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I told John (JGCable) awhile back that if he wanted to check out this amp, I'd send it to him and see if he liked it or not. At worst he could give it a good playing/inspection, and at best he would be addicted to my tube amp creations [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]
But, the amp was really rough looking... now, I know it doesn't look production by any stretch of the imagination, but at least the controls are labeled. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] If I ever did more of this amp, I'd have faceplates made... this was more of a 'what the hell does a matchless sound like anyways' thing, and since I didn't want to drop the coin for a real one, I built one with schematics and surplus transformers. Here are a few pics and a quick tour:
From left to right, we have a jewel light, same size/style as many fenders, power switch, rhythm mode. Rhythm mode is a preamp gain control that is footswitchable - you set it at a lower level than the regular one. This gives you a cleaner tone and makes the amp a bit more versatile. I used a setup like this because it changes the amp tone the least, and my switching setup is VERY quick and silent. It's not a true two channel amp, but it maintains a single channel amp tone, if that makes sense.
Then we have master, tone, and preamp controls, pretty standard stuff. 1/4" footswitch jack for the rhythm mode, uses a regular channel footswitch, and of course, our good friend, the input.
On the back we have attenuator volume for a 16 ohm load, and unattenuated 8 and 4 ohm outputs. Yep, this is another departure from the Matchless setup. Also a fuse, and the amp uses a marshall/computer style cord, which I prefer over a hardwired one. Tube sockets are all ceramic, and are as follows:
1) 12ax7 preamp
2) 12ax7 preamp
3) EL84 power tube
4) EL84 power tube
5) Rectifier tube - can be 5Y3GT for less voltage/volume/browner tone, or others for more voltage/volume/cleaner sound. Transformers are Matchless, and that little one is a choke.
I still have a little more tightening up work to do on the amp, but I think John will at least have some fun goofing around with it when I send it to him. I'm always curious when people get to check out stuff I built - sometimes I spend so much time tweaking, I lose focus.
Pete
But, the amp was really rough looking... now, I know it doesn't look production by any stretch of the imagination, but at least the controls are labeled. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] If I ever did more of this amp, I'd have faceplates made... this was more of a 'what the hell does a matchless sound like anyways' thing, and since I didn't want to drop the coin for a real one, I built one with schematics and surplus transformers. Here are a few pics and a quick tour:
From left to right, we have a jewel light, same size/style as many fenders, power switch, rhythm mode. Rhythm mode is a preamp gain control that is footswitchable - you set it at a lower level than the regular one. This gives you a cleaner tone and makes the amp a bit more versatile. I used a setup like this because it changes the amp tone the least, and my switching setup is VERY quick and silent. It's not a true two channel amp, but it maintains a single channel amp tone, if that makes sense.
Then we have master, tone, and preamp controls, pretty standard stuff. 1/4" footswitch jack for the rhythm mode, uses a regular channel footswitch, and of course, our good friend, the input.
On the back we have attenuator volume for a 16 ohm load, and unattenuated 8 and 4 ohm outputs. Yep, this is another departure from the Matchless setup. Also a fuse, and the amp uses a marshall/computer style cord, which I prefer over a hardwired one. Tube sockets are all ceramic, and are as follows:
1) 12ax7 preamp
2) 12ax7 preamp
3) EL84 power tube
4) EL84 power tube
5) Rectifier tube - can be 5Y3GT for less voltage/volume/browner tone, or others for more voltage/volume/cleaner sound. Transformers are Matchless, and that little one is a choke.
I still have a little more tightening up work to do on the amp, but I think John will at least have some fun goofing around with it when I send it to him. I'm always curious when people get to check out stuff I built - sometimes I spend so much time tweaking, I lose focus.
Pete
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