rj – Triple Watt
The rj Triple Watt brings together several really fun pieces in tube amp building efforts. It was not taken from an existing amp build but rather brought together pieces from a few different ones. It uses an old 5879 pentode as the first gain stage and then the first triode of a 6BM8 as the second gain stage and then the pentode output as the final stage. It makes for a very tidy little package and a minimal number of parts overall.
My hand drawn schematic that came together as I built the amp
I borrowed pieces from a few old schematics to bring together this unique and simple preamp with the well established 6BM8 output section. Eventually it became on of my better sounding small amps and might win the prize for the simplest amp I’ve managed to put together so far.
I can’t recall where I found this microphone preamp schematic but it clearly was something old I dug up somewhere.
This is another case where my eyes saw something useful but my mind has no clear memory where this came from… most likely just digging through 6BM8 archives online.
In this case, I think I took this from Aspen Pittman’s book full of amp schematics… or maybe it was on the accompanying CD. Either way, this old Les Paul amp was part of my inspiration to build the triple watt. It gave me some hope that the 5879 preamp tube could be useful as the first gain stage in a guitar amp.
I’ve got it mounted into a cabinet now and need to finish up a little wood work to make it gig ready.
