suggestions for a 5 watt tube amp

who is selling the valve jr here?
and can you post th pics of your diy pedals
i was looking for someone to build me a screamerlab i.e the ultimate tubescreamer
google it you will find its schematics

 

the alnico blue is a really expensive speaker. the greenback will perform better than the V30 if cone breakup is what you're after - the V30 needs a lot more power to get there. you'll break in the greenback faster too.

2 weeks isn't a big deal - your amp is still pretty much a custom amp because, last i heard, BE3 is still a 1-man show.

about the firefly - i built it as my first amp too and i have to say, i wish i'd started with something simpler. it sounds pretty awesome and looks easy on paper, but make no mistake, there's a shitload of gain in that little *******! i eventually ripped it apart cause i wasn't happy with the build quality or its instability - it was a very haphazardly wired amp. nonetheless, it sounded pretty awesome while it lasted and impressed a few people too. i took apart the circuit and built an amp based on the trainwreck blues express circuit in it's place, which was a real screamer till it started ****ing around a couple of weeks ago.

i wouldn't bother with an FX loop in a single 12AX7 5W amp - just run your pedals in normally. if there's a significant amount of preamp gain in the solution 18 then it might be worth it.

some of those mods deepsal listed are cool, but they'll cost you - emulated recording out, for example.

 

it'll be a pretty expensive build for very debatable results; the mods i would definitely do would be clipping diodes and tonestack mod. i'm a bit wary of more distortion cause i modded my nobels ODR-1 for that, but it starts motorboating beyond a certain point on the gain knob. i wouldn't bother with the TS808/9, cleanup or voltage sag mods - in fact, i'd probably run it at 12 or 18V all the time for maximum headroom.

switching opamps.... i've had dramatic results only with 2 types of opamps in the TS circuit (as compared with the stock 4558), namely the burr-brown OPA2134 and the TI TLC2262. the OPA2134 is a lot more precise and articulate, very hi-fi. the TL2262 is a rail-to-rail opamp, so there is some increase in the swing happening... i don't think i'd bother making them switchable though, i'd probably just go with the burr brown IC all the time.

 

Deepsal
you cant miss the post on geartalk for the epiphone junior and i have already confirmed with patrick that i am buying it
i havent done any pedals as of yet so no pics to show, the reason that i said will be doing a lot of pedals is cuz i have lots of parts laying with me, i have dabbled with some diy before ( think neve , api preamp stuff and comps ) i was even at a point of winding my own traffos had imported the lams and what not, basically what i had in mind was doing a whole desk where most of the channels were tube based ( red 47 type) so i even have a whle box of nos tubes...just the preamp stuff no power tubes.....
and really if you have all caps and resistors to start with and there are some well tested schematics online it doesn't sound like much hassle.....lets see if more people are interested on a particular pedal i could arrange a run of pcbs and parts kit.

Flood, right on man, alnico blue is like 25k ! so what problems were you having with the firefly, was it just related to layout? man i havent done any p2p stuff, i love stuffing pcb boards tho, i mean i find it therapeutical...so what bout the power and output traffo? did you get some wound here or are they available off the shelf? once i get into it i will definately be doing my own traffos , i have access to a machine shop also so fabbing the chasis and cases is no big deal....so what amp are u building next?

 

BTW i dont think i am getting any mods on the solution 18, ansar probably doesnt like too much communication ( isnt that the reason why ppl express thru the guitar!) he said he will leave a longer wire for the speaker so i can use it with other heads, i am pretty psyched about the amp lets see what happens

 

unkle, the firefly is a deceptive circuit - the totem pole/cascode connection in the boost stage has a LOT of gain and that over a very wide bandwidth. you rarely see that arrangement in guitar amps. shielded wire is an absolute must unless you have those funky solidcore wires (order them from AES, they're fantastic to work with cause they bend in perfect right angles - although i personally only work with their multicore now except for ground busses and the like).

