Need help with building the right amp ( update)

[chikov]

Hello guys! I fixed many amps already, refurbished a few, built the Ceriatone Overtone special from their kit. Now, a friend of mine asked me to build him a tube amp ( of course...). Well, the problem is he does not know what kind he wants except it has to be over 50 Watts and has a good clean tone. I suggested Fender Deluxe type of an amp, but they are 20Watt... Could you advice me what should I offer him? I'd rather buy a kit, and not the most expensive one, please. Thanks.

[RWood]

Just my opinion ...Anyone who don't know exactly which amp they want has no business with a tube amp over 50 watts. I have well over 50 gigging musician friends and not a single one uses over 50w anymore.

[Littlewyan]

I remember when I first looked at buying a NMV Marshall and some people believed they needed the 100W. HOWEVER these people don't use the amp to it's full potential or anything near as they set the volume to 0.5/1 and use pedals. I didn't know this at the time though .

Now that I have more experience, the next amp I build will be no more than 20W. Even that is pushing it, as without an attenuator it will still be ear blistering!

What does your friend want? What style does he play?

[cbass]

Dang guys I play 50 and 100 watt amps in my basement it's fun to makes cabs dance.
But seriously if he only plays clean he may really need atleast 50 Watts

[Phil_S]

If you haven't had a real discussion on 20W vs. 50W or 100W, you owe it to him to do that. Then, he won't be coming back later because the amp isn't what he really wanted.

The Deluxe is anything but clean. I don't understand why you mentioned it.

Ampeg specialized in being the king of clean. Look at those. Fender Twin is known to be clean and loud. At only around 25W-30W, the Fender 5B6 (Tweed Bassman?) is killer clean and you could probably ramp it up to 50W by making it with a quad of 6L6. I mention the 5B6 because it is an easy build compared to many other amps and, aside from the power, it seems to fit what you are asking for.

[Firestorm]

Maybe a Pro Reverb. One speaker or two. With a robust enough PT and high enough B+, it could certainly do 50W.

[chikov]

THANK YOU very much for all the help. It gives me a lot of food for the thought. I will study everything you, guys, mentioned so far and talk to my friend.
My friend plays kind of Jazz-Rock and he wants an amp he can use in rehearsal and small gigs.

[Structo]

Does he use pedals?

Does he use the volume knob on the guitar much?

[chikov]

Hello Tom!! Long time no see. The guy is a Russian who lives here in Houston, TX and he is a good musician and composer, but he does all his recordings on computer and therefore his guitars do not sound that great. I slowly began exposing him to the secrets of the real tone, but in many ways I am not that advanced myself... Yes, he wants to use a distortion type of a pedal for the solos and may be some light overdrive at times. No, he does not use his volume knob much at all (I like where you are going with this )

[chikov]

Just played a gig with my friend. I brought my Ceriatone Overtone Special 100W. He plugged his Strat and Line 6 guitar processor into it. He said that he liked the clean sound but not the overdrive. I told him that the digital pedals do not always go well with tube amps, right?
He said he wants just two types of tone - clean one for the rhythm and distorshn for the lead. He wants about 40watts. The overdrive we can achive with the pedal of some kind... I told him i would search for availible kits... But there are so many of them out there. I incline to offer him one of the Fender corcuit... Could anyone tell me which one has a good modern sound and can pump 40Watts or so? He wants a line out too.

[chikov]

I will look into Fender 5B6 and Pro Reverb ( what is the number of its schematic?).

[Firestorm]

The first Pro Reverb is AA165. It uses a GZ34 rectifier. If you go that route, you'll want a good one: Mullard, GE or Matsushita. You can also go solid state like a Twin, maybe with a small sag resistor.

[The New Steve H]

Has he ever played a 50-watt tube amp? If not, maybe a visit to Guitar Center is called for.

The first tube amp I bought was 60 watts, I believe. I turned it on and wondered what was wrong with it! Traded it for 15 watts and still had to turn it way down.

[Reeltarded]

It sounds like you are trying to talk him into an amp he doesn't want and probably doesn't need.

[arjepsen]

For recording, you might also consider building him a Randall Aikens reactive dummy load box. For me, it works very well, and it might be much easier to use instead of micing up a 50+ watt amp.