Help suggesting an amp to build

[coppermouse]

I would really like to build my own tube amp for my guitar. The kids love all the reverb and distortion effects, so I would like to integrate those features. Would like to build a great sounding loud unit. Can someone suggest the ultimate amp circuit to build and what speakers to use. I am an electronic engineer so building and troubleshooting should no pose a problem.

Thanks

[mfreqmaster]

I would build a JCM 800. This is a great distortion tone from the amp alone. You can find the layout and parts from Triode Electronics. I built one and it sounds great. To that amp I would either add a tube driven effects loop or integrate your own tube driven spring reverb. I think that would be once nice sounding amp you can just plug and play.

[coppermouse]

Thank you!

Forgive me if this is a dumber question but would that allow to switch or dial in the distortion as well as turn it off or down playing it clean. Would it have all of the tone controls etc..
And the spring or tube reverb, does that go in series inside the circuit or between the guitar and amp.

I would like to make it so the tubes actually stick out of the top of the amp so you can see them and maybe have a plastic cover to go on to protect them. Any thoughts on that? What speakers would be recommended for good quality at reasonable price. I don't want to get the cheapest possible.

Thanks again.
Tim

[mfreqmaster]

With the JCM 800, it is a single channel amp so you won't be able to channel switch between clean & distortion. You can set the distortion & overall output level you need by the gain and master volume controls-you can get a lot of tonal variety from just these two. I personally back off my guitar volume to clean it up, then full volume for solos, etc. The JCM 800 has controls for treble, middle, bass, & presence.

For the reverb I would look at some of the schematics of the Fender clones available on the weber speakers site. There is also a tube effects loop mod there, look at that schematic, it should give you some ideas.

Sorry, don't have any ideas for your other questions, maybe some others on here can help you with that. Good luck.

[coppermouse]

Hey thanks a lot for the fast response. What is the advantage of the tube vs spring reverb effects? I am just learning all this. What is presence? I se it on the amp I have now but don't know what it is?

[mfreqmaster]

The older amps used tubes to drive the spring reverb, so there is no difference. Modern reverbs use op amps to drive the springs. An effects loop can be tube driven as well as op amp driven.

Presence is associated with the feedback loop from the output transformer. Basically it can boost very high frequencies, higher than the treble.

[coppermouse]

Thanks, I love learning about all of this stuff and am eager to build with tubes. I think it will be a fun project