Build basic 2 watt 6V6 Tube guitar amp Simple design great sound & distortion perfect beginner kit
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- čas přidán 18. 02. 2022
- This is a follow up video to the homebrew 2 watt amplifier build. The initial design featured a 6CL6 tube. By request, this time I utilized common amp tubes (6V6 & 12AX7) rather than using obscure ones. The purpose is to show you can achieve the same results. The 6V6 is a great class A amplifier and everyone loves its tone characteristics. I am running this tube at low power (180vdc) Biased to achieve Class A operation. Sounds great and distorts nicely. You can build this amp relatively cheap. Troll ebay and other sites for good deals on the components. For the output tranny check, www.amplifiedparts.com They are my favorite parts supplier.
NOTE: This amp featured has SOLD - Jak na to + styl
I hope that some day, when you are making one of your custom design amplifiers, that you Add one more hole in the top of the chassis and wire in a socket for a 6AQ5 so you could use either a 6AQ5 or a 6v6 as the output tube, A mod like that would work absolutely great with the lower plate voltages. In fact you may be able so squeeze a little more clean power out of the 6AQ5 because it has a little higher transconductance at the lower plate voltages than the 6V6 does,
As far as building amplifiers into existing cabinets from the 50 and 60's, your ability to see the finished product in your mind's eye before even starting on the chassis absolutely amazes me.
I am considered by some to be a pretty good tube tech, but you are more than that; you are an artist when it comes to custom amplifiers into old cabinets!
I really enjoyed seeing and hearing the finished product in this video!
Incredibly designed with a more common tubes. First rate job Terry.
This is incredible and it does sound so smooth! You can tell within a few notes🙌
I like the S.T.A.R. Laboratories mug. Now it all makes sense. You are building a new Cyborg.
Wow! What a sound! I'm such a fan of these "little" amps.
Your cabinet is from a UHF converter box. TVs back in the 50's and 60's often had only VHF channels. The converter was needed to tune UHF channels that were popular in smaller markets. That same cabinet was branded with many company's logos. I've often seen them labeled as Mallory. Others are labeled Alliance or Crosley. Nice build Terry!
That's a blast from the passed! UHF = Ultra High Frequency. VHF = Very High Frequency. 👍
Love the tone of this one, Terry! Very cool sound.
Awesome Terry, you got the intro to "Who'll Stop the Rain" by CCR. Those lessons are payin' off!
So love your videos, I've changed filter caps, biased my amp etc. Love to see a build of a Tweed Tremolux. Thanks for the inspiration
Wow, very good sound, lots of potential there.
Very nice, I’ve built a couple amps…champs, vibro champ, Princeton…even a deluxe…I love this little 2 watter!!!sounds incredible, would be fun in a very light and small build with some pedals in front as well…again, very nice sounding little amplifier…love the repurposed case…
Sounds great, looks great. Nice work!
Another great job Terry thank you very much.
I love your videos. Some CZcamsrs waste so much time soldering each component. Have you considered making a push-pull circuit board? Something that allows you to have the choice of different styles of phase inverters would be nice.
You are a national treasure, sir.
I think it would be interesting to see Terry branch out into developing pedal kits. I'm sure he could come up with some original designs once he learned the basics of their design.
Absolutely beautiful. Bravo!
If that's the amp playing in the intro music, it sounds amazing!
Solid flash reference right off the bat!
I have a pile of old 50's tube radios and amps , just pulled out 2 magnavox 188 aa amps with 3 speakers attached to the panel, plus I have an old vox AC 100 that's a virgin amp and it works I'd love to get some of mine converted to guitar amps
Damn sick projects coming outta your lab.
You get right to the point, I like your style! I enjoy watching your videos, I have the parts for a small tube amp, rendered a Magnavox '57 amp, gotta get that project completed some day! I will keep watching here, good day!
Thanks man, I appreciate it
@@d-labelectronics Indeed, I only wish I would have pursued my passion at an early age when I first got interested in electronics. I know enough to stay safe, and replace components, it's fully understanding the signal path in a circuit that still baffles me, lmao. Thanks again for your videos and helpful information!
VERY COOL,Terry!!
