Hi-Gain 50W
After building my 50W Marshall JCM 800 clone, I wanted another 50W, 6L6 powered amp with more gain. I had originally decided to build a Mesa Boogie Mark I clone, but after building it, I didn't like the tone too much. I went through several different designs (including a Mesa Dual Rectifier and an Orange) before I came up with the current circuit. Here's the schematic for the preamp. The power amp is almost identical to the Marshall clone's power amp, the biggest difference being the lack of a presence control and lower voltage on the plates (405Vdc Vs. 475Vdc in the Marshall).
Here's a picture of the front of the head, showing the controls:
The controls are (from left to right) high-gain input, low-gain input, gain, bass, middle, treble, power amp input (for using as a stand-alone 50W power amp), and master volume.
Here's another picture of the back:
Here you can see the power cord socket, the mains fuse, the secondary fuse, and the output jack and impedance selector switch (2, 4, and 8 ohms). Don't those 6L6's look puny in there? I've got plenty of room to try EL-34's at a later date, and don't have to worry about banging the tubes on the cabinet trying to get them out of their sockets.
Here's another picture showing a angled view so you can get an idea of the dimensions of this amp, and see the color scheme I'm planning on. The black faceplate and handles are against the natural white pine. It's bare wood right now, I'm going to finish the whole thing with a couple of coats of urethane.
I'm planning on building a 1 x 12" cabinet to go with this head, but I've got to get some money first. Here's a couple of sound clips with this amp using my 2 x 12" cabinet I built for my Marshall clone:
High gain channel, gain at 50%
High gain channel, gain at 100%
Low gain channel, gain at 100%
UPDATE!
I built a cabinet for this head, a 1 x 15" cab with a 16 ohm speaker. The speaker is a Weber VST C15CA "California", and the cabinet is made of 3/4" MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard) and that stuff is heavy! I put casters on the bottom of the cab so it'll be easier to transport. The dimensions of the cabinet are roughly 22" x 17.5" x 16" deep. It's got a great bass heavy tone, but it's still got more than enough treble bite too. I finished the cab solid black, and swapped the handles off of the head so that the cab has the black handles and the head now has natural oak handles. This is a nice sounding 1/2 stack! Here's a picture of the finished amp:
