Re: Sonny Jr Post

[Mojo Red <harplicks@xxxxxxxxx>]

Man, some great stuff.

Good to hear from the man hisself. 

Harpin' in Colorado,
- --Ken M.


- --- SpaceCowboy123@xxxxxxx wrote:
>      Every now and then I E-mail Sonny Jr ( Gary
> Onofrio ) Sometimes, he 
> checks out Harp-L and since people were asking
> about the Sonny Jr 
> 4X10..............Here's his post on his amp and
> a bit on Bassmans. gh
>
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> 
> 
> Hello fellow harpers. This is Sonny Jr, and as
> most of you know, I do not get 
> involved on HarpL, mainly because I have 3 jobs,
> a relationship, and put 
> aside minimum one hour per day for harp practice,
> and wish it were more. After 
> seeing many of the comments about my amp, which
> is a very personal project, I ask 
> just to be able to explain why, and how this amp
> came about. My first two 
> projects, the SJ1, and SJ2, I did everything
> possible to get away from the 
> bassman, going more for the recording sound of
> Walter, using 8â?? speakers which have 
> that nasty sound, and using a Class A circuit for
> more overdrive. As I told 
> the class in San Jose of 50 harp players, I am
> not a circuit expert, guru, 
> wizard, magician, or any of the terms used for
> some techs. I am just a crazy harp 
> player who has bought over 3000 amps to try and
> find various traits that make 
> up THE sound most aspire for. Interesting comment
> by Ray Beltran. Because when 
> I was starting one of my bands in the 80â??s, I
> remember distinctly hearing that 
> the original bassman was the holy grail of harp,
> blah blah, Walter did this, 
> blah, you know. So I got to my first gig with my
> new $3000 amp, set it up, and 
> could not play past 1 â?? 2 on the volume, fed
> back all night, and called it 
> the hold Snail from then on. I have owned at
> least 30 more originals over the 
> years thinking maybe if I got a really original
> one it would help. True, they 
> are voiced originally for bass, but then again,
> what amp in the 50â??s was a harp 
> amp? I was never really happy with any of the 10
> inch speakers on the market 
> when I started the SJ amps, this is going back
> nearly 10 years, when all there 
> was in speakers was Fane, Eminence, Celestion, so
> you see why nothing looked 
> appealing. After the end of the SJ 2 line, I had
> gained a lot of knowledge in 
> tube substitutions, why tubes do what they do in
> certain positions, 
> transformers, speakers, the little ins and outs
> of modding for harp. I kept getting 
> requests for amps, so I started messing with
> reissue bassmans, setting them up for 
> harp, trying different speakers on the market
> today, Webers, newer Eminence, 
> and got a pretty good sound out of them, but did
> not have control over the 
> circuit or transformers. THEN, after having a few
> custom amps built by a fellow in 
> California named Bill Odell, I was turned onto
> these NOS Astron paper oil 
> capacitors by him. So we can have lengthy
> discussions about caps, poly versus 
> paper oil, but you know what, I know what I hear,
> Bird Stafford and many other 
> original bassman guys that sent me their amps
> that other companies that use 
> orange drops killed, and these do make a world of
> difference. So I bought up every 
> one I could get my hands on, from two different
> old time radio supply houses, 
> and said, if I am going to do this, I want total
> control of what goes in it. 
> After trying every speaker combination I could
> get my hands on, I could hear a 
> difference even in the 20 watt versus the 30 watt
> Weber P10Q, and even in the 
> ribbed versus smooth cone. I use the combo of
> those with the Eminences 
> because that is what continues to sound the best,
> I have tried 4 of the same of 
> every speaker, it always comes back to these.
> There is so much that goes into an 
> amp to make it harp ready: That is why if you
> have a kit installed in your 
> reissue, it still basically sounds like a
> reissue, RIGHT. Why is that, THE PARTS. 
> Same poly caps that I change out from others, as
> talked about before. The 
> purity that comes from a paper oil cap cannot be
> duplicated. Then there are the 
> transformers. What makes a bassman output, the
> original 45249 sound like it 
> does? Triad specs call for what is called a
> reverse wound product. Every 
> transformer has a certain amount of windings,
> turns, that make it up. This one is 
> special as it starts being wound in one
> direction, the process stops, the winding 
> start going in the reverse direction for X amount
> of turns, then goes back to 
> regular. What does this mean as far as tone,
> damned if I know, but I have 
> original ones sitting right here I test mine
> against, and we are within a few 
> percent of it, the company I use does it right to
> the specs. I went so far as to 
> spend nearly 4K recently on an all original,
> never touched circuit, 59 bassman, 
> and stock hell yeah it fed back like I
> remembered, but with the proper 
> combination of the 3 preamp tubes, rectifier, and
> biasing of the amp, it can be a 
> tonal beast, just ask any of the 30 current 410
> owners. The price, check the 
> other replicas, number one they donâ??t have the
> same parts, arenâ??t made by a harp 
> player, no customer service for harp, and are a
> lot more expensive. And 
> really, how could Walter have recorded with this
> particular amp, when most of his 
> greatest works were done in the early to late
> 50â??s, and you can tell they were 
> single speaker amps, like an 8, 10 or 12, maybe
> even a 15 with the Dano 
> Challenger. So I make no claims as this being
> used by Walter, but I will say it has 
> the tone, power to cut, which I will agree the
> 8â?? speakers cannot project as 
> well, the knock on the SJ2, sure I wish that amp
> was louder, but I wont 
> sacrifice frequencies for tone, thatâ??s another
> issue in itself. I am proud to make 
> this amp, something no one else in the world is
> doing, as no one has the Astron 
> caps, so diagnose, talk about it, thatâ??s what
> makes the internet what it is, 
> ability to have communication. All we could do in
> my day was play for 8 hours a 
> day and hope you got better. Some have had less
> than ultimate experiences 
> dealing with me, maybe because I talk from my
> heart and donâ??t pull punches, and 
> will not hard sell anyone or give them the false
> impression this amp WILL make 
> them sound like Walter, Smith, Clarke, I  have
> talked some guys out of actually 
> buying it. If anyone has any questions about my
> amp, ask me, simple. Not 
> everyone wants to play the same amp, I understand
> that, but having as many truly 
> sincere supporters and getting as much positive
> response as I have on this amp, 
> I feel proud to put it out, and will stand by it.
> Sorry for the length, but 
> if I post once every 5 years or so, what the
> hell. I will leave you with this: 
> Never take life for granted, tell those close to
> you that you love them, play 
> harp and live life with passion, there are no
> guarantees, only that one day we 
> will not be here to enjoy this. Sonny Jr. 
> sonnytone@xxxxxxx
> 


=====
"When you speak of Walter Horton, the first thing you think of is his tone, that big, fat tone."
- ---Li'l Ronnie Owens


	
		
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