New amp coming....

[duhvoodooman***]

Just bought a used Mojave Coyote head in "as new" condition from a guy in Ventura, CA through Craigslist. I've been fascinated by this little 12W amp since reading about its unique design in Dave Hunter's Guitar Amplifier Handbook, and then checking out the audio & video clips on the Mojave Ampworks product page. Just closed the deal Wednesday, so prolly won't receive it until late next week. Very excited about it--these puppies are hard to find! This is the amp that Eric Johnson called "the best sounding modern amp I have ever played."

The preamp design of the Coyote is quite unusual. As stated in the Hunter book:

"The 12AX7 tubes in the dual first gain stages have both of their triodes wired in parallel. Rather than increasing the gain, as with triodes in series, this wiring yields a higher frequency-to-noise ratio, setting the stage for a full-frequencied yet low-noise performance from the preamp."

The outputs of these two preamp tubes feed separate Treble and Bass volume controls, voiced as such through different coupling capacitors. You can then blend the two volume controls to give a brighter or fatter sounding output as desired. Very cool & unique design! V3 is another 12AX7, used as a long-tailed pair phase inverter. The amp also uses a PT, OT and choke from Mercury Magnetics--top quality iron! And a "Power Dampening" control allows you to adjust the output volume to reasonable levels while still maintaining high gain. I understand that it's not a master volume control, a built in attenuator, or a VVR circuit, but appparently works quite effectively, whatever it is.

A few pix from the Mojave site:

[tjcurtin1]

Looks swellegant! Nice catch...

[marnold***]

Looks like a relatively simple circuit. Is there an amph it is based on?

[piebaldpython***]

Sweet!!! So, what bites the dust to make room for the Coyote?

[duhvoodooman***]

Looks like a relatively simple circuit. Is there an amph it is based on?

None, that I'm aware of, at least nothing that's well known. The Coyote's parallel preamp gain stages and the separate treble and bass volume controls are unique, AFAIK.

Sweet!!! So, what bites the dust to make room for the Coyote?

Haven't decided; maybe nothing. I don't really have the same "one in, one out" agreement with my wife on amps like I do with guitars.

[tjcurtin1]

[QUOTE=
Haven't decided; maybe nothing. I don't really have the same "one in, one out" agreement with my wife on amps like I do with guitars.[/QUOTE]

: So... it's an open marriage as far as amps go?!?! How did you work that one?!

[Jipes***]

Very neat this circuit board The same one with a cool vibrato (or Tremolo) and I'll be in love

[duhvoodooman***]

Very neat this circuit board The same one with a cool vibrato (or Tremolo) and I'll be in love

That's easily taken care of!

http://buildyourownclone.com/effects...usvibrato.html

http://buildyourownclone.com/effects...n/tremolo.html

[duhvoodooman***]

The amp arrived on Friday, after its long cross-country FedEx Ground journey.

Naturally, I had to "pop the hood" and get a good look inside. Impressive!! The build quality is second to none. I'm sure the relative simplicity of the circuit is a big part of it, but the photos below amply show what I mean. Such a clean & elegant layout and stunning workmanship!

Best of all, it sounds freakin' awesome! Blending the two volumes gives you tremendous control over the character of the output. Keep the bass volume low to avoid muddiness with hot pickups, or goose it up for plenty of low-end thump with single coils. The power dampening control, however it actually works, is very effective and really doesn't change the output tone much until it's cranked way down. You can get everything from sparkly cleans to Plexi-like crunch out of this amp, all at very reasonable output volumes. I've only played the amp for a couple of hours at this point, so I'm quite sure I haven't nearly opened up all of its secrets yet.

Photos galore:

[Tig***]

Mmmmm, that is a tasty amph!


Thanks for the unneeded GAS.