Man , I love your style. Thanks for the help. Your video is exactly the kind of tech support I'm looking for. I'm building a distortion/overdrive using a liberated Telefunken ECC 83 out of an old Grundig stereo console and what leftover parts I've got lying around from working on guitars and junking TVs and DVD players. I have little or no cash and no way of obtaining much in way of parts so the tips like , "you can put in a piece of cardboard" is the shit I'm looking for in DIY video's. Again , thanks and keep on keeping on.
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to type out such a kind comment Travis. I know how it is trying to do a lot with a little bro. The only reason I can justify or even do the stuff on this channel right now is the youtube checks couple times a year. Ive done gotten pretty far with them now though with a shop to work in etc. soo Maybe ill have a much easier time getting this info out to yall and doing a ton more cool stuff myself. Thanks again bro truly... it's folks like you taking the time to write a kind comment like this, that grown this channel despite my going ghost for 6-10 months at a time, that allowed me to buy that little box in the video without having to beg my old lady and do without something infact I was able to get 2 and mail one to the guy that suggested it to me. Its maybe time I realize what we all got here and start taking this channel more seriously, you have all definitely been more than good enough to me.
I came for the tube preamp how to and ended up learning pedal building principles! I love this video! This is the 2nd video I've watched by you and this is just the diy content I want to see. Definitely subscribing
Thank you so much Razman I really appreciate the kind well thought out comment as well as the subscription. I have been unfortunately absent but I should be back to making videos very soon. Thanks again.
I added this to a playlist about a year back, and lost it. I searched RU-vid high & low typing in so many keyword combos and variations to run across it again, because it's brimming with useful info. Happy to revisit. Channel with the Southern accent INSTANTLY told me I was in the right place
i’ve been at building for a few years jsut copying schematics , this is the Best video i’ve seen ! it’s makes things makes sense simply and effectively , thank you 👍👍👍👍
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to write this kind comment Ash. The one thing that helped me the most was just messing with an ebay breadboard. You can build and existing circuit on it. I like simple fuzzes and just start swapping parts and plugging stuff up everywhere while it running, see what it does different or if something let's the smoke out... Swap caps for bigger for more bass and gain or smaller to tighten it up... Either before or after a gain stage add another transistor stage... Etc etc clippers in different spots. You can make a boost into a fuzz or a fuzz into an overdrive. With just a single bias resistor and cap change. Thanks again for the kind words bro truly and heck yeah dude just start stabbing some stuff in and melt some stuff etc etc. You might make the new "TS 808" or "fuzz face" of the new generation. It won't take long for you to get a good hands on idea of things and start wanting to tweak everything you got. I gotta tell myself it ain't broke don't fix it. 🤣
also all videos appreciated , and i agree with the idea that the pedal industry seems a bit sluggish and old fashioned and people who do come up with the “far out” ideas seem to get overlooked .Needs more innovation and experimentation which seems to be the whole point of electronics to me.
I fell asleep and slighly out of my chair around the 25min mark with that smooth heavenly tone. Lol Can't wait to build one of these! Thank you for your witty way of teaching! Awesome
My dream amp was tube vintage one but I'm from a country which bottlecaps value more than the currency. Now I've got a 10$ diy tubeamp kit from ebay!! Thank you Tube Hero!! SAVIOUR!
Thank you for watching and taking the time to leave such a kind and inspiring comment Xavier. That is so great to hear. I am so happy anytime I can help someone figure out a way to get or make the things that were otherwise not in the cards for them. This should do well for you. It reacts so much like a tube amp a boost pedal or hot pickup will break it up and it will warm up any amp you put it in front of. This would be a great thing for artists to use into a PA when gigging it would totally take away the need for any actual amp on the stage. Thanks again I am so happy to hear that you found this info helpful. That's why I do this. You made my day.
