re cathodyne distortion
I've used 100k grid stoppers on the cathodyne tube and the output tubes.
Even with a supply of only 104v this stage doesn't distort until output signal exceeds 30v pp 🙂
I want to try that self split switch too - cool idea.
And maybe a triode / pentode switch cos my wife could hear me playing at 'bedroom volume' three rooms away 😱
regards
JimG
I've used 100k grid stoppers on the cathodyne tube and the output tubes.
Even with a supply of only 104v this stage doesn't distort until output signal exceeds 30v pp 🙂
I want to try that self split switch too - cool idea.
And maybe a triode / pentode switch cos my wife could hear me playing at 'bedroom volume' three rooms away 😱
regards
JimG
You're a funny guy. Funny guys tend to exaggerate and to make wild assumptions - that's what makes them funny. Not long ago you said that Fender doesn't make a good guitar since 1967 and now this. What is a proper amp? One that does sound good? OK, now we now yours isn't so why bother building it? There it goes your 1st prize. Out of the window. Whatever sound quality I want? Wow, I want you to produce my next record.
Who says editing your music is cheating. I don't remember anyone saying it. If that's cheating then using your awesome sounding guitars is also cheating. How can I compete against you playing a no name telecaster?
Oh man, reading your posts is a lot of fun. Keep them coming.
Not my experience. I have heard great sound live with no effects and no EQ.
I spent a good part of the weekend tweaking the 3 tube amp and testing it with a few guitars. I have come to the conclusion that this is a great little amp for a rhythm or acoustic guitar player. It is just too damn clean for unasisted lead playing, but what lead player doesn't have one or a dozen pedals. I havent tried my pedal board through it yet. It really needs another tube to be a screamer.
I tried to boost the gain by tweaking component values and even adding a mosfet buffer between the input stage and the tone / volume controls. I decided that the little 3 tube design will stay as it is. I may do a 4 tube version after I go back and play with the big boy 5 tube amp 2.0's.
I tried to boost the gain by tweaking component values and even adding a mosfet buffer between the input stage and the tone / volume controls. I decided that the little 3 tube design will stay as it is. I may do a 4 tube version after I go back and play with the big boy 5 tube amp 2.0's.
I am simply unable to allocate enough time this month, between a few custom builds and servicing some failed equipment needed for gigs it has just been impossible to get back to my build.
(6W6 5E3 with the 6G3 pre-amp.)
Comments on editing,
Indeed it is not especially difficult to make a so so amp sound reasonable good, but IMO it gets pretty obvious as well.
But to say that it is needed to sound amazing, or that effects are the solution is really kind of out there as well.
When I play, it always basically sounds like me no mater what gear I use. Good, bad or indifferent its a fact.
Then my brother comes over and picks up the same guitar, plugged direct into the same amp and blasts out stuff/sounds I can not duplicate.
A good example of what I am talking about is in these videos.
Tungsten Amp Crema Wheat Tweed Deluxe guitarist Greg V. with Fender Nocaster - YouTube Fender NoCaster
Tungsten Amp Crema Wheat Tweed Deluxe demo by Greg V. with Gibson Historic SG - YouTube Gibson SG
The player has skill, no effects, no post tweaks, just skill.
(6W6 5E3 with the 6G3 pre-amp.)
Comments on editing,
Indeed it is not especially difficult to make a so so amp sound reasonable good, but IMO it gets pretty obvious as well.
But to say that it is needed to sound amazing, or that effects are the solution is really kind of out there as well.
When I play, it always basically sounds like me no mater what gear I use. Good, bad or indifferent its a fact.
Then my brother comes over and picks up the same guitar, plugged direct into the same amp and blasts out stuff/sounds I can not duplicate.
A good example of what I am talking about is in these videos.
