Wrecking the 18W

[Subjecttochange]

Hello all-

I am sure this has been discussed a thousand times... but I figured- what's 1001.

I have never been totally happy with my 18W TMB clone that I built about a year or so ago. It sounds pretty decent with my strat at low-medium volume, but it just lacks a certain something with humbuckers. Maybe it's just not my thing.

I am considering the following- so if anybody has any comments about stuff they've tried please let me know how they worked for you.

Most likely:
-Keeping the two input PI and changing the "normal" channel to a clean channel based on the Bad Cat HotCat (volume control- no control tone stack).
-Changing the TMB channel to a mean rocket or a liverpool sans the NFB.
-Possibly keeping the EZ81 or adding a switchable tube/ss rectifier switch.
-Maybe changing out the EL84s for 6V6s (which will give it a more express flavor)

Any other cool ideas?

Anthony

[JamesHealey]

A full liverpool circuit minus the NFB loop and another pre-amp next door would be totally unstable and just squeel like a pig imho especially in the 18w chassis layout. Check out on 18watt.com the T-Rex amplifier this is a version of the wreck with switchable NFB and a slightly more stable variant of the circuit.

I'd also suggest looking into a hot rodded marshall circuit with a MV + the other circuit you suggested.

Maybe a Roccaforte HG100 circuit u can find the info on metroamp, rockstah built one into his 100w Plexi and it sounded amazing!

James H.

[JamesHealey]

http://mhuss.com/18watt/schematics/18wTRex.pdf

[Subjecttochange]

Thanks I'd heard of the Trex- don't think I've ever seen the schem though.

I know that it would be pretty unstable to do the Liverpool type pre next to another channel. I planned on having to make some adjustments to the circuit to calm it down a bit- just wanted to see if it'd been done.

It'd be a lot easier to work with the rocket pre than the liverpool too... just a totally different feel.

[Structo]

You could always mod the 18 to sound better with the humbuckers.

For instance, something I did on my D'Lite was to have a switch that altered the mid cap value which seems to be the frequencies of the biggest differences between the single coils and humbuckers.

I think that is the .01uF on the TMB which is the same value found on the D amps.
I simply wired in another .047uF cap in parallel on the switch so I can switch Fat or Thin.

[Subjecttochange]

Hey Tom. I don't know if it's as much of the mid characteristics as it is the overall attitude of the amp... just not- *something* enough. Can't quite put my finger on it.

That 'bucker/single coil cap trick might be useful in the future though. I'll have to keep that in my bag of tricks.

James- I think what I may end up doing is just replacing the "stock" channel with the hot cat clean. Keep the versatility and the NFB.

I just realized there are like 3 or 4 different threads posted within the last week or so that basically deal with something along the lines of what I'm trying to do. I may just lurk around there for a while.