Custom Builds
Sometimes what you want has never been offered by an amp company. Sometimes you want just a little tweak and sometimes you want something your not even sure that it can be done. I like to think I am pretty flexible and have tackled some pretty different circuits along these lines.
I build a lot of amps for myself. Either as a prototype to try out an idea or to try a design I saw somebody discuss on a web forum or similar place. I cant say that I would tackle just anything, I know both my limits and what a tube amp can and cant be made to do. But I do entertain custom builds.
There is a point where I may say your idea is beyond my skills or beyond your budget, so don't be miffed if I ask you what you can afford in an amp project. I spend a lot of time planning out a custom build and I need to know up front if we are on the same wavelength when it comes to the reality of what things can cost vs. what you wanted to spend. Saves us both a lot of time. I try to ballpark things up front so that I can quickly tell you this idea might be a $500 amp or a $2500 amp.
Here are a few custom style builds I have done
Built into a Blackface Twin chassis, this is actually an ODS circuit with several unique additions. It has reverb and Tremolo. It has a built in "Dumbleator" style tube powered loop system and it has a custom built foot switch.
Inside the amp you can see the size of the circuit and all the components. It was one of the most fully cramped builds I have done to date. Took several months to build from design to finished head. 50 watts.
Shown below is one of many Plexi based Hot Rod style amps. This one is a 50 watt power section with literally a dozen gain and tone adjusting mods like several clipping sections for distortion tones, two master volumes to dial in the madness, both a presence and a resonance control for the phase inverter section. I forget all the others but I know I am skipping some.
Here is an amp I did as a customer request. Take an EF86 based preamp section and mate it to a Cathode Biased dual EL34 power section. Similar amps have been done by Dr. Z but not exactly like this one. Sounded very nice.
Here is a interesting build. The circuit is based on the 5F6a Tweed Bassman done as a single input with a switch to bridge the two halves of the preamp tube for some great gain. Then the full tone stack and as a bonus, add reverb to an amp circuit that never had it. Cool tones for sure.
As a last example, here is a Plexi Style cascaded preamp (like a JCM800) with two volume controls, a full tone stack and a master volume. The twist is that it runs a single 6V6 power tube for 6 watts of power. It was mounted into a Princeton Reverb cabinet and sounded great! I build a lot of low power amps for home use.
I build a lot of amps for myself. Either as a prototype to try out an idea or to try a design I saw somebody discuss on a web forum or similar place. I cant say that I would tackle just anything, I know both my limits and what a tube amp can and cant be made to do. But I do entertain custom builds.
There is a point where I may say your idea is beyond my skills or beyond your budget, so don't be miffed if I ask you what you can afford in an amp project. I spend a lot of time planning out a custom build and I need to know up front if we are on the same wavelength when it comes to the reality of what things can cost vs. what you wanted to spend. Saves us both a lot of time. I try to ballpark things up front so that I can quickly tell you this idea might be a $500 amp or a $2500 amp.
Here are a few custom style builds I have done
Built into a Blackface Twin chassis, this is actually an ODS circuit with several unique additions. It has reverb and Tremolo. It has a built in "Dumbleator" style tube powered loop system and it has a custom built foot switch.
Inside the amp you can see the size of the circuit and all the components. It was one of the most fully cramped builds I have done to date. Took several months to build from design to finished head. 50 watts.
Shown below is one of many Plexi based Hot Rod style amps. This one is a 50 watt power section with literally a dozen gain and tone adjusting mods like several clipping sections for distortion tones, two master volumes to dial in the madness, both a presence and a resonance control for the phase inverter section. I forget all the others but I know I am skipping some.
Here is an amp I did as a customer request. Take an EF86 based preamp section and mate it to a Cathode Biased dual EL34 power section. Similar amps have been done by Dr. Z but not exactly like this one. Sounded very nice.
Here is a interesting build. The circuit is based on the 5F6a Tweed Bassman done as a single input with a switch to bridge the two halves of the preamp tube for some great gain. Then the full tone stack and as a bonus, add reverb to an amp circuit that never had it. Cool tones for sure.
As a last example, here is a Plexi Style cascaded preamp (like a JCM800) with two volume controls, a full tone stack and a master volume. The twist is that it runs a single 6V6 power tube for 6 watts of power. It was mounted into a Princeton Reverb cabinet and sounded great! I build a lot of low power amps for home use.