search for little tube practice amp

[bent]

Hello,
i want to build a little tube amp for my father, but he lives in a condo, so it have to be something around 7w or 18w(might be too much)...
a amp that will sound good for rock/rock-n-roll, and dont cost too much....i will do a combo with maybe a 10' speaker...

any suggestion ?

bent

[therecordingart]

Hello,
i want to build a little tube amp for my father, but he lives in a condo, so it have to be something around 7w or 18w(might be too much)...
a amp that will sound good for rock/rock-n-roll, and dont cost too much....i will do a combo with maybe a 10' speaker...

any suggestion ?

bent

7w is WAY too loud for a condo. Check out the Firefly which is probably still too loud. I live in a townhome, and I can't crank my Firefly.

[jacobyjd]

Blackheart Little Giant and a Weber attenuator. Well worth it.

[Pushtone]

I think 18 watts would be too much. especially if he wants to turn it up into OD territory.

I love my Vox AD30 for this type of application. A good sounding modeling amp.

But if you want to build something their is the FireFly but it has no clean tones. It will be the most low power amp. I love mine.
After that there's the Champ 5F2A, a single ended amp with about 10 watts output.
Weber has a single ended EL84 based amp that outputs about 5 watts called the Smoking Joe I.

You could build a more powerfull amp and includes a fixed attenuator with a bypass toggle.
For that check out Adam Amps Bridged T attenuator. Sounds far better than an L-pad.

Good Luck
Dave

[StereoKills]

Blackheart Little Giant and a Weber attenuator. Well worth it.

+1

I never take my Little Giant off of 3w....even when gigging!

[therecordingart]

I think 18 watts would be too much. especially if he wants to turn it up into OD territory.

I love my Vox AD30 for this type of application. A good sounding modeling amp.

But if you want to build something their is the FireFly but it has no clean tones. It will be the most low power amp. I love mine.
After that there's the Champ 5F2A, a single ended amp with about 10 watts output.
Weber has a single ended EL84 based amp that outputs about 5 watts called the Smoking Joe I.

You could build a more powerfull amp and includes a fixed attenuator with a bypass toggle.
For that check out Adam Amps Bridged T attenuator. Sounds far better than an L-pad.

Good Luck
Dave

Why do people say that the Firefly can't get clean? When cranked it isn't clean, but at lower volume it sounds clean to me.

[JoeGuitar]

I agree with everyone on 18w being too loud for a condo.

therecordingart gave you some good advice on the Firefly - it's plenty loud for .5w amp.  It's too loud for a condo.

Also the Firefly would be good for rock/rock-n-roll; as you stated as one of your requirements.

therecordingart - mine sounds pretty clean at low volumes as well.  Nowhere near as clean as say a JC-120 though.


Hope you find what you're looking for.

[therecordingart]

therecordingart - mine sounds pretty clean at low volumes as well.  Nowhere near as clean as say a JC-120 though.

Very true.

[Pushtone]

Why do people say that the Firefly can't get clean? When cranked it isn't clean, but at lower volume it sounds clean to me.

Hot humbucker pickups?

[petemoore]

  10'' is overkill, will need power to get into sweet zone [some expensive 10''ers may be less limiting in low volume ''speaker sound'' and bass response.
 8'' is more than enough.
 6x9''...if you can find old alnico, this is my favorite 'roomy cabinet' tone for a...room, I can't remember if this one came from the old RTR tape deck or the Dodge Dart..the thin cone, light construction, felt center...I like all that, plug in a 12-er and I get ''heavy cone sound'' [Alnico Blue is least prone to this], and once the bass 'fills in' [as the volume rises to where the motor is having as much control over the cone as the speaker suspension is] the room bounce wears me out.
 Jamms for hours yester-night with electric guitars, keyboards, keyboard-drums noticing that we weren't all worn out.
 Noticably absent was the feeling like our heads had just been 'mal-adjusted' by soundwaves [typical symptoms include: ringing tones in the ears, mental confusion and desire to escape additional ''confused'' [room/wall bounced wave-distortion] higher amplitude soundwaves].
 By minimizing accoustic impedance [except slight speaker direction offsets and typical damping: 5' distancing of ears from speakers], the soundwaves were quite intelligible and the music flowed very nicely.
  18watt>8'' Selenium drivers [4ohms], not that loud because of low effeciency speakers, very nice sparkle with the re-pickuped Electromatic guitar.
  15w into 6x9'' speaker, the cabinet makes the regular old speaker special, a decent small speaker in a simple ''tube cabinet'' [ugly/ wierd shape = cheap easy, sealed enclosure..jigsaw, baffleboard, 12'' cement former tube from hardware store, gorilla glue, fiberglass insulation, excellent quicke cabinet IME].
  Bass is what first causes [or at least has the strongest propensity for]:
  Wow and flutter in phonograph needles.
  Bass/amplified feedback in accoustic guitars.
  Speaker cabinet flex.
  Bringing the attention to the most distant ears [with the greatest accoustic impedances] that there may [or may not be, present company exluded of course ] be intelligence behind the detected/detectable [bass] frequencies.

