There are kits out there you just need to google and find it.

Mark

New pictures of my amps.  Nik built my express and I built the liverpool and rocket sourcing my own chassis and all other parts.  The other amp is a Express combo amp I built into 212 cab.

Mark

To use the Express you need to use your volume control on your guitar.  Also, there is limited head room on a Expess if you don't mike for gigs.  Run the amp into a 412 cab with 25w greenbacks.

To decrease the gain to 60 use the 5751 in v1 and sometime I will also use the 12at7 in the V3 PI section.  If you like clean and the chime of the Vox then the Liverpool is better and has gain when cranked.  My favorite is the Rocket uses rectifier tube with 4 el84s and 3 12ax7s.

Mark

For less gain use a 68k or you can just try different tubes like the 12at7, 12au7, 5751 rather than the 12ax7/7025/ecc83 variant with gain of 100.

the 5751 is my favorite in either v1 or v2 position and run a matched 12ax7 in v3 the phase inverter position (PI).  By using matched NOS el34 you also get a different tone.  Remember this amp also allows you to run 6v6 as well as the el34.

The caps in the tone stack like the 250pf and .1 can also be changed to .330 and .33 for more bass response.

Mark

Try a lower value capacitor off of the mid control.  Also you can change that mid control from what you have a 22K, 25K to 50K, 100K, 500K or even 1meg.

The mid control wasn't used on many old amps a capacitor is use only by adding the pot you have a variable mid frequency control.

Use a 120V lamp wired to the bottom of the power switch with a MOV 130v across the pins for spike protection.  Otherwise have a bunch of bulbs handy.

Both.

The books and the web sites at the same time.  You need to frequent the forum meant for the type of amp your are interested in such as 18watt.com for all Marshall style amps or other similar 18 watt amps, Brownote forum for his kits, weber forum for his, Ampgarage.com for Dumble, Trainwreck and homebrewed amps as well.  I check between about 7 different forums almost daily.

TorresEngineering has a good book called Inside Tube Amps and the last section shows you how to build and test a Fender style champ amp.

You need to understand each section of the amp from power section, filter cap section, input, tone stack, phase inverter section then to power tube section into the output transformer to the speaker.  These books show you all that and why a certain value resistor or capacitor is used.  There are so many people building amps and they all have there favorite so you need to know exactly what sound in your head you are trying to get out.  In my case I build different amps based on my need to have a different amp for the certain sound I want to achieve.  So I have from 15 watt to 100 watt and not enough yet to stop me from building more, its a sickness I think.

Mark

Needs to be biased.

Nik also sent me a copy of his Spitfire layout so I could compare with my Ken Watts version I was building.  Nik is the man helping a guy out when not even working on one of his kits, thats customer service.

Mark

Thanks, you should see some of the nice builds going on from some of the other guys it would blow your mind.  I am busy getting my parts together for my next build a Trainwreck Rocket and then on to an Asteroid.

I have not decided if I am going to get one of Nik's Dumble style amps or not they are very tempting and priced very reasonable for Niks excellant work.

Mark

Kitarist

I did not make these cabs, I noted that in my message, only supplied the picture for newbies to feast there eyes on to see what they should look like.  But the wood is Cherry and finish used I don't know, one of the guys on ampgarage built these.

The original 5F6 amp is fixed biased and many other people have taken that and changed it very easily to adjustable.  It is all in what you want to build.

If you get a kit from Nik his will come with adjustable bias.

Adrian

The Fender 59 re-issue is $1200. and Weber bassman complete kit with cab/spkrs/ampkit is $600.  How could you get it any cheaper?

Mark

Nik built Express.  I had a custom Gabkit red cab built with rough creme valance.  Gabkit 212 red cab built.
Amp runs JJ tubes.

You can make your own head cabs like original or use a drawer kit from Woodcraft.com or Nik will supply you one or Gabkit will make a custom cab.

Open pdf for cab plans from another site.

I did not make the nice pair you see below.