JapanAxe

Wow - that is a cracking collection! And a fellow Swindonian to boot - will you be rocking these around local venues?

Barefaced One 10. Whether that is tiny enough is your call!

That headstock - is it the work of a certain purveyor of guitar conversions?

I practise my guitar fx changes along with the other aspects of the song. I rarely touch my amp between songs. Add me to the list of those who can’t stand between-song fiddlers!

Any good for metal? Does it play like butter? *fetches coat*

Some of my least favourite gigs have been where the band members have been spread out in a long line, backs to the wall, so that we all felt separated from one another. The sense of playing together was lost. This just takes it to another level.

No, but… I used to be Keef in a Stones tribute band, and bought a 1987 Les Paul Junior that looked and sounded great, although it was far from perfect in the playability department. I liked it a lot and ended up using it in another band in place of my CS sunburst LP. A couple of months later I went to World Guitars to try a fuzz box, and the proprietor Jeff (RIP) handed me a Gibson CS336 with P90s to play through it. The guitar was phenomenal, but I was nowhere near having the funds to buy it. I bought the fuzz and left with a lingering yearning - if only I hadn’t bought that Junior! Fast forward a year or two, I am browsing the WG website one evening, and there is the CS336 again, obviously traded back in. First thing next morning I phone WG. Yes they still had it, so I drove straight up there, confirmed the guitar was still awesome, and bought it. Happy ending! I took the CS336 to a function band rehearsal and the singer made me promise to bring it to the gig - that’s how good it is!

That's just an idealised illustration - I doubt that the filter slopes are really that sharp.

I’m with you on that - tweeters are for adding weight and hiss to your setup!

Thanks @BassmanPaul and @beans-on-toast that's really useful. I built my amp cathode biased so no issue with the bias tap.

Ha ha, yes I know how diodes are oriented! I recently rebuilt a modern Princeton Reverb and it had BYD33V diodes fitted to the rectifier valve in exactly this way. Thanks, I might get some of those.

Lead guitar with a pub covers band (signed up as a dep, now regarded as a member) playing all the usual suspects. We don't do Wonderwall but a group of young people were so insistent that we caved in and busked it to a rapturous reception. Second late night in a row - absolutely Donald Ducked today.

What silicon diodes did you use? On my recent B15-inspired build I had a GZ34 that was arcing. I fitted a new GZ34 and then tried a UF4007 before each anode on the GZ34, but the amp didn't work with the silicon diodes fitted.

Big chain pub with house PA last night. Always a dodgy load in/out requiring us to park on double yellows in the middle of a lights-controlled junction. Mainly young crowd going mad for the usual suspects. My EBS head seemed not to be loud enough at first but then I edged the Drive control up a notch and BOOM there it was - big, fat and furry!

Wear shoes one size smaller than usual - smaller footprint sorted.

Which IR loader do you use?

Yep, this went very well. No bass player, yours truly seen here singing Folsom Prison Blues. Please note I'm the one without a music stand...

My third gig depping on lead guitar with a rock’n’roll band. The dep bass player is ill (don’t ask!) and BL decided to go ahead without bass. I played my Gretsch Duo Jet through my DIY 5E3 and used every opportunity to pick out thumpy bass lines - and it worked. Same again tonight, this time in a pub garden so I’ll also be going DI into the PA.

Update - DIY head based on Ampeg B15.

Fortunately for me I’ve only had to work with 2 singers who were never satisfied with the level of their vocal in their monitor. They both operated on the edge of feedback i.e. as loud as it could practically go. I suspect that the level would never be high enough for them, and that in fact the problem lay elsewhere - most likely in their heads. Neither ever tried IEMs but I do wonder what the outcome would have been. On the topic of using IEMs one-in-one-out, my preferred solution is just to loosen one slightly in my ear (the one furthest from the drums). This allows just enough ambient leakage to overcome any feeling of disconnection.

I enjoy playing different (P-) basses into different heads through my cabs. I can’t see any reason to stick to all the same brand.

Mostly good now. With a 470R cathode resistor, plate dissipation is now just over 46% of max. This is somewhat on the cool side but I'm not hearing any crossover distortion. I'm going to order some 330R and 390R 10W resistors in case I need to warm it up a bit. Having read that current production rectifier valves don't cope as well as they might with reverse voltages, I tried installing some SS diodes in series to protect the GZ34, but the amp didn't seem to like that so I took them out again. Still might try a choke in place of the first dropping resistor, and/or a small dropping resistor before the first node... Here's some nice pictures of the completed amp with its BF playmate.

Well that seems to be sorted. Conclusion - the rectifier valve was the problem. I've now binned it. I've done a quick playing test and confirmed it still sounds just as good. The hum/buzz is still there and persists when the PI valve is pulled, so I'm going to try altering the lead dress around the 6L6s. I'm also going to dial the bias down a bit with a higher-value cathode resistor.

Sorry, no sound samples until I can get this working reliably! I've made some progress this morning - I fitted the new GZ34 and that doesn't blow mains fuses - yay! - but I now have a blown HT fuse (T500mA) so I am working my way through to see whether that was anything more than a fluke. The new GZ34 also produces a slightly higher unloaded B+ at the first node than the old (faulty) one (454V rather than 437V). My filter caps are all rated 500V so that's fine, and it will drop anyway when the other valves go in. Both 6L6 valves still test good. I'll keep y'all posted. Incidentally, I write down everything I do as I'm doing it so I always have a record of what went wrong (or right) and what changes preceded it.