Building a Guitar Amp

malanga

malanga

Well-Known Member
Hello all!

Well, I would like to build a vacuum tube guitar amp for my nephew. What I had hoped to do was to use the tube amp I pulled from a Motorola portable turntable that had a dead table. The tube amp uses a 12AX7 and a 6V6GT for the tubes. I have read that others have used these type of amps to make guitar amps. Anyone know where I could find a how-to for doing this? Thanks! :D
 
Register to hide this ad
Ooo Ooo, build a clone of Fender Tweed Camp 5F1 circuit. Great tone and not so loud you can't use it in the house. There are lots of pages devoted to building this little amp, just google 5F1. Here's one kit site with most of the information you'd need.
http://www.dockeryamps.com/web/Products/5f1-tweed-champ.php
or https://taweber.powweb.com/store/kits_50a.htm#5F1

Course if you want something beefier. There's a great site for Fender schematics,
http://ampwares.com/index.asp

Check this out as well.
http://music-electronics-forum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=10
 
cubby01 said:
Ooo Ooo, build a clone of Fender Tweed Camp 5F1 circuit. Great tone and not so loud you can't use it in the house. There are lots of pages devoted to building this little amp, just google 5F1. Here's one kit site with most of the information you'd need.
http://www.dockeryamps.com/web/Products/5f1-tweed-champ.php
or https://taweber.powweb.com/store/kits_50a.htm#5F1

Course if you want something beefier. There's a great site for Fender schematics,
http://ampwares.com/index.asp

Check this out as well.
http://music-electronics-forum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=10
Click to expand...



I second this idea. I got a Vibro-Champ, very close to a 5F1, they are simple and don't need expensive parts (sag in the psu and the small opt are part of the sound)
 
I built this 6V6 based variation on the Marshall 18watt for my grandson but you would need a couple more 9 pin sockets to do it. Wes is into metal/punk so he really needed the gain. If you don't need as much gain you could go with a simpler variation with fewer gain stages.

The only real problem was some bleed through into the output stage when using the preamp out jack. Quick and dirty solution was a shorting plug in the power amp in jack when using preamp out.

The guys at 18watt.com were very helpful to me. The information and forum at AX84.com were also quite helpful.

mike

Sorry, just noticed that you have only a single output tube. AX84.com has some nice SE designs. You could mod for 6V6 pretty easily.
 
Last edited:
You might also look at the simple single ended amp schematics at www.ax84.com. I built my son a very nice SE 6V6 amp with a 12AX7 front end using the basic P1 schematics. They also have a discussion forum if you get stuck and a lot of helpful DIY docs. See http://www.ax84.com/p1.html

Good luck
 
malanga said:
Hello all!

Well, I would like to build a vacuum tube guitar amp for my nephew. What I had hoped to do was to use the tube amp I pulled from a Motorola portable turntable that had a dead table. The tube amp uses a 12AX7 and a 6V6GT for the tubes. I have read that others have used these type of amps to make guitar amps. Anyone know where I could find a how-to for doing this? Thanks! :D
Click to expand...
Shouldn't be difficult just as long as the amp still works. An easy-to-build or cheap-to-buy line transformer might be all you need; connect the output of the line transformer to the input of the amp where the turntable used to go and connect the input of the line transformer to a female 1/4 inch jack, and BINGO! --You've got a guitar amp. Make sure everything is grounded properly...Improperly grounded Guitars and Amps have a funny way of delivering a shock similar to the spark plug wires of a car; very high voltage and very low current...usually harmless and will simply wake you up quicker than a Starbucks double cappuccino... but if one is standing on a damp surface or otherwise bodily grounded, the results are possibly injurious, and on rare occasions even deadly. ----And, before putting our fingers into the actual circuitry of a tube amp; remember that some tube equipment has harmful and/or deadly voltage even when unplugged. Drain all large capacitors before poking into one.
 
Plenty of 6L6 amps (twins and bassmen) all ready built for cheap to be had, I understand the satisfaction of building one yourself though.
 
Hi All.

Well, here are some pictures I took of the amp. As you can see it is mono, and the only input is a phono input on the side of the metal frame. I am still hoping someone out there could give me a bit more information on the line transformer mentioned above. :tears:





 
Looks like you have most of what you need. Don't know that I can be of much help as I'm more the follow someone elses instructions kind of diy'er.

Following at your own risk -- but if it were me I'd wire on a speaker, rig up a phono plug (from guitar cord) to rca jack (side of the chassis), let it warm up and see if you get sound. If there's enough gain in the preamp you might find works for your purposes as is. Otherwise rewire based on info from links within post above.

edit --- are there chassis numbers for the amp printed on the side of the chassis (or anywhere else for that matter). That could lead to schematics.
 
Thanks Cubby for the advice. I will try what you suggested. The only chasis number I found is 27D638505.
 
Easy to build 6V6 g-amp based on th Princeton
http://www.angela.com/catalog/how-to/Single.6V6.html
WopOnTour

Oh. I read the whole thread and realize now you are trying to convert a consoleamp to a guitar amp
Here's an old collaboration document from the old alt.guitaramp newsgroup on converting old amps into guitar amps (altering the components to add tone/crunch/distortion/other controls) I make no claim as to the accuracy yada yada yada
WOT
 

Attachments

You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom