Greetings from an old timer

[ax84ch]

Greetings everyone-

I started AX84 back in the day after finding a non-op fender champ in the trash and thinking "I could learn how to make this- there is nothing in this thing!". I built some simple amps and had fun and eventually went down the axe-fx route and lost interest in real amps. Eventually, I came to appreciate real amps again as well as digital amps and go back and forth. I mismanaged and killed AX84 after drifting out of the ampbuilding hobby and now find myself a refugee from my own site.

In any case, I have gotten back into amp building and modding in the last couple of years and miss the camaraderie of a hobby community.

I've done Egnater/Randall MTS Preamp and amp head mods in recent years. I built a few MIDI pedals using arduino microcontrollers. I built a more Friedman-y variation of Rob Robinette's JCM800 micro.

I am currently wrapping up an SMPS-based amp build using a commonly available switching power supply. I will probably make a thread about that project in the near future to share some of the journey and see if anyone else has been in the same ballpark.

Cheers!

Chris Hurley

[xtian]

Welcome to TAG! When I started building, 15 or so years ago, AX84 was my starting point. Thanks for all your hard work!

I recently completed my prototype of a Champ-style build (one 12AX7 and one EL84) using an SMPS, and a chassis and PCB I designed: https://ampgarage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=38680


Tell me about your build!

[nuke]

Hey Chris!

I remember you from back in the day too! Before I even moved to Silicon Valley. Good to see you.

[johnnyreece]

I was a latecomer to AX84, but really enjoyed all the discussions. Mostly a lurker, but I did comment a couple times when I would use AX84 designs (or parts of them) in my builds.

[ax84ch]

Welcome to TAG! When I started building, 15 or so years ago, AX84 was my starting point. Thanks for all your hard work!

I recently completed my prototype of a Champ-style build (one 12AX7 and one EL84) using an SMPS, and a chassis and PCB I designed: https://ampgarage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=38680


Tell me about your build!

https://ampgarage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=38722 has some info on my SMPS build.

[pullshocks]

Hi Chris, great to see you posting on Ampgarage.

I spent a lot of time on the AX84 forum, and built a couple of the AX84 projects. I appreciate the energy and knowledge you put into it.

I got one of the Doberman SE output transformers from you that is still going strong in my evolving 6V6 SE project amp. A terrific hunk of metal!

[award70]

The first amp I built was an AX84 single ended lead. Thank you for that site! It was great introduction to amp building. I still have the Doberman single ended transformer.

[casey73]

Your AX84 project inspired an amplifier kit that is still being made today.

https://www.amplifiedparts.com/products ... guitar-amp

I stumbled upon your AX84 page in the early days of your project and followed it as the circuits evolved. I took an early retirement in 2005 and started pursuing tube amp building hobby more seriously. I found a guy who was selling simple three or four tube low wattage amplifiers on Ebay based on the AX84 projects that appeared on your site. They were built on a small aluminum chassis amp with no enclosure, and he was making decent money so I started doing something similar. I built a number of SE amps using the Hamond 269EX and CE Distribution's in house T-31, 5 watt output tranny with one 12AX7 and an EL84 output tube. I lived 4 miles from CE Distribution. In 2007 I started working part time for CE Distribution/Antique Electronic Supply. My supervisor knew I was into building effects pedals and tube amps. I'd already come up with a few simple MODKITS pedal kits before this. In 2009 he asked me to come up with a simple two tube amp as a kit build. It didn't take long to come up with a simple design and the kit went into production in 2010. Awhile later he asked me and the EE I worked with to come up with an upgrade to the original MOD102 kit without making any changes to the chassis that they jobbed out to a local manufacturer. That resulted in the MOD102+ amp kit.

[stephen_w_keller]

Hi Chris,

It's good to hear from you.

Stph

[soundmasterg]

Hi Chris,

Welcome back to the amp community! All of us old timers miss the old days with AX84, and now with Ampage/MEF too. It's good there are still a few sites around like TAG and Hoffman and MEF2 that are dedicated to the craft.

Greg

[Turbojunkie]

What a cool coincidence, I'm doing a P1 Extreme right now, using the custom Heyboer Doberman OT I got from you on Reverb a couple of years ago.

The Amp Garage community is a group of wonderful people, and it's great to see you here.

[ax84ch]

What a cool coincidence, I'm doing a P1 Extreme right now, using the custom Heyboer Doberman OT I got from you on Reverb a couple of years ago.

The Amp Garage community is a group of wonderful people, and it's great to see you here.

Hey that's cool!