The Amp Garage

:D Colossal! Your description of that amp makes me really think that I will build one in near future. I have already built one Express and one Liverpool so I know somehow what to expect. I also made a couple of years ago a Firefly but I sold it away because I did not get right sounds out of it. I re...

:) Hi Alexi! If you live in Finland like me, you can buy the biggest part of tube amp components from www.uraltone.com. I have used this web shop for a long time. It is reliable and their prices are reasonable. There are also other equal web shops like www.tubetown.de and www.banzaieffects.com but t...

:D I just came from our band rehearsals where I had first possibilty to test my new Bluetone Plexi Lead in real life. It`s sound was marvellous and with VVR I could easily scale power to a level where there was not too much sound pressure but amp still sounded like plexi. EL34 is the king of tubes a...

Tom! when I innovated name Bluetone here in Finland years ago, I did know that there is an amp company in USA with name Blue Tone. I was in contact with ex Blue Tone people recently in good common understanding and they said that their company went out of business some years ago. I build my amps as ...

After heavy working I got a new baby to my Bluetone family. If you want to go to see it, here is the link www.bluetone.fi/21. It has a fixed bias VVR in it plus some minor modifications. Heavy bench test will start next week end with my band. Regards Harry

:( I am just thinking to start a Matchless Lightning 15 project and faced the same question concerning OT impedance. Lightning is a derivate of Vox AC15 and I think that this BadCat is the same origin. I seeked information from net and come to conclusion that this OT should really be 4 kohm. Many pe...

Pretty baby, Harry! Especially like the mahogany and the RED chassis. Did you simply butt joint the boards? Transformers are looking fat for a <15 W amp. More like 50 W. Schoen! Ciao Martin I nowadays use "bisquits" to join pieces of wood together. There is a certain machine in the market which mak...

:D I made an amp with a combination of Twreck Express pre amp and a power amp with 2xECL86 tubes. Power amp design is partly my own and partly stolen from somewhere. My aim was to produce a guitar amp which is suitable for lead playing purposes with reasonable volume level. I added also PPIMV and VV...

I was referring to schematic version A0 in files page, which shows a different approach to tonestack connections. Now I think that those schematics you sent here are the right ones. Thank you of your kind help. Harry

:) I think that all best things in life are simple. It seems to be human nature that I make things at first too complicated. That solution with only one input jack and parallel connection to both halves of V1 and TURNING volume up or down in each channel is simple but seems to be really sensible and...

I am referring to Ron Worley updated schematics of Express in files section. That version is now confusing me.

I am just building one amp with Express pre amp and I am now a little confused with Express tonestack connections. In the newest version of Express schematics there are bass and mid pots connected only from the other end and viper. Is this how it should be done? In previous versions the other end an...

:) Hi guys! Thank you of your kind support with this switching question. I will try that on-on-on switch first with multimeter and alligator clip cables to see if it works in real life. I do not prefer outside splitter cables in guitar inputs because they are always lost when you need them. Also I d...

:) I took and ordered one on-on-on switch from my local supplier and hopefully have it next week. Anyhow I will make a field study with a multimeter and loose cables to check switching combinations in real life before proceeding with project. It is not nice if you make certain size holes to your amp...

:D Hi Colossal! Thank you very much of your help with this problem. I know that Plexi sounds best with both inputs jumpered, but because I am an experimental guy, I always want to have alternatives to find the best tone for different purposes and situations. I was heavily considering to do it perman...