OT: Quick & Dirty Octal Fatness Sound Clips

[Doug H]

These are real rough:

http://home.cfl.rr.com/dbhammond/OF_Clean.mp3

http://home.cfl.rr.com/dbhammond/OF_Dirty.mp3

6AR6 tube, G12H30 closed-back, s/c neck, super distortion h/b bridge.

MV at 3/4 for both clips. Gain at 1/4 for Clean, 3/4 then dimed for Dirty. Tone controls adjusted for different sounds.

My page on the amp is here:

http://home.cfl.rr.com/dbhammond/OF.html

Doug

[Lonestarjohnny]

You got it Doug, Great sounding O/D and it's crisp sounding on the clean, I'm waiting on Transformer's for single ended KT 66 amp i'm building, got the 6sj7 on the clean cha. and ef86 involved on the dirt cha., your amps tone is dead on for some good Texas style Music. and there is some pride in playin what ya built.
JD

[Peter Snowberg]

Very nice!

I'm curious if you have any problems with microphonics in the 6SJ7?

Take care,
-Peter

[Doug H]

You got it Doug, Great sounding O/D and it's crisp sounding on the clean, I'm waiting on Transformer's for single ended KT 66 amp i'm building, got the 6sj7 on the clean cha. and ef86 involved on the dirt cha., your amps tone is dead on for some good Texas style Music. and there is some pride in playin what ya built.
JD

Thanks! It reallly works well in a gig, that was the big test.

Your amp sounds like a really cool idea. I would love to play with a KT66 at some point. I think you will like the 6sj7, it is really a sweet tube.

Doug

[Doug H]

Very nice!

I'm curious if you have any problems with microphonics in the 6SJ7?

Take care,
-Peter

Thanks, Peter. There are no microphonics with this tube at all. In fact, this is a very quiet amp. Virtually no hum and no hiss at all.

Doug

[Lonestarjohnny]

Yes Peter, you do find some old tube's that are microphonic, but I have a lot of old tube's to choose from, and if you A/B the old tubes against the new tube's, if you got any hearing left at all you'll choose the old one's over the stuff being made now, I was raised on Link Ray,Nokie Edward's, Curly Q cord's, 15 dollar pawnshop guitars that made your finger's hurt,  LOL ! my first F/F pedal only worked when it wanted to, it's amazing to me how I've been able to take the advice from the forum here and biuld my own pedal's that work right the first time out.
A lot of Thank's should go out to guy's like Doug and the rest that spend hour's thinking and researching these circuit's.
Great job, Well done,
JD

[Jason Stout]

Doug, you have another winner! I like the clips as well.

[Rodgre]

Very nice sounding amp. I'm not familiar with the sound of that speaker/cab combo, but there is a nice punch and clarity to it. I like that tone a lot.

Roger

[Doug H]

Yes Peter, you do find some old tube's that are microphonic, but I have a lot of old tube's to choose from, and if you A/B the old tubes against the new tube's, if you got any hearing left at all you'll choose the old one's over the stuff being made now,
JD

Well EF86's are notorious for being microphonic but I don't believe the 6sj7 is as gainy as an EF86. And I wonder if the metal envelope helps too.

Thanks to everyone for all the kind responses.  David Jones did a good job designing this amp.

Doug

[Paul Marossy]

Cool! I can't wait until I get home to listen to those sound clips.  

EDIT: Beautiful! So, that is with a 6AR6 and a 6SJ7? Nice sounding combo. I guess I am going to have to build this one, too.
This is worse than building stompboxes! This darn tube amp building gets kind of expensive! (and it is addictive as someone here said)
BTW, did I hear a piece of a Phil Keaggy tune in that second clip? It sounds like something off of "Beyond Nature"...

[Doug H]

Cool! I can't wait until I get home to listen to those sound clips.  

