AC30 with high gain channel? Suggestions?

[roseblood11]

Hi,

has anybody here built a AC30 clone with a high gain channel? Or are there any commercial amps like that?

I've bought a vintage replica chassis because I planned to build an exact clone of a 1964 AC30TB. But the longer I think about it, I come to the conclusion that I need s.th. else: A two channel amp with a Vox top boost channel (which should be as close to the original as possible) and a higher gain channel, maybe like a Friedman Dirty Shirley or even BE-100. (If there was more space for all the pots, I'd add a third channel, like the old Vox normal channel with EF86...). I'd like to use the phase inverter and power amp schematics of the Vox (and the transformer) because I'll use the top boost channel most of the time, set to a clean sound...

Will this work? Or what changes would you suggest? Maybe the high gain sound could profit from diode rectification, and the top boost channel wouldn't really suffer, because I like to use it for clean sounds (like U2, Daniel Lanois...) anyway?

[pompeiisneaks]

The AC30 has some pretty great gain in the amp itself if you raise the volume up, esp if you're going for the Edge's type, that's all he used. 

You can push it into more metal type gain if you add a drive pedal ahead of it.

Also, if you want, you could 'try' to include a dumble stile OD tube into the mix that's switchable.  I'm in the process of designing an amp that does that, but have heard that the OD of an extra tube into the EL84's can sound a bit shrill.  I'm hoping to play with it and dial in a tone that works, I'm assuming if it's harsh/shrill it may need some eq tweaking with the capacitors to tame the noise a bit.  AT any rate, I'm sure it's doable. 

I built an AC30/4 that has some great drive but it uses the EF86 preamp instead of the TB 12AX7, so that's another option you could try.  A TB channel and an EF86 Normal.

~Phil