EL-84 w/ 5V4

[angelodp]

Can anyone point to a circuit that has this or close. Especially the single preamp and the Rectifier with EL-84's .

5E3 OT PT

1-12ax7 preamp
1- 12ax7 PI

2- EL-84's power
1- 5V4 Rectifier

1- vol
1- tone
1- vol
2- inputs

[David Root]

Sort of like a 20W Marshall with a tube rectifier. I'm not a big EL84 fan but I do like the 5V4 rectifier, it's a nice tube for in-between a 5AR4 and a 5R4 or 5Y3 and still only 2 amps on the heaters.

A 5E3 PT with a 5V4 will give you a pretty high plate voltage for the EL84s I think, you might want to consider one of the Russian NOS high voltage EL34 types instead, a lot cheaper and a lot tougher than NOS EL84s.

[rp]

A 5E3 PT with a 5V4 is not going to work out so well, as DR said too high for EL84s. Some "5E3" PTs are incorrectly around 350V too - did you check yours? What's so important about the 5V4? It's a useful tube to goose a 5Y3 amp, or drop a 5AR4 amp, but it's just an other rectifier. It occurs to me the poor 5V4 is the NJ of tubes - stuck btwn Philly and NYC and gets no respect.

BTW I'd caution against a 5Y3 and 5E3 PT too for EL84s as you'll be ~360V. You'll have a tube eater. You're going to want a PT around 280V, 300V tops.

Matchless Spitfire might fit your bill they'll have ~340V on the plates w/ 5AR4 so if your PT is low enough you might just pull it off with a 5V4. The Matchless used a burly 4k OT however. Yours will work fine but may not sound authentic. You can always mismatch the speaker or tap.

[angelodp]

Ok great info guys. I was not certain about the PT, as it was mentioned in an off hand manner at the shop where I saw and heard this amp. The little devil really cranked nicely.

Thanks A

[10thTx]

If you used a different PT, you could consider something like this.

Note the tone stack can actually be just one knob but with two switches if you substitue a 39k in place of the bass pot.

With respect, 10thtx