About
This project started in 2024 and carried into 2025. I wanted to put together some kind of high-output guitar amplifier with an aggressive preamp and an even meaner power amp section. I was on the fence about whether it should just be an amp head, or a combo – but I decided it would be fun to take it all the way. So, I started with the head.
The amp has been built with a fervent religious pursuit of abject volume. Which is crazy because I very much live in a tiny rented space. It utilizes five 12AX7 tubes in the preamp section to produce a massive cascade of gain stages – and four 6L6 power tubes for an output of ~100W. Both input and output transformers are practically as large of a thing you can put inside of another thing before you would consider it permanently stationary. It is heavy in a very literal and musical sense.
There are 2 channels on this thing (Clean + Distortion) with a couple little tone modifications in the preamp that I think are pretty standard for just about any tube amp. There is a ‘brite’ mod, which cuts some of the mids to allow for a spankier clean tone. I’ve also included a ‘crunch’ mod, which draws a bit more texture into the clean channel for a decent mid-drive sound. Preamp EQ is a pretty standard 3-Band configuration, with some added controls for depth and presence. I figured this would be a good way to offer a wider range of tonal options. I also snuck an effect loop in there as the only bell and/or whistle. It seemed like an appropriate inclusion since I don’t have any reverb built into the amp.
Relays were used to try and quiet the ‘pop’ when switching between the distortion and clean channels – but I think I beefed this as the pop is quite aggressive. The noise floor in the distortion channel is also pretty noticeable – but in comparison to the level of the instrument signal that comes out of the amp, I’m not bothered by it too much. I’ve only ever turned the amp up to 1 on the master volume control and am simply concerned to go any higher. I’m pretty proud of this one.
The cab for the amp head is just some plywood I joined together and spray painted black. I then upholstered it with a very cheap and nostalgic outdoor mat I got from the hardware store. The metal grates are also just made from some junk I’ve had lying around and sprayed black. The whole thing turned out looking pretty decent given the lack of budget on the exterior.
The cabinet was mostly salvaged from a well-used 5150 cabinet I managed to score for cheap. I basically gleaned it for its speakers and amp hardware. It was very much a ‘making an amp cabinet out of a different amp cabinet’ kind of a deal. However, I swapped the structure of the new cabinet over to plywood as it is much lighter than the original HDF of the 5150. It underwent a similar black paint treatment and got fully upholstered with the rest of that hardware store rug. I decided to use mosquito net mesh instead of a grill cloth so the speakers would be visible from the front. I also added some white piping around the baffle to bring the same white-green-black colour scheme of the amp’s head to the cabinet.
In the end, this thing is wicked loud, and works great. It’s not by any means swinging above its weight as it does have some flaws – but as a project amp, I believe I checked all the boxes I was trying to check.
Process Documentation
