My intro

[JBurnett]

Hi all, wow did I stumble on a great place here!

My name is Jeff, Im a beginning guitarist of about 9 months, hardly worthy of an amp of the caliber discussed here but Im in! My background consists of 20 some odd years as an aircraft technitian so I am confident in my skills to undertake the building of an amp. Married to my HS sweetheart and three rugrats running around here to boot. Im playing a Taylor Classic solid body that I absolutly love, it just fits me.

Now to the question; Ive been playing thru a Fender HRD 410, a laney LC30-11 and a Blues Jr. All three are decent amps in my book (which is a short one). With a new job and extra time on my hands Ive decided to undertake the building of a top notch amp that can grow with me and isint mass produced, this has led me here. Ive been lurking here and many other places and have seen and heard a great deal of info/clips. It was during my search I found an approximation of the tone Im looking to learn. I dont want to duplicate others tone, I want to find my own, that is very important to me. The TW and Dumble builds really put me in the ballpark as to where Id like to go. Im leaning more towards the TW Express as Ive heard some amazing clips played thru those clones. All this research has got me all fired up to build one, Thats my dilema, Ron W has put up an awsome build guide and Bom here and there is so much info here that support is really a no brainer to go that route. Then there is going with a Ceritone clone, but support there seems to be lacking in comparison to a scratch build. Brown Note also has a nice looking kit but support there is small in comparison to here again. I dont need or want an exact clone so any of the three routes make sense to me. I do see there is much info on the kits available here and going that route now that the build guide and Bom is up is not looking to be a real advantage. I see Dana is really tweaking the design and some very nice ideas have been posted.

I guess the question is, of the three options I listed Im pretty sure I can get a great sound out of any of them that fits me and allows me to find my place. All three are close in price but different in build times (not an issue for me at all, Im in no hurry). Is there a way to figure out which one to go with? Whats the vote on which one will grow best with the player?

Im not tring to put my name on a build, Im trying to put my sound thru one.

[UR12]

Welcome Jeff!!

I am sure you will get a lot of varied opinions on your question as to which one to build. Now that more info has come forth on the Rockets there are really 3 choices and to many mods to count.

Personally, I would have to say that it really depends on your playing style and what you want the amp to do. Ken designed 3 amps that share some common traits yet have a voicing all their own. The Express is a great lead amp and cuts through a mix like butter, it's loud and goes from clean to mean just by twisting the vol knob on your axe. The Liverpool (my favorite) has a lot of the qualities of the Express but to me is a little more rounded amp. The Rocket is a basically a single channel AC30 and has a great clean and a little more subtle distortion when pushed. We could discuss the qualities of each at length but I am sure no matter which one you build you will be bitten by the bug and won't be able to stop until you have built one of each

The forum has a great bunch of people who are very willing to help. You are in good hands and with the help of all of the guys here you should be able to build yourself a great amp no matter which one you choose.

[Structo]

Welcome Jeff,
As a first amp I built the D'Lite 44 from Brown Note.
I will agree that the Brown Note forum does not get the traffic that this forum does.
That is why I schlepped on over here.

But they did help with specific questions regarding the D'Lite.
Personally I think that unless you have a decent background in electronics, specifically tube theory, a scratch build may be a bit ambitious.
The Wreck clones are a pretty touchy build to get right for the first timer.
Although it can be done.

I would recommend that you buy a kit for your first build.
Most of the time if you choose the right kit it will be cheaper than if you source your own parts depending on the kit maker and circuit.

The D'Lite amps are great and it is my favorite current amp.
It has decent cleans and can get as gainy and hairy as you want since it is a master volume amp.

But the Wreck clones do have that certain insanity about them for sure.

So I guess follow your dream, I just wanted to make sure you knew what you were getting yourself into.

[skyboltone]

I am partial to two tube Liverpools as are a great many others here. 36 Watts Express style is louder than 36 watts Fender Bandmaster style by a huge margin. What are you going to do with the amp? A blues Jr. it ain't.

Oh and f'sure welcome mister!!

