The Amp Garage

+1 on the congratulations

Another source of high-pitched squeal to tackle. Hopefully not too often

I'm with Mark - I was astounded how much gain I got (on my semi-Liverpool) with a Tele. Enough for Gary Moore style legato soloing without any stompbox.

If you look at almost any Marshall, you'll see a 47pF/50pF cap across the PI's two plates.

What type of MV do you have? If it's the simple voltage-divider type that sits in front of the PI, it necessarily reduces distortion at lower settings because the PI itself doesn't distort (like a Marshall 2204, etc). Are you still hungry for gain when both of your amp's volume controls are maxed? I...

I still like proper phenolic boards for all of my builds - modern and vintage. But the paper-based ones (as used in old Brit amps) are harder to machine than many newer materials. You've got to alter your drill skills to suit the material so that you don't melt the material as you work it, and so th...

ricks57 - well your crunchy clip was quite comparable to a non-MV Marshall. But I presume the TW-clone also gives you what the Marshall can't - the more compressed and smoother overdrive lead tone? In my semi-Liverpool clone, I got a tone out of my Tele's neck pickup that I've never got out of a pre...

Robert - re the underwhelmed reaction of the music store guys - now that the amp's properly fettled, perhaps it might be better to leave the amp there for them to try over time?

Amp looks good. Get a discount on red wire?

Just kidding

That's great tone. :) I was listening with headphones so I got the full 'wow!' effect when the 2nd guitar came in. Now how come we don't have that head-banging-smiley dude icon here? :D REemind me - does your amp have MV? Because I don't equate a setting of 7 on the volume dial with being 'just abov...

Looking good. :) I saw your other post, and I agree - my semi-Liverpool's tone controls aren't too effective once the amp is cooking. But the basic tone is so good, I stopped worrying about it! I've got an Express clone in the pipeline, and I may try a Vox-style 'Cut' control on that. In fact I shou...

My understanding is that the Liverpool PI is 'dirtier' than the Express PI. In fact, ISTR the Liverpool is very similar to the Dominator/18Wer PI - and that is famous/infamous for having fairly little clean headroom.

I use a Weber MASS with my semi-Liverpool and it works great. I also have the Hotplate which is OK, but I prefer the MASS. Not tried an Airbrake, though.

Congrats! :) Though if I did any clips, I must've done them in my sleep! Because I've been trying on and off to get happy with an audio interface for weeks and still haven't managed it :( Weird about not having enough gain for you, though? Compared to my BF Fender (an old Bandmaster) - my semi-Liver...

I don't think reducing that R would help the clean tone at all. It would change the character of the distortion.

If I was loking for clean, I'd bypass the 3rd stage altogether. Or just dial the guitar's Volume pot down as KF intended

Yeah, I hate it when these tiny issues hamper an amp build. For my first few builds, postage costs on so many little bits soon built up, too. I should declare a vested interest first: I'm launching www.ampmaker.com for European amp builders later this summer. Funnily Rs and Cs - being so easy to get...

:) Great work. S'funny seeing a valve-rectified one - I've got a JTM45 chassis sitting here and had fantasised about a JTM45/Express hybrid... Anyway, since there's no clip to listen to, I'll have to pester you with lots of questions: What's with the knob on the top of the chassis? Is that a Hammond...