Help building an amp

GreenKnee · Post by **GreenKnee** » Mon Dec 20, 2010 12:43 pm

Hi,
I had an idea this morning:
I like to play through 2 amps, one perfectly clean, and one with all effects and distortion. The clean adds clarity to the sound, which sounds ace live as well as when recording.

Now, I want to build 2 amps into one, with a 2x12 setup so that one speaker is clean, and other from all my effects. I have a Marshall cab with the top 2 speakers removed, so I was thinking of building it into this.

Ideally, I would like the simplest of amplifiers to start with, to see if this will work. I was thinking of copying a .22 or 44 magnum EHX pedal sized amplifiers, for my first try at this.

I was after some advice from the knowledgeable electronic heads on this forum, considerations and anything I could have missed

Jack

johnnyseven · Post by **johnnyseven** » Mon Dec 20, 2010 12:48 pm

Wouldn't building 2 amps into one 4 x 12 make it extremely heavy and therefore a problem to take to gigs? Surely taking 2 smaller amps would be far more versatile and manageable.

Otherwise how about installing one Orange Tiny Terror into the cab for your distorted sound and a 44 Magnum for your cleans. Asking someone on here to design you an amp for you to then build may be seen as a bit cheeky.

GreenKnee · Post by **GreenKnee** » Mon Dec 20, 2010 1:06 pm

The amp would be in the space where the top 2 speakers would be, so I would just take the 4x12 cab, but with only 2 speakers in, one for each amp.

I'm not asking anyone to design one for me, as I will do that myself, just some tips in case I havent taken something into consideration.

Jack

wwrrss · Post by **wwrrss** » Mon Dec 20, 2010 2:09 pm

if you're thinking of 44 Magnums for the amps you may as well just use the pedals and wire to jacks to the back of a 2x12, rather than lugging round a massive box.

GreenKnee · Post by **GreenKnee** » Mon Dec 20, 2010 2:59 pm

Something similar to the 44 magnum, but I was going to build it myself as a little project. Ideally I'm going to find schematics for a simple amplifier, build 2, and wire one each to speaker. Then once this works I would look into building bigger and better amplifiers for it, and just tinker and experiment to find good sounds

Jack

Bill Oakley · Post by **Bill Oakley** » Tue Dec 21, 2010 1:20 am

I picked up a Butler Tubeworks Tube Driver amp a little while ago for about $20. It has 2 channels, a drive and clean that can blend into each other. Very cool.

Your idea should work fine. I can't think of anything wrong with doing this.

Have you thought of maybe just using a blend pedal of some sorts where you could blend your effect signal into your clean signal or maybe a sparkle drive? Just a thought.

James · Post by **James** » Tue Dec 21, 2010 1:29 am

Wouldn't it be a hell of a lot easier to use a blend pedal? A sort of ABY style where you can choose A & B together and blend the amount of each. That way A could just be direct to your amp, B the effects and you can run both into a clean amp.

timhulio · Post by **timhulio** » Tue Dec 21, 2010 9:25 am

James wrote:Wouldn't it be a hell of a lot easier to use a blend pedal? A sort of ABY style where you can choose A & B together and blend the amount of each. That way A could just be direct to your amp, B the effects and you can run both into a clean amp.

This a hundred times.

If necessary, have an active splitter box with a buffer, the pedal loop, then mix it back together (throw in a couple of pots so you could set the level of each channel). I'm sure someone amongst the growing phalanx of solderists on this forum could build you one.

Bill Oakley · Post by **Bill Oakley** » Tue Dec 21, 2010 4:09 pm

Yeah. Something like this: Splitter/Blender

Post by **Doog** » Tue Dec 21, 2010 6:48 pm

When all's said and done, two amps is definitely going to sound more detailed and deeper than a mere mix control, but it IS a helluva lot of work the way you're suggesting. It does sound pretty nifty though, being all in the same cab and that, albeit it'll probably be like dragging an obese child to each gig.

When you've recorded, have the clean tracks been done separately to the distorted? Because that "not quite a clone of the other track but close" sound (much like standard double-tracking) is what makes it sound thick and interesting, rather than it just being a clean/distorted blend.

GreenKnee · Post by **GreenKnee** » Tue Dec 21, 2010 9:03 pm

Thanks for the tips

I don't think it would be too heavy carrying to gigs, seeing as a 4x12 and a head was what I used to take anywh, before the 2x12 DeVille came along.

I'll try one of these ABY blender pedals first, just to see what it sounds like, but instinct tells me it may not be exactly what I'm looking for, but you never know!

When recording, I had my DeVille for clean tones setup next to my old Marshall half stack, miced them both up for separate tracks, and recorded both at the same time, worked out well. For the mix I added a little reverb to the clean sound to thicken it up a little, especially as I recorded with 9s on a Jag, so it sounded rather shrill.

Jack