Suggestions, Please- Building My Own Little Amp Cab, With TWO Amp Chassis

[stevieb]

I love my little Monkey-Wards all-tube 5-watt amp. 4 tubes total, including one rectifier and one for tremolo, and it goes well into tube-OD territory at and above about 4 on the volume control.

But it's best feature (that tube-OD) is at other times it's worst, too. There are times when I want or need a clean tone. Say what you want about solid-state, but SS does clean well- to the point of possibly being sterile, I know, but it's still clean.

DISCLAIMER: I AM GOING TO ASK SOME STUPID QUESTIONS. THIS IS UNCHARTED TERRITORY- LET'S EXPLORE IT AS A TEAM.

Already decided to put the MW chassis in a more attractive cab, and this morning I thought of this: Why not put TWO amp chassis in ONE cab? To flesh this out for you...

Cab would be about the same size and dim's as a Princeton.
For now, only SS amps I have to use for the first attempt is a Fender Bullet reverb, and a Fender Deluxe112 that has an inop. preamp circuit. I have cabs for both, but the Bullet is way too small.

I am thinking two 8'inch speakers, maybe two 10's.

Both chassis would be mounted facing forward, or maybe one facing up and one facing forward.

I am assuming that if I were to connect both amps to the same speaker, I would fry one or both of them. I have a pair of Radio Shack replacement sub-woofers, 8's, that feature two voice coils. The only way I know to make sure I don't fry one amp or the other by hooking two amps to one speaker is to use those speakers, so that electronically each amp thinks it has it's own speaker- the coils in those speakers are electrically spearated from each other; they only share the speaker cone and frame. I know subs are not ideal for guitar amps, but I know of no full-range, dual-coil speakers. Using 4 10's makes the whole thing too big. If those speakers don't work, I might go with 8's or 10's, one for each amp. If the only problem with the subs is a lack of higher-end response, could I add two mids?

I figure i could go from guitar to ABY box, from ABT box to the two amp chassis. Of course, this only works if I don't use the Deluxe112 chassis with the bad pre-amp.

I can't think of any reason that setup wouldn't work- as for it's tone, only way I know to determine that is to build it and see (hear?).

BUT- alternatives...?

Tap off MW amp's pre-amp circuit thru a switch and then to the Deluxe112's power amp?

If the dual-coil speakers don't sound good, is there a fairly simple circuit I can build to protect each amp from the other? (This assumes I want to have both speakers wired to both amps.)

Assuming the project is a success, build a foot switch that will:
Turn tremolo on MW amp on/off (easy, MW amp already has footswitch jack);
Turn reverb on SS amp on/off (could be easy if donor amp has reverb fw, but what if it does not?)
Houses ABY footswitch, and run TRS cable from ABY to amps?
Includes channel switch for SS amp (assuming SS amp has channel switching, 'natch). This plus the tube pre might result in a "Clean/Drive/More Drive" sort of setup, similar to a Hot Rod Deluxe.

Edumacate me, here! Thanks.

 

[stevieb]

Bump bump.

 

[stevieb]

Bumbidy, bump, bump. Look at Frosty go!

Somebody PLEASE tell me what you think! Did I piss off EVERYBODY in another thread??

 

[Light]

I didn't see this yesterday.

It's possible, and it is even possible to do so with a single speaker (as long as you don't want to use both amps at the same time!). You would need to have a high power relay that would shunt the amp which is not being used through a dummy load. Weber sells kits for the relay, any of the high power chanel switch kits on THIS PAGE would work for the relay. If you combine that with one of the low power relays for the input you could easily just use a power resistor for the dummy load (actually, you could use that no matter what). I haven't actually used the Weber relay kits, but those I've spoken to who have say they work as advertised. The DPDT switch is best for this, IMHO, instead of using SPST relays and the like because with a DPDT you can make sure that each of the amps is ALWAYS going to have an appropriate load (either the speaker or the dummy load).

The big concern I would have is you are going to have to carry the damn thing around, and the idea of carrying around all those transformers at once makes my back hurt. Personally, I'd rather just use two separate amps. That way, if you only need one, you only have to carry one.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

 

[Light]

Also, if you can it is better (I think) to do your switching in the amp with a relay over in the footswitch. That way, you can just run one cable to the amp, which will probably be shorter than running two (guitar to footswitch, footswitch to amp). Once your cable run starts getting over about 20 feet it becomes a really good idea to put in a buffer amp of some sort (if you are using any Boss effects, you've already got one as all of their effects have a buffer amp built in which is always active).


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

 

[stevieb]

Thanks for the input, Light.

I think I'd be happier just going two speakers, even If I end up using single coil speakers and running one from each amp. Keeps it simpler and may not be much heavier.

Yesterday I realized I could amost set that little Fender Bullet 15R, cabinet and all, INSIDE the cab of the MW S-6000- I think I can do that if I remove the back of the Bullet 15R. Not a long-term solution, but a quick and dirty way to see if I like the idea enough to go forward...

Now, if you would be kind enough to comment on my Hot Rod Deluxe Vs. Pro Reverb post, I would be a happy man! (even if you slam me...)

 

[starbuck26]

Thanks for the input, Light.

I think I'd be happier just going two speakers, even If I end up using single coil speakers and running one from each amp. Keeps it simpler and may not be much heavier.

Yesterday I realized I could amost set that little Fender Bullet 15R, cabinet and all, INSIDE the cab of the MW S-6000- I think I can do that if I remove the back of the Bullet 15R. Not a long-term solution, but a quick and dirty way to see if I like the idea enough to go forward...

Now, if you would be kind enough to comment on my Hot Rod Deluxe Vs. Pro Reverb post, I would be a happy man! (even if you slam me...)

I was turning this over in my head on a long drive to my parents' house last night, and I think I understand what you are trying to do, but the approach baffles me.

So... my understanding, in effect, is that you want to get a clean sound and a dirty sound out of a rig, and that even at modest volumes you're getting overdriven guitar...

Whole time I'm thinking... just back off on that volume knob on the guitar.

You should be able to use your volume knob on the guitar to sweep from totally clean to dirty. For me, totally clean is somewhere at around 2, and somewhere around 5/6 it's clean but can get dirty from the pick attack, 10 is full on skull crushing overdrive.

If you're worried about the clean tones being lower in volume than the full bore, just grab an mxr micro amp or some other clean boost and put it at the end of the chain to make up the difference.

Or am I missing something?