Bradley MV-50
I've wanted a good 50W master volume amp for a while. I had bought a 50W tweed Bassman output transformer and a matched set of 5881/6L6's to build a 5F6-A Bassman clone with. I was planning on adding a master volume to the 5F6-A circuit. Then I saw the Marshall JCM800 master volume preamp schematic on
Ampage. I also found a good power transformer at New Sensor. I bought the Bassman PT without the 5V tap, and used two large solid state diodes for the rectifier. The power supply is based on the 5F6-A Bassman, except with a SS rectifier. The bias supply comes directly from the Bassman also. Here is a schematic of the power amp. The preamp is almost an exact copy of the MV Marshall JCM800 circuit as found on Ampage. Here is a schematic of the preamp showing the components I used.After mounting everything, which took about 6 hours for me, I began wiring the circuit. It took about 10 hours of soldering to complete, but it was definitely worth it! This is the best sounding amp I own! It's versatile enough for the kind of music I play, which is mostly hard rock, blues, and metal. It sounds great with most of my guitars, too!
UPDATE!
I bought some really nice wood for the cabinet today, poplar! The pieces I bought have a green tint to the wood, along with some purple and black streaks in it, really great looking stuff! The cabinet I'm going to build will be for the head unit alone, because I don't have the money at present to build a speaker cabinet. The head will be 18 1/2" wide, 9" tall, and 11 1/4" deep. Not a small head unit! The chassis is 17" x 10" x 3". I'm thinking about building a 2 x 12" speaker cabinet to go with this head, out of matching poplar, 36" x 18" x 11 1/4". I'll post pictures of the head when I get done, so check back often!
UPDATE!
My dad and I are finished with the head cabinet, and I used black plastic for the faceplate. It really looks good. I got my Weber C12GB "Thames" speakers today, so we can start on the speaker cabinet anytime now. I chose poplar with a similar grain pattern to the wood I used for the head unit's cab. I also bought what I'm going to use for the grill cloth, a type of sun-screen material from Home Depot. $10 a roll. It's grey/black in color, and it's kind of a basket weave pattern. I plan on taking some pictures of the head cabinet sometime soon, and will try to post them as soon as I get them developed.
UPDATE!
Here's a picture of the front of the finished head
From left to right, the controls are: High gain input, Low gain input, Gain, Bass, Middle, Treble, Master Volume, Presence, Pilot light, Standby, and On/Off.
Here's a picture of the back of the amp.
Here's another picture showing the head and matching cabinet.
UPDATE!
Here's a sample of the tone. I used a Fostex X-14 four track and a Shure 588SB microphone to record this with, then went from the four track to the line in on my computer. I used my Epiphone Del Rey guitar straight into the amp.