Dan

[drhulsey]

Hi all, wow did I stumble on a great place here!

It's kinda like the feeling Nicholas Cage got when he finally stepped into the chamber holding the National Treasure. You are awe struck by the amount of beautiful stuff, the great craftsmanship, and the willingness of the heavy hitters (like Dana) to help you out, no matter what your level of expertise I appreciate what Tom said, and you can't go wrong with a Brown Note kit. But, no doubt, you can use your hands and are used to highly technical jobs. I am a technician... of sorts... and use my hands a great deal, but had no electronics background. I did an Express clone as my first build of any electronic device.
It worked out great only because of the generous folks on this forum and some beginner's luck. Wrecks can be fickle, but there is enough info here to lay every wire in your Express chassis exactly the way Ken Fisher did. You can also look at proven clones built by the masters (Dana, Allyn Meyers, Richie, et al) and see how they may have modified the layout.
Go for it With guitar amps, the take-offs may be just as difficult, but the landings are not nearly as difficult as you're used to
Welcome to the treasure vault

[JBurnett]

Thanks for the warm welcome and advise!

Is there any info on this two tube Liverpool mentioned? I did a site search and not much came up under two tube liverpool. Is this the same as the gem Dana just put up in combo form? If so, could someone kindly point me in the direction of any info? Id rather do this in a head style if that matters.

BTW, Dana your recent post on the combo has really got my attention, any info you have time to share is much appritated.

[skyboltone]

Thanks for the warm welcome and advise!

Is there any info on this two tube Liverpool mentioned? I did a site search and not much came up under two tube liverpool. Is this the same as the gem Dana just put up in combo form? If so, could someone kindly point me in the direction of any info? Id rather do this in a head style if that matters.

BTW, Dana your recent post on the combo has really got my attention, any info you have time to share is much appritated.

Just build a Liverpool and leave two tubes out. Change the OT to a 10.500ohm Primary. Heybour will build you whatever you want. Check my post 2-7189 for some ideas. I won't do the doughnut transformer again. You'll only need about 150ma on the PT. 235-0-235. Some folks, (me, others) just build the express pre-amp up to the PI. Substitute a 1K bias resistor and a 39K tail and you're good to go. You can go with either fixed bias or cathode bias but some are having better luck with about a 150ohm bias resistor for the power tubes rather than the 130 shown. Depends on what you end up with on the cathodes. Shoot for 11 volts up to about 12. With fixed bias you can run 7189s a bit more effectively. It's nice to have two rather different tones available with a tube change. El-84s/7189s for the liverpool and EL-34/6V6 for the express. Check with Allynmey for chassis, he should have some coming in soon.

It's habit forming you know
Have fun
Dan

[dartanion]

Yeah, a two holer liverpool is a great little amp. Quite different than a four holer, but still cool. A wreck is not an easy first build unless you follow a know layout as closely as possible. Even then they are a challenging amp to build by the nature of operating at the hairy edge of stability. We will certainly help you, but it can be frustrating for a budding builder.

Brownnote does a great job with their kits and they do provide full support via their own forum as well as popping in here when needed. Nik is happy to help to via email, however the extreme time difference may leave you waiting for an answer. Either one is a good call.

[JBurnett]

I think Ive settled on the Liverpool build, ordered some parts from forum members and working the BoM. The Rocket looks promising as well but I think that will be next in line.
"operating at the hairy edge of stability" heh, I work with helicopters, I spend my life on the "edge", Its funny, Ive spent the last 20 years trying to keep distortion out of our avionics, here I am trying to build an amp and now and I want it in.

Looking forward to this journey,

Thanks for all the help!

[JBurnett]

Double post, sorry

[drhulsey]

... I work with helicopters...

A basically unstable flying machine, from what I hear

Ive spent the last 20 years trying to keep distortion out of our avionics, here I am trying to build an amp and now and I want it in...

Maybe helicopters and stereo hifi are somewhat alike. The hifi guys don't want any distortion, either. Hifi distortion doesn't cause anything to fall out of the sky, however