Tungsten Amp Crema Wheat Tweed Deluxe guitarist Greg V. with Fender Nocaster - YouTube Fender NoCaster
Tungsten Amp Crema Wheat Tweed Deluxe demo by Greg V. with Gibson Historic SG - YouTube Gibson SG
The player has skill, no effects, no post tweaks, just skill.
Family time has intervened this weekend. I spent all day yesterday going fishing with with my special needs son, and today doing a birthday party for my grandson.
I had been trying Hot-Cold-Hot biasing sequence and it just does not work as I'm doing it.
I went back and biased everything clean, and removed the G2 control from the input pentode. Just crank all the controls for distortion.
I'm running pentode gain stage, tone stack, vol control, gainstage, gain stage, vol control, phase splitter, PPIMV, P-P output.
I can get about 2W max, and I can adjust it from clean to mean but I think the number of adjustments is excessive. I can't quite find a setting on any one gain stage to allow me to eliminate a control.
I did try biasing the output tubes up to 10W with their 4W rating again with no indication of red plate seen with the lights out.
If I change transformers or increase the B+ I can get more out.
I'm thinking o doing a Baby Huey variant with them after I'm finished with the guitar amp.
I had been trying Hot-Cold-Hot biasing sequence and it just does not work as I'm doing it.
I went back and biased everything clean, and removed the G2 control from the input pentode. Just crank all the controls for distortion.
I'm running pentode gain stage, tone stack, vol control, gainstage, gain stage, vol control, phase splitter, PPIMV, P-P output.
I can get about 2W max, and I can adjust it from clean to mean but I think the number of adjustments is excessive. I can't quite find a setting on any one gain stage to allow me to eliminate a control.
I did try biasing the output tubes up to 10W with their 4W rating again with no indication of red plate seen with the lights out.
If I change transformers or increase the B+ I can get more out.
I'm thinking o doing a Baby Huey variant with them after I'm finished with the guitar amp.
I had finished the 5 tube killer from the tone stack output to the speaker before I put it aside due to a smoking power transformer. The UPS man brought me a box from Mouser that contained 4 big transformers and lots of small parts. Some of the small parts are now a bit smaller than they were when they were made and all of the transformers has some minor damage, mostly bent mounting ears or terminals.
The amp had an N-68X which couldn't cope. I am now using a 100VA isolation transformer. The amp has been running at full power for an hour and the transformer is just warm. The Kill a Watt reads 76VA when the amp is cranked to 20 watts output. So far this is again a clean one with only 2.5% distortion at 20 watts and under 1% at 10 watts. Frequency response goes from 14 Hz to 60 KHZ (3db). I guess I'll need to add some dirt. 3 more gain stages should help.
The amp had an N-68X which couldn't cope. I am now using a 100VA isolation transformer. The amp has been running at full power for an hour and the transformer is just warm. The Kill a Watt reads 76VA when the amp is cranked to 20 watts output. So far this is again a clean one with only 2.5% distortion at 20 watts and under 1% at 10 watts. Frequency response goes from 14 Hz to 60 KHZ (3db). I guess I'll need to add some dirt. 3 more gain stages should help.
A clean amp with some pedals? How you going to sell an amp like that?
G & L Telecaster ASAT Classic Part 2 clean - YouTube
Hi Jim
Bit warmer in Melbourne today I bet??
My problem is I have so many project already on the bench, might have to put this on the backburner for a month or two. I will still follow the tread with interest though.
Cheers
5 tubes and not enough dirt? All these hifi years have spoiled you. LOL. Well... look on the bright side: a 100$ tube hifi amp isn't a bad deal nor is it a 200$ one. I smell business.
Perfect PC or iPod amp.
The amp has 4 gain stages in the preamp section. I am only using the last gain stage (with no cathode bypass cap) plus the PI and output stage right now. The front half of the board isn't populated yet. I start populating at the power supply then the output stages and then work my way towards the input, testing and tweaking each stage as I go. That way I don't get a big surprise when I build everything plug it in and it smokes or oscillates.
