Trace Elliot bonneville

[Richard Christie]

Hi subscribers,

As part of re-acquiring elec-guitar gear (I've been classical performer
professionally 20yrs) I recently purchased (thru a online auction) a TE
Bonneville all tube amp. Harmony central reviews etc were favourable as was
all research I undertook. The engineering details are unbelievable, .... I
mean even the transformer bell-housings are chrome-plated - talk about
attention to detail.

Anyhow, I don't personally know any other owners so I bring my questions to
this forum (I'm told only 400 were ever made before the Gibson takeover shut
down its production in 1996).

The amp is single channel but a manual switch on front panel uses relays to
switch between 3 preamp configs: US tweed, Trad British and a Mesa-like high
gain. These relays are
controlled via CMOS EXNOR gates and use a 555 timer to
mute the preamp during the reconfiguration.

A footswitch only allows effects/reverb control and two choices of master
volume for each channel (a useful feature).

Does anyone know of a practical way of modifying the preamp selection to
gain footswitch control of the preamp configuration feature? The amps cct
diagram can be found on this page as pdf
http://tinyurl.com/ry5sr

Also, if there are Bonneville any owners reading this, my unit is noisier
than I
expected it to be. Reviews I read said it was basically a quiet (no hum etc)
amp. But there is possibility that my amp may have been damaged in transit -
I replaced preamp tubes but without any improvement, same with power tubes
(previous owner supplied both closely matched 6L6 and EL34s). The amp buzzes
when I place a finger on the beautiful knurled metal knobs used as master
controls (no guitar connected and gain set to zero master at mid day) .
This concerns me, I suspect decoupling issues, any comments? Is this normal
for this amp?.

Otherwise this amp is too beautiful to describe.

Richard Christie

[John_Locke]

On Mon, 20 Mar 2006 20:06:57 +1200, "Richard Christie"
<r.chr...@paradise.net.nz> wrote:

whatever

[SFD]

"John_Locke" <bitumous...@cogeco.ca> wrote in message
news:uak0r65fmeeo93hgr...@4ax.com...

Depends what control you want to achieve?
As for the hum/buzz, sounds like an O/C input socket. To test this, insert a
jack plug that has a shorting link soldered in place.
If the hum/buzz stops, its the input socket that is not closing the HOT
input to ground. If so, before changing the socket, try a spray of switch
cleaner followed by rapidly inserting/removing about 10 times a jack plug.
HTH.