Hot N Nasty
my idea of a channel swicther...

Y'know how some channel switchers sound good clean, but when you switch to dirty the tone goes to s**t. And then you can adjust stuff and dial up a pretty good dirty tone, but then the clean tone is gone. Or maybe the clean and dirty tones are so different they don't sound like they belong in the same amp. I wanted to fix that.

Most of my amps have been variations on one of the classics, Marshall, Fender, etc. For this one I started from a blank sheet, thinking about the things I wanted a simple switcher amp to have. I decided on two gain controls (hotGain and nastyGain) a common lo-mid-hi tonestack, and 2 master volumes (hotVolume and nastyVolume.) I wanted to keep it really simple so I didn't want to fool with presence or other wierd controls. At first it had no negative feedback, like a Vox or TweedDeluxe, but I decided I liked the tighter bass of the feedback.

I wanted small power, but versitile. Simple, but not "dumbed down." So I wound up with a Hammond power tranny and a nice 25 output tranny from Allen Amps. This gives the amp about 20 watts with a pair of 6V6 tubes with the ability to use ANY type of 8-pin power tube, 6L6, EL34, KT66, whatever! There are also dual bias adjustments on the chassis and test points on the rear panel. You can plug any VOM into these test points and check/set your bias and balance the bias between the power tubes. Cool!!

Another idea was a "Tweed Mixer"-type preamp. The "hot" and "nasty" tones would come together in the second tube with both plates tied together and feeding a common tonestack. Huh??? Long story short: the Hot side has 2 gain stages, the Nasty side has 3, and it's not like a Fender or a Marshall.

The Hot side can get a nice clean tone with the gain down and the master up. Full and smooth. Fender-ish, but fuller mids and easier highs. With a turn of the hotGain this side can drive the power section into a wonderful frothy overdrive. The 1st one was 20 watts with a pair of 6V6s. Since then I've done a 35 watt version that can use either 6L6s or EL34s.

The Nasty side picks up where Hot left off. This was voiced hotter, obviously, but with a more tightly controlled bass response to keep the tone from getting mushy. You see, when you add more gain it builds up in the bass frequencies first. It's important to control that, but not thin out the sound. I also wanted the overdrive to be smooth and not fuzzy or buzzy. A lot of tweaking took place here and I think I've come up with a winner. Crunchy, but not fuzzy. Growly, but still cleans up when you back off the guitar. You can even put pedals with it and it doesn't freak out. It works with the power section in a very interactive way for the best of preamp and poweramp overdrive.

The switching is done with a Weber relay board and is instant and silent. There is a front panel channel switch and a rear panel footswitch jack. The amp can use any spst-type footswitch. I make a hotSwitch pedal to go with this amp that includes an LED that lights in "Nasty" mode. This is connected to the amp with any ordinary guitar cable.