Princeton Dumble

[mojotom]

Two things I noticed after building an 6V6 ODS(R):

- You will have a very clean first channel then a very gainy OD channel that will be hard to balance compare to a 50W or 100W ODS. It seems the power amp on those big amp kind of compress both channel so they match better (clean is fatter, OD smoother). On the small power amp the OD feels more dynamic and quite loud compare to the clean channel.
- At volume (with a drummer) your clean channel will start to OD the power amp so you will have some drive and up to a point volume wise you will already be on OD on the clean so switching the OD and PAB won’t make a lot of change to the sound, a bit gainy maybe but the channels distinctives voices and gain staging will be off. Not saying it will not sound good.

These two points are my own thoughts running a classic LTP PI. Should be worst and quite less smooth with a cathodyne PI (the OD puts out quite a powerful signal to the PI, even with 2 masters in a row between them).

Including the reverb and mixer will make the OD worst (been there), maybe a loop might be an idea. A post reverb section with a nice OD and without too much loading is not an easy task.

I preferred high plate for smaller power amp but that’s just my taste, can’t seem to like the low plate OD without a healthy power amp. Plus the bass feels better and overall the amp is a bit fatter that way.

You should spend some time after building the amp to lower the PI outputs to avoid overloading the 6V6’s.

You should build it anyway, and tweak from there.

[Mr. dB]

Do you think that the OD section should be inside the NFB loop?

Absolutely not!

And there should be another gain stage before the Cathodyne. Return the feedback there.

[mrdarwin]

That are exactly the comment and feedback I 'm looking for, thanks to all.
I already have a 100w 183 dumble head clone, powered with EL34, and that's my favourite dumble tone. (built a d'lite, and a 50w 6l6 dumble...)
The reason are:
-I have spare power and output 6v6 transformers and I'm looking for the best way to use them( )
-I built a Princeton Reverb few months ago and I REALLY like the tone with a zendrive clone plugged on it (and reverb and trem!)

I use my 100w head for the big gigs with my professionals cover band, and use the PR for the smaller gig with my jazz fusion band...
So the idea is to test a tube dumble preamp in a PR reverb... The comments about differences between deluxe and PR power stages are very usefull

[martin manning]

You are in luck then! To test this concept, you can create a “power amp in” connection to your PR and drive it with the preamp out from your D clone: Just lift the end of the 20n cap that goes to pin 6 of V1, et voila!

[norburybrook]

if you have a spare transformer make a Tweedle Dee. Great little amp



M

[10thTx]

I built a Princeton Reverb few months ago and I REALLY like the tone with a zendrive clone plugged on it (and reverb and trem!)

Since you built a D'Lite once. What about exploring the idea of another D'Lite but with a somewhat cleaner V1 & adding a one tube reverb and 6G16 vibrato?

Not sure about the bias for the vibrato? Maybe a 12AT7 for the LTPI? Maybe a 5751 for V1 with lower plate/cathode values then the original D'Lite?

DRAFT idea for discussion. Not saying you should build this. Again, there is an editable ExpressSCH schematic attached that you could edit.

With respect, 10thtx