Back in the `60s there were a couple of small SS amps made for Gretsch that could run off either mains power or batteries. Not sure who actually built them, as Gretsch didn't actually build their own amps. There was the Gadabout, which was just a small, super basic amp, with only a volume control. There was also the Safari, which was also small, like the Gadabout, but also featured a unique sort of tremolo circuit. I see these pop up on ebay sometimes, but they are always either selling for way too much, or else they are not available to buyers outside the US.

These were reputed to be actually quite nice sounding little amps. Producer Daniel Lanois has used them during recording sessions.

I've tried searching for schematics for them but no luck at all. Lots of stuff on the Gretsch tube amps, (all Valco made ones) but nothing on these. Anybody know if there are any schematics floating around for either the Gadabout or the Safari? If I can't buy one, I'd love to give a shot at cloning one.

+1 on the sound samples. A step in the right direction. And it's priced right in the range of all those low-wattage digital modeling amps. It'll be nice for people to have a decent alternative like this. Can't wait to hear it!

Wow! Very nice job on this amp. Your sample sounded great! Love the look you did for the cabinet. Very inspirational.  :tu: Did you use the Dr. Boogey circuit for your preamp?

I have a chip-amp kit (from Ebay) based around the same chip. I was thinking of building it into a chassis with 2 "bays" in which to plug in different preamps. (thinking the ROG circuits, ie: Professor Tweed in Ch 1, Matchbox in Ch 2, etc...) Was thinking of being able to plug in preamps sort of PC sound card style. Kind of a modular analog "modeling" amp.

Did you solve your problem with the drift in the trimpots? That worries me a bit. Has anyone had problems like this with the other ROG circuits? I guess it's worth measuring voltages and going to fixed resistors.

As a guitarist, I've come to realize, not that much power is really needed. My band is a basic old-school punk band. (we started playing in 1978) Drums, bass, guitar, singer (if you can actually call what he does "singing"). In the past, I would use an 80 watt, 80 lb Traynor Mark 3 combo. This thing could blast a Fender Twin off the stage, no problem. It was way too much power! I only had occasion to turn it above 3 once. That was at an outdoor gig at Nathan Phillips Square.

I realized how much I hated hauling this 80 lb monster around. Now I use an old 20 watt Supro, a small combo with a single 10" speaker. It's so small, I can carry it to gigs in my backpack. I installed the best 10" speaker I could afford, an Eminence Ragin' Cajun. It's rated at 100dB SPL sensitivity. I've found this setup to be more than enough, even with an aggressive drummer. No problem being heard. Strangely enough, I'm still not turning this amp up much past 3. 

I would think that a 20 to 30 watt amp in a combo with something like the 12" Eminence Wizard (103 dB SPL) would be more than enough for any situation. In fact, I'll bet that a speaker like that could make a decently designed 10-watt amp be heard just fine.

I'd like to see a circuit that emulates the sound of a Hiwatt 200 as used for bass by JJ Burnel on the early Stranglers albums. I realize a lot of his sound came from the cabinets full of guitar-speakers he was torturing to death, but it would be nice to have an analog preamp module to play with that could approximate his early sound.

I was impressed with the authenticity of runoffgroove's Flipster circuit, but that was successfully emulating the loose, floppy sound of an Ampeg Portaflex. I prefer the crisp, tight sound that the Hiwatt and Marshall bass amps had.

I've heard reasonable approximations of JJ Burnel's crunch, and Lemmy's sound before in one of those ridiculous 200-canned-sounds-digital-modeling pedals, but those type of digital-approximations lack any dynamic response and tend to get lost in an actual band setting. I also hate the idea of having to surf through menus to find a decent bass sound. I played in a practice space with one of these pedals, through a Peavey TNT, and found it completely unsatisfying.

Leave that digital modeling and menus and crap to the synth-nerds. I prefer having just a few dials to turn. It would just be nice to have the crunch of that Hiwatt or Marshall bass sound, with the reliability (and light weight) of a SS bass rig.

This does look like a pretty cool amp to build. The sound clips on Sopht Amps sounded nice. I liked the Marshall-ish tone of the 12AL8 version the most. I'm also new to tubes, and wondering if a build like this is really as straight-forward as it looks?  Have you gotten it built yet?

OK, found my answer in a link posted on another topic in this forum. Ruby Tuby

I've been toying with the idea of doing this. I'm a real novice with this stuff, though. Hoping to make something small, that could run from a set of batteries. I would like to try using a subminiature tube (like a 2P3 or 1S4 or 1S5) to drive an LM386. I've built the Li'l Gem and similar simple amps from the 386, but it would be nice to have a tube in there to see what it would sound like. I know the Gem uses a mosfet to drive the 386. A submini tube should be low-power enough to work in this application, shouldn't it?