Marshall 50W Build!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Charvel_King
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Charvel_King

Charvel_King

New member
Gonna starting my own amp build, a Marshall 2204 clone. :rock:

I have sourced all the parts myself rather than buying a kit, this way i can have better control over components. Also a little lighter on the wallet too :thumbsup:

Big Thanks to Dan Gower for helping me with the parts and answering my a million questions. Thanks dude!

Also i have found the Metro Amp forum to be a wealth of knowledge, will be spending many hours on there in the coming weeks!

Gonna be doing it solo, hopefully, but i know a local amp tech who offered to help me along the way and chime in with suggestions on parts and tips! Also gonna be working out of his shop which is a bonus!

I have so far ordered 95% of the parts and am running at just under £400 for those interested in what this will cost.

Will be following this layout, form the Metro Forum:

Stock2204_zps374919c6.jpg


Also picked up some light reading, these books are fantastic:

IMG_2329_zps648cdfcc.jpg


Will be posting pics along the way and probably start a blog to go into more detail of the build.

Will keep you guys posted!
 
Awesome! I've never had enough ambition to build my own. Good luck!
 
Charvel_King":3864wtx2 said:
Gonna starting my own amp build, a Marshall 2204 clone. :rock:

I have sourced all the parts myself rather than buying a kit, this way i can have better control over components. Also a little lighter on the wallet too :thumbsup:

Big Thanks to Dan Gower for helping me with the parts and answering my a million questions. Thanks dude!

Also i have found the Metro Amp forum to be a wealth of knowledge, will be spending many hours on there in the coming weeks!

Gonna be doing it solo, hopefully, but i know a local amp tech who offered to help me along the way and chime in with suggestions on parts and tips! Also gonna be working out of his shop which is a bonus!

I have so far ordered 95% of the parts and am running at just under £400 for those interested in what this will cost.

Will be following this layout, form the Metro Forum:

Stock2204_zps374919c6.jpg


Also picked up some light reading, these books are fantastic:

IMG_2329_zps648cdfcc.jpg


Will be posting pics along the way and probably start a blog to go into more detail of the build.

Will keep you guys posted!
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Nice!

Ordered both books, myself. Seem to be having some issues with the mail, though.

:gethim:
 
Yeah! Those books are really great!

Very well written and aimed towards the guitar player!
 
Looking forward to seeing the finished article! Make sure you take lots of pics along the way and I'm sure we will get some clips going when you start tweaking.
 
Very cool. :thumbsup: My only advice is beware....it becomes very addicting. ;)
 
If you get lucky, you'll be up and running without problems.. if you aren't (most people), you will be troubleshooting little details and it can become quite frustrating so take your time and be prepared to take a step back at times. I've done a few builds.. i've decided i will never again build from scratch. I don't mind tweaking existing circuits but never ever ever again will I build one. It is time consuming and frustrating and never turns out as neat as what you see on a lot of PTP builds.. sometimes it ends up looking more like an old Traynor PTP (spaghetti) lol. Then when it is all up and running, you might wonder why it doesn't sound as good as your Marshall??? I have a 2204 build i just finished with a classic tone transformer and a mix of sozos and mallory. Works perfectly but something about the tone i dislike... I don't like the clipping i am getting and it doesn't sound that great with pedals. Brings out their diode sound too much. So the moral of the story, be prepared to tweak and obsess over your tone and spend countless hrs on the metro forum :P... now the traynor YBA-1 I spent a month tweaking I never should have sold! Sounded great when i was done with it. The guy i sold it to got a deal. :doh:

Enjoy!
 
maiden_fan":2f1a56pb said:
Looking forward to seeing the finished article! Make sure you take lots of pics along the way and I'm sure we will get some clips going when you start tweaking.
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Yep, we definitely need to do some clips of my frankenstein creation!

Also need to see if we can borrow that little Soldano clone, thing sounds unreal!
 
