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Show off your tube amp!

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Dr. Shark

Mon Jul 24 2006, 03:36PM

Registered Member #75 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 09:30AM
Location: Montana, USA
Posts: 711

I think there are quite a few guitar players here, and probably a bunch of you have build your own amps, effects, whatever over the years (I am sure Steve has). So lets start a little discussion about our homebrew tube-gear, shall we?

I'll make a start with this:

It is a little practice amp featuring one ECC83 and one ECC81 - I play it through a 1x8" cab. It is made from the guts of a Hughes&Kettner Cream Machine, because I figured it would be cheaper than buying all the parts individually. It's too harsh-sounding for my taste though, I'd rather have some creamy, singing leads. Still working on that...

Your turn!

Steve Conner

Mon Jul 24 2006, 10:37PM

Registered Member #30 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706

I've messed around with tube guitar amps a lot, mostly when I was a student and had loads of time and no money. The first one I tried was the "Toaster" made from parts of an old 50 watt tube PA (that I was given for free) rehoused into a 19" rack chassis. I was into metal at the time and really wanted a Mesa Dual Rectifier but couldn't afford one, so I tried to make mine sound like that with mixed results. :-/ Pics here

The next one was the "Nifty Fifty" which was a conversion of an old Selmer Treble'N'Bass 50, that I was able to buy cheap because it was incredibly ugly looking and faulty. (The fault turned out to be one loose wire.) I rewired it to have clean and dirty channels, and changed the reverb send/return to be compatible with the newer digital reverb units. I also gave it a bit of a new look with exposed tubes, a brass front panel, and a magic eye tube driven off the speaker output signal. The pics show before and after.

I built these about 5 years ago but they're still in working order and pretty loud. I mostly use the Toaster for practice because it has a master volume control, so you can get as distorted a sound as you like without deafening volume. I think a mini tube amp like joe's is a better solution for practicing guitar at home, not to mention looking very cute. Although I have had complaints from my neighbours when playing through a 3 watt tube amp with a single 8" speaker.

Joe, how does it sound if you turn the tone control on your guitar down? Whenever anyone says "Thick lead" i think of Eric Clapton and his "Woman Tone"

1153780621 30 FT13484 Tnb50 Sortof After

1153780621 30 FT13484 The Amp That Could 600

Hazmatt_(The Underdog)

Tue Jul 25 2006, 12:10AM

Registered Member #135 Joined: Sat Feb 11 2006, 12:06AM
Location: Anywhere is fine
Posts: 1735

guess ill show it off again.

Here it is. ~100W Farshall Mender through 2V30 Celestians. I'm slowly working on getting a better natraul distortion going, but I have other projects that need more attention right now.

I did have an acoustic feature on this amp for a while. It was a cap bypass to take off mid's and highs, which was pretty cool actually. So now that I've spilled that secret, you can do the same.

Dr. Shark

Tue Jul 25 2006, 11:45AM

Registered Member #75 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 09:30AM
Location: Montana, USA
Posts: 711

You guys are playing in a different league designing and building your own designs, where I am just copying / modding stuff.
Steve, your "Nifty Fifty" looks really cool in that last picture, I like it how you left the wood unfinished. Maybe that's the reason it doesn't sound like a mean recto? Well, actually I am slighly shocked that you, the Steve, the uber-geek did not manage to get the Mesa sound from your amp (which was actually your third one, I read your homepage!). I've got a strong habit of thinking that things are easier than they actually are, but tube amps are really stone-age, there cant be any secrets

Maybe I should rethink this whole approach of sticking a few tubes together to get my dream tone, and just go with digital modelling, lacking the 2000â‚¬ for a real amp

Ah, regarding the tone-pot: My guitars have it disconnected, since I never used it anyway, maybe I should change that

Matt, your "Farshall Mender" inspires me to build a "Reldano Soctifier". Just the high gain channels and a 50W power section, who needs more than that. But I seriously doubt I would get it to work.
Did you use the original channels from Fender / Marshall in your amp, or did you come up with your own?

Steve Conner

Tue Jul 25 2006, 12:38PM

Registered Member #30 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706

Hi Joe, all,

The Nifty Fifty was never meant to sound like a recto, I had got fed up with metal by the time I built it. As for the Toaster, it does have a pretty mean distortion sound on account of having 4 gain stages and an EQ that lets you scoop out the midrange. I'm sure being made out of metal and held together with big socket head screws makes it sound heavier too.

