I currently design and build vacuum tube guitarbass amplifiers at home for both fun and profit. Building your own guitar amp is a rewarding pastime, but learning how to do it can be time consuming and frustrating sometimes. As this section is responsible for a huge amount of trafic each month ive decided to run a. Welcome to my vacuum tube audio page, which i dedicate to the reader who seeks an indepth understanding of amplifier design who wants to learn the factors that contribute to audio quality who doesnt buy the myths of the highend marketplace, where old designs enhanced with premium components and dressed up in impressive packages command astronomical prices. There are hundreds of pages of tube amp information on my library page. Schematic of a class ab tube power amplifier with negative feedback. Most tube amps wont need a distortion pedal, digital or otherwise. I also have a cambridge audio azure amplifier, but not with me, so i decided to give this amp a shot. The guitar signal flows through the grid stopper resistor to the tube s grid, then out the tube. I subjected the driver and the whole amp to about two hours of my guitar playing at full blast hard clip, which could kill any wimpy amp, without incident. I built one using an ixys ccs ic and it worked very well. Part 1 of a 2part video series in which the circuitry of tube amplifiers is explained by breaking down the circuit of a fender champ amplifier into subunits and explaining the design and.
The tube line level preamplifier design i came up with is a single circuit that can handle the following dualtriode 9pin tubes with no changes. Feel free to send us your hifi audio schematics and we will add them here. This is a transformerfree pushpull headphone amplifier operating on the otl circuit in class a. Tube and circuit types are selectable from drop down menus. Lets start by looking at the simple standard tube amplification circuit that you will see again and again as you study tube amp schematics.
The motivation for developing livespice is to help prototype guitar effects and amplifiers, without requiring constructing a physical circuit or waiting for an offline simulation to run to try it out. Check out some examples of interesting, real circuits livespice can simulate in. If you have built any of these circuits, we would love to hear from you so send us your comments. Welcome to my tube amp simulation software page paragraph about tube amp design simulation. Single ended class a 6v6 6j5 valve vacuum tube amplifier circuit. A trio of software programs for the intrepid tubephile. Buy products related to tube amplifier stereo products and see what customers say about tube amplifier stereo products on free delivery possible on eligible purchases. Similarly, plate circuit elements must be kept out of the input compartment. This tube draws over 100 milliamps of grid current on peaks under these conditions.
A mere mortal driver circuit would severely distort or blow up under these circumstances. Vacuum tube audio amplifier discrete semiconductor circuits. The device has a dynamic and musical sound what makes it one of the best tube headphone amp under 200. It is recommended that you unplug the amp and let it sit for at least 15 minutes to allow any charged components to. There is also a huge library of effects and solid state schematics. Is there a poece of software which does it better than the rest for tube circuits. Vacuum tube calculators basic theory using 21stcentury technology to design vacuum tube preamps, power amps, and power supplies system design a professional methodology for crafting a. I would like to draw some circuits, no simulation, but drawing inkl. Vacuum tubes are old electronic components that act like transistors, controlling a lot of current.
Ever wanted to build a highly dangerous, inefficient, yet awesomely retro piece of electronics. Vacuum tube circuits electronics tutorial and schematics. Doug hoffman sells a variety of tube amp circuit boards using either eyelets or turrets and you can buy them empty or with components soldered in. If you are down with bode plots and circuit diagrams, though, it could serve as a nice introduction to building a class ab amplifier circuit. Here youll find a modest collection of some interesting tube amplifier schematics.
Many folks just mention their favorite freecheap cad software, and thats not what im after. The waza tube amp expander also supports fsseries footswitches, plus extensive midi control for more advanced setups. Was hoping that folks who develop modelers would be using some type of tube amp simulation software to get their products developed as well. The final design allows you to add a tube stage to an amp. I desperately want to see vacuum tube components added to the list of available circuit components. Apr 10, 2010 the slides are pretty heavy on engineering design terms, but give a good feel for what it takes to construct and tune an audio amplifier using vacuum tube technology. If you want to find out just how good your performances can sound, a highquality tube amp is a musthave piece of equipment. The circuit has been designed to have high enough gain to connect directly to an mp3 player, and they are using simpler parts to keep the cost of the project down. There is a computer program that comes with this page to help you. The valve wizard how to design valve guitar amplifiers. The grid leak resistor bleeds off unwanted captured electrons grid current to keep the grid at zero volts dc. I simulated this circuit and found that it could give the required gain and almost the required output impedance.
