Liebe Forumsmitglieder,

der in diesem Thread beschriebene Guyatone existiert nicht mehr - bzw. nur noch in Einzelteilen! Ich habe die "Gurke" auseinandergelötet, die Guyatone Platine inklusive aller darauf befindlichen Bauteile ist nun gut verpackt für einen späteren Einsatz oder als Ersatzteilspender. Der Rest wurde recycled und ergänzt, so dass nun als mein Erstlingswerk ein wirklich toll klingender Matchless Spitfire-Clone daraus geworden ist. Danke an Andy für den tollen Tip!
Ich kann diesen Umbau uneingeschränkt empfehlen, da bei guter Planung viele Dinge direkt übernommen bzw. im Chassis belassen werden können. Lediglich die Platine muss neu gemacht und mit den Röhrensockeln verdrahtet werden.

Gerhard

Hi Gerhard

I bought this amp last year. The tremolo was Also broke. But that is not a disaster. If I put the  bass button on 10 then I have the  most volume from the amplifier with the volume control on 5. When I turn the volume to  10 then the sound is softer.Did you have this also?  Do you have the capacitors replaced or was it not worth? I understand from your last answer that you demolished  him  completely now.
Why?

You can answer me in German.


Louk Amsterdam Holland

Hello,

I visited Gerhard a couple of months ago and we decided that it was best to get rid of the original board and turn the whole amp into a Matchle$$ Spitfire. It worked out pretty well as I understand. We did not experience any of your described phenomenons with the original PCB, though. All the Pots worked as expected. But there was almost no overdive, all clean but even with the original Alinco Speaker not very pleasant, that is why Gerhard decided to go for the complete rebuild.

Regards Michael

Hi Michael

I have never heard of matchless but I saw it on you tube just now and it grooves.
Thanks for the scheme but I think I will change the capacitors first and then check what's happening. It is too much work to transfer the amp to a matchless.

But thanks anyway

Louk

Hi Louk,
sorry for the late answer, but i was really bussy in the last weeks, so there was no time to think about amps. The Guyatone 1030 i had, was a quite nice little amp, especially concerning the weight. But the sound was not convincing at all, even after repairing the tremolo and changing all capacitors to new and good ones. It was allmost impossible to get a little crunch with it. Therefor i asked the Forum here for help, which i got from Andy and Michael. With Andy i talked a lot on different possibilities and finally i took his advice to rebuild the amp completely to a Matchle$$ Spitfire clone. This was surprisingly easy, because i was able to keep and reuse all transformers, the complete tube heating wiring, the tubes and the speaker. I took out the guyatone board including the pots in case i want to rebuilt it later on (Which will never happen). As the Spitfire has a simple layout with only little parts the new board was quite inexpensive. It is surprising how well this simple amp is doing. Never thought that i will not miss for example reverb on an amp. you really don´t need, this amp sounds!! Concerning the setup of the amp i had only little trouble with minor bugs. Everything was easy to solve with the help of Andy and Micha. Now after this big success i´m thinking about adding a second stage to the amp. I allready got all parts to build up a lightning (also Matchle$$ clone), but i´m not yet shure how to switch between both stages. If this is not convincing, may be i try another preamp stage.
To come to an end, i like to say that this amp is the first where also my wife said, that it sounds good. Therfore if you are not satisfied with the sound of your guyatone, then sell it or try the spitfire layout if you have some experience in high voltage and soldering.
All the best
Gerhard