Uploaded June 2018 | Updated September 2026, 15 hours ago
Another Hoofbags valve amplifier demonstration upload. There's quite a bit of interest currently in 'sub watt' guitar amplifiers, such as the Nano. These types are engineered for practice purposes but there's no reason why they couldn't be used miked up in a club or similar. At only 0.7 watt, this thing is loud, especially since it incorporates one of them 'open frame' Alnico magnet speakers. By pure chance, we had an output transformer that matched the anode impedance of an ECC82. Also, the mains transformer is really small. These are getting so hard to source! All the relevant parts were accumulated over a period of years. In this one, we use an ECC82 as the power output stage and an ECC83 as the integrated preamp. The four stage amplifier design has stacks of juicy gain, just right for a guitarist who likes that classic overdriven sound with loads of clipping distortion and sustain. For those who don't know, the ECC range of valves/tubes are double triodes. We get four stages of amplification owing to the two triodes in each 'bottle'. Most of the gain is provided by the legendary ECC83/12AX7. A bit more gain is provided by the ECC82/12AU7. If we could use an ECC83 as an output stage, the gain would be mental! Unfortunately, the ECC83 is only capable of 1mA so not enough current for an output stage would be available, however is gr8 for a preamp. Because of the shape of this amp, that turned out, I chose an instrument styling, such as one would find in an engineer's workshop. Needless to say, there's a speaker bypass facility via a 1/4" (6.25mm) where a different speaker system can be plugged in. Unlike the lovely Zvex Nano, all of the power conditioning is inside the cabinet so no 'wall wart' is necessary. Just plug the thing into a UK or Euro power socket, plug the guitar in at the front and away the guitarist goes. We love the Nano but it is rather expensive and this amp gives out a lot more: 700mW. Also, the unit is point-to-point wired.
Another Hoofbags valve amplifier demonstration upload. There's quite a bit of interest currently in 'sub watt' guitar amplifiers, such as the Nano. These types are engineered for practice purposes but there's no reason why they couldn't be used miked up in a club or similar. At only 0.7 watt, this thing is loud, especially since it incorporates one of them 'open frame' Alnico magnet speakers. By pure chance, we had an output transformer that matched the anode impedance of an ECC82. Also, the mains transformer is really small. These are getting so hard to source! All the relevant parts were accumulated over a period of years. In this one, we use an ECC82 as the power output stage and an ECC83 as the integrated preamp. The four stage amplifier design has stacks of juicy gain, just right for a guitarist who likes that classic overdriven sound with loads of clipping distortion and sustain. For those who don't know, the ECC range of valves/tubes are double triodes. We get four stages of amplification owing to the two triodes in each 'bottle'. Most of the gain is provided by the legendary ECC83/12AX7. A bit more gain is provided by the ECC82/12AU7. If we could use an ECC83 as an output stage, the gain would be mental! Unfortunately, the ECC83 is only capable of 1mA so not enough current for an output stage would be available, however is gr8 for a preamp. Because of the shape of this amp, that turned out, I chose an instrument styling, such as one would find in an engineer's workshop. Needless to say, there's a speaker bypass facility via a 1/4" (6.25mm) where a different speaker system can be plugged in. Unlike the lovely Zvex Nano, all of the power conditioning is inside the cabinet so no 'wall wart' is necessary. Just plug the thing into a UK or Euro power socket, plug the guitar in at the front and away the guitarist goes. We love the Nano but it is rather expensive and this amp gives out a lot more: 700mW. Also, the unit is point-to-point wired.