It incorporates many ideas that came from people using older versions of the application. Basic theory using 21stcentury technology to design vacuum tube preamps, power amps. T he following are just a few very simple modifications that may open up your little fender and fendertype amplifier. One version has a tone control circuit between the 12ax7 and the 50c5, i built this one once. Opening a tube amp kit and seeing all those little parts can be overwhelming so i recommend you do an inventory of the big parts like transformers, chassis, switches, tube sockets, etc. Since the vacuum tube circuits thevenin resistance ranges in the tens of thousands of ohms, and the speaker only has about 8 ohms. Need vacuumtube circuit components audio electronics. Amplifier modeling often seeks to recreate the sound of one or more specific models of vacuum tube amplifiers and sometimes also solid state amplifiers.
Projects, mods, transformer diagrams, photos, sound clips. For those of you who still have old computers running windows xp 32bit or any other windows 32bit os, i have setup the download availability of my old old standards. To open the amplifier simulation in the editor, click on the 2x30w el34 tube. Vtdatas database also includes vacuum tubes of historical interest, such as the early two digit types 45, 80, etc. Guitar signal shown in pink enters the tube on the left at ac signal in. The circuit is an aikido pushpull that uses jj ecc802 12au7 tubes for the first stage and jj ecc99 tubes for the output tubes. Note the size of this amp compared to the cigarette packet. Well, it is a annoyed problem for diy tube amp lover. This is not a simulator, but a schematic capture and routing tool. This site contains a description of an integrated simulator program ispice, and lots of useful newsletters on spice modeling.
The sooner you learn to read amplifier schematics the sooner youll be able to analyze classic amp circuits and learn how the masters of amp design voiced their amps. Also host the excellent magdemo transformer design software, and. Second, it electrically isolates the plate circuit from the wiring system of your house. The following are some simulations i drew up and ran to better understand the circuits. The slides are pretty heavy on engineering design terms, but give a good feel for what it takes to construct and tune an audio amplifier using vacuum tube technology. Getting all those little resistors and caps in place on the board will make your amp project seem much. Vacuum tube calculators basic theory using 21stcentury technology to design vacuum tube preamps, power amps, and power supplies system design a professional methodology for crafting a complete guitar amplifier. At any given time, a point of contact in the circuit could be holding a high amount of voltage. Id like to find something that will generate a circuit layout, allow the circuit to be modified and allow printing of a schematic. Assembly manual schematic parts list tubes and applications design simulations. Circuit designer pro a very neat integrated package with pcb autorouter. Hoffman boards are classic amp circuits that have been redesigned using my own turret lug layouts. Most tube amplifiers have the same phase inverter and output stage circuit. I didnt invent the circuits, i just came up with a slick way to organize the circuits on super neat turret lug boards.
Keep those filaments lit, design your own vacuum tube audio. The tube cad program has a circuit that uses a triode based pseudo ccs as the plate load for the amplifier tube. This book is a stepbystep tutorial for simulating vacuum tube guitar amplifiers using ltspice, a free spicebased electronic circuit simulator. The tube cad journals first companion program, tcj filter design lets you design a filter or crossover passive, opamp or tube without having to check out thick textbooks from the library and without having to breakout the scientific calculator. Tube amp schematics index page there are over 3500 tube amp schematics and other types of schematics in the el34world schematic library. In addition, you can switch in one or two more tube stages that connect to a cathode follower driving a tone stack. The vtdata software package is a complete vacuum tube manual on your computer.
The main category is vacuum tube resources that is about vacuum tube, electron tube, thermionic valve, valve resources. Control on top, circuit board inside, tubes on bottom. Circuit schematics are included, however you need to be careful when working with this and any other vacuum tube projects, as the high. I have changed the series resistor at the top, since the last time i posted the schematic. It has two channels, clean and dirty, that run the gamut between clean licks and ultramodern, highgain pulverization. Blackstar tube combo guitar amplifiers guitar center. With names like that, its no wonder why blackstar tube combo guitar amplifiers are used by such a diverse range of musicians. As this section is responsible for a huge amount of trafic each month ive decided to run a few ads here to help cover the costs. Amplifier modeling also known as amp modeling or amp emulation is the process of emulating a physical amplifier such as a guitar amplifier. The power transformer and output transformer are attached to the other side of the chassis. The tube amp library of information click the link above for tube amp info, schematics, board building information.
