New from the Tone God

[dano12]

Saw this today in Premier Guitar.



Wow.

Linky: http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Issue/2008/Aug/Review_The_Tone_God_TubeUlent_Amp_Preamp.aspx

[slacker]

Very nice

[Mark Hammer]

Hmmm, is that the little black beast you showed Jeff and myself at that coffee place in Oakville last year or whenever it was?

If so, and even if not, congrats on such a glowing review.

[The Tone God]

I guess the cat is out of the bag.

Hmmm, is that the little black beast you showed Jeff and myself at that coffee place in Oakville last year or whenever it was?

If so, and even if not, congrats on such a glowing review.

Yes. That was the same effect just in an earlier form. I wish I had chance to show it off to you guys at that time. Its a fun little box.

Andrew

[~arph]

Very nice! good job, explains why you were busy too.

[deaconque]

I have been looking for a project JUST like this for weeks.  any chance we might see some inside pics of one?

[DougH]

That looks really cool. Nice work!

One question:

the fact that the 6V6 remains merely warm to the touch suggests that it is being used in a non-standard way to provide output signal voltage.

Isn't this because you're using it as a voltage amp instead of a power amp? I wouldn't think the difference in filament heat between 6 and 6.3v would be noticeable to the touch.

Looks like a versatile box and I love how it looks.

[Renegadrian]

Wow, I'd really love to give a sight inside...That seems a good tube product...

[nelson]

You have literally sealed the bottom of it. That should deter the reverse engineering hopefuls a bit.



Er, any chance of a schematic?



It looks very impressive.

[The Tone God]

Thanks for the positive replies everyone.

Very nice! good job, explains why you were busy too.

Pretty much. This has been going on for awhile now. It is just now that we are getting media attention. I want to earn my reputation instead using hype and marketing. Unfortunately that takes alot longer but I believe it is more honest and survives the test of time better.

Isn't this because you're using it as a voltage amp instead of a power amp? I wouldn't think the difference in filament heat between 6 and 6.3v would be noticeable to the touch.

You would be surprised how much that 0.3v makes. The other contributing factor to keeping heat down is while the unit is running at high voltage it is not running at the voltage of a full blown amp. The extra would just result in more unneeded power that would have to be dissipated in the form of heat. Wasteful for this application. That would also contribute the lower heat being generated.

You have literally sealed the bottom of it. That should deter the reverse engineering hopefuls a bit.

Funny enough most people think that the reason we seal the bottoms is to prevent reverse engineering but the major factor is another even more darkly group, lawyers. The lawyers said that by having a product that contain lethal voltages with a user accessible lid could make us liable. We would have to do something to make the user take an "unreasonable" amount of effort to gain access to the lethal portion. Since we were not going to change the case the option selected was to seal the case. The added bonus is people won't open up and monkey around in the circuit messing something up that we have to then fix. We don't make money on servicing.

The fact is the prevention of RE was low on the list of reasons. Quite frankly its a pain to do and we wouldn't do it if it was not needed. If we were trying to prevent RE we could have goop'd the boards while we were at it which would have been easy. I have said for a long time and even now that I am on the other side I still hold the same opinion, if someone really wants to reverse a design they will. Sealed cases are not an exception.

As for the request for schems and guts shots I have not made a decision on that so I am going to wait and see. For now I am going to play it safe and withhold that info but I'll answer questions about the TubeUlent as far as I am right now comfortable with. Besides a schem would not be very useful as there are specialized and custom parts.

Andrew

[jlullo]

Damn, andrew, that looks really really nice!

congrats on the great review!

[The Tone God]

Thanks!

That perfect 5.0 really blew us away. Completely unexpected. Premier Guitar really took their time putting the TubeUlent through its paces. I started getting worried when the review time was getting stretched out that they were finding flaws that I had not seen before. We were expecting a 4.0 or maybe a 4.5 at most. When the 5.0 came in it reaffirmed that all of work and time put into this product pouring over all the details was worth it. I really am proud of the TubeUlent both in design and especially in tone. I would not have released it if I didn't believe in what it does.

Andrew

[ambulancevoice]

hehe they called the led a pilot light

[Renegadrian]

I'll answer questions about the TubeUlent as far as I am right now comfortable with.

Here's one Q - tell us more about the way the 6v6 is implemented...Thanks

[The Tone God]

Here's one Q - tell us more about the way the 6v6 is implemented...Thanks

Ah one of the biggies that I get asked about alot but is actually one of the less important things. In order to maintain that "classic tube amp" behaviour the 6V6 really had to be used in the same manner as in a full size amp. The 6V6 is operating as a class A amplifier using cathode biasing just like the big boys. Ok so what is it that really makes the TubeUlent work ?

The real unsung hero of the TubeUlent is the power supply. To make the 6V6 operate correctly various voltages are adjusted based on a set of parameters. It is when these voltages are set to properly does the TubeUlent then operate correctly. So the power supply is really the magic to making TubeUlent work and not necessarily the audio circuit itself.

Andrew

[deaconque]

So what kind of power supply do you have in there?  The box looks kind of small to have a transformer big enough for high voltages in it.

[The Tone God]

So what kind of power supply do you have in there?  The box looks kind of small to have a transformer big enough for high voltages in it.

No transformer. Too heavy, too big, too noisy, unsafe. There is a switching supply that I designed from the ground up to generate the high voltage. Boy did I get a lesson in switching supply design making this thing. I don't think people realize just how hard it is to make a switching supply suitable for audio applications.

Andrew

[deaconque]

very interesting.  can't wait for the day when we're finally blessed with a schematic