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AnyWatt Load box

Started by phatt, January 31, 2011, 11:04:12 AM

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phatt

A member asked about my Reamp system Which I call the *AnyWatt Amp* ;)

Posting pic of the load box.
This is all you really need to know the rest you will likely already have.
Oh an I run it through the The PhAbbTone of course. 0:)

Here's my signal path;

MaxiVerb> PhAbbTone> Tube Amp> Load box> 10band Graphic EQ> 120Watt old factory Power Amp unit.
The second amp should be fairly flat for best results.
(don't run into another hi gain preamp stage of a Guitar Amp as it may well hinder your progess, wink)

The Maxiverb, PhAbbTone and Graphic EQ all have true bypass switching.

My tube Amp is about as basic as it gets, two knobs, Tone Volume.
The preamp is just a Pro Junior copy but the power stage is; Cathode biased, no FB.
The HT is only 260VDC the power tubes are 6GW8's.
So that makes for 3 bottles and a very compact little head.

*Menser* my raw tube amp sound is a little darker and smoother than the brilliant Steve Conner system.


Some thought's.
I see no point in building a 4 by KT88 Monster triple recterfryer amp only to drive a resistor.

Some come at this from the view that the Valve Amp has to make the Mojo and you need Exotic hi teck wizard circuit to faithfully reproduce that one perfect tone.

I don't subcribe to that school of thought because with this setup you can create many different tone shapes giving far more versitility than other systems.

For the money I've outlaid and the many different sounds I can create I doubt you will find a simpler way to do such things.

The simple fact is that all those great guitar tones kids dream about are just distortion with different tone shapes.

The Tube amp in my setup is just a big distortion unit.
As long as you capture the compression effect of the power tubes then the rest is just tone curves and why waste a row of expensive bottles trying to get the right tone shape when all of that can be done with simple cheap SS devices.

In truth my Reamp setup is only marginally better than my All SS setup though the ReAmped Valve Amp does have a more dynamic feel to it.

Don't forget the ground lift or you will drive yourself nuts trying to find the cause of hum with 2 amps connected to the mains. ;)
Cheers, Phil.

Steve Conner

Cool!

I once made something similar, but using an old RS telephone isolating transformer that was lying around.

http://scopeboy.com/ssim.html

I can't find the transformers for sale any more. xP

FWIW, I found that I got better results using an ordinary DI box like yours, feeding an Alesis EQ that I set up to emulate the frequency response of a speaker.


phatt

Hi Steve,
             Yep I tried a lot of different tricks but in the end it can get crazy and complex often with only marginal improvement.

I did try ever so hard to build a King TUT type power scaling thingo but realised that His idea (though quite brilliant) still could not do post power tube tricks.

As I'm a *Musician first* and not the headwise tecky type I could only take on stuff that I could contain.
i.e. If it all goes fut do I have the skill to trouble shoot it? Opps maybe not. :duh

I ended up arriving at a post by the chap who apparently made the UA attenuator and he explained why using a 30 ish Ohm load on an 8 Ohm tap was far more rewarding and very safe. It really opens up the Tube Amp, otherwise it's not much better than a tube screamer. :'(

One of the best Tricks implimenting these ideas was The Guytron GT100.
Stunning sound 2 Valve Amps all in one head.

I tend to use those sound samples as a marker point for where I wanted to go.
I don't have the funds nor the skill to build someting so complex so my humble setup will do me just fine. ;D
Phil.