50w-100w Valve Owners Thread

[DosiYanarchy]

see, i was thinking that but then though...kinda spoils the B15 look.

Having said that, if you wanted to take it on the road, a sweet enclosure might be a good idea and look awesome.

 

[danfishinman]

Exactly, I worked hard to keep the B15 look. I may build a custom tube cage for the back row of 6L6GCs.
I picked up the Ampeg HLF ported 4x10
used for $400. Heavy but this think kicks butt and shakes the walls .
I'll post some transformer details later and the schematic if anyone is interested

 

[spiritbass]

Excellent work, Dan! Am I seeing voltage test points on the back?

 

[danfishinman]

Yep, I built it with test points and individual bias pots on each tube
also has ground lift and 4-8-16 ohm capability.
Probably spent about $500 in parts and about a month of sunday afternoons
to complete.

From the preamp thru the splitter stage is pure B15 design circa 1968.
Has UltraHi and Ultra low boost switches just like the real thing.
The 4 tube power stage is derived from Bassman 100.
Also added some noise reduction mods recommended by Kevin O connor in TUT3
and my own attempt at a presence control.
Paired with that cab this rig is great for both guitar and 5 String Bass.

Here's a few shots of the build proces.

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The wiring looks better now.

 

[coreyfyfe]

Problem solved... built my own 100watt version of a B15

Well if you want to get technical, so did ampeg, but yours looks like it would probably be closer in tone, at least with the 6SL7 pre and PI tubes instead of 12AX7s in the B15R.

 

[danfishinman]

Yep I was going for the 60's B15 tone but wanted fixed bias instead of cathode bias that's I went with the 68 design.

Funny you shoud mention 12AX7s on the pre-amp... since my son also
is a killer quitar player I wanted to make this rig a little more guitar tone friendly
so I investigated adding 12AX7 capability to the pre-amp and came across
this little adapter that lets you put a 12AX7 in a 6SL7 socket on ebay



Not a good for use in the splitter section as it seems to really thin out the tone but in the pre-amp delivers crispness that my son seems to really enjoy.



And when its Bass time just switch back to the good old
JAN-Phillips 6188 from 1986... smooth yet punchy

 

[fivestringgecko]

Exactly, I worked hard to keep the B15 look. I may build a custom tube cage for the back row of 6L6GCs.
I picked up the Ampeg HLF ported 4x10
used for $400. Heavy but this think kicks butt and shakes the walls .
I'll post some transformer details later and the schematic if anyone is interested

Dude, I'm totally interested. That amp looks SWEET and I've been looking for a project like that. Check your PM.

5sg.

 

[Mark Olson]

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My Soultone with a new custom 1x15" cabinet.

 

[Downunderwonder]

Just back from 1st gig with the Jansen 50. EUB at jam session. It made enough volume to keep up with acoustic guitars in PA with good headroom, in a smallish but loud bar. I don't know that it would cut it with rock drums and guitar amps though.

 

[GHI]

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My Soultone with a new custom 1x15" cabinet.

That looks very cool! Please tell us about your new cabinet, Mark.
Can we expect sound clips?

I have just ordered a 1x15 for my Sound City 50+. It's not custom, but I'm having it done in Purple Levant tolex.
I'll be sure to post a pic when I get it.

 

[Mark Olson]

Cool! My cab was built for me by my tech. I'm still playing around to find the right speaker for it. I've got a Jensen in there now, but I also want to play around with my Celestions and Eminence's. I'm thinking the Eminence may be the way to go. Once I sort out the speaker situation I should be able to do clips.

 

[GHI]

Cool! My cab was built for me by my tech. I'm still playing around to find the right speaker for it. I've got a Jensen in there now, but I also want to play around with my Celestions and Eminence's. I'm thinking the Eminence may be the way to go. Once I sort out the speaker situation I should be able to do clips.

Looking forward to it! Now I don't know much about speakers, but the Eminence Kappalite 3015 that is going into mine could be a good choice. Efficient, goes fairly low, has a strong midrange and a reach up to 4kHz.

Edit: I just fully realized that the 3015 is a neodymium speaker. with the whole neo craze going on I'm considering ordering another 115 right away.

 

[Mark Olson]

I really like the Eminence CB158, but that's a much heavier speaker, of course. I've got two of them in my Emperor 2x15". Very nice, vintage old school sound. If you miss the boat on the neos, I recommend thinking about the CB158.

 

[GHI]

Okay, cool. I love vintage tone. Were those CB158's the speakers the Emperor came loaded with?

I read in the pedalboard thread that the Jensen in yours is a bit of a different animal.. that it will work for heavy guitar aswell. I'm interested to know what celestion and eminence speakers you are thinking of replacing it with?

