A fat mid-range and warm liquid tone ?

[Joseph Bento]

On Sep 26, 2011, at 5:29 PM, bbruhns at erols.com wrote:

> 
> 
> With any luck, a solid state amp won't go triggered-parasitic on your music, in which case it will sound good.  But if it clips...  Wham, square waves, with strong high-order harmonics.  But tubes hit saturation with a little more sonic grace (soggily), curving flat, instead of an instantaneous sharp change in direction - generating less high-order nastiness.  Yeah, it sounds better when it clips that way.
> 

Bob, a song played in regular rotation on one of the radio stations I listen to is Norm Greenbaum's "Spirit in the Sky."  I don't think you could get that sound from a solid state amp.  I built an amp as a gift for Phil titled "The All American Four."  It uses the common series string tubes - 12AT6 (x2) preamp stages, 50C5 power amp, and 35W4 rectifier.  Included is a 240 / 120 isolation transformer for safety as well as giving the amp 240v capability.  It has a power output of only 3 watts or so, but that 3 watts sounds WAY different than a 3 watt solid state amp.

Using old receiving tubes is fun as well as a relatively inexpensive way to build a nice little guitar amp.

Phil, you'll need to let me know if you ever need replacement 'valves' for that amp.  While the 12AT6 (or 12AV6) is probably available in the UK, the 50C5 and 35W4 are likely scarce.  You guys never built too many series string radios without power transformers.

Joe, N6DGY