Phase splitter lectures (cathodyne & long-tailed pair)

[lantertronics]

With transistors, we have complementary pairs: NPN and NPN, or pFET and nFET. With tubes, we only have devices analogous to NPNs and nFETs; tubeland doesn't have anything analogous to PNPs and pFETs. Hence, we need to use "phase splitters" to create original & inverted copies of the guitar signal to drive push-pull output stages. The two most common ones are cathodyne & long-tailed pair.

[uki]

You mean NPN and PNP.

[lantertronics]

You mean NPN and PNP.

Whoops! Quite right.

[Lectroid]

I've dipped into a few of the YouTube taped lectures of Dr. Lanterman for Georgia Tech.  They are pretty technical for this country boy.  They're aimed at Electrical Engineering students at the university level.  If your calculus is first-rate (me:  )  and you've had the required EE pre-requisites then they might be for you.  I can follow his conclusions, just not how he gets there.  But he's a decent instructor, so ymmv.  Definitely check them out.   

[tubeswell]

They're aimed at Electrical Engineering students at the university level.  If your calculus is first-rate (me:  )  and you've had the required EE pre-requisites then they might be for you.  I can follow his conclusions, just not how he gets there.

You might find Merlin Blencowe’s ‘designing tube preamps for guitar and bass’ book helpful. He wrote the book in a way that easily understood by people who haven’t had technical training but he introduces and explains all the concepts and calculations (for gain, input and output impedance, thevenin circuits etc) that Mr Lantertronics puts in those videos.

[Lectroid]

I do have Blencowe's book and read it constantly.  He does a great job of explaining the concepts without referring back to the underlying math.  Lanterman explains clearly too, but on a different level.  He works directly out of the math (as he certainly should, given his audience) and that puts me into deep water pretty quick.  I understand simple differential calculus but it's been a few years...

But yah, Blencowe is the best single reference book I've found so far, if you want to build tube amps.

[lantertronics]

I do have Blencowe's book and read it constantly.

Blencowe's books is superb. I also highly recommend Richard Kuehnel's books. His earlier book on the Fender Bassman was my main reference when I first taught my guitar amplification and effects class back in 2017. He reworked much of it recently to make his newer books more accessible.

There's another book called "Electronics for Guitarists" by Denton Dailey that has some excellent material in it, although it's a broader book, so although it has some tube amp content it isn't as thorough as Blencowe and Kuehnel's works.

Alas, I lost both my copy of BLencowe's book and Kuehnel's every Bassman book. (I've got the full set of Kuehnel's books though, he even has one on circuit simulation for tubes.)

[PRR]

... Kuehnel's ...earlier book on the Fender Bassman was my main reference when I first taught my guitar amplification and effects class back in 2017. He reworked much of it recently to make his newer books more accessible. ....

Is that the 2006 edition using Cramer's Rule?

[lantertronics]

Is that the 2006 edition using Cramer's Rule?

I think so, it was pretty intense.