My funky D'Lite 15watter

[rfgordon]

I know some of you are bound to think of me as a total heretic, but here's my D'Lite build. I used iron from Matt at Musical Power Supplies, and a lot of what I had on hand, including a 9V wall wart to power the relays. I followed the Tweeked DLite schemo pretty closely, except that the PI values (I hope to un-cab it and post gut shots later this week) are straight up Tweed Bassman/Plexi values. I may end up converting the presence circuit to that, too. Time will tell.

I really like this tone, both clean and OD. I like both best with PAB on. I was surprised at how much clean headroom this thing has, since the 6V6s only have 358 VDC on the plates, so they're not exactly set for max clean. On the other hand, in OD mode, as she's cranked up, there comes a point where the character of the PI and 6V6s take over, and it sounds less like Dumble rock and more like classic rock, if that makes any sence. At low to medium volumes, though, where I tend to use my amps most, it is so groovy, baby.

I jumped in and wired relays for the PAB and OD. I think I'll keep the brite switch, and prolly wire the second panel switch to be the deep switch.

The clip is recorded into my Yamaha AW16G with an AT811 condensor mic, verb is on the Yamaha. All tubes (12AX7s and 6V6 and 5Y3) are vintage/NOS. Speaker is a well broken in ceramic Tone Tubby.

Guitar for the clips is my Epi custom shop dot with Gibson 57 Classic & Classic plus. Plugged straight into the amp with a 20' Klotz cable.

I haven't put the corners on the amp yet, still waiting on them. I did find the "magic spot" with regard to the amp to make it sing at a relatively low volume.

OK, clip starts out with neck PU, clean, then engages PAB. Then OD neck PU, then PAB then bridge PU.

I need to go back and replace one of the OD wires with shielded, cuz it's a bit noisy in OD, but not too bad compared to lots of other amps. this is certainly the most complex amp I've ever built, and I really dig it.

[El_Martin]

Oh, its a crocoDeLite!

Nice!

Shall we now call you Crocodile Gordon?

Ciao
Martin

[rfgordon]

Hmmm, "Crocodile Gordon" like the ring of that one, I do. I like the gator/croc tolex. I wish I could find a source for that gator tolex they're putting on the George Lynch amps!!

Once I settle on the function of the two panel switches, I'll get a face plate made by Front Panel Express.

[El_Martin]

Just listened to the sound of lil CrocoDeLite by Mr. Crocodile Gordon.

Like the sound. Nice breakup. I just happen to like small amp power stage distortion.

Guess it will fit into your band's style nicely

Ciao
Martin

[rfgordon]

So, let me ask y'all. My CrocoDLite doesn't seem to sound as Dumbly as most of the other DLite clips I've heard. I followed the recipe and used the RN65s, and most Tweeked DLite values.

However, since I used what I had on hand, I put Xicon MPPs in there instead of the Orange Drop PS caps. Should I change those out to get more Dumbleishoushness?

[brownnote]

That's really cool!
Just thinking...
The iron is pretty important.
I mentioned before we used Mercury iron on a couple of builds and it didn't sound right.

[rfgordon]

brownote,

Thanks for the kind words. There's been some discussion about using an impedance mismatch on these amps. Matt's iron has independent 4 and 8 ohm secondaries. I didn't bother to wire up the 4 ohm one, but do you think that's work giving a try?

Also, in studying all the schematics, I notice that some PAB switches have a pair of 22M resistors across them. What's the purpose there? Is it for tone, or is it for switching noise? My relays seem to be dead silent.

One thing I need to go back in and change is the cathode/plate lead dress to get them together. I think I'll also put in the passive, post-master loop, cuz stompbox verb and delay sound really icky through 4 gain stages!

Thanks for all your work on the DLite series. It's the coolest amp I've ever played, whether I built it or not.

[brownnote]

brownote,

Thanks for the kind words. There's been some discussion about using an impedance mismatch on these amps. Matt's iron has independent 4 and 8 ohm secondaries. I didn't bother to wire up the 4 ohm one, but do you think that's work giving a try?

Also, in studying all the schematics, I notice that some PAB switches have a pair of 22M resistors across them. What's the purpose there? Is it for tone, or is it for switching noise? My relays seem to be dead silent.

One thing I need to go back in and change is the cathode/plate lead dress to get them together. I think I'll also put in the passive, post-master loop, cuz stompbox verb and delay sound really icky through 4 gain stages!

Thanks for all your work on the DLite series. It's the coolest amp I've ever played, whether I built it or not.

Hey Rich,
Those 22M are padding resistors, you can use a 10M across the contacts of your relay to accomplish the same function of padding the path to ground...it softens the PAB effect and you can tune it to your liking with the value of that resistor.

Sounds like you're having fun

[rfgordon]

On the PAB, I find that it has less effect the higher the mid and bass are turned up. If all three tone controls are dimed, the PAB seems to have no effect. I guess that's normal?

I'm gonna order some ceramic caps this weekend, since they seem to be important to the Dumble tone. I've also got a variety of NOS styrene pF caps coming, and I'll try those, too, since they are very smoooooove.

Yeah, I'm having fun with this thing! Our second album came out this week, but this amp makes me want to re-record all my solos with it! There's always the next album....

[skyboltone]

I can't open the clip. What's .rar

[mlp-mx6]

A type of archive - like .zip.

Look for WinRAR to download.

[rfgordon]

Here are some gut shots, as promised. Like I said, this build used a lot of stuff that was "on hand." For example, the giant 20 mF/600V filters came to me in a parts order as a "substitution for back ordered 22 MF/500V caps." Well, gee, fellow, just where the heck would they fit? So they sat useless till now.

On the relay boards, I have one big and one small relay, since Radio Shack only had one big one in stock at the time. The big one (six contacts) has longer pins, so I could solder underneath it and keep it on the trace side up. The little one had shorter pins, so it had to come from underneath. That's why you only see one relay. that's also why you see a mix of xicon chiclets, ODs and Sozos.

The wall wart DC PS for the relays was a convenience thing, too, but it works great.

This morning I was up early so I put ceramics on the grid stopper of V1b, wired the deep switch, and got the shielded cable to the OD drive pot. That ceramic does make a difference. I also got the V1b and V2b plate wires with the cathode wires now.

I've ordered some ceramic hi volt caps so I can put one in place of the styrene cap on the treble cap.

I've got to say again that this is the coolest amp ever. The overdrive is soooo smoove, I really dig it.

[rfgordon]

I got some really cheap 330pF ceramics, and put one in the tone stack, which helped. Still, mine doesn't "squeak" on the attack the way most ODS amps do.

Anyway, I got a guy coming over tomorrow to play the amp who had a chance to play Robben Ford's ODS and SSS. I'll let you know what he thinks of my funky ChocoDelite.

I'm thinking of putting in a switch to select tube or ss rectifiers.

[phsyconoodler]

I think your amp is cool!It goes to show you what a little ingenuity can accomplish.I started building amps that way,using whatever I could get my hands on.I scoured E-Bay looking for old tube PA gear and such and built some pretty awesome sounding amps with old '50's iron.
Now that I do it for a living those days are over,but I still dig home-builds! Very cool!

[rfgordon]

psychonooler,
Thanks for you props. I'm with you on the vintage parts thing--some of those old Newcomb, Harmon Kardon, and Bogen systems have some extremely nice iron!