Marshall 18-watt clone coming along!

[famous beagle]

Ha! Well, after having a son and then a daughter, and the rest of life getting in the way, I've finally gotten back on this project. My band has its first gig lined up in March, and the only amp I actually have right now is a Tweed Champ clone that I built, and I don't think that'll cut it volume-wise on stage. (I bought that kit with the cabinet already made, which saved me a lot of time).

So, here are some long-overdue updated pictures of the progress. I was kind of afraid of the vinyl-covering process, but it turned out looking pretty good. (There will be a design on the front panel eventually.)

 

[Greg_L]

Kick ass man. Looks great. Now lets' hear it....

 

[Rich_S]

Howdy. I'm an HR noob with a DIY 18 Watter. I'll post my pics soon.

18 Watters are great amps for beginners. They are pretty simple, but sound great. The Lite II variant (without the tremolo) is only slightly more complex than a Champ, and much more useful on stage.

I like your purple stack, wait 'til you see my blue combo...

 

[famous beagle]

Howdy. I'm an HR noob with a DIY 18 Watter. I'll post my pics soon.

18 Watters are great amps for beginners. They are pretty simple, but sound great. The Lite II variant (without the tremolo) is only slightly more complex than a Champ, and much more useful on stage.

I like your purple stack, wait 'til you see my blue combo...

Hey Rich ... Thanks! My amp is actually blue too; maybe the lighting in the pictures made it look funky.

Here are some pictures of the finished cabs now. I'm waiting on one part (the kit had an incorrect fuse) to finish up the wiring.

 

[Rich_S]

Here's mine:

It's a converted Bogen CHB20A PA amplifier. I mostly gutted it and then re-wired as an 18 Watter, reusing Bogen's weird voltage-doubler power supply. It also retains the amp's original ECL86 output tubes, which each comprise a EL84-ish pentode and half a 12AX7 in the same envelope. This gives me the power amp and the phase inverted, in just two tubes. Due to the cramped quarters inside the ECL86, power is reduced to about 13 watts.

When I started, it looked like this:

 

[famous beagle]

Here's mine:

It's a converted Bogen CHB20A PA amplifier. I mostly gutted it and then re-wired as an 18 Watter, reusing Bogen's weird voltage-doubler power supply. It also retains the amp's original ECL86 output tubes, which each comprise a EL84-ish pentode and half a 12AX7 in the same envelope. This gives me the power amp and the phase inverted, in just two tubes. Due to the cramped quarters inside the ECL86, power is reduced to about 13 watts.

When I started, it looked like this:

Cool, looks great! Do you have any sound clips?

 

[kip4]

Hot Dammed guys thats some slick work.
well done.

 

[Blue Jinn]

@'beagle how much of this was a kit, just the electronics? Nice work. Especially the cabinet man!

@Rich_S: It looks like the Bogen had that screw on amphenol connector? Is that a screw on to 1/4" phone adapter? I have an old Monkey Wards amp that had "microphone" inputs with those connectors. Worked fine for a guitar. I didn't know at the time, but it drives a pentode input stage, so I'm guessing it was meant for high impedance microphones. The Wards amp has a 6L6 output stage. I have a schemo and it's on the list for a rebuild. (I have some Russian 807's and I picked up a 807 to 6L6 apadpter too)

For some reason I can't make this post have paragraphs.....

 

[Rich_S]

My first tube amp back in 1975-ish was the big sister, a Bogen CHB35A that had two inputs with the old threaded mic connectors. I ran that with a pair of Switchcraft 1/4"-to-threaded adapters sticking out the back. That amp was stock, just a guitar plugged into a cranked-up PA amp. Awesome for a while, but soon replaced with a used Fender Twin, followed by a Hiwatt and many years of Marshalls.

The CHB20A was just used as a donor chassis & iron. There's nothing left of the original circuit, and the old mic connector on the back was cut out and replaced with speaker jacks. I'm still using Bogen's old strip of screw terminals as my speaker impedance selector, though.

 

[famous beagle]

@'beagle how much of this was a kit, just the electronics? Nice work. Especially the cabinet man!

@Rich_S: It looks like the Bogen had that screw on amphenol connector? Is that a screw on to 1/4" phone adapter? I have an old Monkey Wards amp that had "microphone" inputs with those connectors. Worked fine for a guitar. I didn't know at the time, but it drives a pentode input stage, so I'm guessing it was meant for high impedance microphones. The Wards amp has a 6L6 output stage. I have a schemo and it's on the list for a rebuild. (I have some Russian 807's and I picked up a 807 to 6L6 apadpter too)

For some reason I can't make this post have paragraphs.....

Yes I only ordered the electronics for the kit (including the chassis). I built both cabinets from scratch. That's what took forever. I'd never done it before, and I really didn't have the best tools with which to work. I had to make the comb joints by using a jigsaw and a chisel. That was before I learned that you could do it (I'm pretty sure) with a special router bit!

Thanks!