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  • #5080
    deansouthpaw
    Participant

    Quick question for you 2strokes:

    I built Dave Hunter’s two-stroke amp from the book verbatim (minus a few tweaks he has since made). I understand that the boost switch is more of a “voice switch”, but what would you label these different voicings for each corresponding position? I’m asking because I’m having a custom faceplate created and I want something more specific than the plain Weber “boost” label.

    Thanks!

    #6057
    Robin
    Participant

    I label them “1” & “2”, but I think the most popular descriptive names for them are “Tweed” and “Plexi”.

    #6058
    deansouthpaw
    Participant

    Specifically, which caps correspond to “tweed” and “plexi”?

    #6059
    Robin
    Participant

    What does the “boost switch” boost? The schematic for the Two Stroke shows the cathode of V1 (the first side of the 12AX7 pre-amp tube) is biased with a 1.5K resistor to ground. The “boost switch” allows you to add a bypass capacitor to the 1.5K resistor going to ground. The bypass cap removes some of the feedback effect in the bias circuit and allows for more gain (and distortion). Adding the .47uF cap partially bypasses the the AC signal around the bias resistor, adding the 25uf cap passes even more of the AC signal around the resistor. So, you can see that with the “boost switch” off, the signal from the first gain stage is “un-bypassed” with the smoothest, lowest gain tone. Adding the .47uFcap increases the gain and produces a more edgy tone, selection the 25uf cap increases the gain further and provides a harder, more over-driven tone.

    No bypass cap = blackface tone, .47uf cap = Tweed tone, 25uf cap = Plexi tone. There is more information about preamp circuits and cathode biasing available at the tone wizard website. There are a number of bias calculators available online that allow you to adjust the values of a preamp circuit (including the bias bypass cap value) and see how it changes the characteristics of the preamp gain stage.

    #6060
    deansouthpaw
    Participant

    This was beyond helpful. Dave’s book is really thorough, but it’s packed full of information and I hadn’t dug into it for awhile. Thanks very much!

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