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I can’t even deal with that l’il bassman, it’s so great.

twelvepoint wrote: Wed Oct 18, 2023 9:51 am I can’t even deal with that l’il bassman, it’s so great.

It’s really too cool. And fucking beautiful. Really love the look of it.

That will be in my head for a while. Been day dreaming a lil Bass Baby ~20 watt AB165 for years. Maybe even a combo. Oh well, gotta stay in the “one day” folder.

I want two of these

Yeah that is totally great. Inside is beautiful too!

VaticanShotglass wrote: Wed Oct 18, 2023 7:20 pm Been day dreaming a lil Bass Baby ~20 watt AB165 for years.

This lil turd is kinda like a 2 watt AA864! It was a proof of concept trying to make a small amp version of a big amp. I was looking for small power with push-pull pentodes. I started the build with EF86s as the output tubes and didnt like the results. I wound up using ECL84s as the output tubes and it sounds great though ~2 watts is a little more than I was targeting. One of these days i'll try the EF86 thing again, maybe.






ALSO in other news I made some headway on the mic preamp. I got it all built awhile back and it had problems that I couldnt resolve and it got pushed to the side of the bench while other stuff took precedent. It turns out that dummies who spend all their time working on guitar amps and pedals are prone to mis-wiring the foreign object in the equation: the fearsome XLR jack. That sorted and its working mostly correct. Got a few little things to tweak and then its time to test it proper with some studio folks around here. Baby steps.

Dr Tony Balls wrote: Wed Oct 18, 2023 8:59 am Balls BF-50: Ballsmom Edition. AB165 Bassman circuit, normal channel only, added master volume. A couple of changes were made to my standard head configuration to try and keep this one as small as possible. 15" x 9" x 8.25". 23 lbs. UK voltage.

This picture needs to be on every page of the dr. balls thread! Fantastic!!

Dr Tony Balls wrote: Thu Oct 19, 2023 9:29 am

VaticanShotglass wrote: Wed Oct 18, 2023 7:20 pm Been day dreaming a lil Bass Baby ~20 watt AB165 for years.

This lil turd is kinda like a 2 watt AA864! It was a proof of concept trying to make a small amp version of a big amp. I was looking for small power with push-pull pentodes. I started the build with EF86s as the output tubes and didnt like the results. I wound up using ECL84s as the output tubes and it sounds great though ~2 watts is a little more than I was targeting. One of these days i'll try the EF86 thing again, maybe.

I was looking at mine the other day thinking the same thing! Converted it to El84s but output is scaled pretty far down, felt like a cop out. ECL84 sounds like more fun!

Accidental Halloween color coordination:

TylerDeadPine wrote: Thu Oct 19, 2023 12:15 pm

Dr Tony Balls wrote: Thu Oct 19, 2023 9:29 am

VaticanShotglass wrote: Wed Oct 18, 2023 7:20 pm Been day dreaming a lil Bass Baby ~20 watt AB165 for years.

This lil turd is kinda like a 2 watt AA864! It was a proof of concept trying to make a small amp version of a big amp. I was looking for small power with push-pull pentodes. I started the build with EF86s as the output tubes and didnt like the results. I wound up using ECL84s as the output tubes and it sounds great though ~2 watts is a little more than I was targeting. One of these days i'll try the EF86 thing again, maybe.

I was looking at mine the other day thinking the same thing! Converted it to El84s but output is scaled pretty far down, felt like a cop out. ECL84 sounds like more fun!

Interesting. If I could ever get my health steady again to have enough energy for projects, I have a small fantasy of building a little bassman-champ hybrid 1x12 combo. Obviously would be louder than your tiny amp goal.

How do you see the push-pull versus single ended configuration affecting what you are looking for?

VaticanShotglass wrote: Wed Nov 01, 2023 9:22 am How do you see the push-pull versus single ended configuration affecting what you are looking for?

Well PP amps just sound different from SE amps. Phase inverters are present, tube bias and operation is different, OTs are different. The idea was can we make a power amp platform that sounds like the classics (Bassman, Marshall, Vox, etc) but does so at bedroom level so from that end I wanted to deal with PP concepts.

Now where I got a little too focused, I think, was trying to do this with pentodes. Pentode vs triode operation sounds different, but its pretty minor, imo. It seems that a lot of DIY people have luck with PP 12AU7 triode output stages on this type of thing.