Quote from: tonyharker on July 07, 2014, 10:45:01 AM
Brilliant!  What chip does the MAH3 use?

It uses a TDA7267A, a 16-pin dip, which is unique because all the pins on one side serve as a heatsink when soldered directly to a big pad of copper on the board. It also has a smaller chip surface-mounted on the back (I couldn't read the number but it's probably a 386 or something similar) that it uses to produce the "blues" and "fuzz" tones.

This little Velleman kit ( http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005VUCT5I/ ) is a minimum-parts version of the TDA7267A circuit and sounds remarkably good all by itself -- even playing clean -- with a 9v battery, a guitar plugged directly into one end, and an efficient speaker (SPL 90 or above) on the other. The better the speaker, the better the sound.

Quote from: Roly on July 07, 2014, 08:30:06 AM
Very win!   :dbtu: I like the organ pipe resonator idea.

In this case they don't give "booming" bass -- because the speaker doesn't put much out to begin with -- but they do smooth out the low end nicely. After some experimenting (by ear) I ended up plugging the four longest pipes (to lower their resonant frequency) and leaving the shorter three open. I like mounting the speakers backside-up so the high-frequencies are evenly dispersed. It's really nice being able to walk around while you're playing and not have the tone change drastically.

All solid state this time -- and it rhymes!

In case anyone was wondering, the Coppertone 5c1 sold on eBay last week for $355. Here's an unedited review from "MadMatt", the winning bidder:

There it is sitting outside my door. No knock on the door or doorbell ring. Thanks UPS! I open the carefully and creatively packed box. Inside are the aforementioned swimming pool noodles and red rubber balls. My son will be happy with those! It appears to have arrived safely with the exception of one copper elbow fitting becoming separated on the base. I popped the pipe back in without incident.

Yep, She's pretty to look at!. A real work of art. But how does she sound? I plugged in the extra long power cord, plugged in my ESP Vintage Plus Strat loaded with two single coils and a JB Humbucker into the hi-gain input and flipped the power switch on. I gave her a couple minutes for the tubes to get warmed up and started dialing up the volume to about 5. I strummed through some open and barre chords plugging some accent notes. First impression was "nice!". I switched through all of the pick up configurations. There were no bad tones. I crank the volume a little more to about 7. This is where she starts to come alive! This is sounding phenomenal. Warm, responsive, and articulate sweet notes are filling up my apartment. This is when I started smiling Smile I play through several chord progressions and lead runs and it just sounds fantastic! Then I crank the volume to 10. I wasn't expecting this. The amp turned into a full naturally overdriven beast. At this point, the amp was actually too loud for my apartment. The tone did get a little too bright for my liking on 10 but that was quickly remedied by trying out the Lo-gain input.

Do you know why this amp doesn't have any tone controls? Because it doesn't need them! It's got a pure, unmolested tube driven tone and it's magic to my ears.

Not that i was skeptical buying this amp without any possible way of hearing what it sounds like, but It was a bit of a gamble. A gamble where I definitely came out a winner. Gerry, you outdid yourself on this build and I couldn't be happier. Feel free to use any part of my review as an endorsement to your future builds. I have been playing and buying various guitar gear since i was 14 and I'm now 46. After over 30 years, I know good tone when I hear it, and I am hearing it!

Something that might help your auctions in the future would be to record some of the tones your amps are creating and put them up on Youtube. This would give the potential buyers a feel for what they are buying other than the obviously beautiful aesthetic.

Thanks for the great amp. I will treasure it for many years to come.

Absolutey right, Mr. Fahey, I forgot all about the beard. Don't even know it's there since I trimmed it down to keep the mice in check (see photo of previous state).

Can't junk the parts though -- the thing sold this very day ( http://www.ebay.com/itm/181438758231 ). But as for starting again from scratch -- that's already happening. Stay tuned...

Hello, fellow amp enthusiasts!

A guy over at The Amp Garage saw one of my amps on eBay and asked me to post a build log on that site. Unfortunately, I didn't have a build log. So I built a similar (but different) amp and documented the whole saga in the attached PDF -- thought maybe you folks might be interested too.

Thanks.