My ideal amp...doable?

[Pott]

1 EL34, 15W, pentode/tride switch + some way to bring it down to 2W for bedroom practice.

2 12AX7. 2 gain stages, one triode is the driver, the fourth a gain boost. 1 stage before EQ, one after, the extra gain stage is after. There's also a clean boost by switching bias resistor on the first gain stage.

4 band EQ (with low AND high mid pots), a gain pot for the second stage, a gain pot for the footswitchable stage, presence and master volume, with a basic reverb and a simple footswitchable parrallel effects loop. The extra gain stage is footswitchable, along with the clean boost. So I have a clean sound, a clean sound with extra stage, a clean boost on top of it. So clean, rythm, lead. Plus effects loop if I need modulation.

It's voiced for a rather neutral EQ, with not too much power but not too useless tone knobs. The reverb is light and smooth. Obviously, the sound should be Marshall inspired ;) single input I think, with a speaker extension socket for 8ohms.

12'' speaker, something quite neutral but not boring. Probably some Celestion. In a not a real small cab, but still portable. Obviously the output tranny is as big as it comes.

Does this seem doable? With the stuff that companies like Mesa and Marshall are coming up with, it seems rather simple but I don't know all THAT much...

[TheAmpNerd]

1 EL34, 15W, pentode/tride switch + some way to bring it down to 2W for bedroom practice.

2 12AX7. 2 gain stages, one triode is the driver, the fourth a gain boost. 1 stage before EQ, one after, the extra gain stage is after. There's also a clean boost by switching bias resistor on the first gain stage.

4 band EQ (with low AND high mid pots), a gain pot for the second stage, a gain pot for the footswitchable stage, presence and master volume, with a basic reverb and a simple footswitchable parrallel effects loop. The extra gain stage is footswitchable, along with the clean boost. So I have a clean sound, a clean sound with extra stage, a clean boost on top of it. So clean, rythm, lead. Plus effects loop if I need modulation.

It's voiced for a rather neutral EQ, with not too much power but not too useless tone knobs. The reverb is light and smooth. Obviously, the sound should be Marshall inspired ;) single input I think, with a speaker extension socket for 8ohms.

12'' speaker, something quite neutral but not boring. Probably some Celestion. In a not a real small cab, but still portable. Obviously the output tranny is as big as it comes.

Does this seem doable? With the stuff that companies like Mesa and Marshall are coming up with, it seems rather simple but I don't know all THAT much...

I'm not so sure about some of your design goal though..many seem
redundant and at odd with eacher.

Sure it is, how much to do you want to pay for it.?

You are almost talking a deluxe reverb here, w/ enhanced EQ
add a couple more tubes for reverb....can dump the trem
add tube FX, a couple of other features.

Design it with with a single ended EL34 output design.

Marshall Inspired depends...

Marshall originally was Fender inspired.

O'Connor would tell ya to power scale it.

Some of what you can do, with the right amp would be
guitar volume knob dependent and use a good pedal in
front.

Some of this also speaks to the THD amps.

Just food for thought....

Anyone else?

[Pott]

Well that's the idea.. I don't want a super powerful front end, and I want to be able to take it down to low voltages for recording, while at the same time being a gig worthy amp (hence the presence control and effects loop).

The low and high mids aren't really necessary... it's just a feature I sometimes wish were on guitar amps too.

Effects loop can be really forward though. I wasn't really thinking tube driven. Same for the reverb. Heck the reverb could be digital for all I care, the reverb on those new Marshalls is beautiful.

The goal is to plug in an axe, and already have 3 similar sounds at your footsteps. Now since the front end isn't uber loaded, it should be less compressed than a gain monster while at the same time still heavy enough with all the boosts on. So you can also use your guitar's volume to clean things up if it's your style. The footswitchable loop would allow for some modulation to be placed in the loop and switched in and out simply.

Just something designed to be handy basically. Something you can record, practice or gig with, it's not a 24 channel monster with individual EQs each based on a different year of the AC30 and Plexi, just something Marshall based with 3 main sounds made by straightforward needs.

[ChickenLover]

I think...depending on your experience...it would likely take a LOT of tweaking to get this amp anywhere close to the way you want it to sound on all 'channels' if you ever even get there. For the most part, when I try to build new circuits that are intended to sound 'Marshally', I invariably end up with a circuit that's very 'Marshally' in order to get there. I really think that just 2 preamp tubes total and not using a long-tail PI (you said just one triode for the driver) will be hard to get that close to a Marshall tone.

That's not to say you couldn't make it or make it sound good...just that I think it would be very difficult to get it sounding excellent on all channels/modes.

[Pott]

Fair enough. Anything over 15W is just way too loud for any conceivable uses to me :( hence why I'd like it single ended with a big bottle.
But the Marshall sound isn't THAT Important I guess, the ballpark matters more. Thinking of it, I'd actually be happier with a single ended Fender sound with more gain :D The EL34 would bring that sound a bit more to my liking.