Building tube amp

[sliberty]

The Princeton is a great sounding amp, and loud even though it is only about 15 watts. If you will be using the amp with a very loud band, you may need to mike it into your PA. But its a great choice for a home build project, and its a great amp.

If you really have to have more power, maybe one of the Bassman heads would be a fit for you. The Blonde Bassman had a really great bass channel - sounds a bit like a cranked Marshall. The Blackface and Silverface Bassman heads are also cool in their own way.

[ampgeek]

PA=Public Address (system). The vocalist's primary "amplifier". A lot of us here stick a microphone in front of our guitar amp's speaker and feed that to the PA mixer for venues too large for the amp alone (e.g., outdoors, large clubs/arenas, etc...).

Hard to argue against the Fender Bassman 5F6A circuit for you application as others have suggested. Fat, clean and loud...and takes pedals very, very well. It is very well documented and not all that difficult/complicated a build.

There is absolutely no reason why you couldn't package that in a head alone configuration to allow the use of various cabinets that fit whatever application/venue you will be playing it in.

Good luck!
Dave O.

[labb]

Regarding the 5F6A schematic...Last one I built I built as a head and took some liberties with the circuit. I used an OT that gave me 4,8 or 16 ohm output so that I could use different speaker cabs. The original is for 2 ohm output.

[statorvane]

Since your influences seem to be classic rock, you may want to consider a 4-hole Marshall style build; a JTM-45 (hot rodded 5F6-A) or a JMP50 clone.

I know 15 -20 watts doesn't sound like much, but the way the SS amps are rated, that 20 watt amp of yours is probably the equivalent of a 5 watt tube amp. No joke, like the others said, plug into a 5E3 and it'll blow away any "20 watt" SS amp. My Bassman got painfully loud before it crunched up - around 5-6 on the gain level.

[M Fowler]

A fun amp to play is my 18watt JCM800 2204 head into 212 cabinet, breaks up nicely but still has plenty of headroom for pedal board pushing.

A guy could go either with EL84 tubes or 6V6 in power section.

Mark

[drew]

I've decided that i need an amp. But the really good ones are unaffordable. My father, who has really good experience in this, suggested to build an amp for me, by ourselves.

Have you looked into what it's going to cost you to buy all of the components? Here in the US, it isn't possible to build an amp from scratch for much less money than buying one. Maybe it's different in Germany, or maybe your dad has a stash of parts he can contribute in addition to his expertise.

[Phil_S]

You can cut cost buying used transformers from eBay. The tradeoff is that used iron won't be the correct iron and your amp will sound different. It won't sound bad, just different. This is more true where the OT is concerned. You take your chances that the eBay iron is going to be suitable for your build and that it isn't somehow shorted.

You can also cut cost by buying a blank chassis at a low price and drilling it yourself. This assumes you have tools.

[gui_tarzan]

Sorry, i didnt get it

PA - what's that?

PA system - public address, that the singers, drums and amps get played through to increase the volume.

[RWood]

My 5B6 bassman at 30w is easily as loud as my 80w ss. It has only volume and tone knobs, so couldn't be more simple.
Drilling the hammond chassis and building my own head cab, the total cost was around $325 USD.

[overtone]

Personally, I would go for one of the 6L6 Fender tweed circuits, but as the OP is in Germany and was talking Fender type SE for use with a strat, I would maybe point to the Tube-Town GmbH TT66 DIY amp.

This amp is designed for a Fender feel but can be tweaked to take it in a Marshall direction. Maybe not a complete beginner project, but there is a huge forum there which will be able to chip in with advice.

It is a basic two stage pre- with a 6G6 type Fender tone stack, a bright switch - into a SE output stage (I guess about 12W?) and that's it. Based around the KT66, you can set it up for 6L6, 5881, 6CA7 or El34 etc. output tubes.
link in German:
https://www.tube-town.net/cms/?DIY/Amps/TT66
in English:
https://www.tube-town.net/cms/?DIY/Amps/TT66_%28engl%29

They have a kit and chassis, head-shell etc. so one can get an idea of the cost.
http://www.tube-town.net/ttstore/Bausae ... :5318.html

no affiliation, merely trying to show a newcomer which road to take at the crossroads.

[Jürgen Kraise]

Thanks you guys for your comments!

I'm going to make the box myself, destroying some old furniture for wood lists to saw.

Originally, i'm from Uzbekistan, that's former Soviet Union republic; and we have a lot of different, totally under-rated, valve stuff there.

An easy task to look for an old valve stuff for scavenging. That's about spare parts (knobs, switchs, etc.)

About tubes, i'm going to buy new ones in the shop. Not american made famous ones, such as EC83 and so forth; russian made ones, with same stats.

Then, i'm going to change them here, for kosher ones: us-made.

That was my plan. This will cost me like... 10-30 USD.

I shall stay in touch, updating my status here.

Thanks you all