Hoffman Amplifiers Tube Amplifier Forum

Amp Stuff => Tube Amp Building - Tweaks - Repairs => Topic started by: tubenit on April 09, 2017, 03:57:16 pm

Title: Carolina Overdrive Special 5879 plus
Post by: tubenit on April 09, 2017, 03:57:16 pm
I am continuing to experiment with different Dumblish inspired designs where you have a clean and an overdrive channel.  The PT on this one is 300-0-300 150ma.   A tweed bassman OT would work well with it, I think.

My goal on this one was to use 3 gain stages in the clean channel to try and keep the tone reasonably clean up to 12 noon on the volume dial.  I feel like I succeeded reasonably well with this.  It has  nice full tone to it, IMO and has some musical sweetness in the tone.  It is reasonably Fenderish but slightly less mid-scooped. 

One of the things that really surprised me was how quite the thing is at idle.  Even at volumes beyond what I will normally play at, the idle noise is very very quiet.  The original Princeton Reveb I owned once was more noisy at idle then this is.  I think it could be easy to walk out of the room and forget to turn the amp off?  However, when you hit a chord, it is surprisingly loud. 

The overdrive is also to my liking and is very touch responsive with the 5879 tube. I may try tweaking this some more, but if it never got any smoother, I'd still be very happy with it. The 5879 tube does have a little chime inherent in it's tone.

This has more contrast between the clean truly being clean and the overdrive being more boosted & slightly richer tone compared to the clean tone.

Just thought I'd share in case someone is looking for a new idea.  Look into the SCH library for editable files.

With respect, Tubenit
Title: Re: Carolina Overdrive Special 5879 plus
Post by: MakerDP on April 09, 2017, 07:26:16 pm
Looks good! Would love to hear some samples.

As always, thanks for sharing.
Title: Re: Carolina Overdrive Special 5879 plus
Post by: tubenit on May 23, 2017, 08:20:47 pm
Guys, I'm loving this amp!  Amazingly quiet at idle.  Very musical tone and touch sensitive.  Maybe the best clean tone I've gotten out of an amp.  The amp is getting a very full tone and good bass with very low volume. 

You can get some pretty overdriven tones out of the OD channel, but I am liking it best more like a boosted clean that has richer harmonics and longer sustain.  Depending on how you set the 3 OD volume pots you can get some fairly wide range of OD tones.

Editable SCH schematic and layout here:  http://el34world.com/Forum/index.php?topic=21804.0 (http://el34world.com/Forum/index.php?topic=21804.0)

with respect, Tubenit
Title: Re: Carolina Overdrive Special 5879 plus
Post by: Ed_Chambley on May 25, 2017, 03:28:03 pm
Looks nice, do you have 225 OD throughout?  Have you tried a 12AX7 in V1?  Still clean?

Title: Re: Carolina Overdrive Special 5879 plus
Post by: tubenit on May 26, 2017, 04:22:44 am
I am using Orange Drop PS everywhere except Musicaps in V1-6, V2-6, V4-2 & V4-6.

I haven't tried a 12AX7 in V1 but have tried a 5751 and it still gives a great clean tone.

I'm using an Emminence Delta-Pro 12A speaker.

with respect, Tubenit