Tube amp schematics, tube amp information, tube amp projects. When dealing with tube amps, you may need to expose some of the amp circuit in order to get to the tubes. About vacuum tube software the resource is currently listed in in 5 categories. Ill be adding more brands and schematics in the near future. I subjected the driver and the whole amp to about two hours of my guitar playing at full blast. Hello, all you highpowered tube amp maniacs out there. Avoid plastering these kinds of digital effects or models over your physical tube amp circuit. This is our collection of diy and hifi audio schematics. It has all the information youd expect in a tube manual. Tube amplifier design simulation discussion in amps and cabs started by gigs, apr 20, 2017. Circuit simulation a deep dive into spice tube amp modeling. If you want to build a tube amplifier and you dont want to just copy someone elses circuit it might be a good idea to learn how to design it. Livespice is a spicelike circuit simulation tool for processing live audio signals. Demo is functional for 45 days, but will not save or print.
V1 preamp tube on right, v2 power tube in center, v3 rectifier tube on left. Mar 14, 2014 part 1 of a 2part video series in which the circuitry of tube amplifiers is explained by breaking down the circuit of a fender champ amplifier into subunits and explaining the design and. It is relatively easy to find introductory information on how to design simple amplifier stages, and it is also fairly easy to find extremely advanced information on complex circuit design, and nearly all of it is. Ltspice is a very powerful and reasonably easy to use free circuit simulation program. There are several versions of this 3 tube amp this circuit is the closest one i have seen so far to the circuit i built and experimented with in high school, the one i experimented with had a 12at6. Thats just a sampling of the beauty of tube amplifiers. If you see a problem with any of the schematics, please email me so i can fix the problem.
Ive been searching the internet for a certain type of software to generate schmatics and help with circuit design. Tube amp circuit board building parts hoffman amplifiers. For additional information about designing tube amplifiers, refer to the theory section. Its alltube design relies on a pair of el84 power tubes to give it classic british crunch. While every blackstar combo guitar amplifier in this catalog delivers an exceptionally warm, tubedriven sound and boasts killer toneshaping controls, youll still need to consider a few factors before making a decision. Circuit simulation a deep dive into spice tube amp modeling the fender bassman 5f6a plus marshalls bluesbreaker and plexi georg simon ohm imagine a world without ohms law. This link is listed in our web site directory since friday feb 9 2007, and till today vacuum tube software has been followed for a total of 9789 times. Its thepreamplifier circuit that differs amongst them. Vacuum tube circuits and tutorials 2 valve 40m cw transmitter, one valve 3. Note, however, that in the case of the tetrode and pentode, the screen lead of the tube and connections via the socket are common to both the output and input resonant. Vacuum tube audio amplifier discrete semiconductor. He also has an online program for creating a circuit board design then hell make it for you.
The output of this small amplifier in which a 6v6gt output pentode is connected as triode is about 4. Tube amps are fairly simple circuits, so unless youre doing something like a digital modeler, i think your time would be better spend learning how to design various stages of an amp versus learning how to use a software program. Well, tube or not tube, what i can tell you is that i am incredibly impressed with the sound of. How to build a tube amplifier rob robinettes car and tube.
Diy layout creator diylc in short is freeware drawing tool developed with help of a large online community of diy electronics enthusiasts. At this point, i would not encourage anyone to download or use 2. With its builtin effects engine and external effects loop, the waza tube amp expander brings a wealth of sonic enhancements to your tube amp, particularly if its a vintage model with no effects loop. Singleended tubebased guitar amplifier by joe linn senior project. Please visit my tube amplifier forum heres the place you can go to ask tube amplifier questions. Also contains some vacuum tube models which drop straight on, and an example of a vacuum tube power amp. I have always been keen on valve or tube audio amplifiers, both for hifi and musical instruments.
1585 1368 542 118 168 1623 483 372 1038 27 849 1185 629 789 163 1080 562 1284 165 1018 1513 154 852 1330 816 742 577 30 549 1443 810 1248 824 491 772 1119 1184 462 917 1329 826 727 1199 1273 65