70 Watt Guitar Amplifier

Easy to build - No setup required - Stacked tone controls

High performance: 70W into 4 Ohm - 45W into 8 Ohm loads

Amplifier circuit diagram:

Amplifier parts:
R1______________18K 1/4W Resistor
R2_______________3K9 1/4W Resistor
R3,R6____________1K 1/4W Resistors
R4_______________2K2 1/4W Resistor
R5______________15K 1/4W Resistor
R7______________22K 1/4W Resistor
R8_____________330R 1/4W Resistor
R9,R10__________10R 1/4W Resistors
R11,R12_________47R 1/4W Resistors
R13_____________10R 1W Resistor

C1_______________1µF 63V Polyester Capacitor

C2_____________470pF 63V Polystyrene or Ceramic Capacitor
C3______________47µF 25V Electrolytic Capacitor
C4______________15pF 63V Polystyrene or Ceramic Capacitor
C5_____________220nF 100V Polyester Capacitor
C6_____________100nF 63V Polyester Capacitor

D1,D2,D3,D4___1N4148 75V 150mA Diodes

Q1,Q2________BC560C 45V 100mA Low noise High gain PNP Transistors

Q3,Q4________BC556 65V 100mA PNP Transistors
Q5___________BC546 65V 100mA NPN Transistor
Q6___________BD139 80V 1.5A NPN Transistor
Q7___________BD140 80V 1.5A PNP Transistor
Q8__________MJ2955 60V 15A PNP Transistor
Q9__________2N3055 60V 15A NPN Transistor

Preamplifier circuit diagram:

Preamplifier parts:
P1______________10K Linear Potentiometer
P2,P3,P4________47K Linear Potentiometers
P5______________10K Log Potentiometer

R1,R2___________33K 1/4W Resistors

R3_____________220K 1/4W Resistor
R4_____________390R 1/4W Resistor
R5,R14___________3K9 1/4W Resistors
R6,R15___________8K2 1/4W Resistors
R7,R16__________12K 1/4W Resistors
R8,R11,R17,R20_560R 1/4W Resistors
R9,R18___________5K6 1/4W Resistors
R10,R19________100R 1/4W Resistors
R12______________3K3 1/4W Resistor
R13_____________18K 1/4W Resistor

C1,C12_________220nF 63V Polyester Capacitors

C2,C13_________100pF 63V Ceramic Capacitors
C3,C14__________10pF 63V Ceramic Capacitors
C4,C15__________47µF 25V Electrolytic Capacitors
C5,C16_________100µF 25V Electrolytic Capacitors
C6,C7___________10µF 25V Electrolytic Capacitors
C8,C11___________4n7 63V Polyester Capacitors
C9______________10nF 63V Polyester Capacitor
C10_____________47nF 63V Polyester Capacitor

Q1___________BC560C 45V 100mA Low noise High gain PNP Transistor

Q2,Q3,Q5,Q6__BC546 65V 100mA NPN Transistors
Q4___________BC557 45V 100mA PNP Transistor

J1,J2__________6.3mm Mono Jack sockets

Power supply circuit diagram:

Power supply parts:

R1_______________3K3 1/2W Resistor

C1,C2_________4700µF 50V Electrolytic Capacitors

C3,C4__________100nF 63V Polyester Capacitors
C5,C6___________47µF 50V Electrolytic Capacitors

D1_____________200V 8A Diode bridge

D2_____________5mm. Red LED

IC2___________78L24 24V 100mA Positive voltage regulator IC

IC3___________79L24 24V 100mA Negative voltage regulator IC

F1,F2__________3.15A Fuses with sockets

T1_____________230V or 115V Primary, 25+25V Secondary 60 to 100VA

Mains transformer

PL1____________Male Mains plug

SW1____________SPST Mains switch

Comments:

The power amplifier stage of this design adopts the still new but already successful 45
Watt Class B Amplifier circuitry appeared on the Audio page of this site one year ago.
Please follow the link to read more about this circuit.
Simplicity and ease of construction of this amplifier, combined with the complete
absence of manual settings make it ideal for Guitar or Bass amplifier. Enjoy!

