It’s sort of a tight fit in the chassis but coming together fairly nicely.
I made a couple changes from my original schematic. I added a resonance control on the back and I’m doing a slightly more elaborate bias supply than I first planned on.
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Making Progress on the High Gain Build
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It’s Bedlam
More progress on my high gain build. I have it up and running now and it’s sounding really good. It has tons of gain! I haven’t really tested the limits yet as this thing is loud but so far so good.
The real surprise is how good the cleans are. The clean channel was really just a sort of after thought but it sounds very rich and full.
I’m going to do more experimenting with the biasing of the power tubes and maybe try some of the 6L6s I have laying around my garage and see how they sound.
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The High Gain Build is Working Now
I changed the clean channel to lift the ground on the tone stack and master volume. Then I changed the treble peaking circuit to be a fixed mid cut when the amp is in clean mode. It works pretty well. My previous clean channel attempt got flubby at higher volumes. This version keeps everything tighter.
I’m still doing some tweaks to the power supply so I’m going to hold off posting the schematic but I did make a quick clip. Sorry for the bad playing…
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The 5E3 Park LE
I’m trying out a new circuit in my test chassis. It’s based on the Park LE 1231 and 1273. Park amps were made by Marshall and some shared Marshall circuits and some didn’t. This one didn’t. It has 3 gain stages and a cathodyne PI.
Here are the original schematics.
http://www.chasingtone.com/schematics/PPl25/park_20wt-1231.pdf
http://www.chasingtone.com/schematics/PPl25/park_20wt-1273.pdf
And here is my schematic:
The preamp is pretty close, the PI and output section are a little different as is the power rail. One straight out mod I did was adding a mid boost switch that puts a .001 cap parallel to the treble cap in the tone stack. I think this sounds better for overdriven tones.
I think it sounds pretty good. I’m considering build one with EL84s like the original. With the 250p bright cap on the volume pot its pretty bright at low volume but it’s not as bright as you turn it up.
I did a couple video clips.
This is a Les Paul, the mid boost engaged and going through my 1×12 with a Vintage 30. I’m going for a straight rock sound in this one.
This is one with a strat and then Les Paul going into my 2×12 with a Celestion 70th Anniversary and WGS Retro 30.
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New Bedlam Clip
I decided to do another clip of my high gain amp build. This one has a higher gain setting and is my attempt at being more “metally” ;-).
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New Bombardino Clip
I finally got around to doing a clip of this amp I built years ago. I really like how it sounds. It can cover a lot of ground from clean to dirty. It’s 2 fixed bias 6V6s and 3 6N2Ps arranged like a blackface bassman with a switch to put another triode in front for more gain.
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Clip of the Damocles
I’ve been doing a bunch of clips lately!
This is a clip I made of the Damocles. It starts out clean and then switches to the overdrive channel. I really like this amp because it’s so versitile. The clean sound is especially nice. It doesn’t have Soldano levels of gain but it can get pretty dirty!
There’s also a new schematic.
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An AC15 Sort of Thing
I recently pulled out the Amaretto, and amp I built a while ago, and decided to make some changes.
Originally I had installed a bias wiggle tremolo. Then in an effort to get a little more effective tremolo, since the bias wiggle can have limited effectiveness in a cathode biased amp, I switched to the tremolo from a Vibro Champ. After revisiting the amp recently I decided I didn’t like that tremolo either. It seemed to have a sort of thump to it that was bugging me.
One thing lead to another and I ended up totally redoing the amp. I went back to the bias wiggle tremolo but switched the PI from a cathodyne to a LTP. I also am using a pentode/triode tube instead of a dual triode for the preamp. The pentode section is the input and the triode section is for the tremolo. So far it seems to work great. For the majority of the design I followed an AC15 schematic. The tremolo is a sort of cross between an old Gibson design I found and a Matchless Tornado.
It’s still a work in progress but it’s sounding pretty good so far.
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My AC15-ish Schematic
Here is my schematic of my AC15 type amp. It uses a 6LX8 as the input and for the tremolo. It works pretty well although the pentode is a little noisy.
