Power transformers

[TequilaKing]

Bit of a noob question this.....

Can power transformers i.e a convertor to step up / down voltage colour the output from an amp / pre amp or do / can they produce interference - hum etc

There's quite a lot of reasonably priced Mesa kit on places like HRI and even the bay which I'm very tempted by but I've always been a bit unsure if there'd be any trade off if I were to buy some kit from the states to use over here (England)

Are there any other considerations I should look into before buying kit that runs on a different voltage?

Liek I said a noob question...

[alex10]

EVH used one to achieve the brown sound

[alex10]

"Eddie would use a variac (a device that controls voltage levels) and run it at about 90 volts ac to the power input of the Marshall amp (normally the amp would have 120 volts input in the US; although the older Marshalls like Eddie's were designed in Europe with a 110 volt input rating)this allowed Eddie to lower the voltage input to his Marshall while allowing him to turn the amplifier's volume knob up all the way, this saturated the output tubes, without distorting the preamp tubes, and lowered the stress on the amplifier."

[ColinMmmmm]

I wonder why more people don't do that . . .

[Ki swordsman]

..more than meets the eye

[eviltwin]

Originally Posted by TequilaKing

Bit of a noob question this.....

Can power transformers i.e a convertor to step up / down voltage colour the output from an amp / pre amp or do / can they produce interference - hum etc

There's quite a lot of reasonably priced Mesa kit on places like HRI and even the bay which I'm very tempted by but I've always been a bit unsure if there'd be any trade off if I were to buy some kit from the states to use over here (England)

Are there any other considerations I should look into before buying kit that runs on a different voltage?

Liek I said a noob question...

a lot of stuff comes with multi-voltage transformers built-in anyway, it's just a matter of resoldering a single resistor, for example this is on my GSP2101:



There is a good chance that Mesa rack gear uses similar multi-volt circuits, the best way to check this is to get your hand on the schematic or ask someone with such equipment to have a look inside.