Pentagrid converter tremolo?

Started by jaapie, September 19, 2011, 10:42:06 PM

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jaapie

I've got some tubes from an old battery-powered Philco radio that I want to have some fun with; a couple of pentodes (1U5, 1T5 and a 3V4) and a 1R5 pentagrid converter. I've seen talk on several forums that a pentagrid converter could be used as a gain stage and tremolo oscillator in a single tube, but it doesn't seem like anyone's actually tried to do it (or if they have, they've kept their mouths shut about it!). I've done some googling tonight and I think I've got a pretty basic idea of how it could be accomplished, but I'm not very well read on heptodes or amplitude modulation.

As I understand it, In a radio the first two grids act like a triode configured as an oscillator, grid one being the control grid and grid 2 as the "plate". The remaining grids are set up as a gain stage (pentode?) that amplifies the stream of electrons as the oscillator (grid 3 being the "grid," grid 4 as the screen, grid 5 is the suppressor, and the heptode plate). I know that's probably grossly oversimplified, but I haven't been able to find much information that's easily digestible so far.

If that's the case, it seems like it would be a pretty simple and straightforward conversion to use one for tremolo in a guitar amp. Maybe a little battery-powered/ smps lunchbox?