EL84 - Single Ended

Classical configuration single ended, 12AT7 + EL84 consuming a lot energy but reproducing everything of the song. The movie camera did not obtain with fidelity the definition that this amplifier has.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• EL84
• SERFA

[killllshot]

nice but what happens when someone trips on its cord!

[serfabr]

@killllshot yehhh, MP3 cable is too long and had to curl, it was only an experiment. But the idea is good, I can make a trap too .... hehehehe

[TurboDieselRabbit]

cool!

[serfabr]

Yes, with 2X EL84 push pull. I think that should give a power of 10Watts correct? I did in Class A only as experience.

[Danhtran1122]

My 1st build guitar tube amp using EL84 in 1980, miss that time.

[yourbro81]

My Denon sounds cleaner and louder :)

[jbbrwockye]

that sounds beautiful.

[marcosfriendmisty]

whats the name of this song??

[kamil3985]

i think this one got less power than the normal one

[engineer21261]

Nice!

[00187500]

@gnialf Is not FLAC , in the movie is a simple MP3 player with the file recorded in WMA.

Now is plugged into my computer where I usually play WMAL, a few hours ago I was listening Bob Mintzer Big Band, very good.

I will find out more about FLAC.

Many thanks for the comments.

[gnialf]

Is the music FLAC or Mp3 ? best input for best output, the camera doesnt do it justice i think, but it looks really sweet :)

[3Deity]

@AdamRainStopper Dude, I sent you a personal mail, check your YouTube inbox too! :o) Very apt you should mention this tube.

[AdamRainStopper]

@3Deity My new thing is 6AQ5's. They are similar electrically to 6V6s, but in a smaller bottle. They sound good at low volumes and they sound good pushed to their breaking point too. With a high-gain pre and a post PI master volume, you can get studio volumes, high-gain, and the power amp cleanly and clearly reproduces the voice of the cascaded preamp stages, with lots of tight punch. These are 6AQ5's, not 6BQ5's (EL84's). A pair can make a nice 12-15 watt PP amp for studio use.

[3Deity]

@AdamRainStopper Totally, between 25w and 50w is where the tone is generally - enough to kick the speaker into proper breakup. JCM800 - Its a similar thing with super cars, to go from 200 to 230mph requires twice the power. I have a 1970 Super Bass Head, take two EL34s out and run it in 8 ohms for monster ampage, well, I would do but its so damn noisy and it is completely mint so I can't gig it ever! Glad to talk, I'm going to make a guitar amp but have been hung up on the output stage.

[3Deity]

@AdamRainStopper Ken Nash rings a bell actually, I live in Brighton, UK, (I saw a band here once, Deep Moave or something..) but I know people in CT. I used to know a genius luthier in Kent called Steve Acworth, he made guitars for Floyd, the Stones and local Jeff Beck. Always handy to know these oddball characters as you bounce your ideas off them to get twenty back - like shining light into a crystal Stainless frets? I'll have to try that! Stainless strings are ace on vintage style strats.

[AdamRainStopper]

@3Deity Ever heard of a guy named Ken Nash? ("The New Johnny Five") He's my go to guy when I can't "diy" something. Very skilled luthier, and local to us. He's known my dad for a few hundred years now........ If you're ever in New London CT or Westerly RI or any of the surrounding areas, stop by his shop. He has this strat in there (a 70's model that originally had tiny frets) that he refretted with stainless steel super-jumbo. You play this strat, you'll want stainless refrets on everything.

[AdamRainStopper]

@3Deity Not quiet at all. My Classic 30 with a pair of 2x12sis probably 90% as loud as a 100 watt 6L6 amp. That's the thing about tube amps, a 5 watt amp is loud for the bedroom, a 10 watt amp is a little bit louder (nowhere near twice as loud as the 5 though) and there's very little volume difference between a 30 watt quad-EL84 amp and a 100 watt quad-EL34 amp. A 50 watt JCM800 and a 100 watt JCM800 with the same cabinet are almost the same volume when cranked, only 3 or 4 decibels difference.

[3Deity]

@AdamRainStopper Heheeeee! If thats true then let me say your secret is safe *and* you're dad is a genuis and the only true guitar player I've seen in nearly 30 years playing! :o)

[AdamRainStopper]

@3Deity So does his kid, Adam Morse. . . aka "adamrainstopper";-)

[3Deity]

@AdamRainStopper That must have been a very quiet gig? That would have been about 4,000w but must have been down low.

[3Deity]

@AdamRainStopper 20 years ago I was in a rehearsal room and they asked me to turn it up - 60w mosfet 1x12" and within seconds they where begging me to turn it down. Conversely, I've played on a stage with a Marshall 100w head and 4x12" and couldn't hear myself. Acoustics are a strange thing. Steve Morse turns his angled cabs through 90 degrees to get good spread.

[AdamRainStopper]

@3Deity I played a place in New London CT called the "El 'N' Gee club" a few months ago. They have 4 PA cabinets with 2x15" and 2 horns each, entire drum kit mic'ed, and our bassist uses a 2x15 and a 400 watt MOSFET amp. I am the only guitarist, and my peavey classic 30 through a pair of pine 2x12s with T-75's and V-30's was more than loud enough. That amp is 30 watts RMS. I had the gain and master set about 2/3 of the way up.

[3Deity]

@AdamRainStopper Too true! Gods, could you imagine what, say, the Chord SPM 1200 power amp COULD be billed as? Its a 1200 watt lattice Class A which only uses a tiny amount of that potential power in reality, but it can do it - and thats a 20 year old amp! They did an SPM 1000000 or something for the anniversary and drew straw for what unfortunate was to switch it on! :o)

[AdamRainStopper]

@3Deity I understand that, but companies DO put X-amounts of watts "peak", Y-amount of watts "musical power", and then the real number of watts RMS....like Pyramid. They have a 1x8" combo that advertises itself as a "400 watt guitar amp", then in fine print it says 400 peak, 250 musical power, and 22 watts rms. The kind of person who buys a pyramid amp is either not going to understand any of that (and they are technically not lying, because they aren't actually saying anything) or doesn't care.

[3Deity]

@AdamRainStopper Peak would be voltage, not current. You need four EL84s to get 22 watts. There was some idiot on a forum getting 10w from a SE EL84, the anode was almost yellow, he said "Some of the vintage RCAs and Mullard last almost 10 minutes." People on the forum where trying to find his address so they could kill him! I'll recheck Mesa's site but its probably DIN and not RMS - you know, like PC speakers that claim 400w which is a theoretical limit of the chipset, not the PSU! :o)

[AdamRainStopper]

@3Deity It is possible, I think it's just more likely we missed some fine print........like "25 watts peak" and then in really tiny letters, "18 watts RMS". . . . .you CAN get up to the mid-20's from a pair of L84s in PP, but if you run it on that 25 watt setting frequently, I'm sure it will need to be retubed 3 or 4 times as often as a typical PP EL84 amp, and really, being 25 watts instead of 20 or 18 won't make a noticeable volume difference anyway.

[3Deity]

@AdamRainStopper I had a look at MesaBoogie's site and its true, 25 watts from the amp, however it doesn't say how they achieve this. The anode dissipation of an EL84 is 5.5w and running Class A/B would reduce output markedly. Going from SE to PP operation requires different output transformers so I'm inclined to believe they are lying! Maybe its a valve amp with MOSFET assistance?

[3Deity]

@00187500 No, you can get 10-12w by running PSE. There is no excuse for PP ever.