i had a couple of major goofs while building the firefly - like i said, first amp - did my layout on paper and forgot to invert a part of it, so a bunch of wires got crossed. i used phenolic perf board with wide hole spacing (i think about 5mm between holes). also used a lot of local parts. it turned out a bit (not too bad though, particularly for a first build) on the noisy side and i zapped myself a couple of times too, luckily nothing serious. the cascode circuit was a ***** - very high gain, and pretty unstable due to the messy wiring, the other thing to keep in mind is that the cascode requires elevated heater reference, because one cathode is floating around 110V, which totally violates Vh-k for the 12AX7 (did i mention it's not an optimal tube for a cascode?) leading to an early (and sadly unspectacular) tube death and symptoms preceding that.

however: there's someone selling firefly PCB kits out there - you'll avoid ALL those problems related to P2P and its tried and tested - AX84.com - The Cooperative Tube Guitar Amp Project

calhoun has also published a document somewhere with the cutting, bending, and punching layout for this particular build. as for the transformers - i had them wound for me locally, but the business has wrapped up since then. so you might as well drop the extra buck on a nice hammond output transformer. the OT is, after all, probably the most critical component in terms of tone. see this thread for instructions: AX84.com - The Cooperative Tube Guitar Amp Project

what neve pre modules have you built? anything you can recommend for a fairly neutral condensor mic (rode NT1A) as well as the good ol' SM57? and where on earth did you get the isolation transformers/winding data from? was planning to do a gyraf G9 at some point, but you have me curious now...

 

Flood thanks for the warning! maybe i will start with something less complex, i dunno for me the whole thing is about getting involved in something intense which gets my mind of stuff so i like to get into things which have a greater chance of ****ing up...i mean if you finish it its over and you have to find something new! for me the term "completion" is very saddening..there is nothing left after that

i have zero electronics background so all this diy gives me a sense of satisfaction, there is enough information available that one dont really have to know much except filterting the massive amount of data that is out there. As for the preamp suggestion ....neve is definately not neutral, its all about the sound of the iron, you will have to import traffos from uk, i did sme 73 and 1290 stuff i think i used sowters and carnhills, been quite a while. for sm57 you will like something with lots of gain ..there is a preamp based on the amek desk ( neve designed) its transformerless and is very neutral, i plan on doing some channels for video stuff if you are in no rush i could send you few pcbs when i get some...i think i already have a few pcb sets for the G9...its pretty sweet and you can use oeps in it which are cheap and sound pretty good...pm me your mailing address and i can have them out to you.
oh and i do have a winding info for some really esoteric traffos....eg fairchild 660/ la2a ( yummy!) collected a lot of scans/ notes over the
years...actully i even did some traffos for api 312 got the lams locally i think they were m6 (?) and they sounded pretty darn close compared to an orignal 312 channel.
btw where you at

 

You seem to have done your homework and seem to be fairly in the know about what youre doing, plus you have some diy experience so I would say go for the firefly, you just need to pay attention to lead dress. If you use Calhoun's pcb then that issue is eliminated too and the amp just falls into place.

I'd love to do a g9, thanks a lot for the offer! I will take you up on that, will PM you my details. I'll admit that I've never wound a transformer or explored the procedure, so maybe it's time I start - it seems to be very rewarding, going by your results.

Another thing I greatly recommend is trying out amp circuits using oddball tubes. My favorites are pentodes, just completed an amp based around the gibson ga20 which doesn't use a single 12AX7 anywhere. The 6SJ7 is now my favorite guitar tube although it has some serious microphonics issues. Sounds fuller than the ef86. There's a lot of oddballs to be had cheap, e.g. 7 pin tubes like the 6AK5, 6av6, el90 to name a few and an entire universe of octals yet to be explored...

I live in Bombay; what about you?

 

I agree. a VVR is really useful (essential even) for small Mumbai apartments.

My son's 1974x clone uses the V30 and yes it is a lot cleaner than the Greenback but if one has a few effects pedals one can largely get the tone one wants anyway na?

Funny this is the second time I heard about this tube.

 

just thought i would update....i am still without an amp things didnt pan out with ansar ( to put it mildly) so bought a cub 10 which refused to power up when it got to me...tho in the meantime i did cook up some nice pedals...i think this weekend i will just put together a cab simulator and a headphone amp and get to playing.

hello there Navin , i wish i had a son with a marshall 1974! but then that son would need a mama too...grrrr too much work