6AQ5 low power super lead started

[Thomas_H]

Nice one!
now i'm curious about a soundclip!

[randalp3000]

11 lbs of whoop ass

I forgot how these amps sounded and felt. Been awhile since I really listened to a fixed bias amp. Very percussive with lots of authority. I played through a 73 JMP for a couple years in the late 80's when I had long hair. In the mid 90's I used a Soldano Hot rod 50 through 2 silver marshall cabs set up with one facing forward and one as a side fill. It was most glorious.

Really looking forward to using this tomorrow mourning. Been running it through a Gold but might have to bust out a green back soon to get the whole experience.

[jelle]

Nice! What transformers did you use?

[randalp3000]

power is a hammond PT-270DAX 260-0-260-104ma using the 125vac tap on the primary. output is a out of my old Mojo 18 watt marshall kit. I had ordered 2 MC 18 watt marshall OP's but didn't get them til yesterday.

all the info with voltages are on the updated schematic taken using a variac set at 120vac. I have it biased at around 26ma/70%. filaments are running around 6.5vac. the 6aq5's are running 325vdc on the plates, I think they are only rated for 285. But hey if we can run 6v6's and el84's at over 400 I should be OK

it's a little beast. and cheap, cheap, cheap...........

[jelle]

Thanks! Looks great!!

[Gainzilla]

Love to hear some clips of this!

[jelle]

And.... How did it perform?

[cbass]

Very cool next one should have 8 6aq5s

[randalp3000]

wow, like I said before it's a totally different animal than I'm used to. I have been using cathode biased amps for the last 8-10 years. Mostly AC30ish stuff till recently going with tweed deluxe type amps.

This thing is a beast and is pretty loud at the sweet spot. I run my amps on the edge of breakup and use my Cobra Drive OD(TS-9 circuit with no buffers and asymmetrical clipping). It is louder and more punchy than I expected and are used to. It snarls like a pissed off beast and will rip your head off, it really cuts through the mix. I didn't have any solos yesterday so I'm really looking forward to see how it does playing leads.

My friends at Throbak are going to borrow it for a few days and I'll see if they can do a video or recording of it. I currently have no way of doing a video or sound clip.

thanks for the interest and comments
randal

[billyoung]

sound clips would be cool!!!!

I have heard G R ones sound good.

[Bob S]

Nice build.
I was wondering about the noise / hum with non-twisted filament wiring.
I think that twisting the filament wires is a bad thing. Longer length etc.
Lately I've been running non-twisted & had very good results.
Plus it sure is easier to do.

[cbass]

I've gone the none twisted d route on a couple of amps and didn't have any hum problems.
I think q good grounding scheme and lead dress are much more important

[randalp3000]

Got to use this amp again yesterday. I really like it and plan to do a 4 6aq5 version soon to gig with this summer.

next project will be a mini JTM/tweed baseman

[billyoung]

I got the jet city jca22h running on 6aq5's now but I think voltages may be too
high but it sounds tons better than the EL84's. Need to sort out a vvr or zener
so it will be good. Love the tone tho, even with my crap ibanez (has calig 1/2 blade humbucker) altho has combo mustard and 50's les paul style tiger caps, which do change the whole vibe of it.
I am getting a custom les paul from china in a week or so, but up in air about pickups. A guy has 498 and 500t gibsons including harness and pots out of a classic les paul for like 125, very tempted but would rather have like 1980 ish T top gibsons but they are over fecking 175 to 200 each now .....dammmmm.
amazed at the jet city with the 6aq5s tho so i need to sort it out, also been reading up on el95's to but i dont have those.

bill

[randalp3000]

what plate voltage are you getting with that amp? These are only rated for 250v, I'm running them at around 310v with no problems yet.