Tube boost + overdrive running off a 9 volt battery

[Renegadrian]

Jimmy-H, your layout is so much appreciated, so thank you!!! Nice job!!! Wait for some more info (how much gainy is that fx?) and possibly some sound clips!!!
Rick, your valvy turned out great...I love that kinda finish...

[Pushtone]

I've been thinking a lot about the Valve Caster's two stages and where a two band EQ would work.

I applied the AMZ JFet buffer and Dual Tone control circuits and spliced them into the Valvecaster.

The Zed Caster has the buffer and tone circuit up front.
The Lab Caster has the buffer and tone in between the tube stages.




Never done this before. How do they look?
Are they both viable circuits still?
Which one would be most successful?

Dave

[brett]

Hi
I think it would be safest to put a buffer (JFET makes sense) at the end, before the 100k volume pot.  Otherwise, the impedance of the load might be too low for the seond valve stage.
cheers

[Jimmy-H]

Hi there,

The Pepper Shredder has plenty of gain.
An other idea is to leave the Tonestack, and then make a input cap selector (just like the Orange amps).
Then you have a more powerfull sound.

But I found some sound samples of the Vanilla Drive and the Pepper Shredder.
The Vanilla Drive is a little milder.
(According to the designer, the Vanilla drive can be used as a clean booster to a mild overdrive)
The tubes he used are 12AU7 from Electro Harmonics.
Here is the link : http://www.tube-town.de/ttforum/index.php?topic=7797.0
Only it's in German, but what the hack, so is the design

The Layout I posted has dissapeared, strange.
But here is it again:

[frequencycentral]

Ok, having built my Valvecaster I am now completely obsessed with vavle FX. I woke up this morning with the idea of an all tube multi-FX board going round my head. I think it would include:

1. a Valvecaster
2. part of The Tone God's tube tremolo
3. tube reverb (should be easy to adapt the VC to do this)
4. a tube based phaser - not sure if this one is possible???

Imagine: 4 stompswitches, half a dozen or more valves..........ooh! Any thoughts or ideas?

[andrew_k]

ooh! Any thoughts or ideas?

http://www.puretube.com/

[Renegadrian]

JimmyH, I read more on that forum...Some babel translation and it's more readable!!!
The pepper sounds good!!! Gotta build this one...

[frequencycentral]

ooh! Any thoughts or ideas?

http://www.puretube.com/

Looks great - but no schemos!

[ambulancevoice]

I'm defo going to build a combo with a Valvecaster, Ruby and 12" speaker - powered from a 9v battery!!

your not going to power both of them with one 9v battery? cause that wont do very well

[Renegadrian]

OT
Andrew, is the guitar on your avatar one of yours? Are you left handed?

[andrew_k]

OT
Andrew, is the guitar on your avatar one of yours? Are you left handed?

Yes and yes  -- it's a Carvin Fatboy, but with a walnut neck and mahoganhy+quilted maple body. Highly recommended 

[Renegadrian]

Hey I'm a southpaw too!!! 

[Krinor]

4. a tube based phaser - not sure if this one is possible???

Anything is possible. But keep in mind that a phaser incorporates 5 ic's (Small Stone). Each of them includes 11 transistors and 6 diodes. Now imagine doing what that little CA3080 does, only with tubes - times 5. A tube phaser would be fabulous though. Maybe there is another way ?

[Renegadrian]

I just uploaded a pdf file of a tube preamp, you can find it HERE

It's a very little and easy circuit and the 6418 is so easy to find and cheap.

Didn't build it yet, but hey it's so simple...I'll report it soon, I believe...

[Fender56]

I just uploaded a pdf file of a tube preamp, you can find it HERE

It's a very little and easy circuit and the 6418 is so easy to find and cheap.

Didn't build it yet, but hey it's so simple...I'll report it soon, I believe...

Pentode preamp at low-voltage? COOOOOOOOOL!!!!!!!!!!!   

Hope it will be able to recreate the famous EF86 sound! (without the microphonics... )

[iorr]

Valvecaster sounds really good for me. Builded it yesterday with IC 7812 and ECC 82.
Sample here : Tele -> valvecaster -> emu 0202 soundcard -> cubase.

Karsten

[Berger]

here is the dual subcaster that I've breadboarded...I'll get it in an enclosure soon, I really like it

[dano12]

here is the dual subcaster that I've breadboarded...I'll get it in an enclosure soon, I really like it

Ahh....sweet glowing tubes.

Man, this thread has become a monster!

[armstrom]

So I take it a single 6.3V power supply board (per the schematic) is sufficient to drive both heaters? I plan to use two tubes, but in a stereo configuration as my preamp stage. I bought both the 12AU7 tubes as well as the 6111's to see if there's any serious difference in gain. The 6111's will fit much better in the enclosure I plan to use, so that's what I'll build first.

-Matt

[Berger]

Yup Dano this thread has taken off, its got me going crazy buying tubes, even better is that I'm starting to understand this stuff, and am having a lot of fun.

The only thin I notices is suppling enough amperage to the circuit for it to work right. I was using a 12volt 300ma radio shack wallwart and would get flubby sounds out of it. I switched to a 700ma power supply for work and it sounds amazing.