[Pushtone]

Weber has a 6x9 speaker I've been dying to try.
Great for those old radios turned guitar amp projects.

https://taweber.powweb.com/weber/

[Brymus]

I would think anything above 1 watt with an effecient spkr is gonna be too loud for a condo.
My 18 watt is to loud for anything but a heavy handed drummer,my 8 watt EVJ is still too loud for practice ,keeps up with drums fine.
I live in a house with neighbors who dont complain about noise,still I wish I had a firefly for my own practice enjoyment as my other amps are just too loud to crank properly without hurting my ears/wearing ear plugs.
I would build a Little Gem and see if it has enough volume for him,then if so a Firefly or one of Rick's/Frequency Central designs.
Also 6 inch mid drivers ,for center channel/surround make decent cheap guitar spkrs.

[azrael]

Add VVR to an amp?

[Pushtone]

Add VVR to an amp?

Check out Skips power scaling products.
http://www.skipzcircuits.com/

Although this is getting kinda complicated for a small and simple amp.
An attenuator seems a lot simpler.

[davent]

Add VVR to an amp?

I'll second that, build whatever tube amp you want with the VVR or London Power's Power Scaling board. 

http://hallamplification.com/main.html?src=%2F#2,2
http://www.londonpower.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=7&products_id=28

You can find lots of info on rolling your own VVR (Variable Voltage Regulator)  for very little money over at Sewatt. (Need to register) http://www.sewatt.com/forum

dave

[azrael]

A lot of people are even happy with a PPIMV!

[SolderFodder]

This is what I am building now

http://www.sophtamps.ca/mambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=25&Itemid=37

Now, mind you:
It's not very clean.
It's not very loud (like 1/8W or something)
But it is tube and it is easy to build (get a decent powersupply though).
Don't overestimate how loud this is based on the sound samples.  My iPhone has a louder setting than this amp.

[Pushtone]

A lot of people are even happy with a PPIMV!

Post Phase Inverter Master Volume works well in push pull amps like the Marshall 18watt (2 x EL84)
The Smoking Joe II uses one.
https://taweber.powweb.com/store/smokeII_schem.jpg
But using it means goodbye to power tube distortion.

Single ended designs like the Champ don't have a phase inverter.
You would have to add a pot and cap before the power tube grid in the 5F2A Champ design but I think an attenuator is a better way to go tone wize.
Crank that power tube and knock down the speaker volume.
Attenuators for a 10 watt amp are easy and cheap to make and are much more forgiving on the distortion tone than a 100W attenuator dealing with four 6L6 power tubes.

VVR doesn't look much more complicated than an attenuator.
With any added circuitry you will want to get the base design running and troubleshooted before adding additional circuits.


FRESH IDEA:
Buy an Epi VJ, gut it,
and install a Baby Will 18WATT PCB with either added VVR or attenuator circuitry.
http://guitaramplifierpcbs.com/liteiib.aspx
PCB = MINIMAL TROUBLE SHOOTING !!!

(I see a google hit for a FireFly PCB. I wonder if Dough is connected with that?)

[Philippe]

Sounds like you might be a candidate for one of these...
www.guytronix.com
Solid construction/build, kit form, boutique in nature, useable/practical wattage, sounds good with just about any speaker (or speakers), easy to assemble.

[goulashnakov]

Have you considered maybe building an isolation cab?  That ought to keep the volume down at neighbor friendly levels, while still allowing cranked amp OT distortion, and maybe even speaker breakup depending on what speaker you use.