102 Combo Low/High/skyline(Audio)

[Guy77]

Hi everyone. I haven't shared any builds in a while so I thought i would post a resent build. Its basically the exact dimensions of a standard Tweed Deluxe cabinet loaded with a 102 lowplate/highplate/skyline . V1 is lowplate and V2 is highplate. I run it with 2x 6L6 Tungsols. I tryed the JJs but in this amp the short Tungsols sounded sweeter to my ears! In the pic below it shows some 6v6 tubes but I quickly swapped out for the 6L6s and liked it much better.
The gut shot below was taken just before a few last wires were connected. Its my first 102 build and I prefer it over my other 124 , this sounds much fatter!
I swapped out the presence for a cut control.

I attached some pics below and links to how it sounds below as well. That's my friend Dave on the guitar.
Both videos start out on the clean channel and very shortly after he flicks the switch for the overdrive channel. I love how this amp sounds with the Les Paul!
Special thanks to Steve at Indcom graphics for the great faceplates.
Cheers!

Here it is with his 1993 American Strat.

https://youtu.be/nfYoE1iUJkg

Here it is with my 2016 Les Paul Studio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PU9Yk-DIQks

chassis.jpg

102OverdriveSpecialCombo.jpg

RearShot.jpg

Front.jpg

[dreric]

Very impressive build, what transformers did you use?

Nice demos also, sounds great.

Eric

[Guy77]

Thanks Eric! I also really like the sound of the 102 circuit, wished I had built it sooner!

For the power transformer I used a Hammond 276x and for the output transformer I used the Heyboer Train Wreck model sold by Mojotone.
Here is the link.
https://www.mojotone.com/amp-parts/Outp ... ransformer
I really like the sound of these output trannies.

I also used a standard Twin Reverb choke from hammond.

Cheers!
Guy

[norburybrook]

great stuff.

That's a lovely sounding combo

congrats.


M

[didit]

Hello --

Very cool. Excellent seeing diversions from paint-by-number designs. And result in this case is a fine sounding tweed-styled sleeper.

Best .. Ian

[Guy77]

Thanks Marcus, thanks Ian. I had the cab lying around from a Tweed combo that didn't get finished and that gave me the idea of placing the 102 style build in it. It was a little tricking working in a 5in wide as opposed to 8in wide chassis so I had to go a little slower lol.

Hi Ian, yes she really is a sleeper, especially when I switch the overdrive on ! I really like the cleans on these 102's so fat and rich.
One thing I would like to add to this when I have time is an effects loop for a dumbelator.

Cheers!
Guy

[Chris Brown]

Great sounding amp! I love my 102... what a sweet sounding circuit. I'm about to do a blues deluxe conversion and I'm leaning toward 183 or a bluesmaster, but I'm having a hard time not going 102 even though I already have one.

[Colossal]

Really great looking and sounding amp! What were the settings for the the Les Paul OD sound?

[Guy77]

Thanks Chris! Yes I also love how the 102 sounds. The cleans are deep and rich and the overdrive is amazing too especially with a Les paul.

Thanks Dave. I attached two pics below. One is the settings for the Overdrive channel and the other is the settings for the clean channel.
The volume on the Les Paul was cranked up high at about 8 or 9. We had to turn down the volume on the overdrive channel since it was high plate as opposed to lowplate on the clean so the volume would go up a lot when switching to overdrive . We found that we liked the overdrive sound nicer when the Drive Level was higher than the Drive.

Cheers !
Guy

Overdrive settings

ODS settingsOverdrive.jpg

Clean Channel settings

ODSsettingsClean.jpg

[xtian]

Last night I detailed the schematic differences between #102 and #183--there were not many:

• 10M>10M>0.05u>10M>10M NFB in the second gain stage (doesn't exist on 183)
  
  bright cap on Master Volume (none on 183)
  
  250p anode-cathode snubbers on both stages of OD (25p on 183)
  
  0.1uF PI to power tubes coupling caps (0.05 in 183)
  
  lower filtering overall

Are these items enough to make a significant difference? I have built several 183s and a couple of BMs (very similar).

[Colossal]

Guy,

Very interesting settings, but somewhat different of course with the low and high plate configuration. Sounds great. Very nice!

[pompeiisneaks]

Last night I detailed the schematic differences between #102 and #183--there were not many:

• 10M>10M>0.05u>10M>10M NFB in the second gain stage (doesn't exist on 183)
  
  bright cap on Master Volume (none on 183)
  
  250p anode-cathode snubbers on both stages of OD (25p on 183)
  
  0.1uF PI to power tubes coupling caps (0.05 in 183)
  
  lower filtering overall

Are these items enough to make a significant difference? I have built several 183s and a couple of BMs (very similar).

I'm def curious about the LNFB in there too, I have it in my #124 but not the #183 I just made, I guess putting it in, on a switch, would be easy enough . Maybe I'll try that at some point?

~Phil

[norburybrook]

NFB makes a big difference to the sound IMHO. I'm going to fit it to my combo as I've found a batch of NOS Piher 10M resistors

Also it's such a simple and switchable feature it should be on all ODS amps


I put the #102 NFB on a bluesmaster on a switch and called it the 'fender' switch as I felt it made the amp sound like a classic blackface fender when in circuit.


M

[Guy77]

Hi Dave. I just confirmed with the gentleman who did my video that there was actually no volume change when going from clean to overdrive with the Les Paul. The volume change only happened when using the Strat.
So the setting for the clean and overdrive were both like this for the Les Paul:

ODSsettings.jpg

Hi xtian, with this amp I discovered how much I like having the higher filtering 2 x 40uf vs the 2 x 20 uf found in many other D style amps.
I liked how the cleans where more rounder sounding with the 40uf as opposed to the 20uf.
And as Marcus and Phil mentioned the NFB makes a difference too. I guess all the little things add up to a lot in the end!

Guy

[Colossal]

Hi Dave. I just confirmed with the gentleman who did my video that there was actually no volume change when going from clean to overdrive with the Les Paul. The volume change only happened when using the Strat.
So the setting for the clean and overdrive were both like this for the Les Paul:

ODSsettings.jpg

Thanks for posting those settings. Sounds good, it's really cooking Interesting about the response with higher filtering. I used 22uF x 2 but I see that the caps serving V1ab should be 40uF, based on the 102 schematic. I will go with heavier filtering on the next 102 build.