@@heavymetalATC In my perspective, I have semi-hollow guitar for blues, which I don't use it with amp while practicing since the sound is audible without amp with semi-hollow electros. But for recording, plugging it directly to computer wasn't sounding right on my records even though I have a decent audiocard with shielded backplate in my desktop rig. I was just looking for a tube preamp for recording, not for practicing. Hence, 12AX7 are overkill for my case, 6J1's are enough for this. Cheapest one I found was 100$ in music store, but when I had the money, Item was sold out and the cheapest one was 250$ now. Your video solved this issue wholesomely. System I have: Creative X-Fi 24-bit 96kHz with custom aluminum faraday cage Epiphone Dot Studio Carbon Black Gold jack connectors OS: Ubuntu Studio low latency kernel Program: DJack Guitar Rig & Audacity
You just made me want to go back to school. If I would have had a professor like you I wouldn't have dropped out. You brought me back in bro. Thanks. Gonna go find some old Craig Anderton GP Best.
Thank you so much for all the kind words. MdShack. I never took any kind of education for electronics or music stuff. I just hack at stuff till I make it into other stuff. I never thought I'd really do this kinda stuff much. I would build parts casters and mess with speakers and amos and lots of car audio when I was young but I actually went to trade school for welding and fabrication certification. "Student of the Year" figured I'd get a job at TVA like many in my family but life and health forced me down a different accidental path and I must say it was fate. I LOVE this stuff. It's what I would be doing in my spare time anyway. Sometimes terrible things turn out to be the gateway to a more fulfilling, meaningful existence.
great vid, good work! couple suggestions: a regular soldering iron would make life much easier for you, and make components last longer, the huge gun is great for chassey soldering, but overkill on parts. other thing is, those tubes in your build are sitting directly over/on some yellow film caps. the heat from the tubes can and will damage those caps. i know space is tight but you want as a bare minimum 1/4"-3/4" clearance around the preamp tubes, preferrably more. you could mount the caps closer to the far pcb holes so they're clear of the tubes, or make some longer, heat shrinked leads to the caps to hang them offside. or, probably easiest provided there's space, mount them on the other side of the board. apart from damage, the other issue with the tubes having clearance is, the heat will cause component values to shift with the temp change. your tone will change because of it, for better or worse. anyway, keep plugging away, thanks for the upload!
This is a really cool project. I found it because I decided to build a Valvecaster this evening, but now I'll be building this in the near future, too. The rest of your channel has interesting and useful videos and I really like your presentation style. I'm now subscribed.
Tell it like it is man ! The best you can do for your tube amp other than using tubes in your pedals is probably JFETS in Fetzer valve configuration. Nice to see someone that knows what he's talking about at last . I use a similar circuit in JFET style in the cavity of a Strat after junking the useless whammy set up and hardtailing it using trim pots. In UK its 'Hendrix at The Isle of White '.
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to write this awesome and kind comment George. My buddy Petey built an amp a while back with the Fetzer valve preamp in it and man it really was a nice tone. I had a guy say on my comments a while back on a video about a diy alumitone made with copper sheet, you could use a Jfet to boost that and you might not even need a transformer and I was like HUH? Active 1 turn coil??? Yeah Isle of wight was right there at the end wasnt it. I need to get a wah to better replicate that sound... I had a crybaby way way back but I got a multi effects and I was like oh yeah I dont need all these pedals now... left it at a practice space with a couple of other things and you know how such things grow legs... and you realize you still need analog gear for that sound LOL
Hola, Saludos desde el sur de los Estados Unidos. Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment Fran. I appreciate all the kind words of encouragement. If you ever have a question or get stuck on a project feel free to leave a comment.
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to leave such a kind comment Ben. You are welcome and I am so glad you found the info in the video to be of value. People don't always get the point of what I am doing on this channel and why but when someone does... it just makes my day. Thanks again Ben.
Dude this is the first video of yours I have watched and you have told me more about tubes that I can understand and I have been trying to do just what I want to do thank you so much
I ordered the parts, and have an old radio im raiding for the extra parts I needed. I’ll post a reply video when I git r dun!! I appreciate the idea and the video!