It would be cool if you had a full kit built for something like this for sale. Great video.👍
I’d buy it !
Me too!
Me too
Oh yeah! 🤘🤘
Just fantastic terry. Im new to your channel and new to amp building. Ive put some guitars together but im a complete novice at building. I have to say that i was very happy to see you making this simple amp with the tubes i desire. Western Electric is supposed to be making these tubes soon i hope i can use those to make this. Thanks for the vid
Hi Nick, you can still get very nice NOS New Old Stock, American 6V6’s and 12X7’s all day long on eBay for not a lot of money.. No need to wait for some long ago defunct company to start rebranding Chinese tubes.. But yes, this would be a very nice 1st build (and would sound great too). Even better if you had a chassis maybe 1” wider would be to use two 6AV6 tubes (each is one triode of the 12AX7’s tube) and those are available for only a few dollars, and get 1 6AU6 pentode, so you could have 2 inputs, one going into the 1st 6AV6 triode, then into the 2nd 6AV6 triode (the same as going into both halves as in Terry’s amp. Then have the other input go into the 6AU6 Pentode 1st then the 2nd 6AV6 for a
@@Tom-th1oy Thank you very much. Very useful information.
Awesome little amp very impressed with you builds and repairs. I've been wanting to get into building some small amps and was wondering if the schematic is still available to be emailed?
Thanks, Terry!
Another "Ham" here, and I've been wanting to build one of these amps for some time now, and I think this will be the one.
Gonna email you for schematic.
73,
KG4DWT
Cool little amp! 🤟🏻
its funny to see this video, while im playing through my tweed champ turned tweed princeton build right now....same tone control was added today, and I love this amp as much as my main build...a tweed high power twin/plexi, that ive played out with for like 4 years....these little amps have tone galore
I let the ads play, hope you make a couple dimes for it. Great videos, I bought a couple of beat up console/cabinet record player-radio combos to harvest parts. Most recent one is 6V6, transformers are in good shape, I'm off to the races!
Fantastic Terry, thanks
Thanks again best wishes from Columbus Ohio USA
Awesome! Hello, I was watching several of your CZcams videos and was wondering if you were still offering boutique amp builds?
Thank you for your time!
Jay
This is a great video. Thanks!
Us Guitar players are keeping the Tube Amps alive
Fantastic Job 👏👏👏👏👏
Great job terry
Just subbed. Great video, I want to build this!
I am working on a replica of the Fender Champ from 1948... 6SJ7 and 6V6.. very cool!
Nice! I'm just tweaking an amp using an ECL82 and a 6AV6 in a champ/princeton like circuit. Around 3W, clean until half the volume. All in a Hammond 1590DD.
Terry, you are the man--would you recommend something like this for an acoustic guitar? Trying to make a little project with my son now that he's back home from the Marine Corps and is in college.
Thank you for all the tips you've taught me in your plethora of videos--I have a couple old analog (Leader and Hitachi) oscilloscopes, audio signal generator, frequency counter, dim bulb tester, isolation transformer and variac for messing around (safely) on my workbench. You always give solid advice and that is very much appreciated.
Daniel
Another cute little amp again from your assembly line! 🍷😁
But you could as well develop that two tube desing towards a Dumble ODS type of beast by adding one extra 12AX7 to give that distortion which is produced by cascaded preamp stages. Of course it needs a couple of extra gain/volume pots, a DPDT switch and some extra wiring but, believe me, it is worth the effort. Your guitarist friend would love it.
so then let's see you build one and post a video
This also is the way Geoff Emerick got the distortion for John Lennon's guitar on the electric version of Revolution. The guitar was running two cascaded mic preamps directly into a mixing desk’s channel, being very careful not to fry the channel. So much fun to see good old school valve amps still appreciated for their simplicity and sound.
Thanks for sharing your schematics. It sad classictone shutdown. Their champ OT transformers had 5k and 8k primary windings
Hammond has one ,too. It’s available on Antique Electronics for $50 or so.
The Hammond 1760C has 5k and 8k primaries into 3.2, 8 & 16 ohm secondaries.
That's a neat little design!
