Bruce, I turned the amp over to the harp player yesterday. I wasn't sure how it would sound, since I could only test it with a guitar, which sounded awful.
He plugged the Green Bullet in, played with the knobs, and by the end of the practice he was smiling big. He was getting exactly that sort of greasy Chicago tone he was looking for all this time. Really smooth distortion.
As a bonus for me, it is the quietest amp I've ever built - no hum at all. Tried a new way (for me) to wire up the heaters and I guess it worked. I wasn't expecting that, since I built it in the chassis from a SS keyboard amp, and that caused a lot of problems with layout.
Only problem is it's not really loud enough to gig with unmic'd, but that's what PAs are for. But if he decides he needs a bigger amp I'm going for your parallel design - this one just sounds too good. Thanks for your help, and the design.
Ya know... in the absolute beginning... it started out as a 5 watt 6V6 guitar practice amp design that just didn't do it for me but right away I noticed with some additional tonal tweaking it seemed to work OK with harp players... so, off and on, I just messed around with it for a few weeks after that ... working with a couple blues harp players here in town who'd stop by for a visit and they really started liking it.... the little pocket rocket.
Yes, it is a little low in power at around 8-10 watts but with a good 10" speaker, it sounds great mic'd into the PA.
And how can they complain about an amp that weighs like 15 lbs?
I'm mean some of these Prima Donna harp players get all pissy carrying their 2lb worth of cross harps in a lunch box!
Originally posted by Bruce / Mission AmpsView Post
I'm mean some of these Prima Donna harp players get all pissy carrying their 2lb worth of cross harps in a lunch box!
Ha ha - you know, I did a pickup wedding gig a while ago. It was jazz standards, low volume, so I loaded up my 5e3, my ES125, my bag of chords and stuff, music stand, fake books. I thought I was traveling light, I was happy. Then the clarinet player showed up. He came with - his clarinet, that's it. I thought it might be time to switch instruments.
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