TW 18w Rocket

[M Fowler]

Finally finished my youngest son's 18w Rocket using MC 18w Marshall standup PT and 18w Marshall OT.

Nice tone's he should be happy with this, add a stomp box and go.

Wrecked the faceplate so have to order some hard wood.

[statorvane]

Looks real good. You went with a SS rectifier and no choke? I have a Davis 201 PA amplifier I'd like to warp into an 18 watt something. maybe a rocket, L'pool or 20 watt Marshall, for my son.

[M Fowler]

Thanks, I didn't want to bother with rectifier tube so went SS rectifier but did use a 1k sag resistor on B+2.

Put extra eyelets on the board for all the other voltage taps rather then shrink wrap and bundle them together.

Put B+3 - B+5 on the tone board for ease. Input jack is isolated from chassis. Has high/low bright switch with center off. Also, has high/low boost switch with center off 1uf & 25uf bypass caps.

Installed PPIMV for bedroom playing or rocking out

[xtian]

I just went through a round of tone tweaks to my 2012 Rocket. It had far too much treble and bass and no mids. Much better after a few tweaks, most notably, bright cap way down to 10p, and Jelle's suggestion for the tone stack: C5 -> 500p, C7 -> 0.0022u. MUCH better now (playing single coils).

How is your tone?

[M Fowler]

Xitan I was going to answer earlier today but the forum was down.

How is your tone?

Very good tone especially with two way bright switch and cut control. I don't use the mid control on amps much usually at about 5 and forget. My son won't miss it either and will most likely use a distortion pedal anyway.

Definitely not a bright amp and I don't think any of my Rockets are bright because I usually have bright switches on them and use the 500pf setting.

[xtian]

Well, I don't know what weird about my Rocket, but that 500p bright cap was murder. Much better with it out.

[M Fowler]

C5 is 50pf not 500pf and C7 is .022uf/600v on a Rocket

100pf across volume pot.

You really altered yours a lot with 10pf bright, C5 500pf and C7 .0022uf wow.

[M Fowler]

The amp used to look pretty good , the bottom one until I cracked and broke the faceplate in three places.

But good ole Richie Hall came through and had some sapale left over and sending some to me, what a guy, thanks Richie.

Top one is my oldest son's 18w Rocket and bottom is youngest son's 18w Rocket.

[Blackburn]

Nice, Mark! The build, the boxes, etc. I see you're still using the famous Fowler 'blue stuff'.

[JoeCon]

Mark

Love the bypass cap thru hole in the chassis. The Rocket I built from your earlier build still sounds great and I went with the SS recto too...

And you were right, the 2 x EL84 is pretty damn LOUD!!

[M Fowler]

I really like the looks of the blue boards

I'm still not sure if I should keep that bypass cap going through the chassis like that but I can always plug the hole and glue the cap down.

18 watts is plenty loud I agree and my son's don't gig so these are for their homes.

[Blackburn]

Yeah, them blue boards are yer trademark.

Have you tried out 2Tone's mod in the amp? Very easy to wire up a switch with that mod.

[JoeCon]

Blackburn

Not familiar with that mod. Could you explain?

Thanx....

[Blackburn]

You simply add a second bypass cap (25uf) to the second stage and add one resistor to create a voltage divider right before the PI. Add a 220k to ground where the stock 220k and PI entrance cap meet and there you have it. Very cool mod for a slightly attenuated output volume and an increase in richness of the overdrive. Cleans aren't as good IMO. Would be great on a switch.

[JoeCon]

Blackburn

I currently have a switch that is 1u/off/10u for that second stage. All I'd have to do is add the resistor.
In the off position it would float and in the 1 or 10 I'd ground it.