The one thing that I would do differently on this amp, and it might not even be necessary, is to run the heater winding center tap to the cathode of the 6V6. Your amp does seem to be rather noiseless, so it's probably not necessary here.
I'm yet to find a better way to reduce heater hum than using a virtual center tap with a trimpot to the ground. You eliminate any trace of hum, if it only comes from the heater.
I back it off, yesterday finished an amp that would always hum, no matter what I did. It turns out there was a heater leakage to cathode. It was resolved by changing the virtual c.t from ground to the cathode resistor on the power tube. No hum anymore.
S.T.A.R = Super Terry Amp Restorer
Cheers, I think there be wine in that cup. 🍷🍷🍷
Star laboratories is the experimental lab in the DC verse but most notably the Flash...
Very conservative design, S/E 6V6 are usually driven around 3 watts, so that tube should last a long long time. I find used 6K6 cheaper to come by and more available.
If I can't get this old Hoffman 21" black and white TV going that has been sitting in my parents garage, I was going to steal the output transformer and 6K6 tube out of it and build an amp. Secondary is 3.2 ohms if not mistaken, used a Rola 6 x 11 oval speaker which is very rare, used in some harmonica amps.
Excellent
That can almost looks like the front of a VW van. My oldest brother took an old RCA console that had radio and turntable at one time but the speakers were blown. He built a new cab . Eliminating the radio and installing what initially was alongside the turntable and radio facing forward. He used some of the original tweed to cover the front . And installed some perforated metal plate behind for heat distribution. It ended up very low volume so he added an external preamp. Prepackaged. Don't know what out put rating the amp had but with the right speakers you could plug a guitar or bass in. The system itself naturally emits a lot of bass. Don't know why he didn't use the preamp from the turntable input. Maybe it was shot.
I have an old True Tone under dash tube car radio enclosure out of a 1936 Chevrolet. It may be military idk?The tuner and tubes are all long gone , just the box but it has a built in 6 inch speaker. Kind of a streamline Art Deco looking metal box. I would love to give it to you . I think it would be a quite a challenge for you to turn it into a tube table top combo. Or you could just put it on the shelf and think about it ?
I wonder how one of the 10mm green led's would look in there?
Very nice!
Fantastic! ❤
That's very cool.
Hey Terry, Nice video's man. Hey as you stated in the video, I'd like to get my paws on the schematic. How do I go about that? Thanks
Nice amp! Do you ever use tube rectifiers?
Like a 5Y3?
Amazing!
Wow!! Thank you!!
Do you sell any of the amps you build or do you build amps for us that are on a budget? I am seeking one and I love how you use old radios and stuff. Thanks for the cool videos.
Lovely tone. What's the click-click-click as the chords start to decay?
You hiding that Drive pedal off camera? LOL. Sounds sweet and crunchy!
6v6-is-best-selection.
Good -sound.
Nice. Can you do a build on a vocal tube preamp?
nice do have some mic tube preamp that can distortion? non-transistor project
Thank you
I've had a 6V6GT and other bits laying around for a while to build an amp similar to this, although I am after a general purpose amp rather than a guitar one, so probably a little different in the biasing and only one stage of pre should do it.
I like your box, that's the other question I've had, as I wanted to show off the valves, just a pity they are hidden behind the transformers, although I realise why you did it that way.
I'd have to use something bigger as I wanted to include a speaker, this should give better air flow so putting the tubes up front behind a bit of glass should be no problem.
Thanks brother from India, but it's very hard to get valve base.
Great amplifier, schematic available somewhere?
Very cool. Would love to open that baby up.
Fantastic 👏👏👏🤘
Can you do a low wattage bass amplifier?
Hey Terry could you please send me that .jpeg you have ready of the schematics for this build please. Also you mentioned that you make the ECB-A component board as well but do you offer the ecb board already populated for this style build? And what would the cost be for that board either way? And finally my last question is what would the cost be for the CUB1 power supply board ? I’m considering building this as my first attempt for a guitar amp. Thanks for your info and contribution to keeping the tube projects alive. I’ve only ever experimented with tubes in larger RF style amplifiers such as 10 meter linear amps. Which I would think aren’t too much different.
