I have had a few emails wanting to know about the Ginger clone I am working on. I should have Trannys tomorrow (Thanks Moose!) and hope to have it fired up this weekend (Time permitting) If I finish her during the Easter weekend I may name her Bunny
Anyway here is a couple of pics of the progress so far At least they aren't so blurry as the originals
Thanks for the kind words. Yes I am geting Antsy to get her fired up and test out the 1/2 power switch and line out features. Can't wait to here how she sounds either. Hopefully this weekend, if everything goes right. Just finished up my last amp repair in the shop (MB Rocket 44) and I have the iron still hot so I'm going to get back at it. It would appear that the last one built like this was 25 years ago.
Thanks for the kind words. Yes I am geting Antsy to get her fired up and test out the 1/2 power switch and line out features. Can't wait to here how she sounds either. Hopefully this weekend, if everything goes right. Just finished up my last amp repair in the shop (MB Rocket 44) and I have the iron still hot so I'm going to get back at it. It would appear that the last one built like this was 25 years ago.
So which tap should I try first. 5200 or 6600??
I would think 6600. It is closer to the el84 impedance...no?
Here is some updated pics (More Progress) of the Ginger Liverpool clone. I still have the controls, 1st preamp tube and OT/ speaker wiring to finish. Since Easter has come and gone I hope to have her finished this weekend.
Allynmey wrote:
I would think 6600. It is closer to the el84 impedance...no?
No -- 5200 is closer. Generally, you see 2x El84 amps running 8K and 4x EL84 amps running 4K. AC30 runs 4K, for example. 18 watt runs 8K.
That said, I wonder how 6K6 sounds. But, personally, I'd start with the lower impedance tap first.
And the workmanship in the amp is nice. I'm looking forward to a tone report when it's done! You'll be able to compare and contrast with the Expresses so many folks have built recently.
I have already wired it for 5200, it's just hard to make out in the pics. Moose I thought the same as you that 5200 was closer to 4k than 6.6, but I have left enough leads to try both. 6600 may be a happy medium between 8k and 4k for switching to 1/2 power. I'll let ya know how it goes. The amp is producing about 312 v B+ with 4 EL34 connected. When I flip the 1/2 power switch (disconnecting 2 EL84s) it goes up about 6 volts to 318. I don't think this will cause a problem with bias. It looks as though I may have a few variations to run through before I call it finished.
It is hard to know which tapping will sound best without trying them.
I had heard that 6.6K was used on both the Express and the Liverpool (with 5.2K being a preferred upgrade/mod amongst Express cloners), but as has been pointed out by Moose, the AC-30 does use a transformer with an impedance of 4K.
When I was getting transformers for my 18 watt build from Dan Boul, he was experienting with higher primary impedances with his amp. He told me he liked way the amp broke up with the higher primary impedance, but he had head room issues.
Getting back to the Liverpool amp, I have heard other cloners preferring 6.6K for the Liverpool over 5.2K. I could believe that Ken Fischer would have used 6.6K on the Express so he could use either 6V6's or EL-34's in his amps, but in a Liverpool surely all he can use is EL-84's. So there is no reason to compromise the primary impedance of the output transformer.
Anyway, that's the way I see it with the information I've been told, but the best way is to try it and see what sounds good. After all that is what it is all about. Please keep us all in the loop Dana.
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