Planning a 36 watt build ... with a twist.

[rjgtr]

Ok so we all love the 18watt for distorted tones, but sometimes it just isn't loud enough for good clean tones. So of course we have the 36watt.

Now this isn't anythin really new, but I'm thinking about making the channels switchable and making the half power switch part of the switching. Maybe use a more traditional two channel (clean/dirty) approach and when going to the 'distortion' channel switch to half power.

With the channel switching you could build a Vox/Deluxe type VTB channel and a Marshally TMB channel by sharing one gain stage for input. Each channel would be separated after that. The switching could be done with a single relay or 2 Vactrols and just use a grounding method at the PI inputs for the channels and then use a MOSFET to switch out one pair of the power tubes. With that simple a channel switching, you don't have to compromise the amp too much (so the tone will not be adversly affected) and it will be closer to having a built in A/B box. The other benefit is that you can have two stages of gain for the VTB channel and still have a normal Plexi-type TMB channel.

No effects loop. No Reverb (which isn't necessary with EL84s anyway). Except for the half power switch, just make a normal 36 watt output stage and keep the TMB channel as close to the 18watt variants as possible.

So what do you think?

[BBQLS1]

That sounds pretty cool.