Tube Amp Archive

Right now I have a 5e3, Ampeg Gemini ii, little Vox/MatchlessMatchless-esque amp. My next slow build is a Liverpool. It seems like that covers similar territory of the low-watter. Just wondering if there's Marshall-ish switchable mods or if something like a switchable tone stack (standard vs Bandaxa...

Sounds great! Yeah that first clean sound is much more full than other mini-amps. And that recording sounds good, anything with a good soundcard and mics will sound a lot better than built-in laptop/camcorder recordings. Some engineer advice: if you use 2 mics, make sure they're phase coherent. Flip...

I'm a member of Freestompboxes and the guys over there love to give Lance a hard time about his Tonebender design. That seems to be the idea behind the company: replace germanium with silicon/ICs, tubes with SS and attempt a similar sound.

Yeah I mostly meant it to be interpreted the 2nd way. I've been really intrigued by little amps...but ones like the Zvex Nano amp aren't very clean/articulate. I've been really impressed by JTM1 demos. As much as I like overdrive sounds, I'm really into funk now...so anything that could pull of stro...

I'd love to hear clips too. One big thing with these little amps is how they sound clean!

I'm a big fan of Merlin's book as well. There are few books written by those with technical knowledge that are easily read by musicians/tinkers. I'd like a book about switching/tweaking for Mesa-like amps. What components should I put on a switch to come up with an awesome array of tones and respons...

cool thread...I would need to find/build two more to fully answer the question but mine would include

Ampeg Gemini II--mmm cleans and reverb (stiff)
The 5e3 with 6L6s I built (squishy)
Trainwreck Liverpool in progress (high gain/voxy)
JTM45 (dream build)

I'd be set with those