The preamplifier features two almost identical three-transistor gain-blocks based on a

complementary two-stage circuit with dynamic active load of the output transistor. A
circuit topology early used in Revox tape recorders and audio preamplifiers with single
rail supplies in the 18 - 24Vdc range.
In this preamp the gain blocks are powered by split supplies of ±24V with two
advantages: a high output voltage of about 15V RMS allowing a very wide overload
margin and the facility to easily derive the preamp power supply from the power
amplifier main supply.
A three-band stacked-type tone control is implemented in the second stage but, unlike
the more common passive controls, active controls are used here, allowing better signal
to noise ratio and overload margin with no gain loss.

Power supply circuitry is straightforward: a generously rated power transformer with

center tapped secondary winding is followed by a diode bridge and two big smoothing
electrolytic capacitors. Two small positive and negative voltage regulator ICs provide
the ±24V @ 9mA dc supply required by the preamp.

Notes:

 2N3055 and MJ2955 transistors were listed for Q8 and Q9 in the Amplifier parts as the
preferred types, but many different output transistors can be used satisfactorily:
TIP3055/TIP2955, TIP35/TIP36, MJ802/MJ4502, MJ15003/MJ15004 amongst others.
 Discrete op-amp output transistors Q6 and Q7 do not require any heatsink as their
cases remain at ambient temperature. Power transistors Q8 and Q9 should be
mounted on a black, finned heatsink as usual.

Power Amplifier Technical data:

Output power (1KHz sinewave):

45 Watt RMS into 8 Ohms - 69W RMS into 4 Ohms

Sensitivity:

0.81V RMS input for 45W output

Frequency response @ 1W RMS:

15Hz to 23KHz -0.2dB

Total harmonic distortion @ 1KHz:

1W 0.008% 20W 0.008% 45W 0.016%

Total harmonic distortion @10KHz:

1W 0.01% 20W 0.015% 45W 0.025%

Unconditionally stable on capacitive loads

Preamplifier Technical data:

Maximum output voltage (1KHz sinewave):

14.8V RMS

Sensitivity:

127mV RMS input for 14.8V RMS output

 8.5mV RMS input for 1V RMS output

Total harmonic distortion @ 1KHz:

1V RMS output <0.001% 5V RMS output <0.05%

Total harmonic distortion @10KHz:

1V RMS output <0.001% 5V RMS output <0.035%

Solid-state Fender Blackface Preamp

All-FET version of the celebrated valve guitar preamp

Can be easily modified to Marshall Tone Controls specs

Circuit diagram:

Parts:
P1,P2__________220K Linear Potentiometers (or 250K)
P3______________10K Linear Potentiometer
P4_______________1M Log. Potentiometer

R1_______________1M 1/4W Resistor

R2,R3___________68K 1/4W Resistors
R4,R5,R6,R7,R8_100K 1/4W Resistors

C1,C7___________47µF 25V Electrolytic Capacitors

C2_____________220pF 63V Ceramic or Polystyrene Capacitor (or 250pF)
C3_____________100nF 63V Polyester Capacitor
C4______________47nF 63V Polyester Capacitor
C5_____________100µF 35-50V Electrolytic Capacitor
C6_____________120pF 63V Ceramic or Polystyrene Capacitor
C8______________47nF 63V Polyester Capacitor
Q1,Q2,Q3,Q4__2N3819 General-purpose N-Channel FETs

J1,J2_________6.3mm Mono Jack sockets

SW1____________SPST Toggle or Slide Switch

Comments:

