The Amp Garage

Nope this a build from scratch. I have some parts laying around that I've been contemplating what to do with, PT, Chassis, and Head Shell. I already have a couple 2203's and that 6V6 Express I built a while back. I'd like to do a Rocket at some point but this chassis is already punched for Octal's. ...

Yeah I found that the first time I did it too. I have a much easier time getting/keeping the QFP's lined up for whatever reason.

So I recently saw a youtube video restoring an old Legend combo. I had totally forgotten about these things, supposedly the super lead 50 model was used by Billy Gibbons on the Eliminator album. Anyways I have one head shell and chassis left from the three that I built a while back, as well as some ...

It shouldn't be too bad. It's an SOIC16 package which has a lead pitch of about 1.2mm. You could probably do it without magnification depending on how good your vision is, with a standard tip. Though you'd probably want a 5x loupe for inspection of the joints. They can be had pretty cheaply. Just us...

I whipped up a quick schematic just to demonstrate how I generally do the connectors. As far as the mounting holes go, as best as I understand it there really should be only one ground connection to the power supply / chassis. I'm not an expert on grounding for Class D, but in my experience that see...

I just checked its actually a mu of 2. So its really low. Yeah the white follower would be a bit more work to setup and probably not worth it. A more practical approach would be to use the 6bx7 in a normal follower configuration. It has almost 3 times the transconductance of a 6sn7 and about 1/7th t...

I'll toss in another vote for Kicad. I've had quite good luck with it over the past year. It's pretty intuitive and minimalistic, but should be more than adequate for most any guitar amp type project. Here's a great little tutorial series for new folks to get started on: https://www.youtube.com/play...

One practical note when adding a copper pour when using through hole components. If you're using Kicad or some similar circuit board design program that uses a netlist and DRC, you'll want to add a 0 ohm resistor / jumper between the circuit ground and the actual ground and copper fill. Otherwise th...

On the amps we build you can supposedly get about +15Vgk from a 6sn7 using the setup I described. Past that the tube goes into full saturation. This is of course direct coupled to the output section. Now granted, the output tube in question is an extremely low gain triode. Has a mu of about 8 if I r...

Noticed in the pic it says PPD on the right side of the cap. Could stand for PolyPropylene Dielectric? Who knows though.

That last comment was meant purely as a bad pun/joke.

Indeed, we should all be nicer to tranny's, they face a lot of common-mode rejection.

If you don't want to use MOSFET's in your amp a DC cathode follower using a 6SN7 should be more than enough to push the grids well into conduction for most any tube, especially if you run it off of +/- 300v rails. The CCS will do wonders for your balance, but I'm not sure how it would sound. You can...

Well I got the new OT installed this week. Sounds quite nice, less harsh in the highs than the old one and a bit more bottom. Thing doesn't feel like its going to take your head off anymore. Might actually consider installing the bright switch now. Also want to try some NOS 6v6's as well as see if I...

I've had a few cliff jacks fail over the years. Isolation was the main reason I used them as well. Was planning on trying to find some isolation washers for switchcraft's for use in future builds and now I don't have to. :D I wonder if the issue isn't caused by too much dwell time when soldering and...