I was looking over the layout for Ceriatone's version of the BE50 Deluxe and noticed they wire the HT CT in between two dual 50 uF can caps. Being as the amp uses a FWB SS rectifier, is this better than leaving the HT CT ungrounded? See in the lower left hand corner. Thanks.
The only other question I would ask of anyone who knows this amp is, although I know this is designed to be a Swiss Army Knife build, which if the 6 switched tone controls really matter most on this amp to you?
I see:
1) "S" = Gain structure
2) Era = diode clipping hard/soft
3) Texture = mid shift
4) Voice = more EQ shaping
5) Thick (Fat) = add more frequencies
6) Bright ( I love me a bright switch).
7) and of course, the channel select. Might want that one.
Reeltarded wrote: ↑Thu Jun 01, 2023 8:16 am
This amp looks like it was imagined by a small child in an ice cream shop.
Anything that has bright caps just before the output is a poorly engineered idea. If you lost the shine earlier.. you ain't getting the real thing.
LOL. I swear, I need to remember to swallow my beverage entirely before reading any more of your posts. Classic.
The Friedman BE-Deluxe is an amp I've never played, but a lot of people like it. There's just so much going on here, I'm more of a set-it-and-forget-it type of player. I wondered what any of you like about the Voice or Era controls.
Here's a drawing based on this layout. Also an SCH I found online of the actual BE50D, but looks like it has errors in the OD Gain and Master wiring to the relays? Not sure about that, but one seems to ground both. I still can't get KiCAD to print the junctions, so apologies in advance.
AHD50 DRAFT-NOT TESTED.pdf
BE50 Deluxe V1.5.jpg
Is there a modern rock amp y'all like better?
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This type of amp is 90% of my amp world. I constantly try to get amps down to as few controls as possible. My most complex control set is 12, so not much different.
Here are the important controls of a Super-Super.
Slope: Depending on what amp I am building, the slope is adjustable but limited. Some of my amps have a deep (>100k) slope only to affect gain in a very controlled way. 50k pot over 47k is a fair sweep. I never liked 33k in my life.
Brights: I use a 6-position switch on about half my amps. The other half have a similar configuration over the mixer instead and a very small fixed cap over gain 1.
Clippers are fun toys but needing more than one is a waste of parts. Try 100 diodes and pick the one that you like, then put it on a trimmer to find the exact point that it works with only about 1db of signal reduction at the output tubes. It's easy to pick diodes. Find out what is in your favorite distortion unit. Done! If you are crafty and careful, you don't even need a switch to defeat the clipper.. if volume isn't an issue... sort of.
With great slope, stock TS setup, mixer peak, split gains and some form of NFB control (I use loads so volume isn't an issue about half the time my master is dimed) everything can be incredible without another page of parts. ERA sounds like a time machine? Diodes are a pretty terrible time machine. Voice.. I dunno. Slope does that for me. All of my tone controls could be welded at 50% rotation and I would be happy.
What you really want is probably much simpler than you think. It was kind of uhh 10 years to get what I wanted, which is a 4 holer that sounds like everything. A JTM with thump and sustain like a Boogie, but note definition.
If you started with a stock 800 head, you could make a total monster with plates, cathode, and bypass changes only. Literally 9 parts.
3 stages 2k7/.68u. 220k, 150k, 120k plate on V2. Stage two needs a plate bypass.. 470p works ok. Smaller is better and move wires around. 220p is maybe my minimum?
Slope. Is. Life. wire it with Rg174 and put the control next to the treble. Build the tone stack on the pots. You delete about 30 inches of signal hating inductance just by having short leaded caps attached on the pots. Immediate +100% awesome.
And really, don't forget that the most important thing is slope.
I can't say this enough. Slope is the amp.
Signatures have a 255 character limit that I could abuse, but I am not Cecil B. DeMille.
dorrisant wrote: ↑Fri Jun 02, 2023 9:26 pm
The HT CT going to the center of the series connected rectifier caps... Looks like some of the late 70s Fender Twins. It is a voltage doubler.
It's not a Voltage Doubler, it's simply a full wave bridge with the center tap connected between two series connected filter caps. The only difference between that circuit and the vast majority of solid state amps is that the negative side of the bottom half cap is grounded where in a solid state amp that would be the negative rail.
A Voltage Doubler puts out a Voltage equal to twice the end to end peak Voltage of the transformer winding. Below is an example from a MusicMan 2100. In that amp, the winding does not have a center tap, a tap of about 30% gives a Hi/Low power option.
MM_V_Doubler.GIF
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ViperDoc wrote: ↑Tue May 30, 2023 7:50 pm
I was looking over the layout for Ceriatone's version of the BE50 Deluxe and noticed they wire the HT CT in between two dual 50 uF can caps. Being as the amp uses a FWB SS rectifier, is this better than leaving the HT CT ungrounded?
Connecting the center tap to the junction of those series connected cap cans forces the B+ to divide equally across the cans. Similar to putting balancing resistors across the caps.
Since there is one half B+ at the centertap connection some amps use this with a "half power" switch to lower the power of the amp. Some of the later big Fenders did this. Some other big amps use the half B+ to supply the output tube screens. This amp does not use the half B+ for anything.
