Modding a guitar amp schematic to run a different output stage

[CaterpilarSK]

That's true, but what attention you do get, will come from people who understand that guitar amps are very differently engineered than Hi-Fi amps, and for good reasons.

The tube Hi-Fi forum has a lot more participants, but many of them have discarded logic, science, and engineering, in favour of subjective beliefs in "tube woo-woo", which often boils down to the belief that if you pay a lot more for a component, it will always sound better.


-Gnobuddy

Or use one of those old russian oil filled capacitor for a grid decouple from the power tubes....

Well that is true but pretty much everyone is like that. I have been turned away from one of my projects (HV DC-DC converter for up to 70W for tube power amps) because of how poeple treated that project. How dare me to introduce something more convenient that the good ol hunka iron... anyways

Also about my capabilities.

I am a now (from 22th march) a 18 year old student working with all sorts of audio amps and I have taken home a whack load of non functional test gear from school that I fixed up and am now using. I have testgear from the 40s 50s 60s everything up to the 90s and its pretty much tech all fit for what I do. Like that LCR meter (and it also measures impedance).

I am properly equipped for almost anything.

 

[Gnobuddy]

Well that is true but pretty much everyone is like that.

Not everyone, though, so keep the faith! Cutting-edge electronics is physics, and old electronics is engineering. Religion and superstition have no place at all in electronics.

I have been turned away from one of my projects (HV DC-DC converter for up to 70W for tube power amps) because of how people treated that project.

Please don't let mass stupidity stop you. If this is something you are keen on doing, keep at it!

And you are not the first - there have been mass-production Peavey tube guitar amps with high-voltage switch-mode DC power supplies in the past. Repair techs don't like them, as they are not easy to repair. But the lower cost, lighter weight, and smaller size is great at reducing manufacturing costs, and making smaller, lighter amps.

Some years ago, I also found an Internet thread where people were using automotive inverters to power tube amps. (I mean those little 12V SMPS that plug into your car's cigarette-lighter outlet, and put out 120V AC or 230V AC to run consumer electronics devices.) Apparently these inverters first step up the 12V DC to about 170 V DC or 330 V DC, then chop that up to create either 120V RMS AC, or 230 V RMS AC. The inverters had to be hacked a little bit to get at the high-voltage DC inside, but if you get one of the 230 V AC type, the internal 330 V DC is high enough to power a small tube guitar amp.

How dare me to introduce something more convenient that the good ol hunka iron...

This is exactly why I stay away from the tube Hi-Fi forums - too much religion, tube-worship, and superstition. I can't stand that atmosphere.

...18 year old...audio amps...test gear...fixed up...

Very cool! I was a lot like you when I was 18.


-Gnobuddy