Ceriatone Forum

OK I'm building 6L6 Prinzetone and I'm using Vibrolux Hammond replacement trannies. Some serious iron for this little chassis. It took me a lot of time to modify the chassis to fit all this iron.... and also, I decided on using choke too.  ;)

All HW mounted... now the wiring starts... finally  8)

PT and OT part more or less done...  8)
...I need to wait for my new faceplate. Without it, I can't wire the indicator light.

Things are getting a little crowded, I hope I didn't make a wrong decision... to wire the heaters last.  ???

wow yeah much neater than mine, but it does get pretty tight in there with the heaters. mind your other wires when soldering ;)

Oh yes it's very tight in there... I had to replace power and standby switch. They were hitting the PT.
I also insulated the bottom pins on the switch just in case.

Another day and some more work done.
This is my first attempt at wiring the heaters the "Fender way". Perhaps not the cleanest way I ever seen but I'm happy with the outcome.

Looking good! I just finished my DC30 and I am eyeballing a Fender build  :chairdance:

Also is that a powder coated chassis? I can't tell from your pictures but make sure you scrape off the coat at any point that needs to be grounded.

tried to get you some sounds so you'd get even more enthused, but anything above 3 was causing my mic to clip and that's not really at its best :( try again tonight ;)

thanks
 ;D

Yes I think it is and I already did it... firm ground connection is important
 ;)

 ;D I have never tried the "Fender" Method for wiring the filament, I wonder if when it's free floating it's quieter than the Marshall method. I think dumble uses the fender method right? I did my BM the marshall way but so far that amp has been really quiet.

I think when done right, the marshall way of doing this is just fine.... I have seen some TwoRock amps wired like that and they work like a dream.... also TW amps are wired the marshal way and we all know how touchy those amps are.
I wired this amp the Fender way 'cause there was not enough space back there.... well it could be done but it would be tight, really tight.
Up to now I have seen only one amp, which had big issues with heater wiring... but I think that amp had some other issues as well....

Here we go...

Tonestack done... stil waiting for CTS push-pull pot (I'm doing the bright switch - just cause I can  ;D )

One overall photo and my custom build facepalte photo...
I really like how that face plate turned out  ;)

I tried the amp really quickly but I could not bias the amp correctly. The bias circuit is optimized for 6V6 tubes and now I have to mod it to fit 6L6 tubes. I also need to increase the grid resistor on the power tubes.... 1W resistors were getting a bit hot when I fired the amp.

For a proper review we need to wait for a while.
 ;)

Ok I just fixed everything with resistors and here are my plate voltages...

V1a   168V
V1b   166V

V2a   264V
V2b   300V

6L6   425V
bias   35,5mV

That's about it... now I'm ready to play.  :chairdance:

Ok today I got some time to spent with the amp and first impression is very positive. Nik is definitely on to something with this amp.
Today I put this amp against my two Dumble clone amps and this amp was definitely competing with both just fine. It sounds closer to Bluesmaster amp. Clean tone is very rich and it starts to brake when pushed above 5. At that point with 6L6 this amp is very loud. More than enough...even for a loud drummer.
With Tweed switch engaged amp starts to break up even more... I think a player could live with that sound just fine and do everything with the guitar volume pot... from clean to mean no problem.
Vibro part was really a surprise to me... I use to have a DRRI amp and I didn't care much about the vibrato on that amp... I don't know whats different about this one (except the parts Nik changed  ;)) but this one is far more musical sounding in my opinion.
Bottom line if you are expecting this amp to be another Princeton clone ... it is not. AA964 is for some people more or less a bit anemic sounding amp and trust me on this... there is nothing anemic about this amp.
I'll try to make some clips in the future and prove that... but first I have to build a cab and find a speaker which will compliment the amp, so the job is not done yet.

 8)

Mirc

Thats pretty cool man, thanks!

I tried a blackface princetone before, and was a bit disappointed. That is why I didnt see any point of doing this amp before.

I also had a reissue someone brought in, and boy, thats even worse.

