I'm in the early stages of planning a guitar amp build for my living room. The design is art deco inspired and I'll do all the cab construction. But need to decide which amp circuit I'd like to base the first run on.
I'd really like to optimize this amp for playing in the 80-90 dB range. Of course I want it to sound great at lower and higher output. But I really want an amp that feels incredibly alive in that 80-90 dB range.
This isn't meant to be a "practice" amp per se. I'd probably rather have an amp with a good master volume for the circuit.
I play mostly clean, but it would be ideal if this circuit could get great OD + Distortion from the amp itself. I'd probably want an fx loop or onboard spring reverb if possible.
Any suggestions on tried and true circuits that meet my main criteria?
What would you want to see in an ideal living room / studio amp?
I'd really like to optimize this amp for playing in the 80-90 dB range. Of course I want it to sound great at lower and higher output. But I really want an amp that feels incredibly alive in that 80-90 dB range.
This isn't meant to be a "practice" amp per se. I'd probably rather have an amp with a good master volume for the circuit.
I play mostly clean, but it would be ideal if this circuit could get great OD + Distortion from the amp itself. I'd probably want an fx loop or onboard spring reverb if possible.
Any suggestions on tried and true circuits that meet my main criteria?
What would you want to see in an ideal living room / studio amp?
Start by defining: Tube or SS?
FX loop typically means an SS amp which gets its distortion at the preamp, not much sense in a tube amp which overdrives its power stage.
A reverb circuit by itself will be almost as complex as the rest of th e preamp, and placing the reverb tank is a dark art, since they tend to pick transformer hum easily
Old Fender amps put it in an isolated bag at the bottom of the cabinet, but your amp is physically small, no such a luxury.
Give a long hard look at a Peavey 15W practice amp, they are more or less what you want.
Of course you house it in the beautiful cabinet you will build.
In fact, I would buy a used Peavey or similar practice amp and rehouse it
FX loop typically means an SS amp which gets its distortion at the preamp, not much sense in a tube amp which overdrives its power stage.
A reverb circuit by itself will be almost as complex as the rest of th e preamp, and placing the reverb tank is a dark art, since they tend to pick transformer hum easily
Old Fender amps put it in an isolated bag at the bottom of the cabinet, but your amp is physically small, no such a luxury.
Give a long hard look at a Peavey 15W practice amp, they are more or less what you want.
Of course you house it in the beautiful cabinet you will build.
In fact, I would buy a used Peavey or similar practice amp and rehouse it
Start with a stupidly inefficient speaker.....and a sub 1W amplifier
90db from a typical guitar speaker means 100mW max 80db means 10mW
(if you're after a valve design that sounds like a classic fender or marshall, have a look at Rob Robinette's micro amps. You;; still likely need a 10% power switch)
90db from a typical guitar speaker means 100mW max 80db means 10mW
(if you're after a valve design that sounds like a classic fender or marshall, have a look at Rob Robinette's micro amps. You;; still likely need a 10% power switch)
If you want SS, try the RunOffGroove Ruby (just add a tone circuit, e.g. Big Muff). Use a crappy power supply to ensure sag and mains hum IMD.
Personally, I use a power attenuator with a "normal" amp.
But if you want fancy, look into something with 12BH7/12AU7 or similar at the output. Do a search: lots of schematics on line, even the output transformers are available for not much $.
But if you want fancy, look into something with 12BH7/12AU7 or similar at the output. Do a search: lots of schematics on line, even the output transformers are available for not much $.
Yes, I should have said that I will be doing a tube amp. The amp doesn't necessarily need to be super low wattage as long as it has a master volume AND sounds great in that 80-90 dB range (though that is probably more like 85-100 dB range after taking some measurements.
Here's an incredible site—with A LOT of info—I have built several of Rob's versions of Fender and Marshall designs... half of which I have modded with lower power options in various ways using high wattage resistors on the OT (in addition to the stock output), Rob details multiple ways to accomplish this—and there are threads on putting his mods in a pedal box to work with any existing amp searching here.
