Mini 18 Watt in a Vibro-Champ Form factor

[Big Swifty]

Greetings all,
I recently built a Mini-18 Watt amp using a Fender Vibro Champ box (10" Speaker) and chassis. I have had excellent luck squeezing big sound out of this form factor and wanted to give the 18 Watt a chance. This thing is a little beast. Its tone is very clean- and very loud. Yes, it's quiet. Yes, it runs warm. Looking for suggestions to make it a DIRTIER little beast. D

[JMPGuitars]

Add the parallel / cascade mod to the input valve, or just cascade it.

viewtopic.php?t=24419

[Graydon]

Very cool! I have built a bunch of single channel 18W amps both in heads and combos. I particularly like the little 1-10 combo because it weighs just under 20 pounds (until I stuff pedals and cords in the back of the cabinet) and it is very unassuming until I crank it up.

[TriodeLuvr]

"Looking for suggestions to make it a DIRTIER little beast."

The overall gain would roughly double if the long tail pair was converted to a paraphase or concertina phase splitter. The concertina is inherently balanced, which might not be what you want. The paraphase can be easily unbalanced, just like the LTP. No idea whether its overload characteristics are optimal for this. Maybe Josh or someone else here has experimented with the sound of various phase splitters.

Jack

[yello]

Very cool! I have built a bunch of single channel 18W amps both in heads and combos. I particularly like the little 1-10 combo because it weighs just under 20 pounds (until I stuff pedals and cords in the back of the cabinet) and it is very unassuming until I crank it up.

I LOVE the look of that - did you make the cabinet? And is that the S/C chassis?

[Big Swifty]

Graydon- Nice cabinet. I like the look of "used" too.
What are your preferred 10" speakers for mini-18 Watt builds?

[Graydon]

Thanks, I had a buddy who is a woodworker build the cabinet. We made a run of ~10 of these a few years back. I sold them all except this one. I may have one more cabinet I think in storage which needs finishing. The chassis was my first generation S/C chassis which had an angled front to match the angle of the speaker baffle. The baffle was attached directly to the chassis at the top to promote feedback through the mechanical contact. I had noticed that the chassis in a typical 18W was quite microphonic so I thought lets try mounting the speaker baffle right to the chassis. It works, as this little amp is quite the beast! I always thought the amp as a whole was kinda ugly just to look at but it works and I love it.
I tried two different Jensen Mod 10 speakers. I picked the one that sounded the best. I don't remember the specs. Any decent 10" speaker will work fine I think.

This one has been beaten about quite a bit. I use it at church every Sunday and its my grab-n-go amp when I just need something quick to play through. Its also probably my desert island amp because it sounds so good. That's saying something because I have lots of 18Ws, Guytrons, Dumble clones, vintage Fenders, etc. My #2 son actually built the amp in this one when he was about 12 years old.

[Graydon]

For fun, here is my layout. It is simply the normal channel of the standard 18W layout and I use the standard 18W GDS/Heyboer trannys.

[yello]

Thanks, I had a buddy who is a woodworker build the cabinet. We made a run of ~10 of these a few years back. I sold them all except this one. I may have one more cabinet I think in storage which needs finishing.

Let me know if you find that last one and want to sell! I really dig the shape of it.

[Big Swifty]

New home in a repurposed/recovered Champion 110 cabinet. Will be installing a 10" Weber Grey Wolf (with a right angle plug), but the Legend 1058 sounds great. Will also install a parallel/ cascade switch in back.

[Big Swifty]

Added a simple cascade to the second half of V1. Outrageous increase in volume. Killer grind. Looking for comments on the cap and resistance values.

[JMPGuitars]

Compare values and voltages to the Superlite TMB preamp. If the voltages are safe for the tube, and you love the sound, play on!