New 18 Watt Build

[zendragon63]

Hey gang, Haven’ t built anything for a while—though I still lurk here regularly. Here is a recently finished modified 18 watt with a EF86 and TMB. Liberties taken nonetheless…
Started with a handful of leftover parts. I didn’t know whether I would like the EL84s but I was surprised on the volume and tones that I am finding.
This is a scaled version of the Trojan Horse amp I built and sold several years ago. The LND150 stage was put in the front of the EF86 to drive it and get a little more harmonic content out of it but mostly to flip the phase to match up with the Marshall side. I had hoped to have a little more preamp voltage to work with—so after calculating plate and screen current possibilities ad nauseum, I ended up setting the Kbias, Rg and Rp close to Vox values and to suit a Stratocaster. The EF86 was shock mounted using a couple of left-over reverb tank silicon washers.
The result is that is sounds outstanding in a 2x12 Bluesbreaker combo cab. EF86 and single coils are a great match IMHO.
Building each of these amps always turns out to be an adventure; start with a blank chassis and then make a lot of it up as I go along (all by trying to avoid some if the mistakes of the last amp). I appreciate Doug and all of you for the knowledge and skill we are able to share on this forum.  Regards


dennis

[tubenit]

That's super cool!  Thanks for sharing this. I always admire your ingenuity with your amp designs.  Well done!


With respect, Tubenit