[AthenaZephyrian]

I used some ancient rub 'n buff to steampunk/dieselpunk my Little Dot I+. I bought newer paints, and a few colors I lost, and will make a much more appealing revision soon.

I feel a tube amp should look as old, different and awesome as the tubes themselves.

 

[Haidar]

Nice! I would try to sand down those etched parallel lines too.
Too bad that kind of look isn't more common in hifi.

 

[AthenaZephyrian]

Nice! I would try to sand down those etched parallel lines too.
Too bad that kind of look isn't more common in hifi.

That's a great idea! Now I feel like getting a second, because I kinda like the "ancient oscilloscope/other industrial electronics" look...and I think it might also help with heat dissipation.

It looks even better with Voskhod 6ZH1P-EV tubes, too!

Maybe I should take a CNC to 'er and add slots for heatsinks...could look pretty sweet, an maybe cool the rig off too. Might also tritium paint the socket caps and add some wiring applied conformally to the transformers for craps and giggles. I also plan to replace the blue LED with a red or green one.

Now how can we make this unicorn-puke RGB? I kid.

 

[Haidar]

Yes! You could swap that knob for a lever of some sort too. And a greenish LED would match the colors.
If you want to go all out, disassemble the chassis and make a new one from old metal pieces & scraps.

Why not start a steampunk thread in the DIY section? Do an image search for "steampunk amplifier"...

 

[AthenaZephyrian]

Yes! You could swap that knob for a lever of some sort too. And a greenish LED would match the colors.
If you want to go all out, disassemble the chassis and make a new one from old metal pieces & scraps.

Why not start a steampunk thread in the DIY section? Do an image search for "steampunk amplifier"...

Mmm that'd be cool. I'd definitely have to bust out the CNC mill for the lever. I also like the scrap idea...maybe vintage audio gear parts, with some conformal metal additions (or faux metal; glue "rivets" on an index card can be painted over to look like riveted metal, and easily wrapped over smooth topologies).

Hmm. You mean add some other amps that someone else made? That seems like a fun idea!

EDIT: Bloody hell this is cool!

Would dispense many $.... lol

 

[Haidar]

I was thinking you could find a lever from something else and re-purpose it- remove the volume knob and attach the lever in its place.

Do you have any experience sautering or working on circuits? You might think about modifying the sound of the amp to get closer to the sound of older amplifiers, like from the 40s and 50s. Could be fun to experiment.

I imagined a new DIY thread would be mainly for people to discuss their modifications to amps and ones they're building in that style. But photos of other amps would be neat too.

 

[jimbop54]

Have you seen these?

http://www.electronluv.com/#amps

 

[AthenaZephyrian]

I was thinking you could find a lever from something else and re-purpose it- remove the volume knob and attach the lever in its place.

Do you have any experience sautering or working on circuits? You might think about modifying the sound of the amp to get closer to the sound of older amplifiers, like from the 40s and 50s. Could be fun to experiment.

I imagined a new DIY thread would be mainly for people to discuss their modifications to amps and ones they're building in that style. But photos of other amps would be neat too.

Yeah, I understand what you're saying, but the current volume potentiometer is rotary rather than axial, and an axial (lever) system would require vertical play, necessitating a vertical gap in the case. The current gap is cylindrical--so milling is required.

I have a fair bit of experience soldering; I've built a shortwave radio with about 500 parts. If I were going to turn the sound back to 50's style I'd have to 1) go full-tube, making it incompatible with my low-impedance planar cans, and use some really, truly awful tubes or 2) use 50's music. The 50's sound mostly comes from how it was recorded; technology of the day had some big rolloff in on the low and high ends, so approximating it with an amplifier would be...difficult. You could do it if you built in an equalizer. Perhaps I could cannibalize an old radio, gut it, and stick an EQ box and a tube amp inside. I already have an old radio.

Here's an example of an EQ that brings stuff a bit closer to 50's

This may be a bit extreme for the recordings, but certainly approximates the actual sound of music on period equipment, with offloading of the most resolving frequencies. Most of the remaining, pronounced frequencies don't deal well with fast music and percussion, somewhat imitating the ridiculous transient lags you often find in old, consumer-grade speakers.