Love the experimentation. And if you dont know how to solder but want to try this out, take the time to learn to solder. It's really not that hard for the basics and there is tons ir info on RU-vid. Ita a very handy skill to have fo a lot of things.
Brilliant, so glad I watched your video! I've learnt a lot and so inspiring, I'm going to have to order one of those Tube preamps (being a Limey, a valve preamp). Cheers and thanks for your helpful info!
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to write a comment JR. I try to keep it accessible to most anyone. No need in using big words and leaving half the info out to try to seem cool or smart. That aint my style. The point of all this is to inspire and educate. If you try this project let me know how it goes and if you have any questions or get stuck on something feel free to leave a comment. This would make a pretty good first tube project. Its way safer and simpler than pretty much anything I've seen also you could buy a $5 class d amp board from ebay and get a speaker hook it to that and have a full amp. Thanks again.
Thanks Woo, I find that style of guitar playing to be the most natural for me. Country licks and folk or jazz finger-style guitar playing... not so much it feels like a man with two left hands trying to clap.
Great stuff! Pedals and tube circuits are so much fun. I mostly use plugins these days but want to get back into hardware and perhaps some DIY. Love the enthusiasm. cheers!
Thank you, bI have been building electronic components for decades, and this is by far the easiest and best explanation I have ever seen. KISS-Keep It Simple Stupid! Semper Fi
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to leave such kind words SBW. I'm glad you found it entertaining. I try to keep it accessible. Also Thank you for your service.
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to leave such a kind comment slametal. I am so glad you liked the video and found the info usable and easy to understand.
Thank you for watching and taking the time to write such an awesome comment Robbert. I know exactly where you are coming from on that. I graduated from the school of hard knocks and went to the college of I grew up poor as hell but still wanted things so where is my saw and hammer. LOL That was an awesome comment bro. You made my day. Thanks again Robbert great sense of humor.
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to leave such a kind comment Cheesy, I really appreciate the compliment. We'll see if I cant make that happen. I'll be returning to a normal upload schedule soon.
Good to know I ain't the only one ripping parts out of old TV and Radios at the junk-yard/re-cycling centre, I always have a screw driver and snippers handy, watch yourself though as old Cathode ray tube TV still have surprises for you like implosions and glass. Bring gloves. Great video and commentary , the box sounds amazing for "Hendrix Woodstock" time**!!
Hahaha naw theres a few of us out here looking on the side of the road like... too new, too new... maybe transistors? ahhh, Stop, stawp... STOOOOOOOOP, TUUUUUBES!!!!! hahaha and yeah ive touched the shiny end of a cap and hit the dirt :) only once though. Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment giulio.
Lmao! Here in Nashville I've got to be more low key about it. I do love going to the dump; Seeing all the computers and electronics people have thrown away. I gotta lookout for,I don't know, I guess he's the manager there or something. He's "caught" me a couple times putting old electronics in my trunk and made me, put stuff back. But I always find great stuff there. It's so funny that you guys do that too. Who needs RadioShack anymore?
Cool project! Great presentation, sir. I love YT for this type of content. Love your humor, too. I'm glad your Epi LP Jr. vid. popped up in my feed. Subbed. We all need to share your vids so that you can get the subs that you deserve!
That is Awesome! Well if I would have stayed on a regular upload schedule my channel would be doing much better. I have been working on things behind the scenes this whole time so I should be able to get the videos made alot easier coming back and maybe keep a decent schedule? Hahaha
Thank you for watching and taking the time to leave such kind words Dan. Oh yes you could build a patch bay by connecting the in and out on each channel to jacks and then you could build different tone stacks in pedal boxes and just swap them out or use actual pedals in there in front in the middle or after the tubes or you could y them and run parallel.
