My tube amp's projects history in photos.

A potted history and some photos I’ve found on the web relating to my valve (tube) amplifier
It was built between 1963 and 1966 by Armstrong Audio as a 226s (stereo) hifi radio/amplifier in their factory above a row of shops in the borough of Islington, London. (Building demolished in 1980)
http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/200/200page1.html
Here is a link for some photos of the 1960’s production line, scroll to the bottom that woman with the bouffant could be building mine!
http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/pandp/prod1.html
I can remember it as part of my hifi system when I was about 19-20 in the late 1970’s and I thought it was old then! It had a bad tendency to crackle and because I had a pair of far superior Quad valve amplifiers (which I still have) and it was so bulky (in had a tiny bedroom) in around 1985 I stripped it down discarded the radio and used just part of the chassis to make a basic guitar amplifier, but with the original compromised ECL86 valves which was maybe the reason I can’t remember it being that good in either form!
In 2010 I discovered the remains in my attic and decided to use it as the basis of a proper guitar amplifier and the rest you have probably read in this blog. I converted it to use EL84 valves, ( by adding an extra ECC83) increasing the power from 10 watts (rms) to around 17 and added an EF86 channel and all I can say is it sounds stunning! Pure 1960’s! The problem with digital amplifiers is they may have umpteen simulation of different amplifiers on them BUT they make all of your guitars sound the same! Maybe a good analogy would be its like listening to a digital recording of an electric guitar. I’ve discovered by building this that valves are the REAL sound of the electric guitar and bring out all of the character of your pickups and switch settings AND GET THIS - this is an amp that is perfectly clean-no in built overdrive, no crunch just how amps used to be. Valves are so much more than distortion! (I’ll use my home made - from 60’s parts - Range Master and Tone Bender for that!) Needless to say my (Chinese made) digital Vox AD30 has been relegated to an emergency standby amp.
I’m trying to decide on a badge to put on the front just to finish it off.
Either AS 10-65
Or AS/45
AS= my initials or Armstrong –even Arm-Stone
10-65 =2010 & 1965
or
45= an amp built from 45 year old components!
I still haven’t decided whether to paint it over cover it.

The tube amp in action!

On Saturday I played at my church's home grown entertainment evening even though I used to played in church it's the first time I've sung solo in front of my church friends rather than a folk club. It was a great evening, it would have been nice to see a few more people there but there were enough for it to not feel too empty.Thank you to The Rev Gary Simmons and son Sam for the hilarous Monty Python Cheese shop sketch and Paul Hollinshead for the immitation bouzouki playing on guitar! The video came out a bit echoey and sometimes the guitar sounds distorted but I know it was better than this in reality coz I was there! It definaletly isn't the right song for distortion! But anyway the amp didn't blow up or for that matter fall apart which was a real possiblility because I had only glued on the front of the cabinet that day and only took the wood working clamps off an hour before I put it into the car!
So here i am with one of my own songs played on my homemade "Les Pew" guitar and that amp.

Power on and it sounds great!

The first time my homemade valve amplifier has had a guitar plugged into it! Now to build it a better cabinet than a cardboard box. It sounds 10 x better than my digital modelling VOX AD30 even though the speaker has no cabinet!

Wow, it actually works!

At lunch break today I finally dared to switch on my home made valve (tube) guitar amplifier and to my work mates surprise and my relief no bang, smoke or sizzling noises! So I connected it temporarily to the PC's sound and it came out loud and clear with NO hum! Can't wait to plug a guitar into it! Tomorrow I have to take multiple voltage measurements and do some maths to work out how hard the new tubes are working -too lower wattage and they won't sound their best-too much and they won't last as long. Then I can see if I can get the final (or first) tube working, it's just an option and can be switched in and out but I'm still a couple of components short. I've learnt so much already by building this thing!

Tube amplifier progress

The valve amplifier is coming together nicely, as most of it is over 40 years old I'm hunting through my parts to try to keep it vintage looking. Although it is a separate head the controls are on the top like a Vox so I can access them easily, putting them on the front only seems to make sense if it is up high on a huge speaker stack and I assure you it won't be! I'll keep you updated and maybe post a video once it's all working.
Hopefully at my next gig at Gary's Club I can play my own songs on my homemade guitars AND amp
Optional techie bit;
The chassis came from the remains of an Armstrong 127m stereo tuner/amplifier, it originally used ECL86 triode-pentode valves but these are hard to find and not as good as the EL84s pentodes which are found in most smaller British amps so I have rewired the holders for El84s and added a separate ECC83/12AX7 for the two triodes (Driver/phase splitter stage) Also I want to add a switchable EF86 pentode at the input try try and capture some of that VOX chime but I'll add that later.-The rectifier is solid state. THe whole thing should push out 10 watts in A class, I'm not too worried about distortion though a nice overdrive would be a plus.

One man's junk....

Junk? Oh nooo! Gold dust! This is the remains of a guitar amp I built about 20 years ago from the remains of a valve hifi amp from the 1960's! I found it in the attic and I'm rebuilding it and converting it to take readily available (and better) valves. It's a 10 watt class A amp that is similar to a Vox AC10 except it hasn't got the EF86 valve (tube) in the preamp so I'm planning to add one. No I haven't finished the last amp yet! I'm building these in the warm at work during my lunch breaks and come the spring I should have two working ones to take out to the shed and put into cabinets!

A new year and new projects to build!

LET ME START BY WISHING ALL MY FRIENDS A HAPPY 2010!

2010? It it doesn't look like a date does it? More like something out of Star Trek! Star date 2010-- thing is I've just seen Bernard Cribbens on Dr Who acting like Luke Skywalker what is going on?

Anyhow I have a couple of nearly empty roses chocolate tins on the kitchen table, anyone got ideas what to do with them?

Actually I'm starting the year with at least potential six projects waiting to be built! I have 3 (no make that 2 as I have to build a ukulele for a friend) cigar boxes and one larger wooden box waiting to become various strange woodsy acoustic instruments. Also my newly rebuilt 100 watt sold state guitar amp has been tested and is all working that is except the swanky 5 control tone mixing circuit which needs sorting! And also I unearthed over the Christmas break a valve (or tube) amplifier I built about 20 years ago from some ancient hifi equipment Some of the valves are missing though and are hard to find nowadays so I needs to redesign it a little- I think i know what I'm doing!

All shall be blogged as usual! Just don't tell my wife as I'm rapidly running out of space! That's the good thing about song writing!