EDIT: Beautiful! So, that is with a 6AR6 and a 6SJ7? Nice sounding combo. I guess I am going to have to build this one, too.
This is worse than building stompboxes! This darn tube amp building gets kind of expensive! (and it is addictive as someone here said)
BTW, did I hear a piece of a Phil Keaggy tune in that second clip? It sounds like something off of "Beyond Nature"...

Glad you like the sound, Paul. I deleted those clips and put this one in it's place:

http://home.cfl.rr.com/dbhammond/OF_NO_CONJ_FILTER.mp3

I removed the conjunctive filter (R15/C10), bright cap (C4) and lowered the plate-gnd voltage on the 6ar6 to ~300v. That smoothed out the overdrive sounds nicely without needing the filtering. The filtering kind of decreased the liveliness and punch of the amp.

(And, crud...  That clip still has the plate voltage at ~350v. I'll have to do another one with the current setting. Anyway, you will get the general idea- the amp sounds like it was "freed")

So I'm still tweaking around with it a little. (Yeah... No joke... )  I'll post the schem when it all settles down.

Oh and I'm not familiar with Keaggy, so it wasn't him. I was just noodling around.

Doug

[Paul Marossy]

Cool. I'll probably build the Octal Fatness, too. But, right now, I am proceeding on my Matchless Spitfire clone. I've got all the parts on order and should receive them early next week. Then, let the lack of sleep begin!
Actually, I am going to take my time on it. Just them transformers alone cost $175, I don't want to fry anything being in a hurry...

Anyhow, it sounds like you are still tweaking stuff, so it would probably be a good idea to wait on it.  

I think after that, I'll be set - I'll have a 1 watt, 10 watt, 15 watt, 60 watt and two 100 watt amps. I know, I don't really need that many amps... but, it's nice to have backups.

[Doug H]

Cool. I'll probably build the Octal Fatness, too. But, right now, I am proceeding on my Matchless Spitfire clone. I've got all the parts on order and should receive them early next week. Then, let the lack of sleep begin!
Actually, I am going to take my time on it. Just them transformers alone cost $175, I don't want to fry anything being in a hurry...

Anyhow, it sounds like you are still tweaking stuff, so it would probably be a good idea to wait on it.  

I think after that, I'll be set - I'll have a 1 watt, 10 watt, 15 watt, 60 watt and two 100 watt amps. I know, I don't really need that many amps... but, it's nice to have backups.

I thought about building a spitfire a few yrs ago. Now after hearing all the clips, it seems interesting again.

And, you will always need more amps...    

Doug

[Paul Marossy]

Yeah, I'm expecting mine to sound closer to the original since I am using authentic transformers, etc.

[Transmogrifox]

beautiful sounding amp!  It inspires me to get into tube amp building, but weird solid state stompboxes keep me occupied.  

BTW, you have some magic in your fingers, too, Doug.  You know how to milk that amp for what it has to offer. Thanks for sharing the sound clips

[Lonestarjohnny]

Doug, have you tried any stompbox's through it yet ?, Just curious to see how it respond's to being pushed a lil harder.
Cool sounding clip, the amp sounds very touch sensitive, good pinched harmonic's too !
JD

[Doug H]

beautiful sounding amp!  It inspires me to get into tube amp building, but weird solid state stompboxes keep me occupied.  

BTW, you have some magic in your fingers, too, Doug.  You know how to milk that amp for what it has to offer. Thanks for sharing the sound clips

Thanks!

Doug

[Doug H]

Doug, have you tried any stompbox's through it yet ?, Just curious to see how it respond's to being pushed a lil harder.
Cool sounding clip, the amp sounds very touch sensitive, good pinched harmonic's too !
JD

Yes, my Shaka sounds great through it. I also breadboarded Jake's Blue Magic and it works really well with this amp too. Anything "tubescreamer-ish" is going to be a winner because the clean tone of this amp is bright and chimey. But if you turn the treble down to about a 1/3 or so, the NPN Boost, Fuzz Face, Hot Silicon (Si Tonebender w/tone control), and Axis Fuzz sound great through it too.

Doug