Need some help designing my amp

[StanM]

Hello everyone I am planning on starting my next build a vox/18watt/fender mashup... the problem is that I cannot decide what preamp to use for the second channel. First off, I have a 18watt chassis laying around so I am going to use that so its a limit to one tube. I play mainly blues, funk, and classic rock so I would like to cover all those territories. I also love a good tremolo effect. The speaker being used is a weber blue dog w/ pre-rolla treatment.

The first channel is going to be a vox like ef86 preamp with a (removable) tone control.

The pi output section will be a mashup of an ac15 and 18watt (18watt pi and a ac15 output).

Second one is a toss up between a fender brownface preamp and a pi cut control, blackface preamp w/ cut control, blackface w/ raw control (removes the tonestack), an 18watt style trem channel w/ cut control, or 18watt normal channel w/ bias vary trem on output tubes. I heard all of these preamps separately but I never heard them w/ el84's. So any help, sound clips (if you ever attempted something like this, it would be a huge help) or general comments would be greatly appreciated.

I am also wondering what output tranny to use: the weber 18watt, the gds, heybor, or (other).

Thanks for the help,

Stan

[black_labb]

Hello everyone I am planning on starting my next build a vox/18watt/fender mashup... the problem is that I cannot decide what preamp to use for the second channel. First off, I have a 18watt chassis laying around so I am going to use that so its a limit to one tube. I play mainly blues, funk, and classic rock so I would like to cover all those territories. I also love a good tremolo effect. The speaker being used is a weber blue dog w/ pre-rolla treatment.

The first channel is going to be a vox like ef86 preamp with a (removable) tone control.

The pi output section will be a mashup of an ac15 and 18watt (18watt pi and a ac15 output).

Second one is a toss up between a fender brownface preamp and a pi cut control, blackface preamp w/ cut control, blackface w/ raw control (removes the tonestack), an 18watt style trem channel w/ cut control, or 18watt normal channel w/ bias vary trem on output tubes. I heard all of these preamps separately but I never heard them w/ el84's. So any help, sound clips (if you ever attempted something like this, it would be a huge help) or general comments would be greatly appreciated.

I am also wondering what output tranny to use: the weber 18watt, the gds, heybor, or (other).

Thanks for the help,

Stan

seems a bit like what i am looking to do, but youve put more thought into yours.

does weber do an 18w tranny? didnt see one in the list

[stokes]

"First off, I have a 18watt chassis laying around so I am going to use that so its a limit to one tube"

What do you mean"one tube"?

[StanM]

What do you mean"one tube"?

I meant that there was only one preamp socket for the second part of the preamp.

...I can confuse myself sometimes too.

[Chuck H]

"I also love a good tremolo effect"

"I have a 18watt chassis laying around so I am going to use that"

With those two statements in mind I think you might do well to build a trem circuit into a one channel amp and scrap the second channel... OR, use the extra tube to build a pair of cathode followers post PI to avoid that nasty 18 watt BUZZ and FIZZ. This would allow you to overdrive the hell out of the power tubes without fear of crossover distortion.

If you do decide on a second channel or a trem circuit you should employ the "Paul Ruby Zener Mod" (find it with Google or someone here will post a link I'm sure). It works well to get rid of crossover dostortion in the 18 watt circuit too.

Chuck