Hammertone fiddle amp

[Hotsauce]

The stain came out really nice and even. Not even any soak on the edges. Did you use a sealer first?

I also like the look of the grill behind the baffle.

John C.

[EWBrown]

As I recall a fiddle and a mandolin are similarly tuned, in fifths, the mandolin is normally tuned to G, D, A, and E, and I recently saw a nice reasonably priced electric mando at a music shop about an hours drive from here. The mando's G string is tuned to the same note/freq as a guitars "third" or G string.

I can play acoustic mando fairly well, far better than giutar, and I've been thinking that an electric mando and a suitable amp may be on my next "to do" list... However, my couple of attempts at fiddle playing even scared the screaming strep-throated alley cats away

/ed B

[dhuebert]

I pay a cabinet maker to build my boxes. He can do a much better job than I can and he is quick. This box took 1 day to build, stain and clear coat. No way I could do that. The final price of my amps reflects the cost of building the box.

On another note: I set the amp up on the test bench and it made 20 volts RMS at 440 Hz into a 10 ohm resistor. This calculates out to 40 watts! Hmmm, how did I come up with 30 previously? Is the 40 a mistake? Oh well whichever it is, the amp is LOUD!

Don

[EWBrown]

40W RMS is believable, with PPP EL84s. Might have a bit of distortion, though, but in the instrument amp field, this isn't necessarily a bad thing

VTL gets 45W out of PPP EL84s in pentode mode, and 25 in triode, in their "Tiny Triode" monoblocks, though they run the tubes kinda hot with around 400VDC B+, but somewhat lower than "normal" cathode current.

What brand of speaker is that in the LFA

The cabs look very good, far better than I can do

/ed B

[dhuebert]

The speaker is a celestion G12M Greenback. The local music store is a dealer for Celestion so I just buy whatever they have that is the right size and power rating. I listen to musicians all the time discussing the virtues of the various brands and models but it all means nothing to me. I have not had an amp come back due to speaker failure yet with these.

Reminds me of a story from my Gar Gillies days. I was designing my first bass amp and wanted to know Gar's opinion on building a bass cabinet. I asked him what his approach had been in the olden days (Guess Who days) He explained that when designing a cabinet he would determine what speaker to use and then design a box that would make the most efficient use of a 4X8 sheet of plywood. He didn't do any calculations or characterize the speakers or any of that nonsense. The size and shape of the box was entirely determined by how mant sides he could get out of a sheet of plywood. I have used this as my guiding priciple as well. Seems to work.

The cabs do look very good, lends a professional air to my little enterprize.

Don

[dhuebert]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7Xv0hMYXfY

The mandolin player is the owner of this little amp. Behind him you can see the Hammertone Sixpac under its cover.

Don