Tube Amp Archive

Cool idea! So what would a the proper values be for the EL34 bias resistors? And rated how many watts?

I don't think it's the guitar (a les paul), it sounds fine with other amps.

The filtering is 40uf then 16uf and 8uf.

What in the world can cause this, I don't even know where to begin to look. I have a tweed champ clone (with a vibrolux OT) and everything works fine, but...I get a weird overtone on the notes, it's especially noticeably is I play a closely voiced chord up the neck, say 12th fret or so. It's like a ...

Thanks for all the replys. I like something to drive my amps with, but just can't stand any SS pedals. Tube preamp pedals are definitely better and can sound really great if the gain is kept lower (up higher they sound too preampy), but the best of all is a line out off a full amp! That really sound...

Thanks for the replies.

I had to laugh about the wasting power remark. I guess that's true, but...have you heard a Herzog?? The final sound is what matters to me...those things really sound good.

So where can I find info on this Firefly business?

Hey guys, I've been looking for a tube overdrive pedal and nothing I've found really is what I'm after. I've built myself a Herzog which sounds really, really great, but it's big! (For those that don't know, a Herzog is full 5w amp but instead of a speaker, the output transformer is hooked to a resi...

As far as the rangemaster on Beano goes, there's a guy over on the Les Paul Forum who was an assistant in the studio for the Beano recording! He says definitively, no Rangemaster. As far as converting the Express over, you might want to look at my mod thread called 'Finally got rid of the fizz'. I w...

Have you tried your setup in a band situation? I always found that I needed more High end than I could ever imagine in a live situation and less bass. Yeah, I play in a band, so I've been hearing it live as I make the changes. You're right though, you always do seem to need more treble than you thi...

Well, it still wasn't quite there. Sitll a little too fizzy and buzzy. So I did a few more mods that I thought I'd share. I actually took pots and hooked them across where every reisitor went to see how the sound changed by adjustment, then I measured the pots when I thought it sounded just right an...

FWIW, I just can't stand attenuators OR MVs. And I've tried lots. I just use smaller amps when I can't crank up the big guy. I haven't tried power scaling though. But MVs and atten....they just hurt the amp's tone.

Well, I ended up tweaking a bit more. Set up like I had it, it was a little boxy sounding. So I changed the 500pf in the tone stack there to a 250pf...hmm little too bright/thin now. So then I settled on 350pf. Perfect! (I always thought of that cap as the "treble" cap, but I think it does as much t...

Here's a couple of slight things I've done to my Express copy (I'm not fond of the "clone" word). After I built it, I thought is sounded great. Then after a while, it wasn't really quite what I was after. It was 90% there, but something was missing for me. That "something" was mainly a little warmer...

If you're not worried about in-home volume levels, and just want small club and outdoor, a good alternative is a pentode/triode switch. That'll give you about 34w or 17w or so and you can keep it "stock" in the pentode position. Give you 18 ro 9watts too with 6v6s.

You might want to kick this project up to the front of the line! This is seriously one of the greatest amps on the planet. For clean OR drive.

Easiest fix first? You can really reduce gain by swapping out one or more of the AX7s for AT7s.