6G6-B Bassman clone project

[JimPage]

Way over my head, but looking good, Danny!!!

Amazing!

--Jim

[dubtrub]

Way over my head, but looking good, Danny!!!

Amazing!

--Jim

Thanks, Jim! It's a heck of a learning experience. My first project was way over my head too. It was a Weber kit 5E3 clone of a Fender tweed Deluxe. When I flipped on that power switch and everything worked, I was so excited I could have done back flips. Besides the one kit, this is my third scratch build project so it's a little easier, but not much.

[JimPage]

Hey, Danny--

Well, I don't think I'd ever have the courage to try something like that. I'd have to learn to solder first. I bought a nice soldering kit a few years ago, but my son lent it to one of his pals and I never saw it again.

I'd like a Princeton Reverb as my next amp But they are quite pricey on eBay.

It would be in the middle, power-wise, of my Vibro Champ and Tremolux.

That space is currently occupied by a nice Kustom I Lead 35-watt solid-state amp, which has a full tank reverb. My theory has always been that the perceived volume of a SS amp is half that of the same wattage tube amp. Whether that is actually true, I have no idea!!!

I didn't have time to work on your art today; my brother, who is now retired from his job as EMS director in Collier County (Naples), Florida, asks me for a rush design on a business card. He's now a USCG Master-certified boat captain doing Everglades tours and fishing charters, as I understand it.

--JIm

--Jim

[Mr. Bill]

Nice job there Dub. Maybe I'll start sending my board work to you to do.

Reading color codes will get easier as you do more of it. What I usually tell people to do is to start by reading the color code to pick out the part and then check the value with your ohm meter to make sure that you've picked the right one. In the old days, I used to do this so that I could pick out better matched resistor values as sometimes they could be off by quite a bit.

One thing I'll ask here about your board is did you pre-drill the holes for the mounting screws?

[dubtrub]

Thanks for the tip and guidance. Yes I predrilled the mounting screw holes all at the same time as the eyelets. The chassis that I purchased came predrilled and I didn't want to drill additional holes so I used my layout template and place it on the chassis, located the existing screw holes and marked them on the template before drilling any of the holes. The chassis screw holes are not in the same place on the chassis as on the original Fender layout drawing but I compensated accordingly. It should look pretty clean once installed. On the first 25-25 cap on the far right of the board, I'll leave the lower leg longer and elevated off the board so I can allow plenty of clearance for the chassis screw.

[MWaldorf]

Wow Danny that looks amazing and inspiring.

[olrocknroller]

I'm envious...I would love to build my own amp, but most circuit diagrams leave me...well...confused.

[Mr. Bill]

It seems like there are a hundred companies out there selling kit amps. Anything from a Champ to a 100 watt Marshall. Unfortunately as far as I know, none come with very good instructions. There used to be a number of kit companies that made great electronics kits, Heatkit, Eico and Knightkit were some of the ones that I remember. They all had very detailed instruction sets.

Danny, I was wondering, why this particular model Bassman?

[dubtrub]

Danny, I was wondering, why this particular model Bassman?

No particular reason. I was wanting to build another amp and I saw this http://surfguitar101.com/forums/topic/17727/

I contacted Dario and learned he had all the magnetics, tube sockets with covers to go with the chassis for a little over a C note and a half, so it was an easy decision. Besides, I don't have a 6G6B in my arsenal.

[Mr. Bill]

I got lucky with mine, my wife bought the head for me maybe 10 years ago. It had been painted black and the knobs and grille cloth were changed, but internally it was all original. I always liked the look of the white Fenders so I carefully removed the black paint and replaced the grille cloth and knobs with repros. I bought a blackface cab on eBay that was really trashed and recovered it to match. With a stand alone Fender Reverb unit it sounds really great.

This particular model Bassman was the one that the Beatles used for most of their later studio work, being used by Paul, George and John.