The tone I was designing for is solidly nailed down.
Really minimal changes from the prior builds, just a name change and some quality upgrades.
What it is:
Single ended low wattage amp capable of a wide range of
tones from clean Fender Deluxe Reverb to Tweed Deluxe to a hard Marshall crunch in the likes of vintage Judas Priest or 80's Scorpions.
I was making these before the Class 5, this is not a one dimensional sound that results from the restrictions of just using EL84's (not that there's anything wrong with that...)
Controls are:
Gain 1
Gain2
Treble
Mid
Bass
Master Volume
Tech is: 2 x 12AX7A preamps tubes, single 6L6 based power tube.
Takes any of that family-6V6, KT77, KT88, even a 6550 bad boy to extend the range to a single ended 7 watts.
Cathode biased (self biasing)...simply plug and play the power tube.
12AX7's can be subbed out for 12AT, 12AU, 12AV etc for cleaner options.
Wiring is point on point on T-Style terminal strips.
There are no circuit boards.
Plug in terminals as seen on the power/standby switches are lightly soldered in place.
Theory is: Double rated 150MVA power transformer coupled to a 4-Diode full bridge setup. Very tight supply, very low noise floor. Any sponge you might dial in comes from the cathode biasing, making the power tube very responsive.
Output transformer is a 15 watt rating, delivering the full spectrum of tone while never saturating itself.
The type and amount of distortion depends on the settings of the gains and master volume.
Speaker options are 4, 8, 16 ohm with an additional line out (to be used when there is a speaker load). 2 ohm option is there, clipped off inside.
Simply designed, this amp delivers tone that "talks back" without being noisy or microphonic.
Fewer features (like channel switching, effects loop, tone switching) also make this amp highly responsive.
The amp still does not look as good as I would like.
I consider the appearance prototype/homebrew.
Corners a a very tight finger jointed pine stained with cherry and tung oil applied.
Black grille is heavy plastic window screening.
Faceplate is engraved, not silkscreened (good).
This is the last amp I will build at this price, the only thing I ask in addition is for feedback.
$435.00 Shipped CONUS only.
Paypal welcomed...preferred.
No trades considered at this point.
Amp is not ROHS compliant (60/40 lead solder is used throughout).
Some Pix:
For Sale: Cygnus Lead-7 Amp Head
Threaded Mode
