Official Luthiers Forum!

Hand made guitar amps

_________________
Support the OLF! Bookmark our STEWMAC link Today!
Lance@LuthiersForum.com

My first amp was a straight up Matchless Lightning clone using carbon comp resistors, Mallory capacitors, and a transformer set from Matchless. I learned the fine art of figuring out the value of the resistor and the futility of trying to cover a cabinet in tolex. It was definitely fun, though, and sounded really good. This was a 1x12 combo with a Weber Blue Dog.

Then it was adventures into Dumble Land with an amp based off of Brownnote's D'Lite 22. This was a lesson in learning how to work with ebony. Were I to do it over, I would have drilled the ebony long before thicknessing it down to .04" or so. Thankfully the crack near the input disappeared when I buffed it. The koa baffle came from Volcano Guitarworks.

I don't remember exactly which tweaks I made to the preamp, but I voiced it for single coils.

Here I am with #3, getting ready for my wedding. This one had a figured redwood baffle finished with Maloof's Oil and wax. I had the faceplate made by http://amplates1.wordpress.com using artwork I provided. This was also "my own" circuit, which was really just a '64 Vox AC30 tone stack matched to the Lightning's power section. Cab was a 2x12 Avatar cab filled with a Celestion Blues.

Somewhere in here I was also working on this 100 watt Dumble clone with a very nice chassis from Bludotone. I lost interest and sold what I'd done before completing it.

I found another pic of the Redwood head.

Great looking amps James!

_________________
If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason. - Jack Handey

This thread has been slow for a while. As I've been buildingamp instead of guitas for the last few years, I thought I'd add a few of my builds here.

My first amp worth showing. Built in May 2015. I bought the chassis and components as a kit, and built everything else from scratch.

JTM45 clone in a head cab. 2x12 cab is loaded with WGS Retro30 and ET65. Sounds magic.

I modded the amp with a master volume and heater elevation (to protect the cathode follower tube).

I finished building this one November 2016. It's a Hoffman Single Channel version of the Fender Deluxe Reverb (head on over to EL34 world to find out more if you wish).

Another beautiful sounding amp. I've made an ABY switch pedal and can play this one and the JTM45 together for some really nice tones.

This last amp is a Tweed Princeton clone. Mostly made from leftover bits and pieces re-purposed for this build. I custom wound the transformers for this one, and they have turned out all right.

The speaker is a Tone Tubby San Rafael 10". Plug my (not-Gibson but still pretty good Samick Artist Series) 335 straight into it = magic. There is a reason the Tweed Princeton is a classic!

The SWMBO has placed a ban on further amp building... "How many amps do you need?" Well, would really like a Supro Dualtone! I'll build one in a few years time after she's calmed down a bit.

I like that!

_________________
Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

I like it too!