I guess I didn't realize that the Freedom Amp had a 10" speaker in it. The Dirt Road Special came with a 12" Celestion stock (mine was replaced by a previous owner). I had assumed that the Freedom Amp was the same.The one in that reverb listing was made by CTS (I can see there's a EIA code of 137 stamped on the magnet, followed by a date code of 7349). Almost certainly nothing special about it, unless you absolutely need to return a Freedom Amp back to stock condition. For that price, you could get a much better replacement.

Tommy wrote:Nate Dort wrote:I guess I didn't realize that the Freedom Amp had a 10" speaker in it. The Dirt Road Special came with a 12" Celestion stock (mine was replaced by a previous owner). I had assumed that the Freedom Amp was the same.The one in that reverb listing was made by CTS (I can see there's a EIA code of 137 stamped on the magnet, followed by a date code of 7349). Almost certainly nothing special about it, unless you absolutely need to return a Freedom Amp back to stock condition. For that price, you could get a much better replacement.Also, is that a huge chunk busted out of the magnet, or did these have separate magnet sections?CTS did that with a lot of their speakers. Here's a 15" with the same thing:

Evanc521 wrote:A few things:I don't understand the purpose of the voltage divider in the power supply... nothing appears to be connected to the half point. I'm sure there is a good reason for it, but I don't understand the purpose of the parallel resistors (circled in red). The volume control is fairly un-orthodox (circled in green)Not sure of the value of the mystery pot{ (circled in blue).I'm going to throw this on the breadboard tonight or tomorrow to see what I can figure out. ...And here is an unverified vero layout from the schematic. Does any kind person want to walk me through this section by section (eg input, power, volume, tone, output, trim, etc...) and explain a little bit about what the different components are doing to someone who's just getting started? I'll buy you a beer at PRF NYC Also, I was checking the layout and think maybe the 10uF cap to the furthest right should actually be 1uF, assuming the schematic is right.

Dr Tony Balls wrote:I can do my best....what specific questions do you have?Honestly I'm not sure where to start (and maybe this isn't the place to do so.) I can make out where the power supply section is based on the batteries being there, where the volume, tone, bite are based on the amplifiers and pots. I understand the concept of resistance and resistors, maybe a little less so capacitors (yes, they store a charge, but what does that mean) I'm looking for a better understanding of what each component (capacitor, resistor) is actually doing in this circuit - or really any basic circuit. Maybe there's already a primer out there someone could recommend?

PERFECT, THANKS!

Nate Dort wrote:I guess I didn't realize that the Freedom Amp had a 10" speaker in it. The Dirt Road Special came with a 12" Celestion stock (mine was replaced by a previous owner). I had assumed that the Freedom Amp was the same.The one in that reverb listing was made by CTS (I can see there's a EIA code of 137 stamped on the magnet, followed by a date code of 7349). Almost certainly nothing special about it, unless you absolutely need to return a Freedom Amp back to stock condition. For that price, you could get a much better replacement.Also, is that a huge chunk busted out of the magnet, or did these have separate magnet sections?

Also....for tube amps (a lot of the same principles apply) check out youtube user "Uncle Doug" who has THEE best walkthroughs of how an amplifier circuit works, troubleshooting, etc. Dude is great. I'd start here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5SSKX74DKg

Given all the discussion around the power supply earlier in the thread - is there a relatively simple way to convert this to use a power adapter? Even if it's just hooking it up to two 9V adapters?

What about 9.6v recargable r.c. car batteries

The layout is starting to confuse me more as I try to dig into the schematic, thinking I may need to start fresh - any specific process or tool(s) people are using for designing a layout? And a few more questions as I am comparing the schematic and layout, I will probably have some more soon. The negative terminal of second battery is shown in the schematic as connected to a 10k resistor and negative of 10uF cap - this does not go to ground as shown in layout, correct? These should just go to 4th pin of the 4558 chip? Overall I'm confused with whether all negative leads for polarized caps should go to ground?Negative of 1u 100V goes to switch - this is the old non-true bypass switch, right? to make this true bypass I assume I would move this switch point directly to input (before 22nF cap at bottom left of schematic) correct?