I made the measurements to judge the frequency response. I am using a 80 VA guitar amp OPT and see response down to 14 Hz. This is no good when I swap to a low $$$ OPT due to saturation. Some cap values need to be lowered.
Last time I worked on it the power transformer began to smell funny after playing with the board for a couple of hours. I then put the board aside and waited for some bigger transformers. During that time I went back to AMP 1.0 and made it into Amp 1.1.
Not sure if I will sell any of these, but after listening to about a zillion Youtube clips I have come to realize two things. My guitar playing really SUCKS, and I need some reverb in one of my amps. The DSP reverb in my pedal board sounds cool, but to get a surf guitar sound (where I started a long time ago) you need real springs.
I took my 10W amp by a locial luthier this weekend and he stated that I should combine the speaker cab and head into a combo and add a spring reverb tank and he felt he could sell some.
Is reverb that popular? I thought it went out with the 70s.
The reverb on the Gibson Falcon I worked on was pretty tame.
Is reverb that popular? I thought it went out with the 70s.
The reverb on the Gibson Falcon I worked on was pretty tame.
Yeah, two guitars there. To finish this story about embellishing your sound I say: kudos to the people who do it. IMO posting an audio clip with low gain and hiss is as good or worse than not posting anything. We are no fools. Let people judge who did the better job at the end. I can discern a good guitar sound no matter if it's accompanied by a drum track, a rhythm guitar or a reverb effect. Some people here think you can edit almost anything to sound good. I don't.
Sounds to me like he's playing his rhythm track into the delay box he's demo'ing, then going over it with his melody line. Watch closely at 0:40 where he stomps the button and the little light flashes.
He's clearly playing through some effects besides the delay, but what makes you think the sound is post processed? I don't hear any external compression or obvious EQ, and would EQing the recorded mix be cheating anyway?
Geez, look how the teddy bear's holding the nice condenser mic... This sounds to me like nothing more than a Fender amp close-mic'd.
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I may be wrong, but it seems I can discern some kind of stereo effect which is not possible with a single microphone. Like I said, I may be wrong.
Really nice little jam though. Very tasty, and a really great tone regardless.
The guy is really talented. He uses these clips to buy and sell guitars, has done about 2000. He lists the effects that he goes through on the little blurb under the video. The delay pedal he uses as a looper, sometimes he uses a reverb pedal and a FET overdrive pedal. People has asked about his recording rig and he said it is the mike into a mixer and straight into the video recorder. They do mix in backing tracts that he plays along with on some of the videos.
As one of the comments on the page said, "...secret to a great sounding guitar...go home and practice".
As one of the comments on the page said, "...secret to a great sounding guitar...go home and practice".
Reverb and tremelo were popular in the 60's and lost their mass appeal in the 70's. I played a lot of surf music in the 60's and both were mandantory. Blatant overuse of reverb is not common any more but a subtle touch does a lot to fatten up the sound.
I used to mix a few small time bands about 10 years ago.
I've heard plenty of guitar and amp combinations that sounded very, very nice with no effects. Often the guitar amp wasn't even mic'd - just a guitar, only occasionally a distortion pedal, and an amp with pencil marks on the controls marking the sweet spots. Unfortunately the sweet spots often corresponded to "quite loud enough to get complaints" and trying to explain (shouting) that half the band wasn't even in the mix often didn't cut it.
Fine sounding guitar with no effects is not at all a controversial concept to me. It does help if the player has a wee bit of skill though.
I've heard plenty of guitar and amp combinations that sounded very, very nice with no effects. Often the guitar amp wasn't even mic'd - just a guitar, only occasionally a distortion pedal, and an amp with pencil marks on the controls marking the sweet spots. Unfortunately the sweet spots often corresponded to "quite loud enough to get complaints" and trying to explain (shouting) that half the band wasn't even in the mix often didn't cut it.
Fine sounding guitar with no effects is not at all a controversial concept to me. It does help if the player has a wee bit of skill though.