I'm building three new 20w 6v6 amps right now (with Marshall, Fender, and Vox style pre-amps and power amp voicing) and I have been taking photos and posting commentary along the way. The Marshall is already up and running and I'm making progress on the other two. You can see it all here, if anybody is interested.
Dandy Guitar
I'll answer any questions anybody might have, if anyone finds it interesting enough to ask questions.
Photo-blog for my home-brew amps
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The "gold" amp can get pretty dirty, but it's not a "high gain" amp in the traditional sense of having a ton of gain stages. The circuit topology is:hopkinwfg wrote:its a high gainer ?
2 parallel gain stages (one "normal", one "bright") > normal and bright gain controls > 2nd gain stage > cathode follower > tone controls > phase inverter > master volume > output tubes.
Being in the JTM45/Plexi/Super Lead family of amps, it can go from Andy Summers "Police" clean (yup, that was a Super Lead) to the entire range of AC/DC medium-grit tones (a variety of JTM45, Super Bass, and Super Lead amps) all the way up to Eddie Van Halen's super dirty Eruption distortion (again, a plexi Super Lead)... all by just playing with the gain controls.
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Got some photos of the second amp up. The second amp is mostly AC30 inspired with a touch of Matchless inspiration thrown in for good measure. As with the first amp, there's a brief summary of its features and operation that you can read in the Tumblr post.
I hope to finish the third one over the next week, if my evenings have enough spare time. After that I'll be moving on to head and speaker cabinets.
I hope to finish the third one over the next week, if my evenings have enough spare time. After that I'll be moving on to head and speaker cabinets.
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Okay. So, I finished the amps in early July and I have been playing them for a few months now, but I never finished posting photos.
I got 11 more photos up tonight. I will try to remember to take some photos of the finished stack tomorrow and finish the saga.
http://dandyguitar.tumblr.com/ as usual.
Now that I've had some more time to play with them...
The gold amp (Marshall-y) is good for flat out rock and roll, and it just loves my tweaked DS-1 and Fuzz Face once they are set up properly. It benefited a lot from being paired up with the right speaker (Celestion Creamback).
The red amp (Vox-y) is pretty cool. The EQ controls are so wildly powerful. It gets so aggressive once you crank up the gain, particularly with some sort of boost in front of it (like a Prince of Tone with about 60% gain). It also does a pretty sweet almost-clean sound, but you have to set the gain pretty low if you want it totally clean.
The black amp (Fender-y/Blue Angel-y) does nice Deluxe sounds. I still haven't had the chance to crank this one up and find out what it sounds like at high volume. The Blue Angel mode gets thick quickly with lots of overdrive, but it manages to stay away from the really hairy distortion that is often associated with Mesa amps. It is pretty smooth, almost no matter what you do to the EQ, but... it isn't smooth like a *umble. It's not that polite. It still has some rock 'n' roll in its heart. It feels like it would kick some serious ass live.
I got 11 more photos up tonight. I will try to remember to take some photos of the finished stack tomorrow and finish the saga.
http://dandyguitar.tumblr.com/ as usual.
Now that I've had some more time to play with them...
The gold amp (Marshall-y) is good for flat out rock and roll, and it just loves my tweaked DS-1 and Fuzz Face once they are set up properly. It benefited a lot from being paired up with the right speaker (Celestion Creamback).
The red amp (Vox-y) is pretty cool. The EQ controls are so wildly powerful. It gets so aggressive once you crank up the gain, particularly with some sort of boost in front of it (like a Prince of Tone with about 60% gain). It also does a pretty sweet almost-clean sound, but you have to set the gain pretty low if you want it totally clean.
The black amp (Fender-y/Blue Angel-y) does nice Deluxe sounds. I still haven't had the chance to crank this one up and find out what it sounds like at high volume. The Blue Angel mode gets thick quickly with lots of overdrive, but it manages to stay away from the really hairy distortion that is often associated with Mesa amps. It is pretty smooth, almost no matter what you do to the EQ, but... it isn't smooth like a *umble. It's not that polite. It still has some rock 'n' roll in its heart. It feels like it would kick some serious ass live.
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Posted a final "family" photo and wrote up a quick appraisal of all three amps.
Does the forum let us post mp3 files as attachments? I might make some sound samples if it works. I need to rehearse first, though.
Does the forum let us post mp3 files as attachments? I might make some sound samples if it works. I need to rehearse first, though.
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DrNomis
- Old Solderhand
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- Posts: 6801
- Joined: 16 Jul 2009, 04:56
- my favorite amplifier: Self-Built Valve Amp Head :)
- Completed builds: Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face,Tone Bender Professional Mk 3,Tone Bender 3-Knob,Baja BK Butler Tube Driver,Baja Real Tube Overdrive,Roger Mayer Octavia,EH Soul Preacher,Tech 21 XXL Distortion,MFOS Weird Sound Generator.
- Location: Darwin,Northern Territory Australia
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BAARON wrote:Posted a final "family" photo and wrote up a quick appraisal of all three amps.
Does the forum let us post mp3 files as attachments? I might make some sound samples if it works. I need to rehearse first, though.
Not really, one way to get around that is to upload the mp3 file to a website like Soundcloud.com and then post a link to the mp3 file, that's how I do it.....
Genius is not all about 99% perspiration, and 1% inspiration - sometimes the solution is staring you right in the face.-Frequencycentral.
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Sound samples are up! They might not tell you much about how these amps will sound in a rock context, though, because they are all samples of Bach.
No re-amping used here. Just playing the same thing over and over and probably annoying the crap out of my neighbors.
If there are specific requests for "What does amp W sound like with guitar X and pedal Y playing riff Z?" then I could record and post such samples, as long as I have the gear and am capable of playing riff Z.
No re-amping used here. Just playing the same thing over and over and probably annoying the crap out of my neighbors.
If there are specific requests for "What does amp W sound like with guitar X and pedal Y playing riff Z?" then I could record and post such samples, as long as I have the gear and am capable of playing riff Z.