How about an effects loop for some of these 2w builds?
Nice
Nice!
Thanks so much for the work you do and share with us! This will be perfect for my first amp build. Is your email address listed? I'd love to get the schematic as well as the boards if you sell 'em! Cheers!
Tony, come back!
Maestro , ahora la pregunta, si no es cansado, es la siguiente : a la válvula 7dq5 ( el84 ) podemos hacerla trabajar a 300 volts de ánodo sin que sufra alguna problemática? Porque en lo general hablan de 250 V , pero co.o en el taller a veces la ortodoxia no se usa , podemos tener en single ended un poquito más de rendimiento . Single es mi versión favorita para hacer , pero hay tantos comentarios , mejor ir a fuente confiable. Saludos desde Argentina.
For the mug, S.T.A.R. Labs from the flash?
I'd install a coupling capacitor after a first stage and before a tonestack to cut the lowest frequency. 22n for example. I think it would be better exactly for guitar sound.
My opinion.
Nice!👍😎🎸🎶
Please let someone demo this unit, nice job.
Yes Sir, will do
@@d-labelectronics send it to me! I’ll do a studio demo and send it back! Long time fan of your work!!
Send it to ola and make it chug!
with a les paul!
is it possible to use with a one output 12v ct transformer and use 120vac straight from house ac ?
I don’t like having diodes rather have a tube rectifier if you have the right transformer but maybe in this build it’s needed for space
Hey my friend can you repair a digital temp and fuel gauge combination cluster for my 1992 Vintage Honda prelude??? You know your electronics for sure. Dana E. Thanks for your time. 🙏🏻
is it possible to build something similar to this, but just as a clean 6v6 POWER AMP only? removing the pre-amp stage.
I have pre-amps that I am connecting in the return FX loop of a 15 watt Egnater guitar amp, with 3x AX27 (gain, fx loop, Phase Inverter) & 2x6v6 , I bypass the preamp and go into the PI Tube and power tubes and into the amp's cab, but I was looking to build a standalone tube power amp, that I can use separately, with different cabs, with dual 6v6 tubes and a PI or a single ended with one 6v6, , would that require JUST the removal of the preamp stage tubes? or do they stay in and get repurposed to run cleaner? or is it a total different design?
I know it’s not all about the wattage. However, my Hallicrafters SX-42 has a matched pair of 6V6’s in push pull, and pretty sure it is in the 4-5 watt range? I am using the current Groove Tubes. That does look to be a nice, beefy transformer. But surprised the wattage isn’t higher? Im not an engineer, believe me.
Maybe that's not wrong. That would be the case if the tubes are in self split push pull.
Would love to get the schematic
I have a 1936 RCA Victor Model 6K Superheterodyne Radio. Rating A = 105-125 volts , cycles 50-60 , watts 80. There is tubes : 6A8 ,6K7 ,6H6 , 6F5 , 6F6 , 5Z4 . May be I make a guitar amp disguised in radio ! Would like to use 6550's.
all components for assembling the amplifier can be bought like an old radio. it will cost a little. it is inexpensive and the components will be of high quality. old transformers are very soulful.
Hello, I am amazed by this channel, you really make it so interesting. I'd like to have the schematic for this amp, would you be so kind to send it to me please?
Thank you!
Terry I’ve got an old sylvania radio I’d love you to turn into an amp for me
Hey buddy, is that amp available in a kit somewhere?
WOW! 'Nuff said!
As a guitar player can I just buy a amp like this just in the amp box ?
Cool little amp,
now make a 2 watt 1969 Marshall Plexi supper lead amp.
hi terry i have 290wex and woundering would this work for this daigram?
Consider making kits for beginner hobbyists .. Bet they would fly of the shelves.
Mojotone?
I like 6v6's.
Surprised that this is almost 100 % the plain old champ circuit only with a 140 V transformer instead of 300 - are there really no adaptions necessary ?
good job...but if i wanted to use a 6sl7 instead of 12ax7...the tension change? sorry for my bad english
Yes, you can use a 6SL7, just add the octal base. Gain will be slightly lower, but I have used them many times in the past. Great sounding preamp tube