Li'l Dawg - Top Dawg - new build June/July 2009

[wbm68]

Hello all,
I will start a thread here documenting a new build from Jim at Li'l Dawg for me. I have ordered a Top Dawg, which is based on the '59 Bassman.
I hope this will help others here who may be considering getting a Li'l Dawg amp.
First of all all I want to thank everyone on the board who has answered my many questions over the years. All your input helped me in my decision of getting the order placed with Jim.
A very big thanks to KDAD, another Top Dawg owner who's been answering my questions regarding his build for I believe over two years now. Thanks!!!

I had been on Jim's waiting list for a few years, and recently learned that his wait times are now drastically reduced. He is currently not building his own cabs anymore and build time from order to finish is around 1 month.
That did it for me and I placed my order on June 19th and used paypal for my half down payment.
Here is now the process as it develops.
Enjoy!!!

Here is a link to Jim's site. Have look at his other builds if you'd like.
Li'l Dawg Home Page

[wbm68]

After several phone calls and conversations with Jim I ended up placing my order as follows (prices removed):

$$ Li'l Dawg 5F6A Top Dawg chassis build
incl. chrome reproduction chassis
incl. 50 watt Hammond #1750M output transformer wired for 8 ohms
incl. blue Fender style pilot light
incl. cream chicken head knobs
incl. hi & lo gain inputs
incl. adjustable fixed bias control
incl. 2 x 1/4" speaker output jack
incl. one extra long speaker lead (3 foot)
$$ tube set of new JJs (1 5AR4, 2 6L6GC, 2 12AX7, 1 12AT7)
$$ lacquered tweed 4x10 cab from Mather Cabinet Co. (www.mathercab.com)
$$ Set of four Weber 10A125 alnico speakers (8 ohm, 20 watt, medium dope, standard dustcap, blue frame)


I went with an 8 Ohm transformer so I can use my 8 Ohm Hotplate.
I believe Mather makes cabs for Victoria amps too.
For the Weber speakers I asked for "medium dope", as I do noodle in the higher registers with a lot of distortion ;)

[wbm68]

Ok, since July 1st Jim has started sending me pictures as the build develops.

Here are the first ones.
Starting the build:


Finished Circuit Boards:


Chassis getting loaded (rear):


Chassis getting loaded (int):

[wbm68]

Chassis getting loaded (front):

[wbm68]

On July 2nd Jim send me the next update and the next batch of pictures.
With each e-mail also came some technical descriptions about the build itself.

Loaded chassis interior top view:


Loaded chassis interior bottom:


Loaded chassis front view:



Loaded chassis rear view:


Here is a link to Jim's site. Have look at his other builds if you'd like.
Li'l Dawg Home Page

[wbm68]

I should have taken along my photo album password.
The next batch of photos has to wait until tonight then.
Sorry.

[wbm68]

Hello, here are the pictures I had received on July 3rd.

Finished chassis rear view:


Finished chassis interior top:


Finished chassis interior-1:

[wbm68]

Here is part 2 from Friday July 3rd.

Finished chassis interior bottom:


Finished chassis interior-2


Finished chassis front view:

[wbm68]

This Monday I received an update that "the chassis is dialed in now and running strong". Unfortunately Mather is closed this week so my cab won't come in until next week.

So far so good. As you can see I have been kept well informed by Jim about what's going on. I don't understand much of the technical aspects, but even I can tell that he is doing some really clean and professional work.

[wbm68]

Just fyi, comments are of course welcome here. Chime in if you'd like.

[wbm68]

I just received an e-mail from Jim that the speakers have arrived. One step closer!!!

[Yoni]

will you give it to me?

How's that for a comment?

[wbm68]

Originally Posted by Yoni

will you give it to me?

How's that for a comment?

Now how am I supposed to understand this?

[Swee_tone]

Wow, he does nice work! Thanks for sharing the photos of this amazing build. I'm sure you are excited to see it coming along so nice, it's been fun watching it.
Keep those photos coming!
Also can't wait to hear about the final product when all is done, hopefully some sound samples coming our way?

[wbm68]

I have received an update that my cab will arrive tomorrow from Mather. If all goes well, the amp will ship to me next week!!!

[wbm68]

The cab has arrived. Pictures will follow.

