Dirty Harry build

[erwin_ve]

HI guys,

A long time ago, when I started playing guitar, my first tube amp was a Marshall JCM800 combo, 1 channel. I absolutely hated the amp.
It had no balls, no bass and overdrive pedals were no succes either on that amp.
Little did I know then and sold the amp.
These days I play and build Dumble style amps which tones I like more, I think.

Making a long story short; one of my friends I want to surprise with a Jose style Marshall as he doesnt connect with Dumble style amps.
I used one of my Dumble spare chassis and pcb. Made a faceplate and the build is almost done. I guess tweaking time has come.

[erwin_ve]

And more pics:

[dcribbs1412]

Gotta say
Those face-plates are classic!
Absolutely cool
So the pc pin octal sockets are to fill the holes?
Maybe a 3 channel clean, crunch, dirty next... the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly?

[erwin_ve]

Gotta say
Those face-plates are classic!
Absolutely cool
So the pc pin octal sockets are to fill the holes?
Maybe a 3 channel clean, crunch, dirty next... the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly?

Movie themed faceplates are a unlimited source of joy A certain character from Star Wars also entered a possible design stage.
For know I keep this 1 channel, and tweak it till it is good.

The pcb pin octals are to fill the holes. I bought them by accident, and they are not gonna be used anyway...

[norburybrook]

great stuff Erwin. Funny I was toying with making a hot rod Marshal for my last build. Ended up with the Bad Cat/Matchless thing instead.

I'm still missing a proper high gain amp tough so the soldering iron may well be put back in use.



M

[Guy77]

Looks great Erwin. I remember watching all those Dirtry Harry movies with my Dad in the 70's !!
What material did you use for the faceplates, was it the engraving plastic?


Guy

[erwin_ve]

Guy: I watched them in the 80-ies on VHS. You can come up with great parodies after seeing that movie:-)

Faceplate is 1.5mm transply, laser cut and laser engraved. You can get the material in all kinds of colors. Great stuff.

I just powered the amp up. Great lead and rhytm tones are there. Gotta play with the clippers; I got 1N4007-red led-1nF jubilee clipper, 1N914 and ordered some other 1N4749A, 1N4747a, MPSA06.
More options?

Im new to the clipper thing; what do you guys prefer and listen for when choosing the clippers?

[erwin_ve]

After looking at Reeltarded posts I had the 1n914 diodes in today. 2 parallel, opposing diodes. A bit too much for me, after putting a 25k trimpot in between, I ended up with 7k resistance on the trimpot. It is sounding awesome! Looking forward using other clippers.

[T Wilcox]

I just powered the amp up. Great lead and rhytm tones are there. Gotta play with the clippers; I got 1N4007-red led-1nF jubilee clipper, 1N914 and ordered some other 1N4749A, 1N4747a, MPSA06.
More options?

Im new to the clipper thing; what do you guys prefer and listen for when choosing the clippers?

Other than the ones you mentioned I like the 2N5400's that you will find in Friedmans. I think its a little less saturated than the MPSa06's. I've heard people like the 18v and 20v zeners as well but I have not yet tried them.
I love the faceplates! I wish I could find somewhere to do custom one offs that dont break the bank.

Todd

[T Wilcox]

After looking at Reeltarded posts I had the 1n914 diodes in today. 2 parallel, opposing diodes. A bit too much for me, after putting a 25k trimpot in between, I ended up with 7k resistance on the trimpot. It is sounding awesome! Looking forward using other clippers.

I did try those 1N914's after reading Reeltardeds post as well and in my build they were not very pleasant. More fizz than I like but it could be circuit dependent as well

[erwin_ve]

I just powered the amp up. Great lead and rhytm tones are there. Gotta play with the clippers; I got 1N4007-red led-1nF jubilee clipper, 1N914 and ordered some other 1N4749A, 1N4747a, MPSA06.
More options?

Im new to the clipper thing; what do you guys prefer and listen for when choosing the clippers?

Other than the ones you mentioned I like the 2N5400's that you will find in Friedmans. I think its a little less saturated than the MPSa06's. I've heard people like the 18v and 20v zeners as well but I have not yet tried them.
I love the faceplates! I wish I could find somewhere to do custom one offs that dont break the bank.

Todd

Thanks Todd, 1n5400 is on the list now.
The 1n914 without the trimpot is too gainy and loosing too much jcm character, with the trimpot at 7k it is just right for me. Also I have the impression it does make the drive a bit smoother that way.

For the faceplates you might contact dorrisant, he is US based and does nice stuff: see https://www.volitionamps.com/

[T Wilcox]

[/quote]

Thanks Todd, 1n5400 is on the list now.
The 1n914 without the trimpot is too gainy and loosing too much jcm character, with the trimpot at 7k it is just right for me. Also I have the impression it does make the drive a bit smoother that way.

For the faceplates you might contact dorrisant, he is US based and does nice stuff: see https://www.volitionamps.com/
[/quote]

Hey Thanks! I totally forgot about Reeltardeds squish pot. I meant to try that out but never did. guess Ill be doing that after dinner haha
Just checked out Dorrisants site, cool stuff man. I'll have to figure out exactly what I want for my next builds faceplate before I contact anyone.
On these Jose style builds I've just been using standard Plexi face plates which work great but its about time I do something custom

Thanks!

[erwin_ve]

Tried some clippers and settled with 1n4749A and a 1n914 with the trimpot. I got them on a On-Off-On switch.

The 1N4749A has a nice clear low end and the 1N914 has the aggresive low end. Nice to have them on a switch.
I made a vid with the 1N4749A clipper, this is at low volume.

[Colossal]

Sounds killer! Nice and clear!

[erwin_ve]

Sounds killer! Nice and clear!

It plays, sounds and feels very good. If only my first Jcm sounded like that, I still would have it.