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Jens runs a left-handed guitar shop in Germany (www.lefthandgear.de), and bought an SE-5a kit with classic combo cabinet to use as a demonstrator amp for customers. “This was ‘background’ before building another amp completely myself”. Good to see another Tokai Love Rock fan – this one being rather unusual: left-handed and P90 pickups.
Cool story: this SE-5a amp kit was bought as a Christmas gift for Hywel by his father. Once Hywel had built the amp, his grandfather then helped to make and finish the cabinet. The cab uses an Amp Maker headshell and Hywel opted for a front-side ventilation slot to show off the valves.
Here’s another solid-state amp that’s had its unloved innards removed and an SE-5a circuit added. Joel’s donor was a Rickenbacker TR7. As the second photo shows there’s plenty of room, and it only took some drilling to add the holes for mounting the individual components. “I tried it with several guitars (Rickenbacker, Charvel, Fender, Hofner),
It’s amazing how a few cosmetic choices can give an amp a different character. Andy had a Tweed-covered speaker cabinet and decided to do a matching SE-5a head. So his front panel is cream-on-brown with cream chickenhead knobs instead of the SE-5a’s standard black and gold livery. It’s really effective – one of my own
Don’t try this at home! Richard had a completed SE-5a amp chassis and couldn’t wait to try it out with the 2×12 cab that was on the drawing board. So he temporarily mounted a 6in speaker in a cardboard box, and used packing stuff for ‘damping’! “What a sound!! Think early Shadows, John Barry 7,
Like many amateur cabinet makers, Robert found that getting the right wood is difficult. “I got some pine board from B&Q but it was a bit curved, so I ended up with laminated spruce furniture board from Homebase.” Despite this Robert persevered and taught himself how to use a dovetail jig and router. “One weekend
Using a donor combo cab is definitely a fast track to getting a completed amp. John opted for the basic version of the SE-5a amp kit to use in his old Blues Jr. “The sound quality is superb, currently through the Blues Jr’s 12-inch Eminence speaker. I have plans to install a Celestion Alnico Blues,
Here’s another builder using car model lettering to create a logo. In this case, Chris found the ‘CKS’ letters at a car badge shop on Ebay, and – by accident or design – the colours perfectly match the red tolex of the cab covering. “I attached the steel front panel with high strength cabinet magnets
Once again, it’s the neatly executed logo that finishes this amp off. Chris had his logo engraved with his name in a script-style by a local specialist engraver in Newbury. This type of logo uses a black-on-white sandwich of plastic and the engraver removes the top layer to make the logo design (just like the
“I finally got there! :) I think the results are really nice! Thanks for all your amazing help, I’ll definitely be ordering transformers and such from you again! – people want me to make them one now! “It’s ‘brown western Tolex’ and feels just the same as leather but should be a little more durable.
“I’ve tweaked a two channel amp for my friend. See the prototype picture attached and the final enclosure: his own grandfather radio! “Clean Channel PP-18 (great sounding) and dirty channel based preamp N5X and PP-18 power section.”
Nice to hear about other sorts of projects, too. Here, Stuart has used the vintage-style tagboard cut down to make a classic fuzz pedal. “I’ve not noticed any difference between resistor (composition). Certainly not in this circuit. Choice of transistor makes a huge difference though. “Both the power inverter and the switch board came from
“I bought a Double Six power transformer and a Double Six output transformer, and I used the Double Six schematic as a starting point. I removed the complete tone stack, added a GZ34 tube, a 5V transformer for that GZ34 tube, added a switch to choose between a diode rectifier and the tube rectifier, added
“Here is a pic of my little PC amp. My normal thing is my valve radio collection… 30 or more!”
“Thank you very much for all your components and your advice. I finally finished my amp and it sounds pretty good!! Better than I could imagine! Here few pictures of my project, just next to my custom home made guitars. “The black knob on the left of the input jack is a negative feedback loop
“I’ve been collecting images and descriptions for your gallery. Only Donna-Lee (#0003) has really benefited from parts, but boy, has she benefited. Those Neutrik jacks and Sprague caps have made her just splendid. I went a bit overkill on the orange at first, but have reduced it to just on the signal path. “I’ll probably
“I have now completed my project which was the conversion of a Vox Pathfinder 15 watt solid state amplifier having tremelo and spring reverb, to a wholly valve amplifier with approximately the same output power and with tremelo and spring reverb. “The valve complement is 2 x EL84, 3 x ECC83, and 1 X ECC81.
“Just for interest attached is my latest build using your parts – tag board, transformers and various other parts. It’s a scratch build that I was recommended to try called a Phat Ass 16 Or 26 dependent on the exact configuration. Using two EEC83 and a pair of EL84s. “Pre-amp runs both sides of V1
“I have made a hybrid amp between PP-18 and P1800 into a very small old Dehay radio. Preamp section is PP18 and the power amp section is the P1800 with the four modes and VVR. “The turret board has turrets and components on both top and bottom – mandatory to fit into this small enclosure.
David from Brazil scratchbuilt a Champ using the WF-55 manual as his build guide. “Hi Barry. This is the guy from Brasil. My WF is ready, finally. The cab was made by Family Jorge Luthier, they are very well known here in Brazil; they also made the chassis. They are two sisters one is Veronita