First build - it's alive!

[SixStringing]

Back in August, I was pondering a project to take on over the winter and I came across a 1950s-ish shortwave radio receiver that looked like it might make a nice donor chassis/enclosure for my first attempt at building a guitar amp. It's a Lafayette HE-30. Not too big, not too small, lots of holes punched into the faceplate for knobs.

HE-30-1.jpg

Well, winter is definitely here, and I've been able to spend some time tackling this little project. After ripping out all the radio stuff, I was left with a 200-200vac power transformer and 5y3 rectifier. The PT was rated for 70ma DC, and I like the idea of low volume without sacrificing tone, so I settled on 10thTx's SoLow Watt design with ECL84s. I did make a few mods however: I used a 5654 7-pin pentode, and moved it into V2.

IMG_8783 Medium.jpeg

IMG_8777 Medium.jpeg

It may not be the prettiest - more holes than Swiss cheese and the wiring could be a lot neater. I made a bunch of dumb mistakes along the way but I sure learned a lot. And after a fixing couple of wiring errors and a few tweaks, it works, and it's pretty sweet! It does have a lot of gain, but it's manageable. And it is sensitive to touch/playing style. Ease up and it cleans up, bite in and it bites back. I'm still dialling it (and incorporating some pedals/effects) and want to run it through its paces before I apply any more tweaks. There's room for 2 more knobs - I am thinking maybe a high cut at the output stage, but not sure what else.

So what should I call it? Given it was intended as a winter project, and there's a lot of snow on the ground here, I think this one will be called the Snowlow Watt.

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snow_low_HE30_rev1.pdf

[10thTx]

Very cool! I like it. Thanks for sharing. IF you have time, interest and availability ......
I'd love to hear some sound clips.

I'm wondering how a 12AY7 or 5751 would sound in V1? OR even a 12DW7?

With respect, 10thtx

[SixStringing]

Very cool! I like it. Thanks for sharing. IF you have time, interest and availability ......
I'd love to hear some sound clips.

I'm wondering how a 12AY7 or 5751 would sound in V1? OR even a 12DW7?

With respect, 10thtx

Here's a couple of quick sound bites - forgive my sloppy playing.

[10thTx]

Thanks for sharing! Those sound good! They have sort of a dash of compression and chime in with the tone. Appreciate hearing them. Nice job. I think with a delay pedal they could sound really super.

With respect, 10thtx

[pullshocks]

Thanks for posting. The pictures look great and I enjoyed hearing the clips.
10thtx did a great job with the SoLow Watt (I built the version with 12AV7 preamp tubes). The wattage may be “SoLow” but I sometimes use an attenuator.

[pjd3]

That panel looks great!

I think its awesome to take something old and vintage like that and turn it into something current and usable.

Thats very inspiring, and someday I'd love to take that route on a build.

Thanks for sharing,
Best,
Phil D.