Fender solid state Harvard combo

[phsyconoodler]

I had a chance to work on and play live with an Early Fender solid state Harvard combo.It has a 1-10 speaker in it.
 Wow! What a great amp! I popped an SD-1 in front and proceeded to be blown away with sweet tone!
This little amp sounds awesome! I like it a lot.I have not been able to say that about any solid state amp in the past decade or more but this little bugger sure kicks ass!
  The circuit is so incredibly simple and the tone is so tube-like it's hard to tell it's not tubes.
The cleans are stellar to say the least and driven a bit it's great.
Surprise,surprise! Why can't manufacturers make SS amps that sound that good?Heck I could build this amp and I know very little about solid state!
  It sounded better than my friend's modded blues jr. and that amp is no slouch!
I'm very surprised about this amp!

[eleventeen]

I've played thru some SS amps which *in a small room* sounded entirely usable, even borderline "good". I can't say I feel the same way about playing in a larger venue however. There's something about the 2-dimensional flat nature of the sound output that places any of the ones I have tried into the category of "nothing I would choose, if I had any choice about it".  They can sound decent in a music store and are FINE for a practice room but I am entirely let down by the way they sound in a large room in any kind of performance situation.

[PRR]

Schematic? (I've never heard of a transistor Harvard.)

[DummyLoad]

perhaps here?

he didn't mention reverb so perhaps it's a newer lineup as the above are 80's rivera era SS stuff.

respectfully,

--pete

[alerich]

I gigged with a Randall RG80 1x12 solid state combo back in the late 80s. Nobody would mistake it for a tube amp all by itself in a room but it sat in the mix well and was a great hard rock/heavy metal amp with a very nice clean channel.

[Platefire]

A friend of mine brought me his SS Harvard to work on years ago and as I remember had a 10" speaker. Can't remember what it sounded like. I didn't jam on it much, just did a simple repair to it. I do have a crate 15 watt practic amp with digital effects that came with a guitar I got off e-bay. One thing I can say about it is it has built in compression in the circuit that is really nice and touch sensetive. Plate  
 

[phsyconoodler]

I can't find a schematic or reference to this amp anywhere.It does not have reverb.
 I might just buy it and reverse engineer it.
   I played it at a small venue with drummer and bass player.The bass amp was right beside this little bugger and it was just fine sounding.
  I liked it quite a bit so I think I'm going to pressure the owner to sell it to me.I bet he will,he's a bass player anyway.

 When i opened it up and repaired the one preamp bypass cap that was bad,it looked just like a Princeton board,laid out like a tube amp board would be,parts in a logical location close to what the component was meant for.
  It was incredibly simple to work on and figure out the circuit path even without a schematic.
Impressive if you ask me.Simple is best in my book.

[phsyconoodler]

I found this reference on wikipedia;

In the late 1970s and very early 1980s the "Supers" were followed by the tube-based '30', '75 (Lead)', and '140' tube amps (with reverb and overdrive features) and two solid-state 'Harvard' amps (one with reverb), which were 15W practice amplifiers.

 I'm surprised it wasn't more of a success considering the tone.I would think the biggest issue would be heat.Easily cured with modern heat sinks and a fan.

[DummyLoad]

is yours similar to this one?

thanks,

--pete

[phsyconoodler]

Yup! That's it!

 Great sounding little amp! Debatable it's worth 149.00 bucks but it kicked ass for me.

[Platefire]

Well that's not like the one I worked on. The one I worked on was older and had a cab like a Princeton and had reverb. Platefire

[Ed_Chambley]

Anyone ever played a Pritchard amp.  They are SS amps with a very warm tone and great.  They are sort of pricy, but I think they are the best.  Lots of SS amps are used by Jazz players, but pritchard amps will do a really nice breakup and full on distortion that is not harsh at all.   Of course, the cleans are great as well.
http://www.pritchardamps.com/pritchardamps.cfm

[phsyconoodler]

Plate,Those were the Rivera series SS amps.This one is a different animal for sure.

[Platefire]

Yeah, when I saw the picture I knew that was different. The one I had didn't have a MV best I can remember. The guy was wanting to sell it but thats when I first started building tube amps and rejected the idea completely.

Use to work with a guy a little older than me that was a great country picker and had an old tele he had modified and put a gibson humbucker in the neck position. He said he use to travel with an old  country guy named Nat Stuckey. He use to tell me he had an old SS silvertone amp that he just loved and used it until it finally died on him.

Well I hope you can make a deal with the Bass man. Plate

[Latole]

Yes very old post.

I found and download a Fender Harvard solid state schematic, not Harvard Reverb  ; how I can send it to forum archives  ?

https://elektrotanya.com/fender_harvard_018023.pdf/download.html#dl

[sluckey]

First get the pdf file from that website. Then follow the instructions here...

     https://el34world.com/charts/TubeAmpSchematics.htm

[Latole]

First get the pdf file from that website. Then follow the instructions here...

     https://el34world.com/charts/TubeAmpSchematics.htm

Thank you, I'll try .....tomorrow

[uki]

Here is the schem in pdf

[Latole]

Shematic has been posted to el34.

'll keep an eye out for it when it's in the library, make sure it worked as I have several other shematic's that aren't there