Then someone wanted one. I took a look at the champ ultra and thought hmmm, I can reuse the faceplates and cab. And for that sole reason, the amp's born! :)

The changes done to stock circuit is minimal, but they help a lot I think.

Do play around with cab and speaker, that'd make a lot of difference.

I still hear a friend's '62 vibrolux in my head (when it was fine, now it's not). I will try with 6l6s as well, and see if I can achieve that.

Wonder what to call that one? This one's Prinzetone, I guess it'd be Kingstone? :)

Clips would be great! Your clips are always cool, man!

Thanks!

Nik

That's what we need around here... more of your input.  ;)
I think people would appreciate that... at least I know I do


Kingstone or perhaps BigPrinz to stay consistent with your naming convention.  8)

If you plan on doing some more work on this circuit please do share, I wonder what more can be done to even perfect sounding amp as is.

I'll find an opening and record some clips, don't worry. I feel people need to hear how good this amp really is.
 ;)

Mirc

Thanks. Taking some break. It's nice to catch up with you guys here.

Usually, I prefer to email as thats more personalized. Not sure how I'd handle two fronts, comms wise.

I'll try to come as often as possible...

Sure, will do indeed. I got one - for more var on the NFB pot, perhaps use a lower value fixed resistor. Thing is, once you have the resistor total big, you dont hear much difference anymore.

With smaller res, there should be more diff with pot's turn.

Not sure if I tried without nfb for this amp. Could be interesting as well, and wont be hard to wire another switch to do that.

Kingztone. I think I like that! :)

Thanks!

Nik

Today I took my amp to my amptech... I wanted to know how many Watts this amp can produce.

It turns out this amp can push 34W of clean power... man, I was not expecting that.
I will have to rethink my choice of the speaker... my old Greenback can't survive with something like this.

Here it is in action...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XI-QRoR0KWw (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XI-QRoR0KWw)
 ;)

Great sound man!! ;D

Believe it or not but it sounds even better in person.
 ;)

Mirc

That's nice man!



Thanks!

Nik

How did you go about modding the circuit to run 6L6 tubes? I'm thinking of getting a Prinzetone very soon but is a little worried that 16w~ might not give me enough clean headroom when jamming with my mates.

If would be awesome if you could explain what you did to yours cos it sounds like exactly what I need!

Many thanks

Bigger trannies obviously and I change the 22K resistor and 22uF cap which feeds the bias pot.
Can't remember the values right now but I'll check and let you know.
 ;)

Nik,

Do you have any plans to release a 6L6 version of this amp?

I'm probably going to pull the trigger on some more gear later this year and a 6L6 version of these would be great for an amp head that I could just stick int he boot of my car to take to jam sessions when I don't want to be dragging a big amp and when I know there's going to be a speaker cab available...

I think he's planing on 6L6 version as well, just drop him a mail...


By the way my bias network now it 30K/47uF

It took me forever but now my amp finally has a home...
(http://freeweb.siol.net/mcinku/images/guitars/Prinz_3.jpg)

Well I like this amp, I just service a black face Princeton reverb few days ago and I really like the tone, the early breakup and the tremolo. Yes, the real tremolo is a bit weak but now I see that Nick worked on the ''problem''.

Nick, this amp with a reverb would be a killer.

Cheers, Jean

Nice faceplate. I´m going to make one simmilar.
How did you have the pots work "up-sode-down"? Maybe a stupid question...
Thanks.

Well it is... just think about it... pot works no matter how it's turned.
 ;D

Indeed it is  :-[. A few hours sleep, and everything seems less complicated  ;)
Thanks anyway.

 ;)

Hi mcinku.  I have the guts of the standard Prinzetone on my work bench right now.  About to start building after some chassis mods.  I like the idea of running it on 6L6s for more clean headroom and later breakup.  So all you did was use Vibrolux iron (OT and PT??) and changed one cap and resistor on the bias circuit?

All the best.

True you need to fine tune the bias circuit for 6L6 tubes...

I've got 2 Diaz amps, both are basically a Princeton with a PPIMV..
Ever try it?

No I never played any Diaz amps.