 

[spankdaplank]

I just got finished with my latest project.
Last year I picked up a Peavey Windsor guitar amp -125 watts, 4 x EL34's - that had a noise problem that turned out to be an output tube. In the process of figuring out whether to keep it, (I don't need another guitar amp), I decided to convert it into a bass amp.
It already sounded pretty good as bass amp as it sat, but there were a few things that I wanted to change.
First off, the front end gain was way too hot. Peavey was trying to get a super overdrive sound I guess. I lowered the gain in the first stage and made the third gain stage unity.
To improve the tone I doubled the size of the coupling caps.
The biggest mod was to the tone stack. I believe it was a Marshall style tone stack.
Luckily there was plenty of real estate on the board and i decidedto ose a Baxandall tone stack similar to an Ampeg.
I also changed the noisy EL34-STR's to EL34-BHT's that I had on hand.
The end result is pretty awesome. In a clean configuration of the controls it is reminiscent of a Dual Showman. However there is still a ton of useable overdrive available. There is a texture control which acts like a tilt control on the phase splitter, if I remember correctly. It unbalances the drive to the power tubes to increase the amount of harmonic distortion. It actually works pretty good.

Two things surprised me about this amp: I thought the smallish size of the output transformer would limit the low end. It doesn't. Second, I don't care for EL34's in a bass amp. I tried subbing 6L6's but the BHT's were definitely sweeter. I would love to try EHX 6CA7's.

Anyway here's the sad part (for me): I'm moving out of the country next month where the voltage standard is 220v. I already called Peavey parts dept. and the cost of a 220v power transformer is just not worth it. So I guess I will most likely sell it.
Anyway it was a fun project.

 

[Mark Olson]

Okay, cool. I love vintage tone. Were those CB158's the speakers the Emperor came loaded with?

I read in the pedalboard thread that the Jensen in yours is a bit of a different animal.. that it will work for heavy guitar aswell. I'm interested to know what celestion and eminence speakers you are thinking of replacing it with?

The Eminences are what comes in the Emperor Cabs stock, but I ordered my cab with Celestions. They couldn't get the Green Label 15's I asked for so they put in some Celestion TF1525's at the recommendation of their Celestion rep, which kind of sucked because I hate pro audio speakers on bass (not good breakup characteristics). So I put in the CB158's (which would have come stock) which made a huge improvement in the tone over pro audio speakers.

If I were to try a different speaker in my 1x15" it'd probably be another Eminence CB158. Those sound great. That'd give me more low end than the Jensen.

I should add that my 1x15" is a sealed cabinet

 

[Mark Olson]

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Here's a quick low volume soundclip of the sealed 115 with my rig, using the El Grande Bass Fuzz. I could put in an Eminence CB158 for more low end, but I don't really feel that I need it.

 

[My name is Mudd]

Update on my Epi rig build - I'm buying Rapisme's Dr B 1260 cab, and that'll finish it off (I hope). The rig will be...

bass > Pl Waves tuner > Tronographic Rusty Box > '79 bass-modded EHX NYC Muff > Epi head > Dr B cab

...I'm all excited!

Question for those who have modded their Epi heads; the mods available seem to be mostly tone-stacks, etc...since I'm using the RB as a preamp and the Epi itself as essentially a power amp, would there be any benefit to any of these mods? I do plan on a tube swap and (later on) probably upgrade the transformers, and maybe a power-stepping mod. Maybe.

 

[GHI]

The Eminences are what comes in the Emperor Cabs stock, but I ordered my cab with Celestions. They couldn't get the Green Label 15's I asked for so they put in some Celestion TF1525's at the recommendation of their Celestion rep, which kind of sucked because I hate pro audio speakers on bass (not good breakup characteristics). So I put in the CB158's (which would have come stock) which made a huge improvement in the tone over pro audio speakers.

If I were to try a different speaker in my 1x15" it'd probably be another Eminence CB158. Those sound great. That'd give me more low end than the Jensen.

I should add that my 1x15" is a sealed cabinet

Ah.. I see. I recall reading about it in the Emperor thread. You wouldn't happen to know what Weber upgrade speakers replaces the CB158's? Or is it guitar only?
Hopefully the 3015's breakup characteristics aren't too bad. But I'm definitely gonna try out that one 1x15 before ordering another.

Really enjoyed your clip, man. As allways.
I could totally see myself sacrificing a little low end for that!

 

[Mark Olson]

Weber does make bass speakers now, but I don't really know anything about them. I would be curious to try them myself. If you ever try one of those Webers, please let me know how you like it!

Right now I'm on the fence about putting a CB158 in my 1x15", getting a Curtis Novak Mudbucker (which should be beefier even than the Model One), or both. At any rate I like the direction my tone is going in, it's always getting better (to my ears at least!)