Blues Amp Recommendations

[paddy]

Hi everyone.

I have been asked by a friend to help him build an amp.He is an old retired guyand mainly likes to play blues.He doesn't like to play too
loud and will never gig.Does anyone have suggestions as to a suitable
amp to build.
By the way,he has an Ibanez with humbuckers and a Tele.

All help greatly appreciated.

cheers
paddy

[Bob-I]

Hi everyone.

I have been asked by a friend to help him build an amp.He is an old retired guyand mainly likes to play blues.He doesn't like to play too
loud and will never gig.Does anyone have suggestions as to a suitable
amp to build.
By the way,he has an Ibanez with humbuckers and a Tele.

All help greatly appreciated.

cheers
paddy

I'd build him a single channel Fender Deluxe. Ax84.com has a schematic called the Cali-lite. I had one for a few years and it sounded great at mid level volumes, just a little grit and nice shimmer ala Robert Cray/Buddy Guy. For more drive I used an old TS-9.

[dartanion]

5E3 tweed deluxe is one of my favorites for straight blues. You can get nice cleans to nasty dirty tones without any pedals.

[David Root]

Try a Gibson GA-40 with a self biased cascode in V1 instead of the 5879 pentode, should get similar tone if you set it up right but you lose the microphonics, noise etc. typical of the pentode in V1. I would do a 4x6V6 power section though, but in your particular case that doesn't seem necessary, 2x6V6 should be OK. But DO use the old '50s grayglass 6V6GTs, they have the right tone and breakup characteristics IMO.

I've been looking at a blues amp design myself and some of the old Gibson circuits bear looking at, especially if you are talking HBs or P-90s, which is what these old amps were designed for use with. The old Gibson Service Manual that used to be on schematicheaven.com has 'em all, up thru the '60s. If you're interested I can PM it to you, all 500 pages of it! Some of them are real headscratchers if all you're used to is tweed Fenders!

[El_Martin]

Hi Paddy!

I've just finished my Hoffman GA-5 Variant (1x ECC83, 1x EL84)
Volume (less than 5 W) is slightly too loud for the neighbours with a single 12"" Celestion G12-65 open back

Maybe not clean enough...but this can be changed easily
tweak a bit to his liking/playing/gear

I've included a bright switch and a 0,68 uF at the second cathode
(also replaced tube rectifier w. UF4007, choke replaced w. resistor, added 220 uF at El84 cathode )

Epiphone valve junior might be a donor amp

Ciao
Martin

Hi everyone.

...He doesn't like to play too loud and will never gig.Does anyone have suggestions as to a suitable
amp to build.
By the way,he has an Ibanez with humbuckers and a Tele.

All help greatly appreciated.

cheers
paddy

[ampdan]

Tweed Deluxe, classic blues amp.

[dragonbat13]

Deluxe. Check out some kits unless you want some special things like double turrets or something. I have been looking into a Deluxe build and have gotten some good info and ideas from angela instruments, hoffman amps and turretboards.com

[paddy]

Hi guys

thankyou all for the suggestions.It looks like the deluxe is most
popular choice and will be less time consuming due to the
availability of kits.
David,I have read so many good things about the GA-40,particularly
in Dave Hunters book where many noted amp builders choose
this amp as one of their favourites-I think I might build one for myself.
Thanks for the offer on the Gibson info,and yes I would appreciate a
copy when you have time to send it.

Many thanks to one and all

Cheers
Paddy

[dartanion]

Missionamps.com 5E3 kit is killer! Bruce is a good guy too.