I just completed a Matchless Lightning sort of beast in a steel cabinet and chassis from a repurposed 1959 Eico integrated mono amplifier. One EZ81, three 12AX7s, and two EL84s.
It rocks.
Nice!
Have a look at my recent tremolo questions thread. https://www.tdpri.com/threads/tremolo-questions.1130799/
First off, best wishes and health to @mountainhick and @Lancer X . I also hope things can come together for @wangdaning and that the new place will have a nice spot to set up all the tools
Like many, I've got a long list of stuff in the queue, but unlike many I haven't touched it in awhile. I've mostly been playing World of Warcraft instead of working on projects, but I hope to change that. I came back to Shock Brothers hoping for something that will motivate me, and this thread was the first one I saw. It's great!
Most pressing is a 5E3 that I've been chewing on for the better part of 3 years now:
View attachment 1107200
That's about how far it is, and I haven't touched it since the beginning of January. I have everything I need except a speaker and tubes.. even a cabinet that a friend built. I just can't get going on it, and instead I dream about other projects. I told myself late last year that I'm going to put it on the bench and work on it and nothing else until I get it done. All that has accomplished is roadblocking everything.
So I need to get off my backside on that one. I have no excuses, good or bad.
Other amplification stuff in the queue:
1) Add Reverb to the Black N Tweed from last year. At the same time I'm going to clean up some of the wiring, and also set it up so I can cascade the preamps with the flip of a switch. It will be a Tweed Princeton preamp into a Blackface Champ preamp. Not sure how well that will turn out but it won't take much to try it and see. I'm a daredevil!
2) 'Tune' the voicing on the Heavy Watter build from 2 years ago. It's awesome and sounds great, but it's really really bright. I think a little tweaking with some interstage cap values are in order. EZPZ, I just need to spend the time doing it. It also needs a head cab of some sort, as it's just a naked chassis. I'm going to try to bang something out with my limited tools, work area and knowledge, and try covering it too, with either tolex or fonky thrift store fabrics.
3) After all of that, I've got an evolving project in my head that I keep coming back to. It will be something along the lines of a micro Blackface Vibro Champ with Reverb, albeit with more gain. Minimum 3 triodes in the preamp with gain knob up front, tone stack and volume knob on the end. I keep tweaking it in my head, and there is a lot of stuff that I just don't know yet. The 'Cascade' switch for the Black N Tweed will tell me a lot about how many triodes I want in the preamp, and how many of them will want a cathode bypass cap. I hope to have practice-level surf cleans with Trem and Reverb, but also be able to get nice n dirty. I'm not sure yet if it could do both well or what sort of compromise I'll have to choose. I will lean towards cleans most likely. The working name 'Cosmo' has been in my head for awhile but other names I've considered were "VC+R" and "Fender Bender II".
4) Long after all of the above, I want to build a Princeton Reverb. It won't exactly make the above amp obsolete, as I live in an apartment and the 'micro' amps are perfect for that. I also (given my own druthers) don't generally play blisteringly loud when I don't have to. Sounds funny coming from a metalhead, I know.
5) I'll take a crack at Rob's JCM800 Micro as well, but that's probably one of the last things. I actually have an honest-to-goodness JCM800 but again, apartment life is no bueno. Also, it's stupid loud.
Along with all the tube amp stuff, I also like to play around with solid state things:
1) One or more transistorized versions of classic amplifiers. Preamps would be things similar to what you'd find at runoffgroove but with a chipamp or transistor output section. Why not?
2) One or more low watt chipamp amplifiers for my PCs. I have multiple PCs and all of them have crappy low-budget powered PC speakers that are failing. I figure some 6W stereo amps based around the TDA1517 and some thrift store speakers would be a huge improvement. Not amazing, probably could just buy something better for cheaper, but it's more about the journey.
3) I've got scads and throngs of parts and enclosures accumulated for an assortment of stompbox circuits. Some of the usual suspects:
BSIAB
Two-knob Tone Bender
Boss OD-1
Runoff Groove Mockman
MXR Distortion+
Along with a bunch of other stuff I've sort of come up with myself. The last one (I call it TeH KranC) evolved from a Tube Screamer and after all was said and done, I ended up reinventing the EHX Muff Fuzz. There are no new ideas!
Equipment counts, so:
1) I've got an Elenco Capacitor Sub box that I need to put together (with a HV cap on the input). That will help with tuning the Heavy Watter above.
2) I have a chemlab heater kitbashed into a variac, but it is all open on one end. Would be nice to have a nice box built around it.
3) I don't have a lightbulb limiter yet.
4) I built a small proto station with integrated 9V power supply for breadboarding stomp circuits last summer. It replaces another larger one I built decades ago that is worn out. However, I think I want to revamp it or build another that's bigger and has binding posts around the board for connecting test probes, etc. The other one had these and was twice the size, and I figured smaller might be better. I was wrong. Hard to see under the mess:
View attachment 1107210
5) Finally, I hope to build an outdoor workbench. I don't have a garage, I just have a small balcony attached to my apartment. Someone threw out an end table about 5 years ago, which I snagged and put out on my balcony. It's not designed to be in the elements and by now it's about ready to crumble. Plus it's really low for working on. It has served its use but this summer I hope to chuck it and build a proper 4' x 2' workbench out of treated wood that can stay out there year round and give me a place to beat on an amp chassis or hamfist some wooden head cabs, et al.
That's the non-weird stuff anyway. Back to World of Warcraft for that Saturday Night Raid!
