Two-channel 6SC7 amp with a paraphase and two 6V6s, mid 1950s style

Pedal and tube amp circuits, solved part by part the way SPICE (the circuit simulator engineers use) does it, while you listen and watch. Turn the knobs, change any part, or tap a wire to put a probe on it.

How to use the bench

Every part is simulated. Nothing you hear is a recording.

  1. 1Pick a circuit

    Choose one from the menu, or type a name, maker or year in Find a circuit. The buttons under the menu switch between versions.

  2. 2Set the knobs and the input

    Turn the circuit’s knobs on the front panel. In the Input box, choose Guitar or Signal generator, and the note or chord.

  3. 3Press Play

    Press Play through the circuit to hear a picked note or chord. Play the string is the guitar by itself.

  4. 4Tap a part

    Tap any part on the schematic to change its value, or swap the transistor, tube or diode. The red numbers are DC voltages, and they update as you go.

  5. 5Tap a wire

    Tap a wire to put the probe there. The Probe graph and the spectrum show the signal there.

  6. 6Try a change

    Press Try it on a card under Try this to hear one change, before and after. Modify this circuit, below the schematic, adds or removes parts.

Good to know

Modeled after the Rickenbacker M11.

Two channels on one 6SC7, each into a volume pot fed on its wiper, mixed with a tone pot between them. A second 6SC7 is the gain stage and paraphase inverter into two cathode-biased 6V6s, no feedback.

Input

Add

Peak voltage from the pickup for each note. Strum hard and a single coil puts out a few hundred millivolts. When you play a chord, its strings share this level.

How it’s played
Tap a part to change its value, or a wire to probe it. To add or take out parts, open Modify this circuit, below. Red numbers are DC voltages to ground, not warnings. Scroll or drag sideways to see the whole circuit.
Modify this circuit Add parts, take them out, or put one in series with another, then hear what it does. Tap to open.

Pick what to do, then tap the schematic. Your changes show in purple. Any change can go on a switch beside the knobs, from the menu in its row under Your changes.

Add a part

Tap where each leg goes. Tap both ends of a part to put the new one across that part.

Change a part

With Remove a part on, tap any part of the pedal or amp to take it out, and tap it again to put it back. Tapping a purple part you added deletes it.

Turn on Add in series with a leg and tap a part. In that part’s box, below the schematic, pick which leg to lift and what goes in the gap, such as a resistor between a cap and ground or a stopper in front of a grid.

Change a wire

With Cut into a wire on, tap any wire. Pick a part from the menu and it goes in the gap, wired in. Volume pot puts a pot there with the input on one end, the output on the wiper and the other end to ground.

With Run a wire on, tap a leg, then where the wire goes. Drag any piece of a wire you ran, or of an added part’s lead, to square it up or move it.

Keep and share

Your changes stay in this browser, on this device, for your next visit. Nothing is sent to us. Anyone using this browser can see them. They’re lost if you clear your browsing data or use a private window, so save a file to keep a copy. A shared link carries the circuit after the #, a part browsers never send to a server.

Test tone for the graphs
The graphs use a steady tone. Play sounds a plucked string that dies away.

Input

pickup, unloadedat the pedal input

Output

at the amp input

Probe

Spectrum

Frequency response

What the curves mean

The ink curve is the response to a very quiet signal, from the generator to the probe. The blue curve is measured with pink noise at the level you set, like an audio analyzer. When stages clip, the blue curve pulls away from the ink one and the gray coherence line (right-hand scale) drops below 1. Then no single curve tells the whole story. Both use the signal generator, whichever Input tab is picked.

Output

Bias

every voltage and current at rest

What to listen for. Each channel is one triode of the first 6SC7, cathodes grounded, biased by grid current through 4.7 MΩ leaks. The two volume pots are fed on their wipers, so each pot is a load across the mixing node as well as a level control: turning one channel up loads the other. The tone pot sits across the mixing node too, between a 500 pF cap from channel 1’s volume wiper and a .005 µF cap to ground. The second 6SC7 is a gain stage and a paraphase inverter, with no feedback. The drawing shows no voltages.

