Greg,
I very much appreciate the feedback and info. I am very limited in my understanding of things and I will trust those of you who know much more than I do as to the good, better, and best ways to achieve what I am trying to do.
Although I understand cheaper is seldom better, I do have to put things in perspective from a $ perspective. I paid $50 for the whole organ. I added another $100 in parts and a new 6SL7 to get a great sounding amp for about $150.00 That's $150.00 too much in the wife's opinion (who would just like her kitchen table back free of parts and soldering operations) and I am handing this amp off to a 16 year old. Do I want to spend $70 for a KOC PS kit, not really, $40 Trinity kit is nearly half, and $20 for mouser parts sounds even better. For me this is all about learning. I suspect there will be many more mods to come with this amp and am glad that with Sluckey's help and guidance I have been able to give it new life.
Whichever direction I go, I have absolute respect for all those who have offered their good time and their opinions. If I had the extra money on hand and was going to put this in a vintage amp that I paid a bundle of cash because I liked a specific tone it had, I would be firmly in the KOC camp. As it sits right now, the cheapest solution that gets the job done will likely be the direction I go and the more I learn on that path the better as my goal here is to learn and have fun.
Given what your needs are for this amp, I would say install a master volume of some sort and go with that. It will be adequate to get some crunch at low volumes if you design the preamp to have some gain, and it is certainly cheaper. It sounds like you will likely do future projects and if so, you can design an amp to use Power Scaling or VVR or whatever you want at that point. I've used Power Scaling from KOC on a couple amps and I really like it, but I also like my non master volume Vox AC30 a lot too. The Vox can't be used at a gig if you want crunch and you have to be quiet though unless you use a pedal to get the crunch, because it needs to be halfway up to get the crunch and then it is very loud. If I put Power Scaling on an amp, it can get the crunch and still sound very close to how it does when it is full up, yet be very quiet. You don't have the speaker distortion when it is low volume so that is one element that is missing, but it is the closest that I have found to simulate that loud tone and be quiet and still be natural sounding and easy on the amp.
The VVR is based off one of KOC's early Power Scaling designs and it isn't as versatile, but it is cheaper and easier to incorporate, especially with a cathode biased amp. I personally haven't tried VVR myself as I went right to Power Scaling when I considered building an amp that was going to use something like that. A lot of others here have used VVR and can tell you all about it. Some people don't like KOC as his products are somewhat more expensive, and he can come across as arrogant in some ways. Certainly if you ask him a question his answer often appears to be the most obtuse way to explain it, which I think is just his way of thinking and talking and is not intentional. If you buy his products they come with full technical support, which is often very helpful. His books are a bit more difficult to understand than some of the simpler ones like the Dave Funk Tube Amp Workbook, or the very clear ones like Merlin's books, and the drawings are scanned hand drawings rather than computer generated ones but there is a wealth of information in the books which makes them worthwhile in many cases.
In short, I can't make your decision for you, but if I was in your shoes I think I would just use a MV and design the preamp to get some crunch and use the amp that way. If it is for a 16 year old, the amp will likely be played at full volume most of the time anyway so it doesn't matter quite so much...haha.
Greg
Topic: New build based on Webster/Allan organ amp (Read 22116 times)