My first tube amp

guitargully · 23rd March 2004, 09:27 PM

wow.. after all these months i finally got a tube amp.. well.. i bought it off ebay, but i'm happy. here it is: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...category=50593
will this work for guitar? i'm thinking my accoustic.. well.. i think it will.. assuming that it will.. would i plug it into phono, tuner, or aux? i'll have to make an adapter to go from 1/4" to RCA, but thats' no problem. by the way, my guitar has a peizo pickup with adjustable gain, high, mid, and low.. if that helps.. thanks

Bas Horneman · 23rd March 2004, 10:22 PM

Great buy. Apart from 29 bucks you have nothing to loose.

It might be to clean sounding for a guitar amp and/or not have enough gain. But give it a try and let us know!

Cheers,
Bas

A3rd.Zero · 23rd March 2004, 11:07 PM

Ha! Nice job! You just got a whole amp for the price of a transformer! If it doesnt sound right to you for the guitar Im sure that you could tweek it to get the sound that you want. Or close to it at least. I think you want to plug your guitar into anything but PHONO. PHONO is a seperate input for specifically Turntable ouput, which is lower "power" than a cd or tape player, it also is specifically setup to get a certain type of sound. You wont break anything by pluging your guitar into phono however (dont necessarly take my word on that

) so you should try it just to see what it does, might sound good!

Thats sweet.

Milo

adamamp · 24th March 2004, 01:04 AM

Hey great score for the price! Should work real fine for guitar with a few mods. Tuner/Aux will not have enough gain but the phono stage should have more than enough, especially if it is designed for a magnetic cartrige. You could remove the RIAA filter and maybe add an extra volume pot to adjust the Gain. Best not to try and fit a Soldano preamp into it if this is your first project but converting it into a Super Champ would be a reasonable possibility

Check out this link,
(URL)http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/old2new.htm(/URL)
It explains how to change an old PA into a Guitar amp.
Same sh*t, different pile.
Good luck!
PS! Don't try EL84s strait into those 6BM8 sockets

guitargully · 24th March 2004, 01:37 AM

hmm.. that link is cool.. but too confusing at the moment... (noob.. still figureing out how to make a light bulb light

) .. as of right now i'd like to just make this an accoustic amp.. so really.. keep everything how it is.. accoustics seem to sound best over a PA with 2 or 3 way speakers.. so i guess all i might want to do is add a gain pot on the phono to control the volume.. if the aux/tuner wont work. I'll wait and see how it works when i get it. Anyone wanna guess how many watts it'll have at 8 ohms?

chris wood · 24th March 2004, 01:39 AM

Probably won't sound too good with your guitar straight in...will sound too bright and the tone controls will be at the wrong frequencies for guitar. My sugestion is that you DIY a guitar preamp and then connect the o/p of this into the line input of your tube amp.

guitargully · 24th March 2004, 01:43 AM

alright thanks.. somwhere i have some links for some all tube preamps with distortion too.. heh.. i'll turn this into a tube amp for my electric too.. (excited) would hooking this up to a Marshall 4X12 guitar cab damage the speakers because of the different frequencies associated with regualr amps vs. guitar amps?

chris wood · 24th March 2004, 01:48 AM

The frequency range won't hurt the Marshall cab. but from memory these 4x12 cabs. need a bit of power to make them sing. What is the output power of your tube amp?

guitargully · 24th March 2004, 01:52 AM

Quote:

I'll wait and see how it works when i get it. Anyone wanna guess how many watts it'll have at 8 ohms?

haha..not sure yet.. i'll have to wait and see..

stormy · 24th March 2004, 01:52 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Bas Horneman
Great buy. Apart from 29 bucks you have nothing to loose.

It might be to clean sounding for a guitar amp and/or not have enough gain. But give it a try and let us know!

