New amp

[hellhound]

Hello,

I have been reading this forum for a quite a long time but haven´t posted anything yet. This autumn I finally finished my first Dumble inspired amplifier and here is the result. I call her Santa Cruz 50 Reverb. It took me almost two years to build.
My goal was to build an amplifier with the Dumble spirit but I didn´t want to make an exact clone of the ODS.
The Santa Cruz is a 50 watter with 6L6 power tubes. The circuit is very similar to #124 but I added an Ampeq-style cap coupled reverb. It is said that is is difficult to build a good reverb for a Dumle-style amp but this one is just awesome. I think that you have to be able to turn the reverb knob all the way up and it still hast to work and sound good.
I used a Hammond PT with 350@175mA secondaries and a universal Made in U.S and A 50 Fender-style OT. At first I was a bit worried about the current capacity of the PT, but it actually runs pretty cool even when cranked all the way up. The chassis is laser cut 2mm aluminium. It´s powder coated and the faceplate and backplate are screen printed by me. Unfortunately I had to give the amp to it´s new owner before I could get it photographed, so I only have pics of the (almost)finished chassis. The amp is housed in a orange tolex covered cabinet with a nice mahogany front piece.
I know the owner of the only real deal Dumble in the country ( Finland that is) and had the chance to have my Santa Cruz and the D#153 next to each other. I have to say that they were amazingly identical. Mine was just a tiny bit more aggressive sounding with the same settings. Peter also liked the reverb.

I have to say that this is a really really great forum with lots of helpful people who know what they´re talking about,
Thanks!

Petteri

[bluesfendermanblues]

Nice build: don't quite understand why you spent 2 years building it only to sell it short after. It looks like a keeper to me.

[Structo]

Interesting use of the cap cans.
What made you decide to go that way, verses the axial lead electrolytics?

I really like the YouTube clip Peter did and so if he likes your amp you are in good company.

Too bad you didn't get to keep it.

I would have liked to see the cab you made for it.

Do you have a schematic for the reverb you used?

[Tonegeek]

Interesting use of the cap cans.
What made you decide to go that way, verses the axial lead electrolytics?

I really like the YouTube clip Peter did and so if he likes your amp you are in good company.

Too bad you didn't get to keep it.

I would have liked to see the cab you made for it.

Do you have a schematic for the reverb you used?

Ditto

Very nice work. Can you describe the process to label the chassis?
thanks

[mlp-mx6]

Agreed - I'm very curious how you "screened" it yourself. Please share!

[talbany]

HH

Welcome here!!.. Congrats on the fine build.. Looks Great and thanks for sharing it..Play it often..

Tony

[hellhound]

Thanks for the comments,

The reason why I got rid of the amp so fast is that it was ordered from me in the first place, and I kept the new owner waiting for almost two years. He was rather patient though. I think the waiting time for a Dumble was even longer.

For some strange reason I happen to like the can caps. I´ve used axials as well in my previous builds, but recently I´ve been using cans.

I have no schematic here at the moment for the reverb, but basically it´s a rocketreverb type of circuit with one 12au7 and one 6cg7.

The screen printing is a pretty simple thing. Draw a picture, make a film of it, go to a company that does screen printing and ask them to make the silk for you, and buy some ink. Find a properly ventilated room and print. There are hundreds of videos about printing T-shirts in the internet. The only challenge is printing straight to the box. For that you need to use a bit of imagination to get it attached well to tha table positioned right under the screen. I´m going to do one screen printing job after the chrristmas so maybe I can take some photos of it.

Petteri

[hellhound]

Here is another example of my screen printed boxes. (with can caps as well)
HH

[heisthl]

Very nice - So what is the capacitance of each PS node?

[Guitarman18]

hellhound wrote:

The screen printing is a pretty simple thing. Draw a picture, make a film of it, go to a company that does screen printing and ask them to make the silk for you, and buy some ink. Find a properly ventilated room and print. There are hundreds of videos about printing T-shirts in the internet. The only challenge is printing straight to the box. For that you need to use a bit of imagination to get it attached well to tha table positioned right under the screen. I´m going to do one screen printing job after the chrristmas so maybe I can take some photos of it.

That would be interesting to see, please post it. How many good prints can you get from a silk?

Cheers,

Paul.

[bluesfendermanblues]

Here is another example of my screen printed boxes. (with can caps as well)
HH

Man, you're a great builder. Very clean. Love the running strip along the output tubes. Nice......

[mat]

Sweet looking builds ! Congrtats ! So much cleaner than mine

Where are You located, Helsinki ?

[hellhound]

Sweet looking builds ! Congrtats ! So much cleaner than mine

Where are You located, Helsinki ?

Kiitos! Yep, in Helsinki.

[Structo]

Man that screening is sweet.

Is this second amp a Hiwatt clone?

Looking forward to your screen printing tutorial.

[hellhound]

Man that screening is sweet.

Is this second amp a Hiwatt clone?

Looking forward to your screen printing tutorial.

The second one is not a Hiwatt clone. Only the idea for the layout is from Dave Reeves. I like it more than the Fender style layout. A Fender is easier to mod, but the Hiwatt style layout can survive from a nuclear war (as well as the parking inspectors i guess ) The amp is what I think is a good surf/HankBMarvin amp. It has a nice 6K6-driven reverb and a very simple preamp. The power amp has four EL84:s.

HH