Sweetwood 18 watt lite 2b kits.

Does anyone have any experience with them? I finished my 5e3 and am wanting another amp. I'm just in the info gathering stage, but I know that I want a Marshall type amp. Haven't seen much about Sweetwood online, so I thought I'd ask here.

Thanks in advance.

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The "Marshall 18W" is/was a straight knock-off of the "17W" WEM/Watkins Dominator.

In actual fact the "mini-Marshall" Dominator sounds more like a JTM45/Bluesbreaker than does the 18W "1974", mainly due to the fact that the later model 1x12 WEMs are in a much larger box than the Marshall.

Funny this one has come up because tonight is the first time in a long while that I've used my 17W Dominator.

The Greenback is important whether WEM or Marshall flavour.
Get the transformer right. Use the best bottles and get that V1 sensitivity (not gain) high for very dynamic touch sensitive open sound - its simple controls aid this. Note the WEM is a stage amp, it does not do mousefart, it is fairly loud even on 0.5. I could modify it to be more parlour-friendly but it might ruin its voice.

The original two-channels are fun as they are on opposite sides of the PI, you can get some cool phase-cancelling sounds using both inputs from "stereo" FX. The original had a decent valve-tremolo on the second channel.

I have no experience with Sweetwood, but I'll gladly sing the praises of the Lite IIb. It's been my only amp for over five years. I built mine myself on an old Bogen PA donor chassis, but I'm an electrical engineer by trade, so I was confortable sourcing all the parts myeslf. You can't really get everything you need from one place, so buying a kit makes that part of the job a lot easier.

The Lite IIb is a great amp. The single tone control seems like a limitation, but it's not; it gives enough control to dial in the amp's fundamental tone to your taste and/or the room. The two inputs are a great idea - the second, parallel-triode mode is a lot beefier that the normal mode. The 18 Watter is about the simplest push-pull amp for the DIYer, just slightly more complicated than a Champ.

From their website, the Sweetwood kit seems to have pretty good components. Ceriatone got its start in 18 Watters about the same time I built mine. I say go for it and let us know how it comes out.

Well my experience so far is that they haven't responded to en email in a week....

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Have you priced gds amps?
http://gdsamps.com/
They have a complete single channel kit or you can buy parts separately.
Sc chassis, plexi plates, heyboer transformers $225 shipped. Not too shabby IMO and you can source the rest. Plus they shipped way fast and Graydon Stuckey emailed a couple times and was very friendly.

Well my experience so far is that they haven't responded to en email in a week....

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Have you called them?

Office Address:
Sweetwood Guitar Co.
934 Delbert Way
San Jose, CA 95126
Phone:
415.260.4848


It says they are using Ceritone transformers

http://www.ceriatone.com/

I am also considering a lite 2b for my next build. I have no experience with them but what about Brown Note?

http://store.bnamp.com/18wattlitekits.html

The have different levels of kits for extra $

Anyone have experience with BN?

I did the math. Brown note chassis plates and trannys $250 (+shipping?)
GDS is cheaper.
That Brown note site does look like it has awesome stuff!

I did the math. Brown note chassis plates and trannys $250 (+shipping?)
GDS is cheaper.
That Brown note site does look like it has awesome stuff!

Maybe the GDS stuff is better but when looking at a "standard kit" (i.e. everything except head cabinet):

GDS: $620
Brown Note: $400, or include the head cab for $620 COMPLETE

FWIW: It looks like both kits use Heyboer transformers as well.

Cool!

Sweetwood no longer sells kits. They responded today. Brown note does look good. I'd rather not have to source all of my own parts. I'd miss something important. After I have enough pennies saved, I'm leaning towards the $400 kit from brown note. I'll have a carpenter friend build a head cab around it...

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Of course the biggest factor is customer service. Looks like BN has had some spotty service the past couple years so feel the water before ya jump in :sad:

Yeah, I've heard an read somethings about bn...I'll stay away from them...thanks for looking out for me guys. Just another thing that makes this forum great....

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