New member, second amp build

[Guardians of the Analog]

Hi everyone, long time lurker and decided to make an account. I'm Chris and I'm not new to diy. In my mid 40s and playing since I was 10. From the Detroit area and been doing diy for around 20 years now.
I started modding guitar electronics and started my journey there. I've been modding amps and pedals shortly after that. Around 2011 I started building pedals. Started with Vero and then GGG and BYOC. Eventually found madbean pedals and then pedalpcb. I started doing Guardians of the Analog pedals in 2018 as a fun project and mostly build for myself and a handful of others.

I wanted to build an amp forever and last year I stumbled on headfirst and Jason Tong videos and found my way here. I built an evolve diy Marshall origin20 drop in 2204 PCB set and loved it. While looking at amps I fell in love with a buddy's dirty Shirley and while on the forum I discovered many threads with discussion and schematics and decided to build my own using the drop in pcb set again. I finally really finished it up and this is by far the best amp I've had in years. Wanna thank everyone for all the insight and knowledge as it has really been helpful. Here's my feral cheryl, named after my wife (Cheryl is her middle name) and her mean streak when you piss her off lol.
Its running new tung sol 5881s, nos preamp glass, I added a three way bright cap switch and made a relay footswitch for the high gain structure mode.

 

[MadAsAHatter]

Looks Awesome. Did you do the faceplate yourself?

 

[Smash]

Welcome to the forum, officially

 

[Guardians of the Analog]

Looks Awesome. Did you do the faceplate yourself?

Thank you, I did design the faceplate and head shell badge. I did the design in affinity designer and amplify fun cut them for me.

Welcome to the forum, officially

Thank you, hopefully I'll be able to contribute something here!

 

[skoora]

Great way to make an introduction here. Would love to hear some clips of this bad boy.

 

[glpg80]

Welcome!

Question, why the 555 timer-based pulsed voltage doubler and rectifier in the pedal? What are you generating, a DC voltage for the relay?

 

[chumbucket]

Great way to make an introduction here. Would love to hear some clips of this bad boy.

Yeah, we need to hear clips of this amp for sure.

 

[Guardians of the Analog]

Welcome!

Question, why the 555 timer-based pulsed voltage doubler and rectifier in the pedal? What are you generating, a DC voltage for the relay?

A buddy of mine made the relay board. It's a simple on/off true bypass relay with debouncing on the switch. The voltage is for the relay and LED. It works fantastic for what it does. I only needed a spdt switch to activate the relay in the amp but I prefer soft click versus a traditional mechanic footswitch. On my modulation and time based pedals I use a different relay circuit that uses an MCU programed for momentary bypass on press and hold as well as on/off.

Welcome!

Question, why the 555 timer-based pulsed voltage doubler and rectifier in the pedal? What are you generating, a DC voltage for the relay?

Yeah, we need to hear clips of this amp for sure.

I recorded this this morning. Rough mix to show how the darker amp sits in a mix with the bright switch (1n) and 680n v2a cathode bypass on. No processing. Slight boost with my SD-1 on low gain setting. Preamp gain on 7. I'm using a york audio 2x12 G12m-65 creamback IR through my two notes captor.

 

[glpg80]

I prefer mechanical click footswitches myself. Funny how that works in that we all have personal preferences. Since you like a soft tactile button press it makes sense you need debounce control to keep from prematurely wearing out the relay contacts.

So that means the relay must be a sample and hold latch type that doesn’t require constant current to latch? So you’re just triggering based on the speed of the edge of the pulse on a 555? If so that’s pretty damn smart man. I’d never thought of that.

Amp recording sounds great!

 

[Guardians of the Analog]

I prefer mechanical click footswitches myself. Funny how that works in that we all have personal preferences. Since you like a soft tactile button press it makes sense you need debounce control to keep from prematurely wearing out the relay contacts.

So that means the relay must be a sample and hold latch type that doesn’t require constant current to latch? So you’re just triggering based on the speed of the edge of the pulse on a 555? If so that’s pretty damn smart man. I’d never thought of that.

Amp recording sounds great!

I Used to use 3pdt switches and loved them.for years because they were cheap and easy to use. But over time finding quality switches at a decent price for more difficult. I prefer the low force stompboxpart switches but I had a run of issues with them where I got some bad right olout of the bag. Relay also means I'll likely never have to change to switch, and on certain effects momentary is fun for creativity. The implementation of this switching system is really clever and works great. And thanks for the kind words on the amp tone

 

[skoora]

that is a tone that mixes great. I know you have it up to have it be loud and clear for us but you can tell if it was more back in the song it would sit really well. Lot of people round here not used to hearing a medium gained, rougher, mid rangey tone, so be warned, when it doesn’t sound like Deicide or Warren Demartini would use it, you may not get an overflow of kudos

 

[glpg80]

Yeah that’s a clean base tone (for rolled back guitars) for some here. RT is gain central.

It’s voiced very upper mids and cuts like a knife. Seems like a fun amp to play.

 

[Guardians of the Analog]

I appreciate the heads up. While I love listening to some heavier music, my regular playing isn't usually as heavy. I usually have my amp set up like this to get my clean tone with the guitar volume rolled back and a couple different boost pedals to get higher gain tones. It's a fun amp for what I like to do.