AD30TCH Clone

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Farrerdale Records
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AD30TCH Clone

Post by Farrerdale Records » Thu Oct 25, 2018 12:04 am

There are heaps of Fender or Marshall clones, but has anyone thought of cloning a AD30TC in PTP with different cap materials?

Jondog
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Re: AD30TCH Clone

Post by Jondog » Thu Oct 25, 2018 1:11 am

I built a single channel AD30 clone a few years back. Long gone now though. Made an error with a fuse value and fried the transformer with a bad tube (mistakingly had a 5 amp fuse installed instead of the .5 amp labelled fuses I had lying around). Friend wanted the parts. Still have a 2 watt amp I built with the AD30 preamp in it. Haven’t plugged it in a while. Have pics somewhere on the internet. They’re actually quite simple in design.
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fiveightandten
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Re: AD30TCH Clone

Post by fiveightandten » Thu Oct 25, 2018 2:29 am

Most Fender and Marshall clones are of vintage circuits that are expensive and/or hard to find. People aren't generally out there cloning HRD's, DSL401s, or other modern PCB designed amps that are cheap and easy to buy.

The other consideration is that those old Marshalls and Fenders were originally wired on eyelet boards, so there are layouts out there known to operate nicely. When you convert an amp like the AD30, you could have noise or oscillation issues to trouble shoot. The AD140 custom should layout would be the closest thing to follow, IMO, if you can find some detailed photos of one of those.

You might save $200-300 off the price of just buying a used AD30 if you cloned one using the same or better quality parts. I guess it all depends on how much your time is worth. If you have transformers, a chassis, or other parts lying around that lower the financial outlay, it starts to make sense more.

It could be a cool project, or a waste of time. It all depends on your viewpoint.

-Nick
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'71 GRO100 || '96 OR-80 || AD30 || '64 AC-50 || AC-30TBX || Hiwatt DR504 || HI-TONE HT30
LP Standard || LP Studio || LP Custom Lite || Ric 620 || Ric 360 || MIA Tele || SG 61 RI

Jondog
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Re: AD30TCH Clone

Post by Jondog » Thu Oct 25, 2018 2:56 am

Definitely not cheap building an amp. Has to be for fun, hobby, experience.
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Les Paul Lover
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Re: AD30TCH Clone

Post by Les Paul Lover » Thu Oct 25, 2018 5:39 am

I've been trying with the idea of building an AD5 clone one day..... not saying I wont do it, but buyimg the transformers alone costs about the same as a 2nd hand one...


AD30s are plentiful on the 2md hand market, and have pretty poor resale value too, and that definitely makes building a clone an experience, rather than a cost saving, as Jondog mentioned.
Ant

Orange Gear: RV50 MKI, R30, AD15, PPC212
And.... Genz Benz Black Pearl 30
Past Orange: AD30TC Combo, TT, AD5


Guitars: Gibson Les Paul Standard Faded, Vigier Expert Retro 54, Gibson SG 70s Tribute, Aria Pro II RS X80, G&L ASAT Special Tribute

Farrerdale Records
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Re: AD30TCH Clone

Post by Farrerdale Records » Fri Oct 26, 2018 8:16 pm

I would agree with all points mentioned, it is mostly for experience and hobby, especially considering I find nothing wrong in general with the amp. I do just want to be able to tweak it for adding things like pentode and triode modes, half power mode, maybe a high/low input, single master volume, and easier component changes.

I am getting more and more signal noise which I assume is the electrolytics, I've had the amp close to 15 years.

I do have a Deluxe reverb that i will start with and convert that to PTP to start on as there is such a huge resource on those, I just hoped others had tinkered a bit more with their Ornages and shared that like folks do with Fenders or Marshalls

fiveightandten
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Re: AD30TCH Clone

Post by fiveightandten » Sat Oct 27, 2018 3:43 am

Farrerdale Records wrote:
Fri Oct 26, 2018 8:16 pm
I would agree with all points mentioned, it is mostly for experience and hobby, especially considering I find nothing wrong in general with the amp. I do just want to be able to tweak it for adding things like pentode and triode modes, half power mode, maybe a high/low input, single master volume, and easier component changes.

I am getting more and more signal noise which I assume is the electrolytics, I've had the amp close to 15 years.

I do have a Deluxe reverb that i will start with and convert that to PTP to start on as there is such a huge resource on those, I just hoped others had tinkered a bit more with their Ornages and shared that like folks do with Fenders or Marshalls
If you like working on amps, I say go for it. There just may be some trial and error going on with the layout to get it quiet.

FWIW, one of my AD30s was a bit hissy and bending the heater leads away from key components definitely quieted it down. You’d usually expect that to be hum, but I was getting noise floor hiss from it.

There are definitely some people here who have tinkered with AD30s. Jon built a clone as he mentioned above. I’ve swapped power transformers and output transformers in 3 of them. And I’ve played around with the cap values in the circuit a bit. I hard wired the heater lines in my combo after it self destructed. And done some other small work on them.

I’ve mentioned it in a few threads now, but of the AD30s I’ve owned, the power transformers we’re puttinng out the wildly different B+ voltages. It definitely made the amps sound notably different, so it’s something worth paying attention to. The lower voltage PT I had made it sound more bass heavy and yielded more preamp gain, and less headroom. Higher B+ was brighter and more clear. The lower voltage PT sounded good for crunch tones, but I had to keep the bass rolled off quite low to get good definition out of it. The higher voltage one yields a channel 2 that could use a little more bass with single coils.

Personally, I shift the slope resistor value on my channel 1 tone stack, as I find that channel can get a tad muddy with some guitars. I can’t recall the value that I settled on, but I used it to shift the mid hump up a little.

The way the PCB is designed, it would be a pain to implement a 1/2 power switch. IMO, that would be a big benefit to having a hand wired version. I’ve actually been thinking about gutting my Tiny Terror and hand wiring that. It’s a bit easier though due to the simple circuit and the availability of photos of the hard wired version, and Ade’s tagboard prototype.
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'71 GRO100 || '96 OR-80 || AD30 || '64 AC-50 || AC-30TBX || Hiwatt DR504 || HI-TONE HT30
LP Standard || LP Studio || LP Custom Lite || Ric 620 || Ric 360 || MIA Tele || SG 61 RI

Farrerdale Records
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Re: AD30TCH Clone

Post by Farrerdale Records » Tue Dec 10, 2019 3:32 am

So I picked up a Fender Blues JR for cheap and have been using the chassis, PT, and cab as the basis for building a little AD15R with the CH1 from the AD30.

In regards to adding reverb to the circuit of an AD15, I have a cheaper Fender 22K primary reverb transformer, and I able to substitute the 10K AD30R transformer with the Fender part if I drop the plate resistor from 22K to 10K?

I realize the OT had to be swapped as the AD15 has a 8K OT value instead of the BJ3 6K.

Thanks for any help!

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