Loved this video, especially the bit about ice cream. It's frustrating to go on guitar forums and see 90% of people chasing a sound from 50-60 years ago. Not that there's anything wrong with those sounds--like you said, vanilla is good--but there's much more out there than Hendrix and Led Zeppelin. We need to reference the past without being stuck in it.
Sorry i know i asked and got an answer but i lost the paper i wrote it down on. What type of AC adaptor was needed ? I had one i posted the specs of and im not sure itll work. I know it was a 12v AC to AC ? Can someone post a link ? I got my preamp in the mail today and want to get going on it ;-) Thanks again for the video
No problem CT. This adapter appears to have perfect specs for the unit. www.amazon.com/Reliapro-ACU120100D0531-Adapter-Transformer-Straight/dp/B00B8861T2/ref=sr_1_3?crid=1AW9R2L32EMMV&keywords=ac+to+ac+12v&qid=1658870701&sprefix=ac+to+ac+12v%2Caps%2C770&sr=8-3
‘Good enough for rock ‘n’ roll’ is my new fucking motto and I want that on a sticker or a T-shirt or a hat… Hell I might get it as a tattoo! You are my hero
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment Towmotor. I don't remember where I heard that phrase? but its a good one. I surely never forgot it and it helps me not be too critical or crazy on details when I'm building something. Its just got to be good enough for rock and roll, were not playing Mozart in the Phil harmonic. LOL
Hey, I watched this video a couple years ago and sourced what I think is the same tube preamp back then. I futzed with it for awhile but never got it to do anything useful. Ultimately, It got put in a box and forgotten about until I came across it the other day. I figured I'd revisit it because maybe I was just doing something dumb 2 years ago that caused my experience to suck. The only difference that I can tell between the one you used in this video and the one I have it that yours has '90 degree' tube sockets where your tubes are laying down and mine has them upright. It uses 6J1 tubes which I've not encountered in any other scenario. I'm hoping you can answer a couple questions and give me the benefit of your experience. I wired it up with the simplest version you start with in this video. My guitar plugs into a 1/4" jack which is wired to the right-most input. The output is connected directly to the second input with a short jumper wire then the second output goes to another 1/4" jack that plugs into a Yamaha powered monitor speaker that is 10 watts with a 4" speaker. This speaker has a power button, a high & low tone knob and 1/4" input for line on the back and a 1/4" input for mic on the front. I'm plugging into the line input on the back. In your video you have too much gain and utilize a pot to mitigate that. I have like zero gain. I see the red led and the tube filaments light up and it passes audio but imparts no gain, no grit, no tube character. The power brick I am using is a 12V 2.5A with the output cable & barrel hardwired to it and it takes a standard IEC power cable for the AC supply, For regular tube guitar preamps, I know the tube type like 12AX7 vs 12AT7 affects the gain. That's the first thing I thought could be why I get no gain: Questionable Chinese tubes. I have an extra set of these tubes but when I swapped them in I get the result it the same. I tried a 250k pot as the link between the 2 gain stages and I can turn down the volume but the gain never increases. I can try other power supplies if this one is somehow not supplying enough juice. I've had trouble finding ones that work with it at all. I'm kinda confused on the power supply end because I've heard I need an 'AC adapter', any anything you plug into a wall outlet (AC) adapts AC and usually provides DC. The markings appear to indicate it puts out 12V DC 2.5 Amps and some dashed lines. I haven't looked at the pinouts for the 691 tubes but I was considering trying a different tube that would fit the 9pin socket. I suspect a 12AX7 is not directly compatible or that's what would be used since they are 'standard' guitar amp tubes. I suppose there could be a trace broken on my lil preamp board. or bad components. I was curious about the tubes actually contributing to the circuit so I tried with no tubes but I get nada. Any ideas why i'm getting zero gain? Any clarifications you'd like, additional info, pics, things for me to try out and send results... just let me know
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to write such a kind comment Hobetto. No genius here just poor LOLOL! My buddy Petey TwoFinger showed me this device and my first thought was heck yeah I can make a tube guitar booster outta that. I really appreciate the interest and I'm so glad you found this information useful.
