Im a 14 year old from new zealand who plays rock in a band and im sick of my dads solid state amp and im looking at building or buying a tube amp and if i can a stack😀 if anyone can help me i would be very grateful
Hey a fellow kiwi 🙂
I have built a few guitar amps. The best way is to get an old valve PA (public addess) amp and convert it. Any mono valve amp will do, but preferably 6L6 ones. You will need to be good at electronics or at least know a bit about it, otherwise the high voltages can be a safety issue.
I suggest you call up some old timers like Ham (amateur) radio guys, TV repair people, electrical engineers etc and see what you can get for free.
Its quite easy to build your own stack, although I reckon about 30 Watts is the sweet spot.
If you cant find an old PA amp, an old valve radio can make a pretty sweet 5W amp, you can build a fender champ clone.
With guitar amps power is not a concern, tone is everything. I built an amp for a guy who uses it gigging, it is only 5W but has the coolest overdriven tone you ever heard. He just mics it to the venue's PA.
I have built a few guitar amps. The best way is to get an old valve PA (public addess) amp and convert it. Any mono valve amp will do, but preferably 6L6 ones. You will need to be good at electronics or at least know a bit about it, otherwise the high voltages can be a safety issue.
I suggest you call up some old timers like Ham (amateur) radio guys, TV repair people, electrical engineers etc and see what you can get for free.
Its quite easy to build your own stack, although I reckon about 30 Watts is the sweet spot.
If you cant find an old PA amp, an old valve radio can make a pretty sweet 5W amp, you can build a fender champ clone.
With guitar amps power is not a concern, tone is everything. I built an amp for a guy who uses it gigging, it is only 5W but has the coolest overdriven tone you ever heard. He just mics it to the venue's PA.
guitargeek said:
You can check Torres Engineering though I don't know about shipping to Kiwi land.
Or you can try to find an old tube amp and re-do it. I got an old console record player at an antique store for $25. I removed the amp (about 4 watts I think) and the 12" speaker. I put both into a cabinet I built and connected the input of the amp to a 1/4" jack. I also cleaned the volume pot as it was "scratchy". A good spray with a deoxy type cleaner fixed that right up.
My guitar drives the amp just fine with no other adjustments (to my surprise) and the sound is definitely not solid state. (The look is OK too as I re-used the grill cloth and escutcheon from the original console.)
The link you got (http://dogstar.dantimax.dk/tubestuf/index.htm) was a good one - just scroll down to the guitar amp section...guitargeek said:
Best regards,
Mikkel C. Simonsen
Cleaning out the workshop
Guitargeek, g'day from Oz,
I have sitting on the shelf being ignored a AWA PA Amp.
This thing WAS a 35W Cathode Biased EL34 Amp.
I ditched the 100V Line PA Output transformer and fitted a 50W Transformer from a bloke in Sydney who wound it as a reverse engineered 50W Marshall Transformer.
I have also redone the preamp as a three stage job with BASS MID TREBLE and VOLUME controls. It a bit agricultural and it hums a bit due to slack earthing practices when I shoved it together over one Sunday Arvo.
The Circuit is variation about 7 of the "Trainwreck" circuits you can find on the web and it has "Junkbox Trainwreck" label made with a Brother 'P' Touch label machine plastered across the front.
A mate who is a complete shredder when it comes to guitar playing said it was stunning with a Tube Screamer between the guitar and the amp. By itself its more of a blues machine.
12AT7 phase splitter. 2 off 12AX7 in the preamp.
If you want it send me a private email.
It owes me about Aus$200 - freight across the Tasman shouldn't be too prohibitive.
Cheers
Ian (Adelaide - South Australia)
Guitargeek, g'day from Oz,
I have sitting on the shelf being ignored a AWA PA Amp.
This thing WAS a 35W Cathode Biased EL34 Amp.
I ditched the 100V Line PA Output transformer and fitted a 50W Transformer from a bloke in Sydney who wound it as a reverse engineered 50W Marshall Transformer.
I have also redone the preamp as a three stage job with BASS MID TREBLE and VOLUME controls. It a bit agricultural and it hums a bit due to slack earthing practices when I shoved it together over one Sunday Arvo.
The Circuit is variation about 7 of the "Trainwreck" circuits you can find on the web and it has "Junkbox Trainwreck" label made with a Brother 'P' Touch label machine plastered across the front.
A mate who is a complete shredder when it comes to guitar playing said it was stunning with a Tube Screamer between the guitar and the amp. By itself its more of a blues machine.
12AT7 phase splitter. 2 off 12AX7 in the preamp.
If you want it send me a private email.
It owes me about Aus$200 - freight across the Tasman shouldn't be too prohibitive.
Cheers
Ian (Adelaide - South Australia)
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