trinityamps.com

Hi,

It's been a little while since I have posted here, I'm almost certainly going to build a Lightning clone but I was wondering what variations people have built.

For example has anyone built a two channel lightning?

Cheers,

Chris.

I have built a 30 W lightning, single channel. I know others have added cut controls, changed to 6V6 output tubes and there is talk of an EF86 second channel. Search the forum for some of these. I'm sure the others will chime in.

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Stephen
Web: www.trinityamps.com. Facebook: facebook.com/trinityamps. Twitter: @trinityamps

I know ab3640au did a two channel lightning with the normal channel and a EF86 one, the tread is here. There have also been 30w versions, and I have built one with tremolo and reverb. Using 6V6 is another variation that a few have done as well.

Eddie

I've read most of the different threads, I was thinking the ultimate for me would probably be:-

Two channels - both the same as the single channel usually found on a lightning. This enables me to have a clean and crunch channel based around the same circuit:- anyone done this or have any comments on better ways to achieve this?

30 watt switchable to 15, I see Stephen has done this with the 30 watter he built.

Cheers,

Chris.

If you want crunch, that second channel might just want to be an EF86 based one.

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Stephen
Web: www.trinityamps.com. Facebook: facebook.com/trinityamps. Twitter: @trinityamps

Hi Stephen,

So really what I should have asked is has anyone here built a HC-30 clone with a half power switch?

So I guess that is what I really want to build a DC-30 clone, has anyone done it? If so what were the results? Anyone have the schematic for such a clone? What about a tranny set for a 30 watter? Channel switching or an A,B,Y box?

So many questions.............. I know but I suspect I will ask a whole lot more yet!

Cheers,

Chris.

Well the 30W has a half power switch. Two extra parts - second cathode resistor & a switch. I have schematic & layout for this version.

It would not have been much more of an effort to go all the way and add the extra channel and controls but my customer wanted a 30W Lightning head, not an HC-30

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Stephen
Web: www.trinityamps.com. Facebook: facebook.com/trinityamps. Twitter: @trinityamps

So I want to build a HC-30 does anyone have an acurate schematic and layout plan? What about the transformers, anyone have a supplier? Will it fit into the lightning chassis? And I would want a half power switch.

Cheers,

Chris.

email me, I have a supplier & they will fit in a Lightning chassis, including the one from Trinity with some mods to the cutouts. That's what I build mine out of.

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Stephen
Web: www.trinityamps.com. Facebook: facebook.com/trinityamps. Twitter: @trinityamps

For a 30 watt variant, one might try a pair 6V6 and a pair EL-84 matched up through the same OT - a bit of the evenness and moderation the 6V6 is supposed to bring, but still some of the classic EL-84 jangle, for the best of both worlds.

Bear

And then it would be way cool to have a 15W switch that you could flip on either 6V6 or EL84 . But what about the working impedance for the power tubes - 6V6 & EL84 don't use quite the same OT impedance? But it might come close.

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Stephen
Web: www.trinityamps.com. Facebook: facebook.com/trinityamps. Twitter: @trinityamps

I'm not a load-line-knowledgable EE or anything, but my understanding is that for most intents and purposes, the impedence loads are close enough. This assumption might go to hell when the tubes are pushed, which I think would only go for the EL-84's in this case. If you use robust 6V6's, like JJ's or NOS, it's probably not worth hunting down an alternative to the Matchless-type transformers.

The selectable thing had occurred to me, too. The one thing that makes me hesitate is that your experiments with a 30W Lightning indicated a cleaner output when running on a single pair, which makes me think it's quite likely that the flavor difference might not be as dramatic as one might hope. I'd try yanking either pair before devising a switching scheme.

The obvious advantage of independently switchable output tube types, though, is that you can more easily accomodate one specific type going wonky at a gig. This might not always be the EL-84's, like if you just replaced a set of EL-84's but have been on the 6V6's for a while.

Bear

I think if you went for 8K it might work. Switching from 30W to 15 was not hard, so I think it would be pretty straightforward to switch to either tube set. Not sure how to combine the two tube types though. I'm not keen on pulling tubes at a gig.

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Stephen
Web: www.trinityamps.com. Facebook: facebook.com/trinityamps. Twitter: @trinityamps

wow a lot of interesting suggestions......... I personally don't think I'd go for the added complexity of switching tube types. I'd like a straight forward EL84 power section.

Cheers,

Chris.

I'm only about three weeks behind everyone else here .. lol ..
The ef86 second channel works extremely well and gives you a completely different tone to the Lightning channel (the feedback I got from my customer was that it was like having two amps in one). I used the Vox AC15 ef86 values (rather than the DC30) and provided the ef86 with it's own B+ supply and filter cap (I used a 16uf). I actually used a 60k resistor (100k 1W & 150 1W in parallel) to drop the B+ voltage (rather than 22k); IMO you need to get it somewhere just under 300vdc (after the resistor) for best results. I used the Marshall 18watt tremolo channel tone stack for the ef86 channel and am very happy with the tone variation/sweep that I get. I'm building another one of these (using a custom head chassis from Nik at Ceri@tone). Once I get started, I'll post lots of pics and put together a proper layout diagram .. just be patient

REGARDS


Barry M

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Barry M