Some of you guys might remember the tube amp I built last year, it’s the 18 watt Phaez Daisycutter with an effects loop. Amazing, amazing little amp. I stuck it in an unused prototype Roland Jazz Chorus 2x10” cabinet, and it rocked.

But it was so. Fucking. Loud.

I don’t mean that in any disparaging way at all. It can do a lot of usable tones, but it really only sounds sublime when it is dimed. And that’s the problem. I live in a condo now, and I am a much more considerate neighbor in my late 30’s than I was in my early 20’s.

I’ve been having some fun with my Alesis Quadraverb 2 that I picked up last year. Such a fun toy. Basically, the guitar sounds of every alternative band of the late 80’s (at least the ones I cared about) in one box. It’s a stereo effect though, and it really only does its magic when both outputs are used.

So I was kicking around the idea of fitting the cabinet with dual DIY chipamp kits, one for each speaker. Then I found dual chipamp with heavy duty integrated heatsink…aka little 2 channel car amp. It was thrown away because a solder joint on the input power choke had broken loose. Easy fix, cost me about $0.005 in solder and flux. I wired it up to a 12v power supply I found, and then to the speakers. Sounds great, and loud enough.

So now I’m waiting on a set of 2U rack rails from Guitar Center, and I’m going to have a killer little living room amp. I’ll have an extra 1U rack space, too. Thinking about putting a vintage rack preamp in there. Anybody know of a good one of late 80s or early 90s vintage with good clean and dirty tones?