4
USING YOUR COMBO
BREAKING IN THE SPEAKER
Your 1x8 Combo features a Jensen C8R speaker. We have found that these Jensen speakers are
typically a bit stiff straight from the box. They tend to soften up the more you play through them, and
they reach a nice bright, clear tone once they are mostly broken in. It will take a long time to completely
break in your speaker because the Percolator is such a low wattage amplifier compared to the capacity
of the speaker. It is possible to speed this process along by using a larger amplifier – provided it is
less than 25 watts, and capable of accepting an 8 ohm load. Unplug the speaker from the Percolator
and plug it into a larger amp. This step may be easier if you remove the speaker from the cabinet (see
“REPLACING THE SPEAKER” on page 6). Keep the volume rather low for a while (about 10 minutes)
with guitar chords or background noise. Then turn the amp up to about 15-20 watts and play full, fat,
bass heavy chords on your guitar, or anything to get the cone really moving and stretching. Focus on
the mids and the lows. Percussive playing is also very helpful. After about 15 minutes with this type of
signal through your speaker, it will be about 90% broken in. It will slowly continue breaking in over the
next few years of playing through it.
CARE AND USE OF YOUR COMBO
To get the most out of your amp and decades of great tone there are several things to keep in mind
when using it. Most importantly, never turn it on with out an
8 ohm
speaker load plugged into the
output jack! The Percolator was designed specifically to be used with Jensen’s C8R speaker, but you
can use any speaker cabinet or combination of speakers you’d like, as long as the sum of the output
impedance is 8 ohms. Just unplug the 1/4” jack from the back of the Percolator chassis and plug in
your own cabinet. Make sure that you are using a good quality, 1/4” speaker cable -- not instrument
cable! If you don’t know the difference, go talk to the guy at your local pro sound or guitar shop.
It is also important to be mindful of the line voltage (from the wall outlet) that you are subjecting
your amp to. The Percolator was designed to use either 118VAC or 230VAC from the wall outlet,
depending on the configuration you bought. If your outlet has less voltage than that across its terminals,
then the amp will not be as loud as it should be. On the other hand, electronics in general, and tube
amplifiers specifically hate voltage surges. It is true that tube amps are fairly robust electrically, but they
also have a step-up transformer that multiplies the voltage from the wall to something much higher, and
voltage spikes are multiplied by that ratio too. During these voltage spike situations, it is common for
tube amplifiers to experience arcing in the secondary of the power transformer and also in the tubes.
The fuse will protect your amp most of the time, but sometimes the transients are much quicker than the
reaction time of the fuse. Therefore, it’s a good idea to use some sort of surge protector to protect your
amp from these transients.
If your amp has been sitting in a cold environment for a while, then let it warm up to room temperature
before turning it on. The heat generated by the filaments inside the tube is enough to crack a cold
glass enclosure.
Use common sense with your Percolator. Never touch the tube when it’s on (it gets quite hot). Never
get the amp wet. Never use with an ungrounded IEC cable. Do not use with the wrong value of fuse.
Heed all warnings. Follow all instructions. Rock out. Have fun.
Note there is a serial number sticker on the chassis. Reference this serial number when and if you ever
need to contact us for assistance.