@@heavymetalATC I am kind of sure this device sounds much better than AA random ts9 clone. But my comment was much more focused in the divulgation of the principles of an amp. (And the tone stack calculator, that's cool). I was personally interested in the anvil preamp. This sounds great, but it costs 400€, all the parts, including tubes. ATM i think I cannot pay that much, lol
Video idea: Make a tone stack circuit using the calculator and explain exactly how to translate that to real life, step by step. I'm a total noob and understanding where signal comes in and out, and where pots are located, would be helpful. The drawing produced by the tone stack calculator isn't clear for my inexperienced brain. Is the stack you used passive? I see that some may require power? Anyway, thanks for the cool video. Keep up the great work.
Late to the party but thanks for the great video and info! I've been building pedals for a few years but I had no idea these pre made pre amp boards were out there so cheap. Just ordered one and looking forward to experimenting with it. I really like your channel!
mad hatter guitars makes some really cool solderless guitar wiring harnesses, their parts come in handy for people who don't like soldering. I bet their stuff would work well with a build like this. I used their products to wire up a Dark Glass tone capsule preamp into a pedal enclosure, sounds great, and I didn't need to solder at all. Now I can use this preamp with any bass I like.
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to type out this useful information Jonathan. I will try to remember to use share this info in future videos.. In fact Im going to put it in my notes and If/when I use the info in a video I will give you a shoutout. Thanks again much appreciated.
Hey thanks for this video It actually answered some questions for me but also I really like the way that you explained everything helped me out a lot you definitely got to new subscriber.. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Thank you so much for taking the time to watch and leave such kind words Josh. I appreciate the sub and I will be getting back to a regular upload schedule soon.
Thank yous so much for watching and taking the time to leave such a kind comment David. That's my poor attempt at Hendrix going crazy sounds... LOL Thanks again bro.
The end result was good. Can you explain what this 2 channel tube boost circuit was designed for. Can it be used as a clean line level boost? This may be idea for an old Webcor amplifier I have.
Thank you so much for watching and for taking the time to to leave this kind comment Chris. I would love to know what kinds of results you got from it.
6j1 (6ж1, 6ж1п) is soviet tube copy. I had similar mock up with same tube (different AliExpress board) with bass guitar preamp in between the tubes. Didn't had a case, so it was noisy. For example engl e530 has two tubes as well, is very similar device.
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment Pakiw. Awesome! I had no idea what a 6j1 was or what it was based on. This is my first time dealing with these little tubes. I'm more used to 12ax7, 12au7, 6gh8a style preamp tubes. Have to say they sound pretty decent I was pleasantly surprised by the results.
should turn this into a Tube Wah type dealy so you can make adjustments to the tone with your foot instead of fingers that would be cool, awesome video thanks may pick one of these up myself
Thank you for watching and taking the time to write such a nice comment Paul. That is awesome! I hadn't really considered this as an option until Petey showed me a link to the unit used. Then the gears started whirling and it happened fast. Let me know how the new preamp build goes and consider making some videos on it. You can use a phone or anything as long as the info is good and you get it to the ones that need to see it... people will be interested. I know I would be. Thanks again.
@@heavymetalATC I like your channel. Feels like we got the same ideas of building. I feel that I'm still learning, and not able to film it yet. So sorry. But maybe in the nearby future.. I will sign up with your super channel. :).
Hello there! Thank you for sharing this! You inspired me, I'll start this project soon. I have some questions tho: 1) I've got a DV Mark jazz 12 amplifier, which is great for clean sounds, but it doesn't seem to eat distortion pedal quite well (as the name suggests, it is not intended for that use). Which tone stack do you think can do the trick? The flatter one as you did? 2) how did you achieve the Hendrix sound? It was great! 3) do you think there's a way to insert send / return in this circuit? Would it be of some use? 4) I'd like to make a spring reverb unit, but the driver circuit is quite unclear to me. If you could make a video about that i think it would be great for the whole DIYers community You earned my like and subscription, by the way 😉
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to comment Kley. I am so glad you liked the video and were inspired to do some experimenting, that is always great to hear. Let me know how it goes and if you have any questions feel free to comment. Thanks again.