Kapo_Polenton":13akbo9j said:
If you get lucky, you'll be up and running without problems.. if you aren't (most people), you will be troubleshooting little details and it can become quite frustrating so take your time and be prepared to take a step back at times. I've done a few builds.. i've decided i will never again build from scratch. I don't mind tweaking existing circuits but never ever ever again will I build one. It is time consuming and frustrating and never turns out as neat as what you see on a lot of PTP builds.. sometimes it ends up looking more like an old Traynor PTP (spaghetti) lol. Then when it is all up and running, you might wonder why it doesn't sound as good as your Marshall??? I have a 2204 build i just finished with a classic tone transformer and a mix of sozos and mallory. Works perfectly but something about the tone i dislike... I don't like the clipping i am getting and it doesn't sound that great with pedals. Brings out their diode sound too much. So the moral of the story, be prepared to tweak and obsess over your tone and spend countless hrs on the metro forum :P... now the traynor YBA-1 I spent a month tweaking I never should have sold! Sounded great when i was done with it. The guy i sold it to got a deal. :doh:

Enjoy!
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I will definitely enjoy it. :D

I imagine i will have problems along that way, but its all a learning curve. Will be tweaking till i have it sounding how i want it to. :rock:
 
Guys,

I've created a blog to document my build. I will be going into more detail here and posting as a build.

Will post a condensed version on Rig-Talk

Parts should be here next week! :rock:

Here is the link: http://liam2204build.wordpress.com/
 
Loads of parts arrived today!

Here’s what turned up:

Hammond Output Transformer 1750N 50W
Hammond Power Transformer 290GX 50W
Hammond Choke 159S
Xicon Carbon Film Resistors 1W with 5% tolerance.
2 Watt Metal Oxides also 5% tolerance.
5W Metal Oxides (5% again)
SoZo “Mustard” Capacitors (these are the modern day repros of the famed Mullard Mustard Caps)
Silva Mica Capacitors
F&T Can Caps
F&T Axial Caps
Tubes Shields (Blue!)
Tube Retainers
Fuses and Fuse Holders
Mains Input Jack
Rectifier Diodes
Marshall Gold Knobs

IMG_2344_zpsf5af3b88.jpg


IMG_2345_zps8a8a4a5c.jpg


DSC_1319_zpsd816ff5e.jpg


DSC_1323_zpsffbf73dc.jpg


Added tags to the resistor legs to save me time later!
It was great finally having the parts and was exciting laying it all out on the floor, just like Christmas (maybe better!)

The transformers and choke are things to behold, they look fantastic and are certainly hefty pieces of iron, and I hope they perform as well as they look! Big shout out to Dan Gower for helping me out picking the Tranformers and Choke.

Just waiting on chassis, tube sockets, pots, etc...

Can't wait to start!
 
Are you gonna be doing a writeup, step by step? :) Awesome stuff.. iv been thinking about jumping into this myself.
 
Dan (if watching) What's special about the Hammond transformers, compared to say other high-end like Mercury Mag?
 
Jofipe":10mdjh3a said:
Are you gonna be doing a writeup, step by step? :) Awesome stuff.. iv been thinking about jumping into this myself.
Click to expand...

I won't be doing a detail step by step guide of how to build it if thats what you mean. Thats already been done by George at the Metro Amp forum. You can download his intructions (which are fantastic) and that walks you through step by step.

I don't have to time to do something like that nor do I think i could top whats already been done.

If you want to do it yourself head over to the Metro Amp forum , there is a DIY section and loads of stuff that useful. Anybody with some basic knowledge of amps and someone who can solder should be able ot do it. I think its easier than it looks.

Jofipe":10mdjh3a said:
Dan (if watching) What's special about the Hammond transformers, compared to say other high-end like Mercury Mag?
Click to expand...

Well I asked Dan about transfromers and that is what he recomended. We talked about Mercury Magnets but Dan said he preferred the Hammonds over these as the Mercurys are more mordern sounding and can be a bit harsh/gritty. I suppose it all comes down to preference, a lot poeple use the Mercurys with great results.

