Higher power 5e9-a tremolux amp?

[mort]

Just fishing for some thoughts and ideas here...

I recently shipped out a fresh build of a 5e9-a tweed tremolux with Mercury transformers FTTO & FTTP-M(lower B+ version) and a Celestion Blue speaker. The combination of parts resulted in a really really nice sounding amp and the owner loves it so much he's selling a couple of high end amps that he says he won't use anymore now that he has the tremolux. Anyway, he loves the amp and the early break up and how smooth it is yadda yadda, but inquired about getting something just exactly like it, but louder. Has to break up early. He doesn't want headroom. I'm about to dive into google on the subject and thought I'd drop the question here and see what sort of thoughts surface up.

Thanks as always.

[g1]

Maybe it's just the way he's explaining it, but if it breaks up at the same level, it won't be any louder.
If he wants it louder, it will have to have more headroom and break up later.
Break up is pretty much whenever it hits full power.

[mort]

Right I get ya. But in general he'd rather have lower than higher headroom.

The amp I built him turned out to not have very strong "sound pressure", but does get fairly loud and cuts well. It's just so smooth that it doesn't thump. I think he may be looking for some of that thump. I'll have to clarify that thought with him and see if that's what he's looking for.

Is there a schematic out there for a double tremolux, kinda like the double deluxe?

[Chuck H]

I'd offer him a powered cabinet and add a speaker driven line out to the amp he has. Then he can use the amp you just made him for small gigs and take the satellite powered cabinet to add for larger gigs. It would just be the PI and power amp of a 5e9a in the same cabinet with the same speaker Make them stackable for a tre cool look. Maybe a level control for the input.

EDIT: It's possible that a speaker driven line out could be enough for him. When the amp you just made isn't large enough he'll likely be near a P.A. He could plug the line out into the P.A. and add some oomph. Even accentuate desired frequencies (low/mid/high).

[mort]

I like that kind of thinking, Chuck. Can you show me an example drawing of a 'speaker driven line out'?

And it's clarified, he is indeed looking for some thump. And adjustable thump would be even better.

[Chuck H]

Extra "thump" makes it trickier. More of the same (which would be the satellite cabinet powered by a speaker driven line out) doesn't add thump, just loudness. That doesn't mean you couldn't make some modest adjustments to the existing amp and move ahead with the additional cabinet idea.

I'll look it over and come up with ideas if your interested (it's the sort of thing I do for fun and I have no projects right now ). In the interim, here's a speaker driven line out with circuit values corrected for a 5e9a. It will deliver twice the signal needed at full tilt (so it's still effective when the host amp is at low volume) or as little as you might want to drive effects pedals. Which is actually sort of cool because you can do things like run this output into a delay and chorus, then into another amp or the P.A. for clean, ungarbled effects. Full tilt amp mojo with effects added

EDIT: For the nitpickers... I know the "speaker driven line out" is actually driven by the OT. I'm just using common nomenclature.

[loudthud]

Mort, Did you ship the amp with a 12AY7 as V1?

Chances are that the magic combination of the transformers, filter caps, rectifier and all the rest will be hard to translate to a more powerfull amp and get it exactly right the first time.

[Chuck H]

Agree. But your insight is showing If the amp was shipped with a 12ax7 as V1 I think changing to a 12ay7 and adding the extra power would be just what the OP's customer is after

[überfuzz]

To me it sounds like you have one of thoes who thinks they know what they want, but don't really have a clue, on your hands. If you're not in desperate need of work tell him to try different speaker combinations, i.e. different cabinets. Chances are he find what hes looking for, speakers can alter the feel of an amp quite much.

[mort]

He's tried both and vastly prefers the ax.

I'm not even sure that this will ever get built, but I'm interested in exploring possibilities for just the learning benefits. I've always just made/worked on stock circuits and shyed away from mods and all that, but it's time I think to expand a bit. And if we did come up with a particularly compelling idea and this guy decided he wanted to fund the project and receive the spoils, he would do so understanding that aspects of the sound response etc would not be precisely predictable.