[wbm68]

The cab has arrived:



Back:



Trying on the Li'l Dawg badge:



Making the badge:

[wbm68]

Speakers:


Chassis - you can see the extra long speaker cable which can reach my Hotplate (eventually) sitting on top:


Front loaded:

[wbm68]

Finished Back:


Finished Front:


Finished Top:

[wbm68]

Finished front:


Finished front:


Finished back:


Finished back:

[Marshall Thinline]

wbm68,

That amp is beautiful!!!
Thanks for all the detailed photos. Your work is beautiful and neat.

Now....how about some sound clips?!?

[wbm68]

Originally Posted by Marshall Thinline

wbm68,

That amp is beautiful!!!
Thanks for all the detailed photos. Your work is beautiful and neat.

Now....how about some sound clips?!?

My "work" is just posting the pictures here which Jim has been sending me. Jim is the builder and his company is called Li'l Dawg. Here is his web site: Li'l Dawg

The amp is on it's way to me and should get here Tuesday August 4th, 2009.
Sound clips and video etc. should probably follow sometime in August after I had some time with the amp.

Thank you for the compliment though, I fully agree with you that Jim has done a great job and I can't wait to finally plug in :)

[wbm68]

Here is the final picture for now. The real "little dog" made an appearance for the final shot Jim had send me. So here they are:
Top Dawg and Little Dog:

[Marshall Thinline]

That is awesome that he sends photos of the build! I thought this was a Kit option that they had. I guess all the beautiful photos distracted my reading. You are getting an instrument by someone that loves what they do. Enjoy!

[Hecks]

That's just freaking awesome. Great to see an 5F6A come together. I love my '59 LTD but if it ever takes a dive I'm buying one of those chassis' the next day. I like the white knobs and purple light too!

[wbm68]

Today is the day. The FedEx truck is out for delivery!

[OaklandA]

If it sounds anything like it looks...and i'm sure it will....you are one lucky dog (ouch, bad pun there).

I'm envious. A Li'L Dawg Bassman. Sweet.

[wbm68]

The amp arrived yesterday. I wish I had had the patience to take some pictures on how Jim had packaged the amp up. Unfortunately I only had an hour before I had to head out for a gig at the Hollywood National Night Out.
The amp was very well packaged up. The tubes came separately in their boxes and were clearly marked 1 through 6 as I had asked Jim to do for me.

I plugged the tubes in and turned the amp on just to make sure it worked. Just going by first impressions I have a good feeling about it.
The big real test will be tomorrow night though when I can be really loud at rehearsal.

[wbm68]

Last night I spend 2 hours with the amp at a rehearsal studio and could really crank it up for a first test drive.
It will probably take a few days of use to get the speakers broken in and get familiar with the amp some more. Here now my first impressions of the "test drive":
1. The amp smells new in a good way :)
2. It is heavy at around 50 pounds
3. I definitely need an amp cover (already ordered)
4. Appears to be a solid build and all works as expected.

5. The amp is loud, but at full volume it is still ok for a band situation. My 50 Watt Boogie through a 1x12 or 4x12 is way louder.
I like the Normal Channel high input best so far. The bright ones are too bright with a Strat. But, keep in mind that I still need to mess around with various settings some more and may change my mind about this.
I used mainly a Strat with CS '69 pups.

It stays clean up to around 12:00 maybe even 1:00 o'clock.
Bridging the channels gives a little earlier breakup and I need to explore that some more.
Most of the time I stayed on the Normal "high" input.
The amp has very little background noise even when cranked up. About the same as my Boogie.

6. Sound
Less gain than I expected - which is good in my case. At pretty much any volume setting on the amp (even when all the way up), a boost or OD pedal in the front can still increase the overall volume quite a bit. Most likely this is due to the low gain pre-amp tube in the first gain stage.
I kept the amp on around 4:00 pm, which is a little more than 3/4 up on the volume.
The amp has nice pronounced mids, which are completely missing from the clean channel of my Boogie.
With a Strat I had instantly the typical Strat sounds now. With just the amp itself and using the volume knob on the guitar I can go from Fender clean to Stones crunch. The amp is also very touch sensitive.
Now with pedals Stevie Ray no problem, Eric Johnson no problem, Mark Knopfler no problem, Blackmore and Hendrix no problem.

