Category Archives: Amps & Electronics

18 watt Marshall 1974X clone build

My current amplifier build.

This without a doubt has been my hardest, most frustrating build to date. It’s also been a great learning experience thanks to some very helpful people in the “Hand Wired Amp House” group on Facebook. At some point I’ll have worked out the bugs and will post a video clip here.

The FB plugin I used for this gallery is borked from time to time. I’ll need to rebuild this gallery manually. Thanks for understanding.


From 18 Watt Marshall build. Posted by Robert Weeks on 1/05/2016 (11 items)

One more for tonight.
Mojotone makes a damn fine cabinet.
Working on what I hope turns out to be my cleanest, most professional quality build y…
I was going to work on the amp tonight but it's been a pretty shite day and this…


So I went to Radio Shack today to pick up some parts. The salesperson seemed pretty k…
Procrastinating….
Last one today. All the wiring is done and it passed the dim bulb tester without the …
Got the normal channel debugged tonight and it sounds like a beast. I've never o…


Getting so close…
My nemesis. Curse you Marshall 18 watt tremelo circuit!
Do over. It's the journey, not the destination. Or as one of my co-workers at Br…


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Sleepwalk

I’ve probably played this song 10,000 times. I’m sure it’s etched into the minds of everyone in this house. I’ve worked out different ways of playing it and I can pretty much play it with my eyes shut *unless* you put me in front of a video camera. So that’s what I spent my time doing tonight while my wife and kids are out at the Hurricanes game. For some reason I freeze up in front of the camera. Anyway….. This take was the best of the bunch tonight. I built the amp, a tweed Fender Deluxe clone and the reverb unit, a clone of a Fender 6G15. The guitar is a Gretsch DuoJet and I run it through a Klon KTR and a tc electronic delay setup as a slapback echo. It’s only a few minutes long and worth watching for the blooper I put in at the end of the video.

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Mojotone Fender 6G15 Reverb Clone


“From Wikipedia: “The Fender Reverb Unit (6G15) was a tube, spring reverb-equipped effects unit made by Fender. The Reverb Unit was originally introduced in 1961. It was discontinued in 1966 and was replaced by a solid-state model, the FR1000.[1] The unit features three controls: Dwell, Mix and Tone and is run by two pre-amp tubes and a power tube. Physically the unit looks like a small amplifier head and since the early ’60s the unit has become synonymous with surf music”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fender_Reverb_Unit”

From Mojotone Fender 6G15 Reverb Clone. Posted by Robert Weeks on 9/25/2015 (12 items)

Rainy weekend project. One of these days I'm going to have a proper workbench.
Sunday dinner
Now the fun begins.


Getting there. Front panel controls, power transformer and output transformer wired. …
It was bound to happen sooner or later. I made a mistake with the wiring under the bo…
Back in business except for the broken fuse holder. I learn something new on each of …


Filament (heater) wires installed (green twisted wires). I used to install these firs…
And we have reverb!
My builds: Fender Tweed Deluxe clone, Tweed Champ clone, Blackface stand alone reverb…
Newest addition to the Woot Twang Clan


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(Mojotone Fender 6G15 Reverb Clone; 11 photos)

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Tweed Deluxe Amp Build


From Tweed Deluxe Amp Build. Posted by Robert Weeks on 8/04/2014 (16 items)

Bought this Variac off ebay.
Mojotone Tweed Deluxe 5E3 kit parts arrived.
My son checks for the right resistors while one of our beagles chills out under the t…


Progress. Trying to get this done before the kids' hockey season really kicks in…
Fiddly bits….. Ended up re-routing these wires so they would not pick up hum from t…
Progress
Filament heater wires in place (green wires). Next the preamp & phase inverter wi…


Finished with the wiring. That's about as clean a wiring job as I can do for now…
Was going to drill the holes to mount it to the chassis but stopping to take the kids…
Clay made this dim bulb tester today while I worked on the amp. Maybe we'll try …
Getting awfully close. Everything's in place to try to bring it to life tomorrow…


We have lift off! No fires, explosions or electrocutions (yet). A bit more hum than I…
Some testing before adding the Claytone name plate.
Now that the amp is basically done, bring on hockey season.
Spent the day with these guys. Didn't really want to stop but i have to at least…


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(Tweed Deluxe Amp Build; 16 photos)

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Champ Amp Build


“Video of the finished amp: https://vimeo.com/100142039”

From Champ Amp Build. Posted by Robert Weeks on 1/26/2013 (15 items)

Got the board wired up and all the components installed in the chassis before heading…
Got the board wired up and all the components installed in the chassis before heading…
Didn't make much progress today. This is an incredibly tight space to work in. P…
After taking a long break from this project we returned to it today and hopefully we …


My helper. A good deal.taller than when we.started this project.
Dinner.
It goes to 12. I have even more respect and admiration for people who build, design a…
Clay with the Super-awesome Tim of Superfine Ampworks. Tim checked our work and showe…


The crowning jewel: Tim suggested Clay replace the standard red pilot lamp jewel with…
Finally got around to laquering the cabinet today. Squeezed it in between kids' …
Some ideas I'm working on for a custom amp name plate for the amp Clay (Clayton)…
The final name plate design sent off to the fabricator tonight. Now I'm trying t…


Good goobley goop! How cool is this? The nameplates came from Amplates.com and we hav…
They don't make them like they used to. This Variac is at least 50 years old and…
The finishing touch – nameplate attached.


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(Champ Amp Build; 15 photos)

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