Hi-fi amp finished

A couple of pictures of the finished hi-fi amp. I've been listening to it for a couple of months now, and, damn, it does sound good.

Ersatz tweed Champ

Built with transformers and tubes salvaged from an old Philco reel-to-reel tape deck that I found on the side of the road (literally). Cabinet and speaker from Weber. Tweed shellacking by me.

Jazzmaster porn

1965 Fender Jazzmaster

Stereo amp project

Just finished (more or less) building a 10 watt per channel stereo amp. It's a stereo version of a classic Mullard design from the 1950s. I'm very impressed at how good it sounds. It's connected to a Mac that houses my iTunes library.



The transformers are from an old Magnavox chassis that was probably in some kind of console stereo.

Right now, six of the eight tubes are miscellaneous old ones from the Shoebox in the Closet. I've ordered a new, matched set of output tubes for it. It will be interesting to see if that makes any noticeable difference in the sound.

Here's my dining room table when the amp was about 2/3 finished.

Desert island albums, #10

Jeff Buckley's Grace, 1994.


How sad that we lost him so young.

Desert island albums, #11

Robyn Hitchcock's I Often Drean of Trains, 1984.


Element of Light (1986) and Queen Elvis (1989) also deserve honorable mention.

A Singularity of Awesome

It is a Great Day

TMBG videos are back on YouTube.

Winter projects

Spring is almost here, and it's time to declare victory over my last few winter projects. Just today I put the finishing touches on this speaker cabinet, which contains a 10" Eminence Ramrod.


Here's my recently finished tweed Deluxe copy sitting atop. (Known to the cognoscente simply as the "5E3.")


Rear view:


And here's yet another AC15-like amp (normal channel only). This one is 99% authentic — circuit-wise anyway. "Brilliance" switch and all.

Yet another amp project

This chassis is from an old Hammond L-100 organ. I had to rig up controls and get a reverb tank for it. With a few modifications, it turned into a nice amp. The reverb is especially sweet.


Here's the front of the cabinet. That's 1/4" cherry plywood from Rockler.


Here's the schematic. Click on the thumbnail for a larger, readable version.

Desert island albums, #12

Tom Waits, Mule Variations, 1999.


His masterpiece, in my humble yet entirely correct opinion.

6S-7 amp update

Okay, I decided that the amp was way out of control, overdriving too much too soon. Two preamp stages was overkill. So I replaced the first 6SL7 (two triode sections) with a 6SJ7, a single triode. (Click below for a bigger picture of the schematic.)



I also simplified the power supply rail, cutting way back on the capacitance. (Again, the original concept was overkill.) Also added a unique midrange switch and a bright/presence switch.

I quite happy with the sound. It's surprisingly loud, and it gets a little raunchy when cranked.

Desert island albums, #13

The John Prine Anthology Great Days. (Are anthologies cheating? Yes, but I don't care.)

New amp project

This is a little amp that uses two 6SL7 tubes and one 6SN7. (Both of these are twin triodes.) The two sections of the (new Chinese) 6SN7 are used as a push-pull pair, a la the "October Studio" at AX84. The 6SL7s are old tubes; one's a Tung-Sol, the other an RCA.

The power transformer is an old Triad that I have had for years. Can't remember where it came from, but I used it long ago on a crappy attempt at a Champ-like amp. (It's rated at only 40ma, so I'm pushing it pretty hard here.)

Here's the schematic. Click on it for a larger, readable version.

The amp sounds good. It breaks up at a reasonable volume and gets real nasty when you turn it all the way up. But I'm still trying to wrap my head around the sound of it.

Bass porn

1940s Epiphone B5