 

[AthenaZephyrian]

Have you seen these?

http://www.electronluv.com/#amps

The electronluv stuff looks pretty awesome...so clean and shiny though. I like the grimy dieselpunk look, for my home rig.

 

[Haidar]

I wonder if you could drill into the volume knob and attach a lever to it so you could control the volume by rotating the lever. That could look good too, especially with a sizeable lever.

Another approach to altering the sound would be to switch out parts like resistors, capacitors, tubes, etc., or even change the tube bias or modify the circuit more radically. People at diyaudio.com are happy to offer advice about things like that.

Personally I wouldn't bother with an EQ box. Frequency response is definitely part of the vintage sound, but there are other elements involved too, like harmonic distortion and time-domain distortion, related to things like slew rate. You could try altering those, even if you want to keep frequency response roughly the same. For example, tube guitar amplifiers can have lots of harmonic distortion. Using things like variable resistors, you could install a knob to control how much of the vintage sound you hear. And there are so-called hybrid tube circuits which have very low output impedance, which work better for certain headphones. Lots of fun things to try!

 

[AthenaZephyrian]

I wonder if you could drill into the volume knob and attach a lever to it so you could control the volume by rotating the lever. That could look good too, especially with a sizeable lever.

Another approach to altering the sound would be to switch out parts like resistors, capacitors, tubes, etc., or even change the tube bias or modify the circuit more radically. People at diyaudio.com are happy to offer advice about things like that.

Personally I wouldn't bother with an EQ box. Frequency response is definitely part of the vintage sound, but there are other elements involved too, like harmonic distortion and time-domain distortion, related to things like slew rate. You could try altering those, even if you want to keep frequency response roughly the same. For example, tube guitar amplifiers can have lots of harmonic distortion. Using things like variable resistors, you could install a knob to control how much of the vintage sound you hear. And there are so-called hybrid tube circuits which have very low output impedance, which work better for certain headphones. Lots of fun things to try!

So an axial lever-like projection from the knob? Hmm that could do nicely! Thanks!

Woops, I quite underestimated your knowledge. Pardon me, you have me far beat here.

1) I was planning to switch the caps out for some better ones, and see if any of the resistors were really illogical in resistance value in context...I didn't realize modification of these with different intent could produce a vintage sound.
2) Guitar amp tubes could work...voltage is too high though. That can be solved, in theory, but would probably require some serious reworking, and a whole different PSU.
3) I bet I could get a low-slew-rate op-amp for it, and experiment with an op-amp with a high supply voltage lower cutoff, to induce clipping.
4) I suppose some of the more laid-back tubes could provide a bit of a vintage sound, even without significant modification.

You have any idea how hard it would be to modify the Little Dot I+ to run guitar amp tubes? A do you know of any tubes you'd recommend (preferably 7-pin, 6.3v, as this would require no modification...a pipe dream I'm sure)?

I'm going to be a lot poorer soon. CURSES

Thanks for the tips.

 

[Haidar]

You might find that sections of the current chassis prevent you from switching in parts that are too big. Don't let that stop you. You could remove or modify those sections of the chassis so they don't get in the way. It may look better with some components sticking out.

The sound you get is a function of the tube(s) together with the circuit and parts selection, so using a tube that's common in guitar amps might not by itself get you the type of tone you want.

I would try to get a hold of a schematic for the Little Dot. If there isn't one, then open it up and take a photo of the circuit and someone could advise you from there.

 

[AthenaZephyrian]

You might find that sections of the current chassis prevent you from switching in parts that are too big. Don't let that stop you. You could remove or modify those sections of the chassis so they don't get in the way. It may look better with some components sticking out.

The sound you get is a function of the tube(s) together with the circuit and parts selection, so using a tube that's common in guitar amps might not by itself get you the type of tone you want.

I would try to get a hold of a schematic for the Little Dot. If there isn't one, then open it up and take a photo of the circuit and someone could advise you from there.

Alright, I'll take this over to the forum you mention. I'm also considering buying a cheap 12AX7/AU7 kit and modifying it. I could build a chassis from wood or metal pretty easily, and it would be cheap as dirt, plus I wouldn't have to kill my little dot.

 

[Haidar]

Don't worry, if you kill the Little Dot it will be reborn.