I've got a fender champ 25se that's hybrid, as preamp, tube power section and I've been wanting to find a good tube preamp option to mess about with and this is pretty inspiring man
Thats cool man those are neat little amps... Its funny how people will say oh yeah thats Hybrid i dont want no solid state front end... oh, like a $150,000 dumble overdrive special with a Jfet transistor driving it. I made a little hybrid solid state tube amp combo a few years back on the channel and I did a solid state front end going into a tube power section... like dumble and like that amp... most people seem like they think a tube preamp into a solid state amp would be better but... I thinks its just different. I mean hell anything can sound good. Those little solid state rockman headphone amps from the 80s made it on to all kinds of records.. Also Roland jazz chorus... fully solid state, clean as hell amazing sound. It is worth messingf around with one of these preamps though you can get some high signal going into that champ on the clean side and probably get it really talking on the slight breakup tube chug and chime Hendrix SRV kinda deal.
You know steve you might be a F-in genius bro! I have a really good idea for a way to 100% and exactly demonstrate this on a tube amp. dude yeah... This gave me a fantastic idea for a video I am going to put this in my notes right now. Thank you sooo much for taking the time to watch and write this comment.
Cool video, sounds great & useful, question, would this be similar to putting an ''ART tube pre-amp'' on your pedal board, and if that was possible where on your pedal board would you insert it. Cheers & thanks.
Could you suggest some good resource material for learning the in and outs of amp circuitry? I have an elementary knowledge of basic circuits from my time spent long ago in electrical apprenticeship program, but would like to learn more for my tinkering habits. Love your content, keep up the good work!
This video is a gateway drug to the rest of your stuff and (bass) guitar effects in general. Everything here is just at a level I can understand but I'm inching towards the deep end to do so. Is there a good book or 'site to flesh out the ideas you mention in this video? I bought that preamp off eBay and I'm going to have fun following the ideas you present here but I'd like to understand what I'm doing. I'm also going to make a bass P90 following one of your other videos. Great content!
Man... I've just started on small electronics because I am attempting to build my own MIDI foot controller... I really REALLY want to try this... but around the 20 min mark, it got intimidating, and I will 100 % f--k this up. The video is super inspiring though!! >M
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to write such a nice comment Enzz. I love it when someone gets the point of what I am trying to do on this channel. Awesome! Thanks again.
Great project. Subscribing too ! Supporting the DIY and yours is very interesting. At first I'm searching for this in stereo, trying to emulate the hotness of the old Korg Electribes !
If you are the techie-nerd type like me, you might want the specifications to refer to: *Specifications:* Musical Fidelity is the mid-1990s introduced products, Excellent sound effects, cute and unique appearance, after the market caused quite a stir. Its role and advantages are: the connection between it VCD, CD, DVD, CD-ROM and other digital audio and amplifier, Can greatly reduce the "digital taste" and "transistor sound", so that the entire sound system Bring an sweet natural "taste of bile" Used convenient AC 12V 500mA power supply You do not have to worry about looking for high-voltage power supply The board comes with a boost Allows you to enjoy high-pressure tube at a low supply of charm The board includes two 6J1 tube, simply connect the transformer can work 1. Voltage: AC12V 500mA 2. Dimension: 170mm x 60mm High 28MM 3. You need to add a transformer, the board can work 4. It is soldered kit.
So...is this tube preamp running into the tube preamp of the amp that you are using? Is there a way to bypass the preamp on that combo and just hear the sound of your homemade preamp? That would be a cool thing to do.
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to write such a kind comment Mike. I appreciate the sub, I will be back to a normal upload schedule very soon.