Valve amplifiers and related preamplifiers including various types of tone controls were
always the preferred equipment of most guitarists since the rock and pop music early
days.
This trend is still alive and Fender or Marshall valve equipment is much appreciated and
highly in demand in spite of the cost and difficulties in finding suitable replacements for
aged or damaged parts.
The basic idea of this project was to build an exact replica of the Fender Blackface
preamp, using the same values for the passive Tone Controls parts and presenting the
same input and output impedance and total ac gain. The main difference was the
substitution of the original twin triode 12AX7 valve by two simple FET Cascode gain
blocks, each block having the same typical ac gain claimed in the 12AX7 data sheets,
i.e. >80.
In this way, a cheap unit can be built and easily embedded into an existing transistor
amplifier or used as a separate, battery powered, portable preamp.
The circuit should be powered at a dc voltage comprised in the 24 - 30V range, easily
available into an existing audio equipment or obtained from higher voltage rails by
means of suitable R/C cells.
To power a portable version, the best solution is to use two 9V "transistor" batteries
wired in series, in order to obtain a 18V supply: the results will be worth the increased
expense.
Total current drawing at all supply voltages (18 - 30V) is only 8.5mA.

Some performers prefer to use Marshall type Tone Controls, presenting frequency
curves differing (though not greatly) from Fender ones.
Fortunately, this can be easily obtained by only changing some part values and the
center lead connection of the "Mid" control pot, as shown in the circuit diagram below
(left side).
Due to the rather high output impedance of the circuit, there could be severe output
signal attenuation if the input impedance of the following amplifier is less than about
150K Ohm. Therefore, to avoid this shortcoming (mostly when transistor power
amplifiers are driven) a suitable Source follower circuit should be added to the output,
and this is shown in the circuit diagram below (right side).
C8 in the original circuit will be omitted and the Gate of Q5 must be wired directly to
the junction where C8 was previously connected.
Circuit modifications:

Marshall Tone Controls Parts:

P2_______________1M Linear Potentiometer
P3______________22K Linear Potentiometer (or 25K)

R6______________33K 1/4W Resistor

C2_____________470pF 63V Ceramic or Polystyrene Capacitor (or 500pF)

C3,C4___________22nF 63V Polyester Capacitors

Output buffer Parts:

R9______________10K 1/4W Resistor
R10____________100K 1/4W Resistor

C9_______________4µ7 63V Electrolytic Capacitor

Q5___________2N3819 General-purpose N-Channel FET

Notes:

 A very interesting discussion about Fender and Marshall Tone Controls, showing
differences, frequency response graphics and much more can be found at Guitar
Amplifier Basics
 Please note that all impedances involved in this circuit are very high (valve like,
typically 1M) compared to common transistor circuitry: therefore, to avoid noise and
hum pick-up, all connections must be kept very short and if input and output jacks and
the pots are not directly mounted on a printed circuit board, all wiring to these parts
must be done carefully by means of screened cable.
 In their more recent amplifier types, like '59 Bassman and Blues De Ville/Deluxe,
Fender designers have slightly modified the Tone Controls parts values, thus obtaining
a sort of compromise between their older models and Marshall Tone Controls. The
changes were as follows: C2 and P1 (Treble Control) were left unchanged; C3 was still a
100nF capacitor but P2 value (Bass Control) was raised to 1M (log.) like the Marshall
preamp. C4 and P3 (Mid Control) were changed to 22nF and 22K (or 25K) respectively:
i.e. the same values and connections of the Marshall preamp modification as shown in
the above schematics (left side).

Technical data
Input Sensitivity @ 1KHz:

6mV RMS (Tone Controls set to center position, Volume control set to max.)

Maximum undistorted output with 6mV RMS input:

 3V RMS @ 18V supply

4V RMS @ 24V supply

5V RMS @ 30V supply

Frequency response: See curves at Guitar Amplifier Basics

Total harmonic distortion @ 1KHz: <0.3% at 1V RMS output

Total current drawing at all supply voltages (18 to 30V): 8.5mA