So, I make no secret of my love for the AB165 Bassman circuit of 1966-67, and have had Tony build me a replica both in amplifier and pedal form. My other love is my ‘65 Vibrochamp I use at home…but the Champ has a few major flaws/things missing from what I’d really want in a day-to-day amplifier. So, in my head, I put together a list of the pros and cons of each of my two favourite amps…
Vibrochamp:
PROS
Small
Not too loud (unless cranked)
Probably the best tremolo sound I’ve ever heard
Great cleans
CONS
Virtually zero overdrive unless it’s too loud for home
No reverb
Bassman AB165 / Balls BF50:
PROS
Small
Loud enough for almost any gig
Great overdrive
Very good cleans
CONS
Too loud for home
No Reverb
No Tremolo
So, how do you combine the best of both? Well that leads you to a list of requirements that looks a little like this:
Small
≤5w
Natural overdrive/voicing in the style of a Bassman AB165
Bias wiggle tremolo
Reverb
Now, I saw Tony had converted a small SS amp into a tube setup using a little known tube called an ECL84 for the power section which got my brain whirring. So I approached Tony with the idea of combining all of these requirements into one. After a bit of back and forth we formed a plan and Tony went out and researched if it was possible to utilise bias tremolo within the planned circuit type. After crowdsourcing ‘community input’ he ascertained that it was indeed possible and borrowed a trick from an old Gibson amp circuit. Also, these have a pentode & a triode in the same envelope so you can use part of one as a preamp (cutting back on components and space).
Essentially the aim was to create an amp with the wattage of a small Class-A but with the sound of a Class-AB big boy amp.
So, after a couple of months and a fair amount of emails, it’s done and it’s time to present the Bassman-voiced-mini-Vibroverb-whatever-it-is that Tony has decided to call the “Minilux BF-2R” …but I’m just calling it the “Ballsbaby”:
It’s the same width as a Vibrochamp, approx 3-5w, bias tremolo and a real little Accutronics spring tank in the bottom! Master volume for overdrive at reasonable volumes, footswitchable reverb and tremolo, and an output on the back for an 8ohm extension cab. Speaker in there is an 8ohm Jupiter 8SC, which is currently my favourite 8” speaker.
Of course it’s beautifully wired and built inside too, as per all his builds (Tonys picture):
When it landed I had some initial reservations. Mainly the reverb was insanely intense, and impossible to even get just a subtle splash. Cue a bit of chat back and forth and, thankfully me knowing my way around inside an amp a bit, we adjusted a few values of resistors and got it all sorted.
It's been 4 months in the making, and I think I'm happy with it. It wont ever sing as sweet at my old VibroChamp on the cleans but it certainly smashes it in the rock 'n' roll department! The ELC84's are very sensitive tubes so they do have a little sizzle going on but that's a trade off for the rest of the perks.
All boxes ticked, no major compromises made.
Here’s what it sounds like with pedals.
Here's a demo of the reverb and tremolo.
)