Mainly for me it came down to cost. If i where to buy Mercury ones or Metro, Classic Tone, etc.. the shipping alone to the UK would be as much as the trannies themselves.

The Hammond ones Dan recommended I was able to get from Tube-Town in Germany and they only charge 10Euro for the shipping in the EU, so in all was about £200 for OT, PT and Choke.

So they where the most realistic option cost wise. Hopefully they will sound good to, they are made in Canada and definitely look well built. Very heavy chunks of iron!
 
Charvel_King":2zhhsjve said:
The Hammond ones Dan recommended I was able to get from Tube-Town in Germany and they only charge 10Euro for the shipping in the EU, so in all was about £200 for OT, PT and Choke.

So they where the most realistic option cost wise. Hopefully they will sound good to, they are made in Canada and definitely look well built. Very heavy chunks of iron!
Click to expand...

FWIW: I was looking into putting together a Ceriatone AFD kit about a year ago and I would've ordered the kit w/o the hardware. Asked the Finnish DIY supplier about which to use and they came out with the same answers IIRC.
 
Michi":25kczp00 said:
Charvel_King":25kczp00 said:
The Hammond ones Dan recommended I was able to get from Tube-Town in Germany and they only charge 10Euro for the shipping in the EU, so in all was about £200 for OT, PT and Choke.

So they where the most realistic option cost wise. Hopefully they will sound good to, they are made in Canada and definitely look well built. Very heavy chunks of iron!
Click to expand...

FWIW: I was looking into putting together a Ceriatone AFD kit about a year ago and I would've ordered the kit w/o the hardware. Asked the Finnish DIY supplier about which to use and they came out with the same answers IIRC.
Click to expand...

Yeah man, i did also look in to Ceriatone but the cost of shipping would have been about $400 for a whole kit!

I've managed to get everything inlcuding a head cab for about £550 give or take. Which is less than buying a kit form Tube-Town or Ceriatone.
 
Charvel_King":1b0ujrni said:
Yeah man, i did also look in to Ceriatone but the cost of shipping would have been about $400 for a whole kit!

I've managed to get everything inlcuding a head cab for about £550 give or take. Which is less than buying a kit form Tube-Town or Ceriatone.
Click to expand...

Hey that's a really good, no, awesome price! Under 650€ including head cab, can't beat that. Of course there's the labor involved but that's a big part of the fun!

I'm so going to watch this thread :rock:!
 
Michi":36r4j3e7 said:
Charvel_King":36r4j3e7 said:
Yeah man, i did also look in to Ceriatone but the cost of shipping would have been about $400 for a whole kit!

I've managed to get everything inlcuding a head cab for about £550 give or take. Which is less than buying a kit form Tube-Town or Ceriatone.
Click to expand...

Hey that's a really good, no, awesome price! Under 650€ including head cab, can't beat that. Of course there's the labor involved but that's a big part of the fun!

I'm so going to watch this thread :rock:!
Click to expand...

Yeah i think its about that, only thing i need to buy is boltts & lock nuts and some ground lugs.. Not much more!

Check out my blog, there will be more detail on that!

Thanks man :thumbsup:
 
Rest of the parts turned up today!

This time from Modulus Amplification in Scotland:

50W Chassis:

DSC_1289_zps7564d487.jpg


Front and Rear Pannels:

DSC_1302_zpscccffb55.jpg


Turret Board:

DSC_1303_zps20857e2d.jpg


Head Cab:

DSC_1304_zpsfb4a4962.jpg


Also recieved bundles of wire, Belton Tube sockets,Toggle switches, Old Style Cliff Jacks and Alpha Pots.

Gonna be starting on moday. Chassis needs minor adjustment enlarging some holes and needs drilling for OT, PT, Choke and Caps.

http://liam2204build.wordpress.com/
 
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