Little Walter Amps?

[Milkmansound]

one more thing I wonder about is how he gets away with a 25V bypass cap for the cathodes of the power tubes. If there are 2 6L6s its going to be closer to 40V if not more. That cap has got to be toast in just a few months. I can see that its a sprague 25/25 on the first gut shot picture.

[M Fowler]

That's the value of cap I used on my second 5b6 build.

25uf/25v with 250R/10w

[Milkmansound]

ah

maybe I am just used to my jacked up voltages

[telentubes]

Mark,
Of the two you have built, do you like one more than the other? Are there noticeable differences in the different build styles, transformers, etc.?

[M Fowler]

The higher wattage version the cage amp PTP sounds the best because I can push it for sweet overdriven tones. The lower wattage Fender blonde style version sounds great but less stage volume which isn't a problem if your not gigging or run through PA.

The PTP cage version seems to have some magical tones my friends and I like.

Mark

[kgreene]

Wow!

Sweet amp!

Is this a Super?

Yessir, it's a Super! Fine amp.

[Matt D]

I'm thinking of building a 5b6 as well. I play non-pedal steel guitar and I want to see why everyone over on the steel guitar forum is so crazy about this circuit without dropping $2500 (which is more than I will ever have to spend on one amp anyway).

Mark, did you change the dropping string for the 700-VCT power transformer or just build the circuit as is with higher voltages than Fender? I'll probably use a Blackface Bassman style output transformer. Any recommendations for a specific power transformer?

[M Fowler]

Matt,

The cage amp I built is based on the attached schematic from the Zottola boo no changes. Used Weber iron PT 700vct and Weber OT 4k/4R 40-50w rated

The second amp is based on Fender schematic but I used Hammond organ tranny and 4k 35w Fender type OT it was cheap around $30-35.

You don't need get expensive iron 150mA PT is plenty.

Mark

[Diablo1]

Mark, thanks for the schematic. Looks like a simple build and I already have all the tubes. Is the optional cap on the plate of the 6L6 supposed to knock off some high frequency? What value cap, and did you build yours with this cap?

[ToneMerc]

Is the optional cap on the plate of the 6L6 supposed to knock off some high frequency?

It's for dampening oscillations if it occurs, the value is .1uF.

TM

[Matt D]

Thanks Mark. I think I have most of what I need for this one floating around in the basement.

[Phil_S]

Well, look what I ran across today in my travels on the net:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1948-Fender-Twe ... 3a7d11c703

[Matt D]

I found this quote from Phil Bradbury on the Steel Guitar Forum:

"These are very close to the original tone stack used by Leo. With this
approach you actually do get a bit more volume with the tone control as
well. I do, however voice my signal side to accept (allow through) about 10
times more low frequency..."

I'm having a hard time making any sense of this. How can you get 10x more low frequency than the original 250uf bypass cap on the 5b6 preamp tube? 2500uf? I guess he is just talking about the unusualness of huge the bypass cap in the 5b6, but why make it sound like this is a new feature?

[M Fowler]

Might be talking about not using the 2meg resistors on the input. I did use the 2m for the cage amp.

On the Blonde I used 2m and 1m on the two inputs. A guy could reduce that down to 68k if you wanted.

[M Fowler]

I will be meeting a nice guy from the Steel Guitar Forum next Tuesday to run his steel guitars through some of my amps especially the 5b6 amps.

Can't wait to hear what they sound like, he's bring a cab with 15" speaker for the tone taste test

Thanks to Milkman and Matt D for linking this post to that forum and chance to meet local players.

Mark