Help me design my Dunwich amplifier

[D.o.S.]

That's pretty true of almost every "classically voiced" amp on the market. You get a Fender 'cause it always sounds like a Fender, you get a Marshall 'cause it always sounds like a Marshall, and you get a Dumble 'cause you're a douche.


Anyway.

[AngryGoldfish]

Enough Weed Wizards!

[D.o.S.]

Never Enough Weed Wizards!

[Holy Schnikes]

The one with the pizza haha! Nice touch.

[sylnau]

Why not gettin the Carr instead (they are beautiful and sound great)?

I would trade my Bogner anytimes for a Carr Tweed style.
But there's no Carr reseller here and I'm very happy with the tone of my Bogner Duende 1 X 12.

[AngryGoldfish]

Carr amps are out of my budget right now. A Rambler or a Bloke are around €2300. I estimate the Dunwich will be ~€1600 when taxes and shipping fees are calculated. Besides, a Carr amp doesn't have the gain that I use. Nick uses military spec components (like Carr) and charges considerably less. Although Carr have great customer service, it's not to the level of Dunwich. It feels like I'm building this amp myself, I'm that close to the project. And besides, I've been on the waiting list for a Dunwich for two years now it would be foolish to spend all my precious monies on a Carr. With that said, I do intend to buy a Carr Rambler one day. That's a dream amp for sure. I'll head over to the UK distributor later this year and give them all a whirl. Then I'll start the saving process. It'll probably be Christmas 2014 before I'll be able to afford a Carr. Or maybe I'll be so happy with the Dunwich I won't need anything else. Or maybe all the Carr amps will sound like Fender pussy amps. Who can tell.

So what's the opinion on red vs black tolex?

[sylnau]

Oupsss, I though a custom Dunwich would cost a lot more.

[AngryGoldfish]

Nick's prices have always been extremely low considering what he puts into them. If Dunwich was a full-on business, which wouldn't really work for many people as it currently stands, I'd take a guess the prices would be around $3,000-3,500 instead of ~$1500. They'd be in Soldano prices. I might be wrong there. It's just a guesstimation.

[sylnau]

I will keep Dunwich in mind for my next amp.
Carr and Swart are what would interest me atm.
But I cannot put money on an amp atm.

[AngryGoldfish]

Do. If you want a Carr or a Swart then get a Carr or a Swart. I wanted something different. If you want something different then Nick is your man. Few companies build what Dunwich build.

[Holy Schnikes]

No Carr will get the kind of gain range you're after, more gain than a JCM800 is not what they do. Gorgeous amps, inside and out, immaculate point-to-point, AWESOME customer service but your circuit design sounds far more versatile for less money.

[AngryGoldfish]

Yeah, even their high gain amp is only around JCM800 levels, and it's a different voicing. It's still a blues lawyer amp. Just a very good one.

I wanted to be safe with this build. The amp had to be right, so I went with what I knew I loved: Marshall and Matamp.

[Ancient Astronaught]

I don't want to copy Carr TOOO much, ya know? Just a little.

This is the design I came up with. I'll have to see if it's possible. I'm talking with Nick now about it.

I really like this design alot, but the waves curves might be hard to tolex correctly. If you were going stained I would totally so go with this design.

Dan is sort of in a catch 22 on this design since he has some conflicting design constraints or ideas. Basically making it small as possible but with enough controls for flexibility leads to the reverse mounted chassis idea. I can do top mounted but I need to expand the size of the chassis and the cabinet to accommodate the mounting which makes everything bigger and some what heavier. It has 7 controls I believe at this moment and for size reduction I even dumped the Standby switch (not needed either way) so that I could squeeze it down in terms of size. There are limitations in terms of how small you can make it with full size PEC pots and a completely turret design.

In terms of weight and size it wont be a huge increase going to top mounted approach. It wont be optimally light IMO but it wont be that much heavier.

Since the design above is more rectangular, and using top mount design would make it more rectangular while only marginally adding more weight it seems like this would be the way to go. If you made the cab deeper you might be able to coax some more perceivable low end, but it seems thats not what this amp is being designed for, and I'm not sure it would be worth it as the controls would become harder to access. Which is something to consider since you won't have a footswitch to control the eq on/offs, or will you?

So what's the opinion on red vs black tolex?

Red Carr.jpg

Carr Mercury black (1).jpg

Dude that red tolex with black grill is smokin hot. Between the two it would be my clear choice.

[AngryGoldfish]

Glad to hear your thoughts, man.

I was worried about tolexing those curves. It had occurred to me a few weeks ago that it might not be possible. I'll have to talk with Adam the builder about it. If it's not possible then some redesigning and rethinking might be in order. I could get Tom at HEX to make it and stain it, like you say, or I could have the faceplate on the front facing outwards, just to add some spice to the look, though I'd rather go the stained route.

The actual dimensions will be something like 21"(W) x 17"(H) x 12"(D). It'll be less rectangular than my mock-up. I'm just terrible at art.

That red tolex amp actually has, I believe, the same grill cloth as the other one. It's just the way the light is hitting the amp in the photograph.

[sylnau]

Love the design too!