[I still need a better name!]
While avoiding the layout of the next version of the prototype, it ocurred to me that I haven’t even shared that schematic yet.
So I’ve started a Beamer page [<– over there] with PDFs of the three pages of the current schematic. This is essentially the current prototype as it will be built into a fresh box, with something close to a final layout. Be aure to read the notes…
Then I’ll play with a few Rs and Cs to perfect the sound!
I’m not crazy about “Beamer” as an amp name (derived from the push-pull 6BM8 design), but that’s all I’ve got. Suggestions are welcome!
The more I look through my schematics & notes from 15 years ago, the more I realize that my Beamer project really wants to be a stripped-down Verberator II: no reverb or tremolo (we have boxes & software for that these days), just a wide tonal range, from clean to dirty.
Today I dug out my old Verberator II prototype (grrrr: link not working) chassis and immediately realized that I’d already done much of the work toward a Beamer. I suspect I gave up on it (and amp building) because the tremolo was more than I could master. With all the crazy shit you can do with software these days, it makes sense to leave that to post-production and concentrate on the core function (TONE) with electric guitars. So we’re talking about a gain pot, a foot-switchable ‘boost’ stage, and a master volume, with one or two tone stacks (or single-pot controls).
The rest is left as an exercise for the builder…
Fifteen years ago(!) I built the Highway 86, my last tube amp project that made it all the way to finished. I put in a little time on prototyping Verberator II / Murgatroid ideas after that, and ended up bailing when the amp ideas and life both got too complicated.
The point is, the Highway 86 is good enough that a friend offered me $700 for it! I couldn’t let it go, but it sold me on simple amp designs. We’ve got plenty of great hardware & software available for reverbs & effects, but the sound & response of real tubes are what keep me playing guitars.
Enough about me; what about tube amps?
I may someday get back to the Verberator II or the Murgatroid concepts (or combine them), but recent garage cleaning uncovered a trove of old tube amps I had acquired for parts on eBay over 10 years ago, which required me to think about which parts are worth keeping.
Two of the old amps are stand-alone hi-fi stereo jobs from the 60s with push-pull 6BM8 output stages, which means I have 4 output transformers that should be pretty similar. So naturally I’ve got this crazy idea of building a short run of 4 amps with the same design. I’m thinking maybe a preamp like the Decimator and a power amp along the lines of the Highway 86.
But first … I have to clean up my man cave enough to make space for tube stuff again!
