Tone Junkie wrote:Thanks Steve that really helps having them all on the same page . The only reason I can remotly understand anything on a schematic is guys like you putting out these great layouts. So I can compare them to . A different question can I pick your brain for a second . The reason your chosing this type of amp and layout if you dont mind me asking. (Sorry for the newbie questions)its a plexi rod and I see a zen switch or master what type of sound do all those differant things give you . I know what the plexi is obviously but what are the other circuits and sounds your trying to achieve. I told you they were dumb newbie questions. And I also understand if you dont have time to answer such things right know. Im currently in the process of building a 50watt 1987 circuit with an extra gain stage and my hope is to understand good switching and dc heaters by my next build. this stuff is addicting . Thank you Bill
Bill,
No problem answering some questions!
I chose to build this amp because I wanted a few different sounds, footswitchable, in one amp. I love the old Super Leads and I wanted to have that sound, fully cranked and I wanted to be able to bring the volume down, which is the reason for the post phase inverter master volume (PPIMV) on the back. I also owned a few Jose Arredondo modded Marshalls in the '80s that I gigged with and I loved the sound I got from those amps. I wanted to reproduce that tone and the schematic that is floating around for that amp is (I believe) accurate to the mods I had in my amps. I only needed to reproduce the lead channel of that amp because that is all I ever used. It is basically like a hot rodded 800 - more gain, more aggressive. The zen switch simply switches in a Jose Mater volume in place of the normal 800 master (and Super Lead "master"). The Jose master uses zener diodes (hence "Zen Master"
) for clipping - kinda like a built in boost. So in my amp, you can adjust the volume of each mode to match each other for live use (or use the Zen mode for a solo boost) and you can foot switch in any of the modes as well as the effects loop. You can control the overall volume of all channels with the PPIMV if you need to - I think I'd only use it for Plex mode with the master and gain cranked to mimic a Super Lead at lower volume really. You can also switch between parallel and series modes for the effects loop, although you can't do that from the foot switch. I mainly added the loop for others that use them. I'll never use the loop because I run W/D/W. That is why I have an adjustable line out in my amp. I send the line out to my stereo effects processor, then out to a stereo power amp and then a stereo 4x12 for the effects. I run the dry signal straight from the speaker out of my amp. The rest of the stuff is pretty standard. To be honest, if I as building this amp for myself, I could have simplified it A LOT by not have the effects loop, which adds a lot of components to the board and a lot of general complexity. Other folks rely on them though and I wanted them to have a flexible one... I wanted a tube buffered loop as well...
Good luck with your build!
Hope that helps,
Steve
