GDS 18 watt Marshall clone

[M29]

Well...I am going to get my GDS Marshall clone this week:Dude: :Dude: :Dude: I won't be able to play it for a while because it is a kit. I can't wait to get the box of parts:drool:
Graydon the owner of GDS lives about 50 miles from my house and I stopped by to see his amps about a month ago. I had a great time and wow are his amps nice! I am getting the 18 watt with tremelo in a head version. I don't care for top mounted controls so I opted for the head version, then when I get rich I can find a nice Bassman head to put on top of the GDS head:Dude: Oh man I will have Fender cleans and Marshall A/B ed. Please excuse me for sprouting off I can't help it I am excited, I'm running around the house with a maple syrup bottle and :pancake

[Bloozcat]

Christmas is coming early for you M29! :AOK:

You're going to go out of your mind waiting, until you can assemble it...;)

[M29]

Hello Bloozcat!

I am going to meet Graydon on Thursday to pick it up and I don't know if I can wait. Maybe I should not open the box until Christmas...nope I can't do it. Maybe I will see if I can get it tonight...Shoot I don't know what to do...I guess I will have to wait until Thursday:drool:

M29

[Tone2TheBone]

Does the kit come complete with a ready made head enclosure or will you be making that yourself?

[M29]

Hello Tone,

You can get it with a Combo cab or a head and they cost extra. I might end up making a single 12 combo cab with the controls facing forward. I can see them better that way. Not that there are a lot of knobs on something like this but I just like seeing them out front.
I am going to get a head cab though until I decide on making another cab. I need to get some playing done, I have been moddin way too much, now I have to build an amp. I will enjoy this though, I am going savor it...

M29

[Tone2TheBone]

Hello Tone,

You can get it with a Combo cab or a head and they cost extra. I might end up making a single 12 combo cab with the controls facing forward. I can see them better that way. Not that there are a lot of knobs on something like this but I just like seeing them out front.
I am going to get a head cab though until I decide on making another cab. I need to get some playing done, I have been moddin way too much, now I have to build an amp. I will enjoy this though, I am going savor it...

M29

When you make the cabinet take some more pics of the tolexing process. :beer:

[M29]

Will do Tone.

M29

[Bloozcat]

Here's a great tutorial on tolexing, if you haven't seen it, M29:
http://s238.photobucket.com/albums/ff243/Casey4s/

[M29]

Thanks Bloozcat:AOK: Hey Tone there ya go!

M29

[Tone2TheBone]

Rats, I can't look at it until I get home it's blocked here. Thanks Blooz and M!

[M29]

Hello,

Well I got my box of parts setting on the bench.

http://www.qix.net/~lmjbo/gdsparts.jpg

I am checking the value of all the resistors right now and I have made sure all the parts are included. Nothin but top notch parts in this baby. Sprague Atoms, a few carbon comp resistors in the right places and Orange Drops all over the place. Oh yeah the best part, Custom GDS/Heyboer vintage transformers . This will keep me busy for a while until it is time for :pancake

M29

[M29]

Hello,

Well... Here is where I am at with my build. I have been taking my time, lots going on with the family right now but progress is progress.

http://www.qix.net/~lmjbo/gds2.jpg

http://www.qix.net/~lmjbo/gds3.jpg

Can't wait to try it out:D

M29

[Tone2TheBone]

Wowww! Now THAT is dang cool! That looks like a freakin' Marshall right there. Point to point and parts thrown all over the place I love it! Thanks for the choice pics Barry!

[Kazz]

That is so sweet....and great that you have the courage to attempt this. Man that gives the me the urge for a project....havent messed with real electronics since college.

[F_BSurfer]

very sweeeeeeeeeet Gds Cadillac of all kits

[M29]

Thank you for the kind words on my kit. GDS makes it very easy to build. They mark each part with the value and a layout number which makes it very quick to put together.

http://www.qix.net/~lmjbo/gds4.jpg


Barry

[F4DPhantomII]

Lets get that amp finished!And learn Funk#49:beer:

[M29]

Ok Ok I'm, workin on it:thwap:

Funk what? Oh 49...Joe Walsh Yeah that is a good one:rockon:


M29

[Big K]

M-29: could you snap a photo of the back side of the turret board, curious how the connections happen?

