KingRazor
Tele-Meister
Just curious, are there any single ended class a guitar amps that have more than 5 or 10 watts?
class a amp more than 5 watts?
- Thread starter KingRazor
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KingRazor
Tele-Meister
Sounds pretty awesome, how many watts is that?
gtrguru
Friend of Leo's
That Gjika amp sounds great. Think they go for about $2k used and are 30 watts.
I could be wrong, but, If I'm not mistaken it's something like 50watt/50watt for a combined 100 watts. I believe that amp in the video has two power amps.
I see 4x EL34's I believe. I think the amp is running 2x in parallel for each power amp. So maybe a bit closer to 30 watts, but then again, I've read about an amp getting 200watts (Push pull) from a quad of EL34's, so anything is possible.
Plate dissipation calc says 550V on the plates running at 40mA current can yield roughly 22 watts from one tube. A quality EL34 in class A operation should be able to handle that, but I'm not expert. 44 watts per power amp is close enough to be called 50
. I've got a '50 watt' amp that puts out 43watts with 6L6's Push-pull. The transformers to support these wattages single ended would likely be expensive.
As you can see the Power Transformer is nearly the size of a cinderblock and the builder talks about the weight for the amp being in the triple digits
I see 4x EL34's I believe. I think the amp is running 2x in parallel for each power amp. So maybe a bit closer to 30 watts, but then again, I've read about an amp getting 200watts (Push pull) from a quad of EL34's, so anything is possible.
Plate dissipation calc says 550V on the plates running at 40mA current can yield roughly 22 watts from one tube. A quality EL34 in class A operation should be able to handle that, but I'm not expert. 44 watts per power amp is close enough to be called 50
. I've got a '50 watt' amp that puts out 43watts with 6L6's Push-pull. The transformers to support these wattages single ended would likely be expensive.As you can see the Power Transformer is nearly the size of a cinderblock and the builder talks about the weight for the amp being in the triple digits
Wyatt
Tele-Afflicted
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Commercially,...
THD Bi-Valve (discontinued). Two parallel SE power amps. About 30 watts RMS with largest power tubes. There are a few parallel SE amp designs in the boutique marklet that will drive 6550's and KT88's for some "umph!"
Some company announced a 5x SE guitar amp years ago but I don't think it ever made it to market. It wasn't an obscure boutique company, but a brand name; I can't remember who.
dlaroe
Tele-Meister
You'll see big iron/big tube SE amps marketed as harmonica amps like this Weber kit.
15w from a kt66 its a little higher wattage.
The Two Stroke amp in one variation had two parallel tubes.
You'll probably have to have one custom built or build one yourself most Two Stroke commercial amps or kits like Weber's Maggie or the one by Victoria only have one power tube.
15w from a kt66 its a little higher wattage.
The Two Stroke amp in one variation had two parallel tubes.
You'll probably have to have one custom built or build one yourself most Two Stroke commercial amps or kits like Weber's Maggie or the one by Victoria only have one power tube.
KT66? What about...
Been tempted to do a Class A build with a single KT120 output tube. I've always wondered why the KT88's weren't very often used in guitar amps. Single ended or push-pull they seem scarce. Seems like it makes more sense to have a pair of KT88's in higher wattage amps, rather than a quartet of the smaller tubes. And a single KT88 or 6550 rather than running 2x 6V6 or 2x6L6/EL34 in parallel for class A.
bparnell57
Poster Extraordinaire
Because it's still a more expensive tube.
6550's were 5-10 times as expensive as 6V6's back in the day.
ThermionicScott
Poster Extraordinaire
The Champ 12 schematic only sez "10 watts" for what that's worth -- the "12" was solely in reference to the speaker size.
AJBaker
Friend of Leo's
Laney makes some. One of their lionheart amps runs on 5 x el34s!
The Champ 12 schematic only sez "10 watts" for what that's worth -- the "12" was solely in reference to the speaker size.
Thanks for the definitive answer. I've read many "about" estimates. Good to know.
bparnell57
Poster Extraordinaire
You can make any amp Class A. It just takes some manipulation. A guy on here was looking to make a 100+ watt Class A amp. The biggest suggestion was to get an SVT and modify it.
Agreed, it seems like a single KT88 amp might be a very good option on the small amp menu.
I have a cathode biased dual el34 amp that accepts 6ca7, 6550 and KT88, and they distinctly change the character and volume of the amp, so being able to swap out a single KT88 for an el34 in a smaller room (or going from country to blues) would be a validly useful feature.
I'm not sure where the price issue would fall today if you wanted to build a dual KT88 amp instead of a quad el34 amp, both might be hard to sell.
I bought a quad of KT88s when Svetlana was getting sold and rumor had it that they would stop production, but until now had no amps that used them.
They have considerably more treble and bass than el34s, so they kind of make a Marshall sound like a BF Twin with the mids all the way down.
Not my favorite sound...
bparnell57
Poster Extraordinaire
I actually had a THD Bivalve, and it was honestly the most harmonically bell like clean tone I ever heard, and it sounded practically the same at any volume up to breakup. It had a built in attenuator, so it was really great for getting big warm cleans and tight class A breakup at low volumes.
mitchfit
Tele-Holic
Winfield Thomas built me a single ended 6973 amp based on the basic valco "24" suffix circuit that also became national and i think gretsch branded amps with different tweaks.
think the RCA 6973 was rated for about 12 watts, but when visiting 1624 main street in Suproville, you don't hear many vulgar references about clean headroom....
seems like a SE 6L6 oughtta make more than 10 watts too.
mitchfit
think the RCA 6973 was rated for about 12 watts, but when visiting 1624 main street in Suproville, you don't hear many vulgar references about clean headroom....
seems like a SE 6L6 oughtta make more than 10 watts too.
mitchfit
Halo
Tele-Meister
Isn't that the L20H? It runs a quad of EL84's for 20 watts of output power. The 2x12" combo has both a V30 and a G12H speaker, which is more or less the "golden" combination. Street price in the Netherlands and Germany is about €1200 now, which suggests they are being dumped to make room for newer models.
I got it's little brother, the L5T. Very good amp if you ask me [emoji6]
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