What James say about it:
"Now that it's out....there's a few things that might not be talked about on the site. For example, some ask about the noise gate missing. It's actually in there, but I borrowed a trick from my Amptweaker pedal brand where I set up the noise gate to automatically adjust with the gain control, and increase with the Burn switch. So it's in there, and didn't cost as much as adding another control. Also this amp uses a mixture of self-bias and fixed bias class A design in the power amp. So it's a little fatter sounding than the bigger amps, but doesn't run quite as hot as a regular single ended tube amp like a Champ or something.
The reason for this choice of 1 EL34 rather than 2-EL84's is that EL84's cost almost as much as EL34's nowadays, so it's almost as expensive as making a 40-60W amp if you use 2-EL84's. Also, when Ed toured with the 5150 back in 91 on the F.U.C.K. tour, there was a time where he had a power tube go out, and he really liked the tone he got that night. They told me about it, and I said go for it, so they ran for a few months with 1 6L6 on one side and 2 on the other. The result is that the amp has more 2nd order harmonics, which are octaves and always harmonically correct. This amp sounds more like that tone.
One last detail....the Boost on the footswitch not only adds the Boost knob that is a volume boost(slightly tighter) for solos.....but it also adds about 8dB in the input circuit even with that Boost knob down. So you get more gain in both channels when you hit that.
Enjoy,
James B"
, I blame @Orvillain if I don't get one.