Download.

Parts and what they do

Stock values. Tap a part on the schematic to change it.

.05µ, 50 nF
Channel 1’s input coupling cap, straight from the jack. It also holds the grid-leak bias: grid current charges it negative.
4.7M, 4.7 MΩ
Channel 1’s grid leak. The cathode is grounded, so grid current through it sets the bias, about a volt negative.
51k, 51 kΩ
Channel 2’s input resistor. The second jack’s 51 kΩ hangs from the same node and does nothing with no plug in it.
.05µ, 50 nF
Channel 2’s input coupling cap.
4.7M, 4.7 MΩ
Channel 2’s grid leak, the same as channel 1’s.
V1a, 6SC7
One triode of the first 6SC7, channel 1’s gain stage. The 6SC7 has one cathode for both triodes, grounded.
V1b, 6SC7
The other triode of the first 6SC7, channel 2’s gain stage.
240k, 240 kΩ
Plate resistor for channel 1, from the screen node.
240k, 240 kΩ
Plate resistor for channel 2, from the screen node.
.05µ, 50 nF
Coupling cap from channel 1’s plate to its volume pot’s wiper.
.05µ, 50 nF
Coupling cap from channel 2’s plate to its volume pot’s wiper.
Vol 1 500k, 500 kΩ pot, audio taper
Channel 1’s volume, 500 kΩ. The signal comes in on the wiper. One end is grounded and the other is the mixing node, so turned down it shorts the channel, and turned up it puts the channel straight on the node. Audio taper is assumed.
Vol 2 500k, 500 kΩ pot, audio taper
Channel 2’s volume, wired the same way. Turned down, its track still sits from the mixing node to ground, and its wiper grounds that end of it, so it loads channel 1. Audio taper is assumed.
Tone 500k, 500 kΩ pot, audio taper
Tone, 500 kΩ, its wiper on the mixing node. One end goes through 500 pF to channel 1’s volume wiper, the other through .005 µF to ground. Turned up, the wiper moves toward the 500 pF, so more of channel 1’s treble gets around its volume and less of the node’s treble is bled away. Up is assumed to be brighter.
500p, 500 pF
The tone pot’s bright cap (.0005 µF), from channel 1’s volume wiper.
.005µ, 5 nF
The tone pot’s treble cut, to ground.
V2a, 6SC7
6SC7, the first half of the paraphase inverter. It’s a plain gain stage: its plate swings opposite the input and drives tube A. Its grid connects straight to the preamp’s output with no coupling cap, so its path to ground is through the preamp’s volume and tone network.
240k, 240 kΩ
Plate resistor for the first half, the output to tube A.
3k, 3 kΩ
Cathode resistor for both halves. The tube has one cathode for its two triodes, so this carries both currents and sets both biases.
25µ, 25 µF electrolytic
Bypass cap across the shared cathode resistor, for full gain above a few hertz.
240k, 240 kΩ
Tube A’s grid resistor, down to the tap. With the resistor under the tap it feeds a small share of tube A’s grid signal to the second half’s grid. The share is about one over the second half’s gain, so the two output grids swing about the same.
10k, 10 kΩ
The tap, 10k Ω to ground under tube A’s grid resistor, and the second half’s grid resistor. The two sides only match while the share times the second half’s gain is 1, so they drift apart as the tube ages.
V2b, 6SC7
The second half. It turns the divided signal over again, so its plate swings with the input. It drives tube B.
240k, 240 kΩ
Plate resistor for the second half, the output to tube B.
.05µ, 50 nF
Coupling cap to tube A’s grid.
.05µ, 50 nF
Coupling cap to tube B’s grid.
V3, 6V6GT
6V6GT, tube A of the push-pull pair, its cathode on the shared cathode resistor, so it biases itself.
V4, 6V6GT
6V6GT, tube B of the pair.
120k, 120 kΩ
Grid leak for tube B.
250, 250 Ω
The shared cathode resistor. Every output tube’s current runs through it and lifts the cathodes above the grids, and that’s the bias. Driven hard, the pair draws more current on average, so the cathodes climb and the tubes run colder, which softens the clipping.