I must say that my guitars sounded much "truer" than ever before. The CS'69 pups sounded much better and more alive than with the Boogie, and the Power Lace Sensors sounded much more artificial than with the Boogie.

I used the following pedals:
Fulltone '69 and OCD, H.B.E. PowerScreamer, Prescription Electronics C.O.B., MJM Foxey Fuzz, MI Audio GI Fuzz, Fulltone Clyde Deluxe Way, Fulltone Mini Deja Vibe, H.B.E. Phaser, Boss DD6 and Ernie Ball Volume Pedal at the end of the chain.

The Fuzz pedals, '69, GI and COB sounded way way better than ever before. I had used them with my Boogie, Fender HotRod Deluxe, Deville, 65 Deluxe, etc. in the past.
Fuzz pedals truly came alive with the Li'l Dawg. A night and day difference. Adding the COB to any of the Fuzz or OD pedals almost made me drool. The amp absolutely changed how the pedals reacted and sounded.

OD pedals: OCD too bright and PowerScreamer too honky now. I will need to spend some time with these excellent pedals to try to dial them in again.
Most likely I'll need to get one other OD pedal as the OCD and PowerScreamer don't stack too well. We'll see.

The wah, and modulation pedals sound good as they already did before.
As many have said before, and I completely agree, no reverb is needed with this amp.

I'll do another "session" like this with my Humbucker guitars and a Tele soon.

Overall I am very happy with the amp so far and can't wait to really get to know it better.
I plan on making some sound and video clips once I have it all dialed in some more.
It is actually quite a learning experience getting used to the amp with all the pedals, as it reacts and sounds so different compared to the Boogie or the HotRod Deluxe.

[wbm68]

Tomorrow I'll take the Top Dawg out for his first gig.
So far I am very very happy with it, and I am still discovering more and more things about it tone wise. Surprisingly versatile amp.

[MickM]

Sounds like you're having fun playing with your new amp! Enjoy. Jim will be putting my 5E3 head on the FedEx truck tomorrow. Can't wait. Good luck to you and the Dawg's 1st gig.

[Pickalittle]

"OD pedals: OCD too bright and PowerScreamer too honky now. I will need to spend some time with these excellent pedals to try to dial them in again.
Most likely I'll need to get one other OD pedal as the OCD and PowerScreamer don't stack too well. We'll see."

May I suggest a ZVex Box of Rock pedal? I am a huge Fulltone fan and especially an OCD fan through my Victoria 45410 Bassman, but the Box of Rock is absolutely exquisite in a 5F6A, especially with the OCD in front of it. Much warmer tone modeled after the JT45 Marshall amp.

I thoroughly enjoyed this post! Very well done!

[wbm68]

Originally Posted by Pickalittle

"OD pedals: OCD too bright and PowerScreamer too honky now. I will need to spend some time with these excellent pedals to try to dial them in again.
Most likely I'll need to get one other OD pedal as the OCD and PowerScreamer don't stack too well. We'll see."

May I suggest a ZVex Box of Rock pedal? I am a huge Fulltone fan and especially an OCD fan through my Victoria 45410 Bassman, but the Box of Rock is absolutely exquisite in a 5F6A, especially with the OCD in front of it. Much warmer tone modeled after the JT45 Marshall amp.

I thoroughly enjoyed this post! Very well done!

I hope you will keep enjoying it some more :)
Thanks for the recommendation on the BOR. That, the KOT, the Tim, Timmy and ZenDrive are on my list of pedals to try.
In the mean time I have added a Durham Mucho Boosto and Sex Drive to the board. The OD "section" is now Mucho Boosto < OCD < Sex Drive
The OCD is the main drive, the Mucho Boosto is added for more gain and overall "fatness". The Sex Drive is last and used as a volume boost.

[Pickalittle]

Please let us know how your pedal search turned out. Very interested in your outcome.

[bgood]

Wow. Nice.

[wbm68]

Hello,
so far I am using the OCD with a Mucho Boosto for more gain in front, and a SexDrive for volume boost after.
I did order a Tim pedal though and am on the waiting list. Supposedly my turn is December 2009.
I really like the pedals as is, but you never know, the Tim really might be that good :)
We'll see.
I can still highly recommend the Li'l Dawg Amps. Mine gets moved around quite a bit and is holding up great. Jim build a very good quality amp!!!