Just put 6L6's in my D'Lite

[stelligan]

coco,
There are plenty of people grinning from ear to ear with their D'Lite kits purchased from BrownNote. I,for sure, am one of them. Just this morning I switched the first stage plate resistors back to the original values and I could not stop playing the darn thing in OD. IMHO it sounds stellar. I have made a few minor changes over the course of it's life, but in all honesty in it's original incarnation it was nothing to scoff at. The 2 biggest tonal improvements were SED 6L6's and a Celestion G1265. Those were to the outards not the innards. Clean tone headroom is my only minor beef - and that's a small one. I own 2 other D-alikes, an HRM and non, and their clean tones are by far bigger and louder. They have Bassman and MusicMan iron though. I wanted a small venue or studio recording combo - and it delivers. So far so good with the OT and it gets alot of hours.
P.S. I never use the bright switch because it is just too bright for me. heisthl has suggested a lower value - like 120 - and using the bright switch may give the clean tone a little extra. I'm soon to try this.

[mlp-mx6]

I just added an extra relay to my non-HRM build to enable bright ONLY in clean mode. When I switch to OD the bright cap is now out of the circuit. I really dig this change, as I did not like the OD tone as well with bright, but did not like the clean tone as well without it.

I recommend you try it, anyway...

[brownnote]

I just added an extra relay to my non-HRM build to enable bright ONLY in clean mode. When I switch to OD the bright cap is now out of the circuit. I really dig this change, as I did not like the OD tone as well with bright, but did not like the clean tone as well without it.

I recommend you try it, anyway...

+1...that's a good one.
FWIW; That was the intended purpose of the 3rd relay on the ampdoc relay board (for me anyway).

[mlp-mx6]

That was the intended purpose of the 3rd relay on the ampdoc relay board (for me anyway).

I used my 3 original relays for OD, PAB, and Mid-Boost. I really like having mid-boost on the footswitch. VERY useful, IMHO.

[heisthl]

That was the intended purpose of the 3rd relay on the ampdoc relay board (for me anyway).

I used my 3 original relays for OD, PAB, and Mid-Boost. I really like having mid-boost on the footswitch. VERY useful, IMHO.

I agree, mid boost is as usable as PAB especially if you want to get from scooped clean to fat overdrive. Bright can give you the a similiar effect by counteracting the mid boost for more of the scooped clean sound but the ideal would be to have both. If I could only have one it would be mid boost and I would put a 120pf bright cap in because it gives you sparkle on the cleans without ruining the OD tone.

[stelligan]

More mumbo jumbo from my mondo combo...
http://members.cox.net/schmuggle/toreup.mp3
My G1265 has developed a brittle fizz in the high end. This was with an EV12L loaded. Anyone know what Celestion's warranty is like?

[novosibir]

Thanks Larry,
the BrownNote iron is designed to accommodate 6V6, 6L6, and even EL34 - PT also has taps that can be doubled to supply relay power . The EL34s may be a bit of a stretch as current draw would be higher, but go to brownnote.net and search the forums for someone that may have a build using them. And yes, I have switched several times between 6V6 and 6L6. I'm remaining with 6L6 from now on as I prefer a little more muscular clean tone before breakup. IMO the D'Lite gets after a RF tone a bit more with 6L6s and does the lower gain LC thing a bit better with 6V6s.

I've meanwhile went in touch with Moss of BrownNote and he emailed me, that he is offering/has offered the D'Lite22 kit as a Standard kit and also as a 'Super Deluxe' kit, where upgraded parts and another OT is involved.

He wrote me somewhat of a '4K OT', what's probably the primary impedance of this OT. Anyway - I'm just curious, which OT was in your amp, as you've recorded these awesome sounding clips.

Yes, I'm seriously thinking about ordering a D'Lite kit from Moss, although I'm already building my own line of guitar tube amps since 19 years. But this small baby sounds so nice, that I must have one just for relax playing from time to time

Larry

[stelligan]

Larry,
I was in on the first run of kits that were offered by Normster and Moss through the BrownNote website. I wish I could tell you more about the OT, but maybe Moss can clear that up. Mine was, as I understand, one that was a special wind they came up with for the kit. It has a paper covered bobbin with the BrownNote logo on it. A modified Heyboer vibrolux OT? Maybe? Sorry I can't be of more help.