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18 Watt + Trainwreck Mashup
I’ve finally got back to soldering and I’m messing with a circuit that’s part Trainwreck and part 18 Watt Lite and likely offends fans of both. I sort of took out the Fender part of a Trainwreck circuit and substituted the first gain stage and tone control from an 18 Watt Lite. It’s a really simple circuit and it’s got a fair amount of gain. I’m liking it so far. It’s like a extra aggressive 18 Watt. It’s called the Loco Fiasco.
I’m still working on it but here’s the schematic so far:
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Loco Fiasco Clips
Here are a couple clips of the bone simple Loco Fiasco 18 Watt, Trainwreck mashup.
The full write-up on the Loco Fiasco is here.
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Another 6F4P Push Pull Amp
I’m working on another amp the using 6F4P power tubes and the included triodes. This one doesn’t us a LTP phase inverter but uses one of the 6F4P triodes as a cathodyne inverter. The other 6F4P triode is a cathode follower. I’m still tweaking but will likely be done with it soon.
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Funkaroni Clips
Here are a couple clips of the Funkaroni. I’ll do a more complete write up on this amp at some point in the near future.
This is with a Les Paul.
It start somewhat bright and crunchy and gets a little more gain as the clip goes on.
With a strat.
The tone control on the amp is set a bit bright but I still like the way it came out.
This is the schematic….
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A 6N6P Based Amp
I added an amp here I had been working on for a while. It used a 6N6P triode based push pull output section. The 6N6P is the Russian version of the ECC99. The input is a 5725 pentode and uses a 6N2P gain stage and cathodyne PI. For a triode based output section I think it came out alright. I’m calling it the Blue Lizard for no particular reason other than I painted it blue.
You can see the schematic and hear the clips here.
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New Sangria Video
I did a video of the Sangria. This is an amp I built years ago and recently dug out. I really like how it sounds, it has a good big rock sound. I think the key is the funky Supro paraphase phase inverter.
Here it is:
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6F4P Trainwreck Liverpool inspired amp
After months of doing absolutely nothing I’ve finally done some more amp stuff.
I’ve rewired my old Gimlet amp into a Trainwreck Liverpool inspired screamer using 6F4P power tubes (which are Russian ECL84 equivalents) for about 4 watts. This was a Trainwreck inspired amp before using 6F3Ps but I probably cut the output in half going with the 6F4Ps. It was low watt before and now it’s even more so. I can get the volume up to 6 or 7 and sit right in front of it.
The preamp and PI are taken pretty much right from the Liverpool schematic. The output section is obviously different. I’ll do a full write up at some point but for now here is the schematic:
And here is a clip:
Here is a longer write up…
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The JCM-SL3
JCM800 preamp, split load phase inverter and just 3 tubes (maybe 3 watts…). It’s a little amp the whole family can tolerate. There’s a write up here along with a schematic and a bunch of clips.
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JCTM20 Clip
This is an amp I built years ago and I finally did a clip of it. The amp is basically a 6V6 version of a JCM800. There is also a lower gain switch to it where it bypasses a gain stage but this is the full JCM800 tone. Gain and master were both on about 7 and tone controls at noon. It’s going through a 1×12 with a V30.
The full write up and schematic is here.
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New big bottle single ended amp project
I’m not usually a fan of single ended amps but I do like the sound of EL34s and would like to have an EL34 amp that I can use in my house. So I’m trying a big bottle EL34 single ended amp. I might also try some other power tubes while I’m at it.
The preamp is going to be like a basic Marshall plexi, just the lead channel. The thing I’m doing that’s a bit different than other single ended designs I’ve come across is that I’m going to have a triode after the tone stack to simulate the gain of the phase inverter. This also provides a point to return the negative feed back to.
I’ve started working on it and here’s the progress so far.
I’m building it in a bud box, this one.
The PT is a Edcor XPWR021 and the OT is a Weber WSE15. More to come…
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More Single Ended Plexi Progress
I don’t know why I thought I would have more room on the board for the circuit…I ended up using the whole thing!
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