I like simple single ended tube amps in the low wattage range for living room use. Plenty loud enough, with a good sensitivity speaker.
Fender Champ is a classic, standard parts are available. Epiphone Valve Junior and the Vox AC4, or Marshall Class 5 series would be good places to start with a design.
Fender Champ is a classic, standard parts are available. Epiphone Valve Junior and the Vox AC4, or Marshall Class 5 series would be good places to start with a design.
The Champ is a great little amp—definitely unique. If you build one—separate the power switch from the volume—they are combined in the traditional build—makes a lot of noise and not a lot of sense IMO—I tried it both ways. Maybe add a tone knob for the fun of it. I built mine with a 12" speaker.
Yeah, a low powered (4 to 5 watt) tube amp feeding a proper 12 inch guitar speaker is plenty loud.. going smaller than an 8 inch and the amp will start to sound more like a typical "practice" amp with no bottom end. The speaker is the voice of the electric guitar, and choosing the right speaker size and type can make a huge difference. JMFahey recommends the Mod Series for performance and good price, haven't tried one myself but they sound good from the demo's I heard.
What music do you like to play, what bands do you like the sound of the guitar? Everybody's idea of 'great' is different. Before giving you ten winners to chose from it might be best to figure out how you plan on using it. The speaker is also a big contribute to the sound. I would start there and work your way backwards.
On that note we actually built 2 champs at the same time, one was a gift...Identical everything except one had a greenback in it and the other a Weber alnico. The family was slightly divided on which was "best"... there are 3 of us—we kept the Greenback and gave the Weber away! They are definitely different—If I had to make subjective comments about the differences I'd say the Greenback was more punch and the Weber more laid back. Both were great though.
I think that a Fender Deluxe Reverb amplifier coupled with a power scaler (https://londonpower.com/power-scaling-faq/) would be the ideal.
I've got another way to go for you.
I have an old Telecaster, and it seems to be picky as to what amplifiers make it sing.
I built a home brew Bassman with 4 10's that sounds fantastic in a barn, but doesn't exactly work in my living room.
I've had in storage a Hammond AO-43 reverb amp that I picked up about 10 years ago when I wanted to add reverb to my Hammond M2 organ.
I recently came across some articles on the Web showing how to convert an AO-43 to a guitar amp,
then I saw a YouTube presentation by Dr. Z on his Carmen Ghia design, and how that well-regarded little amp was (very strongly!)
based on the AO-43. So I pulled out my AO-43 from storage, changed a few resistors, and fired it up.
All I really added to the little amp was a level control after the first gain stage, not even a tone control.
This little guy just seems to match perfectly to my Tele!
I pulled a simple power soak circuit from the Web and added that as well, giving me a 10x level reduction.
Now I can use headphones for practice, and there doesn't seem to be any tone suck that I am aware of.
An un-molested AO-43 on ebay seems to run about 150 bucks these days. An easy and inexpensive way to put together a very toneful little amp!
I have an old Telecaster, and it seems to be picky as to what amplifiers make it sing.
I built a home brew Bassman with 4 10's that sounds fantastic in a barn, but doesn't exactly work in my living room.
I've had in storage a Hammond AO-43 reverb amp that I picked up about 10 years ago when I wanted to add reverb to my Hammond M2 organ.
I recently came across some articles on the Web showing how to convert an AO-43 to a guitar amp,
then I saw a YouTube presentation by Dr. Z on his Carmen Ghia design, and how that well-regarded little amp was (very strongly!)
based on the AO-43. So I pulled out my AO-43 from storage, changed a few resistors, and fired it up.
All I really added to the little amp was a level control after the first gain stage, not even a tone control.
This little guy just seems to match perfectly to my Tele!
I pulled a simple power soak circuit from the Web and added that as well, giving me a 10x level reduction.
Now I can use headphones for practice, and there doesn't seem to be any tone suck that I am aware of.
An un-molested AO-43 on ebay seems to run about 150 bucks these days. An easy and inexpensive way to put together a very toneful little amp!