But I can't claim that it sounds like a dual rectifier, since I never had access to a real one to compare it with. (and still don't)

I actually built two amps before these, one solid-state and one hybrid tube/SS, but they both sucked so bad I keep quiet about them. >.<

Jorrit

Tue Jul 25 2006, 03:32PM

Registered Member #140 Joined: Sat Feb 11 2006, 11:43AM
Location: The Netherlands
Posts: 14

Here is a picture of one of my tube amps.

I've copied some things of a marshall jcm 2000.
The other part I designed myself.
The amp is nearly finished I`m just waiting for new tube sockets and 2 new ecc83's.
And then I still have to finish some last parts of the chassis

Btw.
Steve I like the looks of your Toaster amp

ps.
first post on the new forum

Dr. Shark

Thu Jul 27 2006, 03:08PM

Registered Member #75 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 09:30AM
Location: Montana, USA
Posts: 711

Jorrit, for some reason I think of a coffin when I see your amp

What are you going to call it? Any chance to see your other amps?

I'm planning to start work on a SLO-Clone with a smaller power section, e.g. push-pull 6V6 for 15W, soon. Well usually I don't complete my projects, but bragging about it here will hopefully give me some incentive. It's going to be a combo, and I am considering making it an avant-garde actylic design.
I wonder if anybody has tried acrylic speaker enclosures, of if there is a really obvious reason not to do it...

As I appreciate real technology, I am considering to replace the power transfomer by a switching supply, surely that would save a few kilos of weight, and I could easily regulate B+. Just kidding.

Hazmatt_(The Underdog)

Fri Jul 28 2006, 04:39AM

Registered Member #135 Joined: Sat Feb 11 2006, 12:06AM
Location: Anywhere is fine
Posts: 1735

Well....I had plans for blues tones, but I was toying with the preamp front end to see what I could do with it. Basically its a Twin without the reverb and the front ends from Marshall and Fender. The biggest difference is the preamp post volume control which I added to level both channels. I needed to make sure that when switching, one wasn't much louder then the other.

Tip 1. Bias is KEY! make sure your bias is from 28-35mA per tube. Otherwise it sounds like crap.
Tip 2. Do NOT use a 12AT7 for the phase splitter. Man does that KILL the tone!
Tip 3. Be really careful if you use 2 250V caps in series insted of 1 500V cap. The cans are LIVE! Ouch that really hurt one time >.<
Tip 4. Keep leads as short as possible
Tip 5. DC for filaments is silly. Okay so you don't have 60 Hz hum on the filaments, but now you have 120Hz hum! which is even more audible! Just use a Hum balance pot.
Tip 6. Filter your bias voltage and keep the ripple really low. This will reduce hum.

Here's another job I did. A friend wanted me to re-crate his Crate because he wanted a 4x12 stack insted of his crummy combo. So I did the woodwork and staining. Enjoy.

Dr. Shark

Fri Jul 28 2006, 06:27AM

Registered Member #75 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 09:30AM
Location: Montana, USA
Posts: 711

Wow, that wood-job looks fantastic! Probably wouldn't fit my tentative acrylic design too well, otherwise I would sure copy it.

Btw, that could easily be my gear, the Ibanez RG and the pick with the hole punched through. Are you my evil twin by any chance?

My ÂµAmp from the first post is really giving me pain now: I made some _small_ changes, and now it oscillates like crazy at 15kHz and hums even more like crazy when I plug in a guitar

Hazmatt_(The Underdog)

Fri Jul 28 2006, 08:37AM

Registered Member #135 Joined: Sat Feb 11 2006, 12:06AM
Location: Anywhere is fine
Posts: 1735

No. Like I said, this isn't my rig. This is Mike's rig. He liked my 2x12 Celestian 1/2 slant back cabinet so much that he wanted a box for his Crate.

The only thing left to do was to get some small Brass plaques made for my trademark logo. We were going to do that, but never got around to it.

Since my mom thought I would be a doctor, my initials were M.D.K., and that was going to carry over into my amps. "M.D. Overkill " is my trademak, but I've only done the 2 projects so far, excluding the unfinished foot-controller.

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