Tips for a very good diy-tube-guitar-amplifier?

hey guys,

i am working on different gyraf projects for my studio, but now i also want
to build a very good guitar-tube-
amplifier for my father.

can anyone give me a tip for
a good diy project,
schematics, or better links for
project with ready layouts ?

I think 20 to 30 Watts are enough,
important is a very low noise.

thanks,
dave

Try these guys:

http://www.ax84.com/

Their stuff looks pretty cool, and there are a few places selling kits for the projects as well:

http://dobermanamps.com/shop/

Good luck!

Zach

I just built an 18W Marshall ( http://www.18watt.com ). The one I built was a TMB (no tremelo channel, but a Treble, Mid Bass style EQ, and a little extra gain). Sounds incredible with all knobs at 5! Very low noise (mostly a function of grounding and gain setting. Mine is the best sounding amp I've ever played through...very sweet breakup, and cleans up fairly well when not picking too hard. It's not a very high headroom design though, so you won't get squeaky clean country style tones out of it, but its a killer rock and roll amp.

Cheers,

Kris

Sounds cool Kris!

Did you compare to any other amp, or it just "feels" better tru this amp?

Tony

Ted Weber at webervst.com has started producing several vintage style kits that are very affordable, a version of the 18 watt being one of them. Just click on the KITS button at the bottom and try to choose just one...

I second the suggestion of the P1 at the AX84.com site. It is a low-wattage amp. You mentioned 30-40 watts-that's a real loud amp as I'm sure you know. The P1 is something like 7 watts. It is plenty loud for a home. You'd need more over drums though.

Joel

thanks all,
thank you kris,

i think the link www.18watt.com
is very good for me!

can you say me where exactly i can
find on this site your 18W
marshall?

regards,
dave

Here's a few pics of the amp:

Star grounds and turret board construction. Solen, and REL caps for coupling, Sprauge and JJ for filtering. Resistors were either corning metal film, holco metal film, or Riken carbon comp depending on position (went with Rikens for the plate resistors). Pots were clarostat conductive plastic. I chose a 250k pot for the bass control to make it more useable.

Other than that, I went with a 2.2uf + 1.8k resistor for the TMB channel cathode, and I think 1.5k + 50 ohm for the normal channel cathode, and upped the plate resistance on the normal channel V1 to 200k. The only other mod was to reduce the 470k grid resistor on the phase inverter to 68k. The amp still squeals at full up volume, but it's too loud at that setting anyways. It seems to be tube dependant. For speakers I went with a celestion alnico blue and a 12GH30...gives a nice blend of bark and sparkle.

Amps I've compared it to....well, I've been a guitarist for 18 years now, and have owned a variety of amps. Marshall JCM 800,900, 2000 TSL. I currently have a TSL that I compared the 18 watt with. There is no comparison. The 18 watt has a full midrange, and no brittleness, whereas the TSL is buzzy and harsh. I've owned and played a number of boogies, and again the 18 watt is just warmer...more fun to play. I've also played a few boutique amps (Dr.Z and THD...and didn't find them all that great). In fact, the only amps that I feel are qorth comparing the 18W to (and only in an apples vs oranges style comparison) are a blackface deluxe reverb, and an old vox ac-30 (and the 18w still has more balls). Oh, I use a Weber MiniMass volume attenuator (also set on 5) in line with the amp. It's perfect for jamming with a drummer.





and



Here's a thread where I documented it's first breath:

http://www.18watt.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=3512

Cheers,

Kris

I built one of those 18 watt clones a few years ago and I have to agree, it's killer sounding! Great rock amp, not too loud. I paired mine with the alnico blue reissue and I love it.

My all time favorite amp clone is an AC30 I did about 5 years ago. That design is so flexible it's nuts. Probably the best tube guitar amp ever IMO.

Steve

I've been working on a breadboard of a 2-watt(!) all-tube guitar amp for recording, medium-volume jamming, etc. The results have been promising so far. I hope to build up a proper prototype soon.

My objection to most of the "lo-watt" designs out there is that they lack flexibility (just a volume and tone control, usually) and they tend to offer only various degrees of "crunchy" with little in the way of usable clean tone. That's great for blues, but not everybody wants to play blues. Most of the low-power amps in question use no negative feedback around the output stage. I actually LIKE negative feedback in a guitar amp because it'll stay clean up to the point where the distortion rapidly increases. I like to go from balls-out rockin' to clean by just rolling back my guitar's volume control.

Anyway, my design has volume, bass, middle, treble, presence and master volume controls. The master volume is post-output stage.

http://www.maximoaudio.com/forum/

I've entered the twilight zone... (insert theremin)

-Jay

thanks everybody!

There are a lot of very interessting information for me.

...and kris, your amplifier looks realy great!
thank your for your exact describtion.

regards,
dave

I just built a Fender Champ 5F1 clone which is a very popular beginner diy project. The amp sounds great, has really rich overdrive but due to the nature of single ended amps it has a little hum, though there are ways to minimising this... and I am getting there

The main question to be asked is the application for the amp, i.e. where is it to be used, for what style of music with which guitar at which level. Is is gonna be used for output stage overdriven crunch tones or loud and clean glassy sounds? If you want an amp for recording go for the 5F1, it sounds great and you can get a lot of sounds from it, although it only has a single volume control - less can be more.

If you want to use the amp in practice and still want fender tone go for the 5E3, which has tons of online documentation and kits are readily available, check the 5E3 builders section at http://www.firebottle.com/fireforum/fireBB.cgi?cfg=dlx&enter=god . If you want a british amp go for the 18 Watt, if you want a modern amp, there is even a crazy guy who cloned a mesa dual rectifier.

I'm in the final tweeking stages of a Champ power/tone section with an extra 12AX7 section on the front end. Kind of like adding a tube pedal but the first Champ stage still makes a difference on the overdrive. It's working great but the overdrive part is still a bit too loud when dumped into the front end of the Champ section. All that being said, I made the 18Watter a couple years ago and out of the seven (Marshall's, Soldano's, Fender's etc.) that I have it's still my favorite all around amp.

cheers,
kent

Hey Kent, that is interesting, maybe try medium mu preamp tube, such as a 12au7 ??

About the 18Watt: I'd love to hear a well done one, I myself have an early bluesbreaker reissue with KT66 power tubes which measures 22 watts (probably a dying OT), it sounds great, but I heard the 18Watter has a different voicing...

[quote author="DrFrankencopter"]I just built an 18W Marshall ( http://www.18watt.com ). The one I built was a TMB (no tremelo channel, but a Treble, Mid Bass style EQ, and a little extra gain).[/quote]

Whose layout did you use, there are so much different versions !! :?

I built an 18watt this year and once I got it working its very nice. I think I just dont like marshalls though. Its easy to build and there is great support on the forum. I built a 5e3 deluxe circuit a while back and since I built that amp I havent not used it on a recording and have had several people get upset that I wouldnt sell it to them. I think mission amps has a kit for those. The two are very different sounding amps, but depending on what you like, those are two great options. Whatever you build, try to use an output transformer from mercury magnetics.

dave