Converting my 50 watt JMP

[eggman6]

Some people would think i'm crazy, but these amps just dont do it for me. I've got a 50 watt jmp clone and i dont care much for the sound. I'm looking to turn it into something else, thinking maybe a high gain beast or something, problem is i'm limited to 2 valves. Apart from something from the mesa mark series, most circuits that come to mind have 5 stages of gain.

I might even go for a different type of vintage style low gain circuit. I'm going to stick with the same output section though, i wont mess with it too much.

I'll fix the amp up and test it stock before i start changing things (incase i change my mind).

Any suggestions, for either a vintage style preamp, or a high gain one.

On another note, does anyone have any VHT schematics as i've heard mostly good things about these amps, if so just pm me.

[Bob-I]

Some people would think i'm crazy, but these amps just dont do it for me. I've got a 50 watt jmp clone and i dont care much for the sound. I'm looking to turn it into something else, thinking maybe a high gain beast or something, problem is i'm limited to 2 valves. Apart from something from the mesa mark series, most circuits that come to mind have 5 stages of gain.

2 valves? Do you mean 2 preamp valves?

Most really nice amps have 3-4 gain stages. Dumbles, Mesa's etc typically have 4 gain stages, and I've done well with 3 gain stages using some of the ckts from blueguitar.org.

I might even go for a different type of vintage style low gain circuit. I'm going to stick with the same output section though, i wont mess with it too much.

I'll fix the amp up and test it stock before i start changing things (incase i change my mind).

Any suggestions, for either a vintage style preamp, or a high gain one.

Why not try cascading the 2 channels? This usually sounds great.

[tubetek]

Don't forget the Trainwreck preamp; it only uses 3 gain stages and is a MONSTER. Since they are low-parts-count, it wouldn't cost much to experiment with.
tubetek

[eggman6]

Dumble sounds interesting, i like the idea of having a clean chanel aswell. Looks like it will convert well, was looking for something with quite a bit of drive for my les paul, not too keen on low overdrive humbucker sounds, i use my strat for that. I personally think a strat sounds better for playing acdc type riffs.

[Darkbluemurder]

2 tubes will give you 4 gain stages. If you also want a clean tone you could try the following architecture:

V1a = common input stage
signal split to a) clean tone stack, clean volume and
b) OD gain, V2a, V2b, OD tone stack, OD volume
V1b as common gain stage.

This will give you a 3+1 OD architecture which can range from low gain crunch to heavy crunch and good gain solos (not SLO high gain though).

If you really need higher gain with 4 gain stages you can check the SLO circuit and omit the clean/crunch channel and the clipping stage (with the 39k cathode resistor). That would be a one-channel high gain monster.

[eggman6]

Clean channel is not overly important and i do quite like the SLO sound.

I've got a stripped down SLO preamp i built, i can always see how it sounds without the clipping stage.