 90 degree bends. All of my other Garnets (including my old Sessionman) have been rat’s nests in comparison. Also there’s 2 chokes in there (I only remember 1 in my old one, but it’s been a while). Additionally, the date codes on the OT/chokes is DGJ1 (Marsland made, Dec 71) and the code on the PT is DGL0 (Marsland made, Oct 70) but production data from the official Garnet website says there were no Sessionman PAs produced before 74. Now it is possible that the iron is old stock but that seems a bit too old; Gar was cranking amps out at this point with a ‘factory’ assembly line vs just him like in the early days, and the same iron would have been used in the guitar version of the Sessionman (released in 72) as as well as the Pro models (as early as 66). Can’t see the pot codes due to the way they’re mounted - will see if thiose shed any light on this later. Also there’s nicer parts in here - mustard filter caps on the inputs; and an aquarium full of tropical fish.This makes me think this is, if not a prototype then a very early one. There appear to be bleed resistors on the large filter cap cans - never seen that on any other Garnet and they’re not on the schem (it would make sense if this was a prototype and Gar was going in there to tinker a lot before finalizing the circuit). The faceplates are overlays, and from the inside you can see that there were unused holes - this could have originally been a guitar Sessionman chassis, with the PA faceplate added later. Either way, I am convinced this was built by Gar Gillies himself rather than one of his ‘factory’ workers. It’s a Garnet lover’s wet dream. I’m starting to think that the old pair of JJ E34Ls I have laying about and was gonna throw in here are not good enough, and I may have to shell out for some vintage Sylvania 6CA7s (which was what these would have been loaded with from the factory).
So my new Garnet Sessionman continues to distract me from my Saturated Fat project.
The good news is that the wiring looks clean and original. The rust on the trannies is mostly just the back, and mostly the OT; the PT is gooped up pretty good. It seems that it was stored somewhere face in so the rear got the brunt of the humidity. Too bad they didn’t tarp or garbage bag it.
This thing was nasty. Once I started cleaning it the smell really came out (the familiar bouquet of bush mechanic's garage). Forgot to clean one edge of the back panel and you can see the diff (the top of the headshell is not coming as clean; that's where the most shit gets spilled I guess; will see if a few repeat passes helps).
The top of that reverb tank was brown (the cam flash makes it look cleaner in the pic, linked above, from when I first got it, due to reflectivity). With the grime on top of the rust it looked solid vs that pic.
And yes, apparently we missed 2 of the original tubes (couldn't see them behind the power tranny) when I pulled them for the trade (deal was chassis only; after testing that it worked). I did have the dude check to confirm we got them all. Garnet-branded Mullard 12AX7As - I'll keep those and replace. Wish it was the 12AU7 though; not sure I have one and since this one doesn't have the sockets labeled I don't remember where it goes.
Weird thing is the way this was bolted in. The screw heads did not look original (heaftier, which is cool; no Fender style metal straps, but there were washers - nice touch ), but I only noticed when I started to take her apart to clean that it's mounted to withstand a hurricane: thru bolts clear to the other side of the chassis. Minor point loss for using square nuts (hard to get a grip on in the tight space) and lock washers only on 2/4 of them. That's not original is it? This one can't be much older than my old one (or my other Garnets) which had captive nuts in the chassis lip and shorter bolts (my Rebel couldn't even do thru if you wanted to; as it is, stock, one bolt is shorter than the rest, I found out the hard way, to prevent shorting something to ground; oh Gar, u a funny guy). If aftermarket dude drilled really clean holes; rather impressive. One wouldn't come out; had to cut it. Will try to replace with captive nuts and shorter bolts (I think these are actually bigger diameter than any other Garnet I have owned). If I can't find the parts I'll just replace that one bolt. It's a bear to get the chassis out the way it is because you have to remove both front and back panels (vs just rear) to get at the bolts. Speaking of the back panel, it had been removed a few too many times and the screws were a bit loose in the holes. Doweled and glued (wooden bbq skewers fit perfect, cut a bit short so they are below surface to easily locate the holes when I remount). The only things that make me unsure this was a mod are 1) the clean job and 2) the front panel is mounted with only 1 screw per side (bottomish on both sides). The latter makes taking the thing apart actually possible vs my old one where the front panel had 4 screws - top and bottom (granted those top screw were a bitch, but with a long driver you could get in there between the transformer and the headshell - on this one the bolts would be in the way).
Things I am wondering about: - how I can reinforce the cab; looks like someone already tried pocket screws on one corner. Possibly dowelling the back panel holes will be enough but I doubt it. - the rust be deep. got it down to dark steel, but the chrome is a writeoff on at least one corner and one handle clamp. Wondering if I should leave it like that (clearcoat to prevent further degradation) or try a chrome rustoleum spray. I'd to the reverb tank too (I checked - can take the guts out easy enough so as to not get paint on them). That might just be horrible though.
Watch my new video "Harlequin" at the following link or se arch for it in you tube : http://youtu.be/6YRV1MAbXBs #francescomarras#alghero#soundroomstudio#recordingstudio#videomakingof#hardrock#metal#funky#instagrammers#guitar#guitarist#guitaristforhire#sessionman#bcrichguitars#seymourduncanpickups#daddariostrings#morleypedals#sardinia#trident#instrumental#igers#diy#l4l#followme (presso Alghero)
