Mr Eddie, valve amp builder

valve head777 wrote: ps Eddie Tone a good name for a sound????

was only joking really, the official name for this sound is Melody Souljah.

valve head777 wrote: app wrote: Great man! Id really like to see some evidence in form of video or photos of the system! soon come Bredrensorry for no rotation

I rotated it. Nice!

If you have more pictures/video please post em,very interested in your system

https://theballroomblitz.wordpress.com/2013/09/29/reggae-the-sound-system/

Interesting part about Mr Eddie:

Evening at Mr. Eddie’s: “What you want my dad for this time?” says his son, astride in purple Chopper. Mr. Eddie is a Ghanaian, a quiet, lovely man who spends six evenings a week in his basement making amplifiers for the big sound-systems. The seventh night he goes to hear them play, usually Admiral Ken’s sound above a pub at Leytonstone. The sound men drop in and out with their machines. They are very respectful. Even The King calls him Mister.

He is almost ankle-deep in flotsam. Output transformers, almost too heavy to lift. A plastic Rupert bag building with shiny valves as big as light bulbs. Wire, aluminium, nuts, bolts and washers, test-meters, transistors, semi-conductors. He burrows with a soldering-iron inside his newest toy, a transistorised pre-amp. The television’s on to his right; in front, a loudspeaker tests the pre-amp, Joshua Set Them Free followed by Give Me Justice; on his left, The King answers the phone to another sound-man: “Hello, Metro. . .”

“The Englishman”, says Mr. Eddie, “wants more treble than bass. The Negroes want the rhythm, and they’ve got to have bass for the rhythm. You want the beat, not the loudness. A shop, they can make it loud. But listen to this heavy beat. You can stand it all night, it won’t worry you. You have to have the big amplifiers.”

A young DJ tests a mike over the top of the record, knuckles against his mouth as though he’s eating spare ribs: “Wake-it-up, wake-it-up, wake-it-up. . .” “Listen,” says The King, “the only man that’s the best is Rosko, Emperor Rosko. Tony Blackburn, him is rubbish. Him talking, you can’t hear the record, him turn it down.”

Excellent!! I read this ages ago when trying to get info on Mr Eddie, but never found it again.

Delasy here aka Del. Just been thumbing through here and came across this old thread and story I started about my Pops, his amps, pre-amps and other stuff way back when. Time has rolled on from 2015? and in true Terminator fashion here's the sequel.

While Pops had all this soundman stuff he also had a love for fast cars and that's the path I followed, always loved my music, still do, just did it in my cars where no could tell me to tun it down. Alpine V12's JBL's even the early Sharps sets with the DIN eq's and Pioneer KEX systems in BMW's V8 Cortinas, Hot MK2 Jags etc. I was doing that he was doing his, we'd meet in the middle.

Valvehead 777 bought and got the ole 600 watt piece up and running. well done bro. Terry Dread did indeed facilitate Valvehead finding me and Pops was very happy with the deal. Now the old 300 piece sat in the wardrobe....yes really until last Sept when Pops decided through a series of life trials and tribulations to hand it down to me with caveats.

A few words with Mr Chambonino saw me licking up the motorway to his secret squirrel valve amp facility to have it rebuilt. TBF I'd been talking to John for a while by e-mail about the job and he duly came through. Big hairy guard dog aside (Jokes) the job was beautifully done and in the process in order for the amp to be correct to the original Partridge transformers its now 400 watt 8 x GEC KT88 rather than 300 watt (he did explain and although I can do a bit of electrics/electronics I know my place and this stuff can kill so trust and respect the pros)

Apparently it had been bodged a couple of times in its past lives and needed major TLC. So new chassis, electronics and the best of my KT88 stock. I think TBH only the trannies survived the pat test cull. Alot of electrical TLC by UK and Aussie craftsmen (nod to Merv) got this amp up and running better than she ever was before.

I'm running a Garrard 4HF deck, Stereo cart frigged to mono for now and a jumble of old boxes from Pops shed 1 x 18", 2 x 12" and some old horns in a stack in the house. Just like the way I born and grow it normally gets played with a variety selection like Aba says "from my fathers record box" on sundays afternoons as usual in any Caribbean house. It's done one or two family events but after a week of the Bluespot Arkansas Stereogram it's nice to tickle the tweeters and drop some weight on the big set as pots simmering in the kitchen. The next step is to get the double? pre amp sorted so that I can run that other amp of his I found in the cupboard on the tops. It looks a lot like this one...

https://www.abeltronics.co.uk/amptesting.php?z=jamaican_amp#

If any one can shed light on this transistor amp then please bring me out of the shade. Will post some pics later of Champs work. Stay Blessed coz the one good thing about music...When it hits you feel no pain.

Edited by Del - 17 December 2019 at 3:40pm