FUQ (eff -yu - cue) - FAQ's with an EDGE

Tagged As: Vintage Guitar Amp

Question:
I am building a JTM45 vintage tube amplifier for guitar and I want to add a reverb effect to it. I have both the schematic of the amp and the reverb effect. Where whould I add the reverb? right after the preamp or before the preamp? or right before the output amp?

Answer:
Why did you select that particular reverb unit? If you are going to all that fun there must be many classic tube driven, spring tank designs that you could try to incorporate. Remember, it will require a pot, two triode sections (one tube), a reverb tranny, and a few caps and resistors, so plan accordingly for power requirements. Also, make allowance for it to be foot switchable, otherwise, it won't be as much fun to play. Go to www.schematicheaven.com where you can download a variety of schematics of classic amps. It seems that Fender liked to use a 12AT7 driver and 12AX7 recover, which is a PITA if you need to add both tubes and only use half of each. Gibson (look for -RVT models) tended to use the same kind of tube on both ends (6EU7 or 12AX7, which are the same internally). Is this your first amp? Doing this whole thing is a pretty ambitious undertaking. You might consider building in an effects loop (you'll have to get up to speed on them first) so that you can solve the reverb problem later and concentrate on building the amp.