[M29]

Hello Big K,

The bottom of the board is actually the same as the top. All the connections are made with wire and components on the top. This is actually referred to as an eylet-board, I believe a turret board has the connections that stand proud of the board where you wrap the wire and parts around the turret so to speak. This is where the point to point comes in. I do not have a picture yet that shows much wiring from the board to the various tube sockets, jacks and transformers and such. This is where things start to get hairy. All of a sudden there are wires going everywhere and that is the actual connection of everything, otherwise the parts, caps, resistors and what not are just setting there. I just need to hook up the power switches and a few more transformer connections and I will be ready to go over everything again to double and triple check and then I can check voltages and then fire her up.

I hope this helps. I will have another photo soon of the finished chassis.

M29

[tot_Ou_tard]

D@ng! I missed this thread

(I know, I know, no-one wants to hear about the good old days with newsreaders that paid attention to what you actually read).

M29, you mentioned pics, but I see no links or embedded photos in this thread.

Please post some so I may honor your greatness :master: with a few

ooOOOOooooos

:master:

and
aaaAAAAAHHHHhhhhsss


:master:

[M29]

Thank you tot_Ou_tard :D

Are all of you not getting any images in this thread? I see them in my browser.

Tot are you getting just the red X's

M29

[just strum]

I see photos everywhere, not sure why Tot wouldn't be seeing them.

[tot_Ou_tard]

OK, I see them now. There were no red x's, just no photos.

WOW! :master::master::master::master:beautiful work there M29!

I love seeing amp-guts porn.

Someday, I'll build one myself.

[M29]

Well...she is all finished. Tomorrow I fire it up and check voltages. Hopefully I will get to play her too.:rockon:

http://www.qix.net/~lmjbo/gds6.jpg


Hopefully I will be able to get some playing done now and some clips. No more projects for a while.:messedup:

M29

[tunghaichuan]

That looks great :AOK: Nice tidy wiring.

tung


Well...she is all finished. Tomorrow I fire it up and check voltages. Hopefully I will get to play her too.:rockon:

Hopefully I will be able to get some playing done now and some clips. No more projects for a while.:messedup:

M29

[tot_Ou_tard]

One of those capacitors is wired incorrectly....

...:D just kidding, looks great & I'm sure it'll sound even better :master:

[F_BSurfer]

yes indeed looks very nice

[M29]

Oh man ya had me there for a second tot:messedup:

Well...I turned it on and no sparks. The tubes lit up nice and even. I still have to check some voltages before I plug it in. I can't get any rest around here, too much going on from Christmas still. No rush.................:rockon:
Still have to go over and neaten up some of the wire routing and the knobs and rear plexi panel are not in yet. It is getting close.

Thank you all for the kind words.

M29

[JJ Gross]

Please excuse me for sprouting off I can't help it I am excited, I'm running around the house with a maple syrup bottle and :pancake

Here you go - something to do with that syrup!

http://images.craigslist.org/0101040102040104022007122513bf694563e89484e50029dc .jpg

:D

[LagrangeCalvert]

Man I played a hand wired marshall clone about three weeks ago...I feel in love but my wallet divorced me....so did my peavey delta blues!

Sweet amp and I cannot wait to hear it once your done.

[oldguy]

Looks great, M29!! You do nice work!
Is Robert's Heatseeker built along the same lines?????:whatever:

[M29]

Hello oldguy, I have not come across any schematics or anything that I could compare to this GDS amp. Not sure on comparing it to a Heatseaker.



