(note for moderators: I have crossposted this thread to other forums on the web where it seemed it might be relevant. I did not find anything in the rules against this, but if this is against the rules, I apologize)
Greetings. Yes, the title is exactly what I intend to build, as silly as it might seem.
I want to build a moderate power guitar amplifier using solid state actives. Why obsolete and salvage parts?
There's a few reasons:
1 120V:24V 40VA power transformer from a furnace
1 120V:16V 15VA doorbell transformer.
1 40W 10" speaker left over from a long-dead practice amp.
1 reverb tank, left over from the same long-dead amp.
A few hundred different transistors, in varying quantities
I am willing to buy some parts, if for no other reason than I know I'll have to. I'm going to need various resistors and capacitors for filters, voltage dividers, setting operating points for the transistors, etc. I'm even willing to buy a few complementary transistors, as I saw almost no complementary pairs in the parts drawers. I may have to purchase some voltage regulators as well, depending on what power supply circuits I am able to come up with. Beyond that however, I really would prefer to limit myself to the transistors on hand for the design, because that's the essence of this game: How good of a sound can I make with this old stuff, even if I have to force it into behavior it was never designed for?
Design Outline
Here's the outline of the design that's been forming in my head over the past week:
Here's how I see this going. I welcome any input and discussion as the project moves along through these phases. If this order of design is wrongheaded, I also welcome input on what might work better.
That's all I have for now. I am still working on transcribing the photos of my hackerspace's parts drawers. I figured I'd get this initial post up so I could get input on the basic design outline and the intended design process/sequence. I will have parts lists in my next post. They will be long. I am tempted to put them into tables for easier readability.[/list]
Greetings. Yes, the title is exactly what I intend to build, as silly as it might seem.
I want to build a moderate power guitar amplifier using solid state actives. Why obsolete and salvage parts?
There's a few reasons:
- I have access to bunch of obsolete and salvage parts through my own collection of stuff, and membership at a hackerspace. At least some of my BoM will be cheap or free this way.
- Being constrained by what I can get for extremely cheap or free will make this somewhat of a challenge and force me to get creative with the circuit design, and might even be fun.
- And finally, these older and salvaged parts are probably not going to run as clean and linear as modern parts would. I see that as a potentially useful quality in a guitar amplifier. Exactly how and why the poor electrical performance of old tube circuits creates the je ne sais quoi sought by guitarists has been discussed extensively, and IMO, still hasn't been fully worked out. But in either case, if bad electrical behavior can be pressed into a musically useful role, that bad behavior is possibly desirable to design for.
1 120V:24V 40VA power transformer from a furnace
1 120V:16V 15VA doorbell transformer.
1 40W 10" speaker left over from a long-dead practice amp.
1 reverb tank, left over from the same long-dead amp.
A few hundred different transistors, in varying quantities
I am willing to buy some parts, if for no other reason than I know I'll have to. I'm going to need various resistors and capacitors for filters, voltage dividers, setting operating points for the transistors, etc. I'm even willing to buy a few complementary transistors, as I saw almost no complementary pairs in the parts drawers. I may have to purchase some voltage regulators as well, depending on what power supply circuits I am able to come up with. Beyond that however, I really would prefer to limit myself to the transistors on hand for the design, because that's the essence of this game: How good of a sound can I make with this old stuff, even if I have to force it into behavior it was never designed for?
Design Outline
Here's the outline of the design that's been forming in my head over the past week:
- Class AB push-pull output section based on a complementary pair using some of the higher power transistors selected from my hackerspace's parts drawers, running at high voltage, into the primary of the doorbell transformer, stepping the voltage down and the current up to drive the speaker. Yes, I know this is unnecessary, appropriate BJTs or MOSFETs should be able to push enough current to drive the speaker directly. However, I believe the interactions between the output devices, transformer, and speaker are an important part of the vibe of the old circuits that have caught my ear. Thus, I think it is worth at least trying to design the output stage to use a transformer.
- A preamp section using a number of the small signal and not-so-high power transistors from the parts drawers, running at medium and lower voltages. Exactly how many gain stages, I'm not sure yet. I would like to span from nice clean tones, through edge-of-breakup, to a moderate crunch. Very high gain distortion is a maybe; we'll see what sounds I'm able to get out of the parts on hand.
- A power supply section running the furnace transformer, with a voltage doubler or quadrupler to get up to the voltages needed to make use of the doorbell transformer as an output transformer. Other portions of the power supply section can offer lower voltages appropriate for the transistors in the preamp section.
- Maybe use the reverb tank for a reverb circuit.
- All of this into a single combo chassis to keep the amp readily portable.
Here's how I see this going. I welcome any input and discussion as the project moves along through these phases. If this order of design is wrongheaded, I also welcome input on what might work better.
- Transistor Selection
I need to work out which transistors are going to appear in the output and preamp sections. This will determine the voltage and current requirements from the power supply. I am leaning towards using the few JFETs and MOSFETs in the pile. This is mainly because I understand those are more readily coerced into similar misbehavior as the high-mu triodes and power pentodes that came to define the voicing of many tube amp circuits. However if some of the BJTs, SCRs, UJTs, or other miscellaneous parts available in my hackerspace's parts drawers might also be useful, I am interested. - Power Supply Design
I need to design a power supply to meet voltage and current needs of the transistors selected for preamp and power amp roles in the previous phase. I don't have any super firm ideas here yet. I like the designs I've seen from Walt Jung, but I don't know if those can be realized at both the high voltage I want in the output section, and the obsolete parts I'm limiting myself to for this project. - Power Amp Design
Next, I will need to come back to the Power amp and work out its design in greater detail than the current vague idea of "high-voltage push-pull complementary pair across a doorbell transformer, because lol". This is where I expect a lot of the discussion on exactly how and why tube circuits misbehave and which of those misbehaviors are musically useful and worth attempting to replicate. - Preamp Design
Moving on to the preamp section, I expect even more time will be spent on how to get the transistors in this section to misbehave in fun ways, and how that misbehavior can be leveraged towards producing the kinds of voicing and character I want out of the amp. - Testing and tweaking
There should be some testing and tweaking of each of the above bits as they get built, but I expect there's going to be a lot more once start I connecting them together. I should anticipate lots of time playing riffs into the amp, critical listening, staring at bizarre oscilloscope traces with a "WTF?" look on my face, and coming back here with my observations to get help with the Why and How behind those WTFs. - Build the cabinet/enclosure
Honestly, this one gets into woodworking and cabinetry, which feels out-of-scope for this forum. If I remember to take pictures, I'll be happy to share them, though.
That's all I have for now. I am still working on transcribing the photos of my hackerspace's parts drawers. I figured I'd get this initial post up so I could get input on the basic design outline and the intended design process/sequence. I will have parts lists in my next post. They will be long. I am tempted to put them into tables for easier readability.[/list]