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Little Walter Tube Amps 22 Watt Chassis (LW1322) Specifications Manual European Power 220 VAC/50 Cycle
Serial Number: LW1222-_____ Lacquered Tweed Combo Celestion Creamback 65 Speaker
Custom Built for
New Customer, Thank you for purchasing a Little
Walter musical instrument amplifier.
It is our intention
to create a valve (vacuum tube) amplification device using old school techniques and the best possible components available while remaining true to the tone of the early amplifiers that are sought after today by collectors and professional recording musicians. This amplifier was built entirely by hand by Phil N. Bradbury and uses no printed circuit boards or tag boards in order to give you a true Point-To-Point constructed unit. This amplifier uses octal (8-pin) pre amp tubes as opposed to the normal 9 pin pre amp tubes utilized in the bulk of amplifiers built today. Although the 8 pin 6SC7 pre amp tubes do not have quite the gain of the 9 pin tubes they exhibit exceptional tone and interact with the musicians’ tactile feel and attack on the strings in a much more sensitive manner. Preamp / Phase splitter tubes are 6SC7’s The Power tubes are JJ -6V6 tubes. The rectifier tube is a 5Y3. This amplifier puts out 22 watts through an 8 ohm load. We suggest you use JJ power tubes as they will handle high levels of voltage and bias. Specifications of the Little
Walter 22 watt chassis:
Electrical requirements: 220 Volts AC (50 cycle) Pre Amp Tube: 6SC7 Phase Inverter Tube (PI): 6SC7 Power Tubes: 6V6GT Rectifier Tube:5Y3 Filter Capacitors: 1-30uf @ 450v, 2-20uf @ 450v Input 1: Bright Input Input 2: Normal Input Controls: Volume for bright input, Volume for Normal Input / Tone for Both Inputs Output: 22 watts @ 8 ohms Direct Output Jack (Direct connect to Board or PA System) Must use w/Speaker Cabinet: Lacquered Tweed Dove Tail Joined Combo cabinet Speaker: 12” Celestion Cream Back 65 Speaker
This amp contains very high voltage and the chassis should not be opened or worked on by an inexperienced person. Please use a professional electronics technician when working inside this chassis.
Operation of this unit: Power Up: When you turn on the amp push the far right switch down to the ON position and wait at least 1 minute before pushing down the next switch from STANDBY to ON. This will allow the heaters in the tubes to warm up to operating temperature before the high voltage is applied. This practice will increase the life of your tubes. INPUT and VOLUME This amp has a separate volume control for each input. The INPUT 1 (far left) is the bright input. This will have a slightly brighter tone. The INPUT 1 VOLUME knob controls the volume for the bright input. The INPUT 2 VOLUME controls INPUT 2. This is the normal input and has a slightly less bright input. You should try both and see which suits your pickups and playing method the best. NOTE: You should set the volume at the highest level you will be playing. Now roll your instrument volume back to achieve the level of clean you desire. Add overdrive by rolling on more instrument volume. Also, this amp is biased on the high side to achieve the desired tone. Your amp will be at or near saturation at the 3 o’clock level. TONE There is a single tone control that controls the tone for both inputs 1 and 2. This passive tone control has a wide range. When the knob is turned all the way to the right (clockwise) the amp is exhibiting its full range of tone. By turning the tone knob to the left (counterclockwise) you are bleeding off high frequency to the chassis ground. OUTPUT This amp uses an 8 ohm output transformer. You should try to use an 8 ohm load when using this amplifier. NOTE: This chassis is being used with a pair of 8 ohm speakers to create a 4 ohm load in many cases very successfully. DIRECT OUT JACK Located to the right of your speaker jack is a direct out jack that can be connected to a board of PA system. This will allow you to use your amp in larger venues. This output should give you the same tone through your PA (you MUST always use a speaker cabinet to maintain a proper load on your amp).
Builders Statement I take great pride in the construction of each and every Little Walter tube amp. It was hand built by myself with the best components available in North Carolina, USA. This Combo amp was custom built for Ron Mehl of ProGuitar.
Suggestion for playing this amp for the first time: I would plug into the bright input (input 1) set the volume at 9 o’clock (left volume knob), tone at 2 o’clock, and then back your guitar volume down to about 6. This should give you a really clean sweet tone. After you have experienced the clean feel of the amp I would roll the volume up and experience the naturally overdriven tone.
Never subject the amp to overly damp, dusty, hot, or cold environments (to quote Gerald Webber of Kendrick Amps “always store your amp in a place where you would sleep). This amp should give you, your children, and your grandchildren many years of trouble free operation. Again, I thank you for your purchase of this amp.
Phil N. Bradbury littlewaltertubeamps.com
You should always have an extra complete set of tubes for any good tube amp when playing. At the end of a tour put the new ones in and use the old ones for spare/backup/emergency tubes. Here are some ideas on the tubes and where you can find them. Tubes and this amp: When the signal enters the amp via your guitar cable the first stop is the 6SC7 preamp tube. This tube is connected to the tone stack (Volume and Tone) this is where the tone starts to be shaped. The 6SC7 tube is an octal (8 pin) tube that amplifies the instrument signal and allows the player to use dynamics that are not possible with a 9 pin miniature tube. The next tube in the signal chain is another 6SC7 octal tube. This tube splits the signal 180 degrees (this sends a signal to each power tube so that when each tube is in saturation the other power tube is in cut off). Since this is a Class AB amp the Power tubes can go to saturation and this is where you get that overdriven tone. The next stop in the signal chain is the pair of 6V6 power tubes. These tubes are the main amplification point in the amplifier. You may want to experiment with different brands of 6V6 tubes. This amp comes with good quality J.J. 6V6 tubes (these are our favorite 6V6 tubes at this). NOTE: All the vacuum tubes that you can buy today are from Russia or China. I prefer Russian tubes due to the quality. You may want to try other brands of tubes in your tone quest but I recommend JJ power tubes as they handle extra high voltage and bias well. You may find certain tonal differences in the tubes and may prefer one brand over another. The other tube in the amp is the 5Y3 rectifier tube. This tube converts the AC power from your wall outlet to useable DC current for the grids on the preamp and power tubes. You should acquire a couple extra 6SC7 tubes as they are not as easy to find as the 6V6 and 5Y3 tubes. You can find these tubes as NOS/NIB U.S. tube online or in new, reissue form from www.Partsexpress.com. The 6SC7 is a Sovtek brand tube and costs just under $18.
This is the tube chart for the chassis. Notice the keyway alignment for each tube. You should always have a spare set of tubes on hand. NOTE: the 6SC7 tubes can be acquired from www.partsexpress.com.
