The Amp Garage

2204?

Keep um coming!

Lawn Boy. The logo from my old lawn mower came off. I found it was actually rubber with silver paint and a black border.

I have had no problem soldering to the back of Alpha brand pots. I'm wondering if it is the solder you are using? I have a hard time with the ROHS stuff. I'm using an old Archer (Radio Shack) 45 watt iron.

Not to hijack this thread, but Larry.... those are AWESOME lookin' amps on your website!

Generally low voltage to the preamp would give more saturated distortion, while higher voltages would give higher headroom, and there could be various sweetspots depending on what is to be achieved Well, the JCM800 has substantially higher voltages at V1 compared to the 1987. Since this has an addi...

Okay, so your referring to the power rail voltages. Well, I am conjecturing the reason it is different is the 2204 preamp was built around the hot wire (or one wire) mod. This technique allowed 1987 preamps to chain the two triodes; Bright fed the Normal channel. Possibly when developing this into t...

Well, I am confused by your question. I thought you were interested in Plexi's. Seems like you are now interested in JCM800s. So, here's a link to some highly opinionated views of Marshall amps - 1987s and JCM800s. I used one of his preamp tweaks to get a little more beef out of a JCM800 clone I bui...

I hate drilling aluminum with unibits. There's always way too much burr on the bottom side of the hole. Yes, this is a problem. I have found that after drilling the holes, I can easily deburr them by manually rotating the bit from the back side of the hole. Shears off any residual burr. Nice lookin...

... wonder if the cheapo's are being made in China ? No way they are US at that price, probably Chinese, Indonesian, or Korean manufacture. I liked it better than the Ibanez offerings, but then they are about twice the price. JOOC, has anyone tried an Epi ES-175? This guitar has intrigued me since ...

The off-shore Gretchs sound pretty darn good to me. They are relatively new so I doubt there is much in the way of the used market yet. Street price is around $600 new.

I believe these are to prevent oscillation. Start here and scroll down to the control grid resistors (near the bottom). http://marshall.redpt.com/clay/marshall_circuits_101.html There may be better on-line references, but this is the site I most often frequent. Using Marstran schemos for reference h...

I strictly use metal film resistors, unless I need a wirewound to really dissipate some energy. I'm sure other folks will have different opinions. 1/2 watt resistors are be more than adequate here. As far a blocking distortion, I don't know. I would think something as venerable as the 5F6-A (270K mi...

Where do you get your formica? I did a troll of the big guys and HD only has it in 4x8 sheets, while Lowes stopped carrying it at all. Last time I was at Lowes I noticed they seem to be reducing their entire kitchen area. They used to have an entire aisle of range hoods - now just a few. Also notic...

Well, I think they are both mixed and feed the grid of V2A. The 5F6-A originally used 270K mixers here; no bright cap. The JTM45 used the same 270K and added a 500pF bright cap. I think you get a little extra gain with the 270K, but it is probably trivial. Here is a good explanation: http://marshall...

Statorvane- I'm gonna try the formica thing. No question about it- we payin way too much for the stuff we puttin in these here amplifiers! You can use scrap Formica leftover from a kitchen/bath project. There is usually enough of this stuff leftover from sink cutouts to make several eyelet boards. ...