Well I am little closer to finishing this thing up. I got some help from Adrian30 on my logo, thanks a million Adrian! For now I ended up using a piece of photo printer paper glued to a piece of styrene plastic. Maybe I can get a pro one done down the road.

http://webpages.charter.net/tankm4/gitamp.jpg

I put matching grill cloth on the speaker cabs and tried to tie in the redhead cab with the (Eminence Inside) logos that were black and silver.
I have some Marshall style metal recessed handles to put in the sides of the cabs yet and the whole shebang should be done. These cabinets were stereo cabinets that my dad made back in the sixties ported for a 12 inch speakers. They are a great size for my bad back. I suppose there will be more trips to the car to haul but I could no way lift a 2x12 cab. Shoot I don't know if I will ever go anywhere with them anyway.:D I got a small wrinkle in the cloth of the cab, I had to take a corner back off to cut the port hole that I forgot. I hope it goes away...:thwap:
They have Eminence Tonkers inside and I think I may end up changing them to a Eminence Texas Heat or possibly something else. I just recently tried a Texas Heat speaker with my Valve Junior and it sounded very good. Nice even sound with a nice smooth top end.

I tried to do a clip the other day on the spur of the moment but I will need to get more prepared for that, but one is on the way.

M29

[Tone2TheBone]

Wowwwwww that's freakin' killer. Look at that you did all that! That's your creation man! :beer: I've heard a lot of good things about those Texas Heats.

[Simon]

Looks smashing!! Nice job..

[tunghaichuan]

Hello oldguy, I have not come across any schematics or anything that I could compare to this GDS amp. Not sure on comparing it to a Heatseaker.


Isn't your GDS amp a copy of the Marshall model 1974 circuit?

http://www.drtube.com/schematics/marshall/18wr.gif

I have not seen the schematic for the Heatseeker, but from the description on the Mack Amps site, it sounds like it is similar to a Matchless Lightning or Spitfire with its parallel 12AX7 triodes as the preamp.

tung

[ted s]

Looks great Barry !
Which guitar is that in the picture ? Gotta love that grain !

[mrmudcat]

Great job did you give some link to the site for the kits??

I plan on doing one from ceriatone(1986 model 50watt plexi) so id like to check prices.:D :beer:

[Adrian30]

Looking really good, Barry. I bet your Jazzmaster sings through that amp. Thanks for thanking, glad I could be of help, but I didn't do much.

[M29]

Thanks guys.

mrmudcat, I was looking into Ceriatone as well and read about Graydon's amps on http://www.18watt.com/ I found out Graydon lived about 40miles from me so I asked if I could come over and check them out. He was very helpful and we had a great visit and a lot in common. Here is Graydons GDS website. http://gdsamps.com/

ted s, The guitar is a build from Warmoth parts with a one piece swamp ash body. It is very Stratish sounding, which is what I was after.

tunghaichuan,

Graydon is well known for his quest to get an exact clone of the Marshall 18 and he explained all he went through and he has done well from what a lot of people say. I don't have the schematic handy but that looks quite a bit like it from what I remember. The EZ81 rectifier EL 84 power tubes and 12AX7 preamp tubes with tremolo. I am somewhat new to tube amps and this was a kit not a scratch build for me. Graydon had transformers built to his specs and was very very fussy with that. I love the sound of it, I just wish I was good enough to put it through its paces for you all in a clip.
Here is a clip I found on youtube of a GDS amp. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T6rWKMBSbU

Simon, Thank you for the kind words

Tone2TheBone, I have a V30 in my Valve Junior right now and I am going to check that out with the GDS before I go for any other speaker. I have heard quite a few good words on the Texas Heat too. Thanks Tone!

Adrian30, Thanks again you sure did help a lot. Shoot I kept you quite busy with PM's alone. I like the Jazzmaster with the amp. One thing I am not sure of yet with the Jazzmaster is the compound radius neck. It is pretty flat. It goes from 10 to 16 if I remember correctly. I find it a little touchy doing some chords up the neck some. Might just be my clumsy fingers:thwap:


Thanks again all.

M29

[Robert]

Sweet job M29! I'd love to play yours to see how it compares to my Heatseeker! Dude, come on over this weekend with your amp under your arm, will ya? I will share lots :beer:'s with you. (tip: they make us sound better too)

[M29]

Let me see if I can find my big boots, I think you have more snow then we do. Will there be pancakes? :thwap:

M29

[ted s]

just get Dread to clear a path for you.