25µ, 25 µF electrolytic
Bypass cap across the cathode resistor, so the cathodes hold still at the signal’s frequencies. It charges and discharges slowly as the average current changes on a hard note.
10k, 10 kΩ
Dropping resistor from B+ to the screens. It’s large, so the screens sit about 30 V below the plates and drop further when they draw more current on a hard note.
40µ, 40 µF electrolytic
Filter cap on the screen supply.
OT, 8 kΩ to 8 Ω, 10 H primary, 10 mH leakage
The output transformer, 8 kΩ plate to plate into 8 Ω, center tap on B+. Tap any piece of it to change its figures. The core saturates as the flux nears its knee. Every figure is typical of the part, not measured.
PT, 325 V ac, 60 Hz
One half of the power transformer’s high-voltage winding, 325 V ac from the grounded center tap, as a sine source at the mains frequency. The value is typical of the part, not measured.
PT, 325 V ac, 60 Hz
The other half of the winding, from the grounded center tap. It runs opposite the first half, so the rectifier charges the reservoir on every half cycle.
PT R, 100 Ω
Resistance of one half of the winding, plus the primary’s share. With the rectifier’s own drop it sets how far B+ sags on a hard note. Typical of the part, not measured.
PT R, 100 Ω
Resistance of the other half. Typical of the part, not measured.
V5, 5Y3GT
One plate of the 5Y3GT rectifier. It conducts near the peak of its half of the winding, and its own drop rises with the current, which adds to the sag.
V5, 5Y3GT
The rectifier’s other plate, on the other half cycle.
40µ, 40 µF electrolytic
The reservoir cap. It feeds the output transformer’s center tap. It charges in short pulses at each peak of the mains and drains between them, so B+ carries ripple, and on a hard note it sags.
Coil R, 8.69 Ω
Voice coil resistance, the floor of the speaker’s impedance. The shape of a 1x12 open-back cab with an alnico 12 in, measured (a 93 Ω peak near 74 Hz on 8 Ω), scaled to the 8 Ω tap. One real cab, not every speaker. The Speaker menu by the play buttons is separate. It plays the note through a speaker and cab impulse response, with either load.
Coil L, 256 µH
Voice coil inductance. It makes the impedance rise through the treble. With no feedback, the voltage at the speaker rises and falls with its impedance.
Loss L, 464 µH
With Loss R across it, the treble rises and then levels off, like the losses in a real coil.
Loss R, 14.3 Ω
Limits what Loss L adds to the treble rise.
Loss L2, 2.13 mH
A second step in the treble rise, with Loss R2 across it: a real voice coil’s losses keep climbing from a few hundred hertz.
Loss R2, 2.19 Ω
Limits what Loss L2 adds.
Tank R, 83.7 Ω
Height of the bass resonance, about 92 Ω in all at its peak. With no feedback, the voltage at the speaker rises and falls with its impedance.
Tank L, 21.1 mH
With Tank C, sets the resonance: 74 Hz.
Tank C, 220 µF
With Tank L, sets the resonance. With Tank R, it sets how narrow the peak is.

About this version

As drawn
The 1997 Rickenbacker drawing of the M11. The 6SC7, 6V6 and 5Y3 use the usual models for their types. The transformers are typical, not on the drawing.

How this tool works. Every part is an equation, and the whole circuit is solved several times per audio sample: 192,000 samples a second while you drag a knob, 384,000 once you let go. Transistors use Ebers-Moll with gain, leakage, Early effect, base resistance, junction capacitance and temperature. Their charge storage is set at the bias point, close for small signals and rough while they switch hard. Tubes use Koren’s equations fitted to each datasheet, plus grid current. Diodes are exponential junctions with series resistance. Presets are typical of each type, not measured parts. Caps are ideal, and the battery or HT is a voltage behind a resistance.

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