My NEW AMP being born

[StukaJU87]

Here are some progress pics of my new amp in the early stages of construction. Kathy's brother is building this for me. Some parts are kit parts and others he hunted down. Kathy's brother Jeff has been restoring, repairing and building tube radios, stereo amps, ham radios etc as a hobby for about 30 years. He is also the guy that designed the current NYC 911 emergency system. Though, this is only his 2nd full guitar amp build, I think he can probably handle it.

I know nothing about amps and wonder if you gurus can tell from the layout what it might be. Pete (TwisterAmps) and Jeff (StratGod) already know, so no cheating.:ROTF:

[Infernal Death]

Looks very nice.
I guess it's a JCM800 2203/2204 ?

Right now i am building my second tube amp. It's gonna be a BadCat HotCat30 clone. Got most of the parts, the chassis is already drilled. Just need to receive the missing parts, stuff the boards with them and then it's off to wiring, installing the transformers, testing and hopefully playing Oh yeah and building a cab for it (which i never did before so i am not sure how it will turn out haha).

Flo

[demeyes]

I'd love to have a go at building an amp but I'm going to try a few pedals first. Hope this turns out well for you

[StukaJU87]

Looks very nice.
I guess it's a JCM800 2203/2204 ?

Flo, DING DING DING!!!! 2203. Wow, I would never have been able to guess that by looking at the board, but then, I don't build amps.

[StukaJU87]

I'd love to have a go at building an amp but I'm going to try a few pedals first. Hope this turns out well for you

Thank you. This is something I'd never do on my own. I do not have the knowledge or skills of you guys.

[StukaJU87]

And here is the head shell I picked. I wanted the amp to look like the older amps, not like the billboard style amps of the 80's with the giant logos and rocker switches.

Thiis will have the small logo and toggle switches with the little square power light.

[Infernal Death]

Well i have to admit i looked at quite some schematics and layouts of the JCM800 because i also want to build this amp somewhere in the future. So that's why i immediately recognized the layout.

Amp building is a very cool hobby (not to mention it can be worthwhile if you are a guitar player too ) Demeyes is on a good way first to build some basic stuff like pedals.
After all those amps work on very high voltages so you better know what you do and what to touch (or better what not to touch). Also very important is a safe build, for example proper grounding of the case. You don't want to have 400V sitting on your amp case by any chance

Stuka, do you plan on Jeff building you a basic JCM800 or implementing some mods ? Any hints on what transformers you are using ?
From what i looked around it's quite easy to get original replacement transformers for marshall amps. Also Hammond has recently released a guitar amp transformers line with also models for the JCM800. I wonder how they are.

Flo

[Infernal Death]

Wow that's a beautiful cab for your amp. Haha actually building the cab for my amp is what i am afraid of the most Maybe i buy a premade one. I am not exaclty known for my wood working skills

Flo

[Robotechnology]

That's going to be SHARP when it's done!

[StukaJU87]

Flo, I have to look at some of my emails from him. He told me the type of transformers he bought, but I forgot. Let me go check.

[StukaJU87]

I could not find the emails with the tranny details. I remember the name Dagnall? Is that right? I think he said the power trans has a tap for 80% and 100% power. I don't know. It is all Greek to me.

[hippietim]

that cab looks great - can't wait to hear your review!

[demeyes]

Nice choice of amp and color too. I've got something similar myself but yours will be a bit classier I'd say.

[StukaJU87]

that cab looks great - can't wait to hear your review!

Well, I know that the 2203 does not have the gain I really want, but we knew that going in. Ideas are in the works, but not until the amp is tested for a while. Thanks on the cab. I always like the white on the old style boxes.

Nice choice of amp and color too. I've got something similar myself but yours will be a bit classier I'd say.

Yours looks great. Classier? Nah...just different.

[Infernal Death]

I could not find the emails with the tranny details. I remember the name Dagnall? Is that right? I think he said the power trans has a tap for 80% and 100% power. I don't know. It is all Greek to me.

Dagnall sounds right. I believe they built transformers for Marshall and many original replacements are Dagnall. So i guess that's a nice choice for your amp.
What's your choice of tubes ? I guess Svetlana EL34's ?
In my BadCat Clone i will use 2 Svetlana EL34's, a JJ GZ34, 1 Tungsol 12ax7 for V1 and the rest of the preamp tubes will be some chinese 12ax7.

Flo