1x12 Combo Recommendations

[james21789]

Hey everybody,

I recently got the pleasure to build an amp for a friend. he wants a 1x12 combo, and named liking blues juniors. I am tempted to just clone a BJ with better parts and maybe a modified fat switch, because I know he'll like it. But I wanted to ask if there were any other builds I should look into? I was thinking about just going with a deluxe fwiw...

Thanks,

James

[selloutrr]

nothing wrong with the tried and true

it's easy to make a few MOD's and give it mojo.
voice the amp with complimenting tubes and
break the speaker in before you give it to him (or her)

[james21789]

I found a schem for the BJ on SH...does anyone have a lay out or BOM by any chance?

-j

[M Fowler]

How about the pro junior?

http://www.dreamtone.org/PJ.htm

[M Fowler]

Here is the service manual

[Phil_S]

Probably the two things in an amp that make the most significant difference are the output transformer and the speaker. If these aren't really good, your effort to put quality into the rest will never reach its potential.

[Gibsonman63]

To me, for the same amount of work and for the same price, there are other amps I would build, but that's just me.

Check out:

Fender Tweed Deuxe - 5E3 - Great for blues type stuff. Very easy build and lots of support out there.
Fender Blackface Princeton Reverb - Great cleans with a nice reverb sound
Fender Blackface Deluxe Reverb - A little more power and another channel so you can voice them differently and switch with an A/B switch. Really great reverb sound.
Marshall 18Watt - More of a rock sound. Lots of support and lots of variations.

[james21789]

thanks for the info, guys

I like the idea of a tweed 5E3...I'll look into that further.

I checked out this video for a top hat super deluxe combo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKjA276LcDk

I really like the sounds coming from this amp. the 12ax7 in v1 and cathode bias seem like unique nuances as well.

Do you think I can do anything like this in a smaller package? I know top hat makes a club royale thats pretty popular as well.

I was also looking at a lightning but I'm worried it won't have enough 'in between' distortion and clean.

But this is just from listening to clips.

-j

[M Fowler]

Well since your wandering away from building a BJ then I suggest a TW Rocket into a 1-12 combo feeding a Vin 30.

With a Rocket you get clean and chime with Two or Four EL84s or nice clean with EL34's. The perfect amp for what your trying to come up with.

Mark

[james21789]

Thanks Mark!

The more I dig up the more it seems like that is the perfect amp for what this guy wants. I've always been more partial towards 6V6s over EL34/84s, but maybe I just haven't heard them loaded in a good amp. I read about some members making the switch...is there something special that EL's give to 'smaller' package amps?


-j