NAD: Retro Roberts valve radio conversion ...

4114Effects

Here's a cute little thing ...

Started as a broken Roberts valve radio. 

Now it's a unique champ style circuit with a few differences. Preamp is a 6SL7 - fatter, smoother and slightly lower gain than a champ. Tone control is a clever mid-shift, goes from scooped blackface mids to full on raw tweed champ, very versatile and much more useful than a standard treble cut. 

Switches for gain boost and bright. 

Output is a 6k6, lower wattage and earlier breakup than a standard 6V6 champ.

I've included a 6.5" speaker in there so it can be used as a very compact practice amp - lots of vintage tone and fuzzy speaker breakup. Or simply plug a cab into the jack socket, which defeats the internal speaker and makes it into a completely different and much louder beast.

mli3

Very cool. I’ve been wanting to do something like that for a while. You can pick up some great old radios on eBay! 

ICBM

Bet it sounds better than all the modern 'radio type' guitar amps .

bandmaster188

Nice,Is it DAB as well?

ecc83

Awww! ***t! I have always wanted to try some of the old battery valves for a very low power guitar amps

DL96 and such. I think a pair in push pull could just about manage a watt? THAT's what I first thought you had done.

Dave.

4114Effects

ecc83 said:

Awww! ***t! I have always wanted to try some of the old battery valves for a very low power guitar amps

DL96 and such. I think a pair in push pull could just about manage a watt? THAT's what I first thought you had done.

Dave.

Maybe next time ... :-)

bodhi

Oh my that is beyond cool.

earwighoney

That's amazing! 

@4114Effects how much does the amp weigh?  It looks like a lot fun. 

4114Effects

earwighoney said:

That's amazing! 

@4114Effects how much does the amp weigh?  It looks like a lot fun. 

Not much at all - very easy one hand carry

prowla

I really like that.

(It deserves putting a nice back on it too!)