[novosibir]

Wow, that was a quick reply Thanks!

I'll check it out with Moss after the weekend - because I'd like to get EXACTLY this type of OT, what's installed in your amp!

Larry

[stelligan]

P.S. to Larry.
With 6L6 this OT yields impedances of 8, 4, and 2 ohms rather than the 16/8/4 using 6V6. I was hipped to this after the switch. This may be common knowledge to many that frequent here, but I am a noob.

[novosibir]

P.S. to Larry.
With 6L6 this OT yields impedances of 8, 4, and 2 ohms rather than the 16/8/4 using 6V6. I was hipped to this after the switch.

Thanks, but I already knew this

W/o the intention, to confuse anybody, but to make it a tad more exactly:

Two 6V6's in push-pull class AB operation usually require a OT's primary impedance of about 8.8K - two 6L6's in the same operation require a OT's primary impedance of usually 5.6K

So with two 6L6's feed into a 6V6 OT, a tad more than half the impedance will be reflected to the OT's secondary, what 'strict mathematical' then would be 10.2/5.1/2.6 ohms, corresponding with the 16/8/4 selector positions.

But don't be confused! Nothing in a guitar tube amp is calculated 'exactly to the physically correct point' (and even shouldn't be!), and even a higher or lower plate voltage (theoretical) would require a higher or lower OT's primary impedance, to 'satisfy' the math or physics... blabla

So since the 10.2 ohms (present with the selector at 16 ohms) is anywhere inbetween 8 & 16, no harm would be done to the amp, no matter using a 8 ohms cab or a 16 ohms cab, when a 6V6's OT is fed from two 6L6's! Or from another view point: When i.e. you're using a 8 ohms cab, you can switch the amp either to 8 ohms, or to 16 ohms w/o to be afraid of harm to the amp.

OTOH OT's usually are fairly forgiving components, only the output tubes would have some more stress, when a mismatched speaker load is hooked to the amp.

Larry

(Sorry for my lacking English - I'm a German )

[Normster]

novosibir, I just wanted to comment that your amps look awesome!!! Superb design and workmanship. You sir are an artist!

[novosibir]

Thanks Normster! Your kind words about my amps are very appreciated

Larry

[greiswig]

P.S. to Larry.
With 6L6 this OT yields impedances of 8, 4, and 2 ohms rather than the 16/8/4 using 6V6. I was hipped to this after the switch.

Thanks, but I already knew this

W/o the intention, to confuse anybody, but to make it a tad more exactly:

Two 6V6's in push-pull class AB operation usually require a OT's primary impedance of about 8.8K - two 6L6's in the same operation require a OT's primary impedance of usually 5.6K

So with two 6L6's feed into a 6V6 OT, a tad more than half the impedance will be reflected to the OT's secondary, what 'strict mathematical' then would be 10.2/5.1/2.6 ohms, corresponding with the 16/8/4 selector positions.

But don't be confused! Nothing in a guitar tube amp is calculated 'exactly to the physically correct point' (and even shouldn't be!), and even a higher or lower plate voltage (theoretical) would require a higher or lower OT's primary impedance, to 'satisfy' the math or physics... blabla

So since the 10.2 ohms (present with the selector at 16 ohms) is anywhere inbetween 8 & 16, no harm would be done to the amp, no matter using a 8 ohms cab or a 16 ohms cab, when a 6V6's OT is fed from two 6L6's! Or from another view point: When i.e. you're using a 8 ohms cab, you can switch the amp either to 8 ohms, or to 16 ohms w/o to be afraid of harm to the amp.

OTOH OT's usually are fairly forgiving components, only the output tubes would have some more stress, when a mismatched speaker load is hooked to the amp.

Larry

(Sorry for my lacking English - I'm a German )

I'm German, too, which may explain my confusion...

Anyway, I would appreciate some clarification here: if I am running 6L6's on the 8k OT, and going into a 4 ohm cabinet, where should my speaker selector be pointing? What, if any, are the sonic differences between running 6L6's on the 4k and 8k OT assuming that one has the speaker impedance selector positioned properly for each OT?

Thanks!

[Deric]

if I am running 6L6's on the 8k OT, and going into a 4 ohm cabinet, where should my speaker selector be pointing?

8 ohm