Hello from Westchester

[Drew1d]

Hello All,

This is Drew(1d) from Westchester.  I'm relatively new to building amps and just trying to soak up as much knowledge as possible.  I built a few simple amps...and rebuilt.....and...rebuilt again.  I like experimenting with different circuits.  I had to take like a year hiatus with my baby girl being born, but now I want to get back into it.

Cheers! 
-Drew

[Champ81]

Hello All,

This is Drew(1d) from Westchester.  I'm relatively new to building amps and just trying to soak up as much knowledge as possible.  I built a few simple amps...and rebuilt.....and...rebuilt again.  I like experimenting with different circuits.  I had to take like a year hiatus with my baby girl being born, but now I want to get back into it.

Cheers! 
-Drew


Welcome Drew. Same here. I'm relatively new as well.  Starting builds again as well as I took some time off.  Which amps did you build so far?  

[Drew1d]

Hello All,

This is Drew(1d) from Westchester.  I'm relatively new to building amps and just trying to soak up as much knowledge as possible.  I built a few simple amps...and rebuilt.....and...rebuilt again.  I like experimenting with different circuits.  I had to take like a year hiatus with my baby girl being born, but now I want to get back into it.

Cheers! 
-Drew


Welcome Drew. Same here. I'm relatively new as well.  Starting builds again as well as I took some time off.  Which amps did you build so far?  

My first amp was pretty much the Two-Stroke Amp from David Hunter's "Tube Amp Book"   Essentially a Tweed Princeton with dual Single Ended power section, a bigger Output transformer and larger filter caps.  It was...well...ok.  First attempt and my grounding scheme was, anywhere that was easy.  Kinda noisy for sure.  I rebuilt that into a cake pan with a "star ground" and much quieter.  But couldn't figure out a cabinet, so eventually took all the expensive parts and bought a 5f2a chassis and moved it there.  Eventually putting a choke on it.

Most of the amps I have tried are single ended Tweed Princeton type designs.  So I started playing with the preamp section.  I tried a GridLeak bias preamp, similar to a Gretch 6150.  Sounded ok.  Tried a Totem-Pole style preamp.  Which was super linear....but not nearly enough gain.  

Then I got a MusicMaster Bass amp that I started to mess with.  It has one of those transformers for push pull.  Everything I tried sounded way to bright and kinda horrible until I realized that it needed a lot more current going to the transformer, then it sounds pretty good.

The latest amp I made was from a Hoffman Stout.  (Head unit)  It took me a few attempts to get a design that worked well.  Basically I copied the Deluxe power and output section.  It uses a Concertina phase splitter.  but the preamp is 1/2 12ax7 going into a ef86.   This is probably the best sounding amp I made, but it's not very loud.

Currently need to work on my combo amp process, as too many cabinet noises when cranked....kinda takes the fun away from my small 5 watt amps...

I started to restore a H-195 Harmony amp, but I'm not done, as I've had mixed results.

How about yourself?

[K O'Connor]

Hi Guys

You should probably start a thread in the Personal Projects section.