Cheers,
Bas

hehe , that comment cheered me up

Quote:

Originally posted by guitargully
alright thanks.. somwhere i have some links for some all tube preamps with distortion too.. heh.. i'll turn this into a tube amp for my electric too.. (excited) would hooking this up to a Marshall 4X12 guitar cab damage the speakers because of the different frequencies associated with regualr amps vs. guitar amps?

hi,
I have used hi fi valve amps for acousic guitar and had good results, if you can get 1 or have 1, shove an 8" speaker on.
see how that sounds

apart from maybe wanting to change the tone circuit a bit you may also have to adjust the input sensativity and increase
the output a little if posable.
guitar amps are on the edge when it comes to pushing the valves
where as that amp is probly just idling along hehe

regards stormy

23rd March 2004, 09:27 PM	#1
guitargully diyAudio Member Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Detriot, MI	My first tube amp wow.. after all these months i finally got a tube amp.. well.. i bought it off ebay, but i'm happy. here it is: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...category=50593 will this work for guitar? i'm thinking my accoustic.. well.. i think it will.. assuming that it will.. would i plug it into phono, tuner, or aux? i'll have to make an adapter to go from 1/4" to RCA, but thats' no problem. by the way, my guitar has a peizo pickup with adjustable gain, high, mid, and low.. if that helps.. thanks __________________ say what? .. be careful with your ears.

24th March 2004, 01:37 AM	#5
guitargully diyAudio Member Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Detriot, MI	hmm.. that link is cool.. but too confusing at the moment... (noob.. still figureing out how to make a light bulb light ) .. as of right now i'd like to just make this an accoustic amp.. so really.. keep everything how it is.. accoustics seem to sound best over a PA with 2 or 3 way speakers.. so i guess all i might want to do is add a gain pot on the phono to control the volume.. if the aux/tuner wont work. I'll wait and see how it works when i get it. Anyone wanna guess how many watts it'll have at 8 ohms? __________________ say what? .. be careful with your ears.

24th March 2004, 01:39 AM	#6
chris wood diyAudio Member Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Adelaide, Australia	Probably won't sound too good with your guitar straight in...will sound too bright and the tone controls will be at the wrong frequencies for guitar. My sugestion is that you DIY a guitar preamp and then connect the o/p of this into the line input of your tube amp. __________________ Old becomes new with time.

24th March 2004, 01:43 AM	#7
guitargully diyAudio Member Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Detriot, MI	alright thanks.. somwhere i have some links for some all tube preamps with distortion too.. heh.. i'll turn this into a tube amp for my electric too.. (excited) would hooking this up to a Marshall 4X12 guitar cab damage the speakers because of the different frequencies associated with regualr amps vs. guitar amps? __________________ say what? .. be careful with your ears.

24th March 2004, 01:48 AM	#8
chris wood diyAudio Member Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Adelaide, Australia	The frequency range won't hurt the Marshall cab. but from memory these 4x12 cabs. need a bit of power to make them sing. What is the output power of your tube amp? __________________ Old becomes new with time.


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23rd March 2004, 10:22 PM	#2
Bas Horneman diyAudio Moderator Emeritus Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: The Netherlands Blog Entries: 18	Great buy. Apart from 29 bucks you have nothing to loose. It might be to clean sounding for a guitar amp and/or not have enough gain. But give it a try and let us know! Cheers, Bas

23rd March 2004, 11:07 PM	#3
A3rd.Zero diyAudio Member Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Los Angeles	Ha! Nice job! You just got a whole amp for the price of a transformer! If it doesnt sound right to you for the guitar Im sure that you could tweek it to get the sound that you want. Or close to it at least. I think you want to plug your guitar into anything but PHONO. PHONO is a seperate input for specifically Turntable ouput, which is lower "power" than a cd or tape player, it also is specifically setup to get a certain type of sound. You wont break anything by pluging your guitar into phono however (dont necessarly take my word on that ) so you should try it just to see what it does, might sound good! Thats sweet. Milo

24th March 2004, 01:04 AM	#4
adamamp diyAudio Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: East of Eden	Hey great score for the price! Should work real fine for guitar with a few mods. Tuner/Aux will not have enough gain but the phono stage should have more than enough, especially if it is designed for a magnetic cartrige. You could remove the RIAA filter and maybe add an extra volume pot to adjust the Gain. Best not to try and fit a Soldano preamp into it if this is your first project but converting it into a Super Champ would be a reasonable possibility Check out this link, (URL)http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/old2new.htm(/URL) It explains how to change an old PA into a Guitar amp. Same sh*t, different pile. Good luck! PS! Don't try EL84s strait into those 6BM8 sockets

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