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Hi, this is my first posting. I'll soon begin assembling materials and information for building my first tube amp (no previous tube experience, though I've built several pedals in the past). My question is: which has more headroom - the Lightning or the Spitfire? I'm leaning towards the Lightning because of the tone controls, but if the Spitfire has more clean headroom before distortion, I'll opt for the Spitfire. Or, if that is the case, what can be done to maximize headroom in the Lightning? Thanks in advance.

First--I just completed a Lightning. If you look at the knobs there's not a ton of headroom--the thing start breaking up with the volume at 10:00.

Now for the reality--it seems to me to be blisteringly loud by then. I'm going to debut the amp in a live situation this Thursday, and I'll have a better idea if it's really cutting it.

I haven't tried a Spitfire recently, but I do remember trying one some time ago, and it did have a sweetness, whereas the Lightning seemed more "in your face".

It's probably easier to take stuff out of a build than to add, so if you build a Lightning and hate it you can probably revert to a Spitfire pretty easily.

P.

I have never built or heard a Spifire, but I hear they have some extra headroom over the Lighting. I could be totally wrong. I can tell you that Paul G is correct on the dial and loudnes. I have beefed up on the OT to a 30 W & even 50 W in lbet's 15 and it certainly cleans up for louder volumes. That may be an an expensive but easy fix. Then you can always start to tweak for more clean headroom and do things like 'match' the output impedance. i.e. reflect 8K on the output tubes instead of 4K per Matchless design. That will clean up nicely as well.

I second the motion to go for the Lightning and take it from there.

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

Welcome to the world of homebrewing!

The Spitfire definitely has more clean headroom than a Lightning. My Spitfire/18 Watt based Thunderbolt 9 has even more than a Spitfire and a Plexi-like breakup to boot.

CR ><>

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