Carolina Blues Rocket

[tubenit]

I took my Plexi 25w reverb and changed the front end to be similar to a D'Lite but with a paralleled V1 (5751) and only one overdrive stage (instead of the normal two stages).

I am very impressed with this amp! It does NOT sound like a Dumble. It does have a super smooth overdrive and nice harmonics. It is very very touch sensitive in playing. Lite pickin' and it sounds clean and when you dig in a little bit ....... a super smooth overdrive emerges. 

It has really remarkable sustain to it. I can hit a note and hold it into feedback.

I would say it sort of sounds like D'Lite meets Marshall if I had to assign a tonal quality to it. However with a volume, trim/gain and master volume ........ you can get alot of sounds from clean to overdriven to crunch.

Despite my somewhat messy wiring, the amp is as quiet as my Plexi25w was. I obviously used an unproven layout but it worked right out of the chute for me.

EDIT 1/'09 :  I kept listening to this amp playing along with a Larry Carlton CD and thought I could get the sound closer. I changed as many of the tone and coupling caps to Orange Drops as I had available.  And I changed the .02 cap off the overdrive stage to a .01.    The result was a clearer tone. Not really cleaner but clearer sounding.  I had been using Mallory 150's in about half the build but found the Orange Drops were closer to the tone I was wanting. The Mallorys sounded a little muted to me. The amp still does NOT sound like a Dumble but it does get some of that sound. Look at the 1/'09 schematic and layout for an update.

You can find most of these schematic in the "Broken Links" file.  Write down the name of what you are looking for and then click on to this Broken Links file list:

http://el34world.com/Forum/index.php?topic=17420.0

[tubenit]

This is the layout I used. I used an inexpensive tagboard with paralleled terminals.  I think a Hoffman quality board would have been much better.  

http://s28.photobucket.com/albums/c216/tubenit/?action=view&current=CarolinaBluesRocketcab.jpg

http://s28.photobucket.com/albums/c216/tubenit/?action=view&current=CarolinaBluesExpresschassisinterior.jpg

http://s28.photobucket.com/albums/c216/tubenit/?action=view&current=CarolinaBluesExpresschassisexterior.jpg

The PT and OT are on opposite ends of the amp with the preamp tubes in the middle of the chassis and the power tubes towards the back near the PT.

The amp has NO hum problems at idle and I am pleased with how quiet it is.  If you start cranking everything towards "10", you have the typical white noise of a high gain amp. However, it is quiet at the useable volumes I would play it at.

NOTE:  I have tried this with the 5881's which sound really great but I tried JJ 6V6's also which are phenomenol sounding.  I tried a Weber 12F150 speaker which sounded really good but I like my Emminence Red, White and Blues speaker quite a bit better.  I noticed some of the Dumble clone guys like the Emminence RW & B also.

Tubenit

[tubenit]

I drew up a non reverb version of the CBR.

CHECK for errors.

[DummyLoad]

This is what I originally called a D'-(mo) Lite- R.  I took my Plexi 25w reverb and changed the front end to be similar to a D'Lite but with a paralleled V1 (5751) and only one overdrive stage (instead of the normal two stages).

This worked out great for me for the space I had, plus I did not want to have to switch between clean and overdrive using switches or relays.

I am very impressed with this amp! It does NOT sound like a Dumble. It does have a super smooth overdrive and nice harmonics. It is very very touch sensitive in playing. Lite pickin' and it sounds clean and when you dig in a little bit ....... a super smooth overdrive emerges. 

It has really remarkable sustain to it.

I would say it sort of sounds like D'Lite meets Marshall if I had to assign a tonal quality to it. However with a volume, trim/gain and master volume ........ you can get alot of sounds from clean to overdriven to crunch.

Despite my somewhat messy wiring, the amp is as quiet as my Plexi25w was. I obviously used an unproven layout but it worked right out of the chute for me.

this amp looks interesting.. when we get through with the agua dulce, imma give it a go on my breadboard...   :) thanks for sharing...

nice carpentry tubnit! i wish i was that patient and skilled at woodworking...   8)