Finally… an entry about the Steamboat Classic 18. This amp is the culmination of many years tweaking on various 18 to 25 watt circuits. From the Fender Deluxe, to the Marshall 18 watt, from the Traynor Guitar Mate to the Vox AC15, the heritage of “small” amp designs is very rich. A little flavor of each has been appreciated in our Classic 18 amp, offering up an awesome palette of tones.
These amps are all built point-to-point with one turret board supporting the majority of the components. The amp features full power operation at 18 watts and half power operation at 9 watts. These power switching options are accessed by the three-way power switch with the amp Off in the middle position, full power in the top position and half power in the bottom position. Similarly, the three-way standby switch allows access to fast rectifier (solid state) and slow rectifier (tube) options.
Cut and Tone controls allow you to shape frequency response in two ways – the Cut control attenuates high frequencies in the power amp while the Tone control boosts bass (turned to the left of noon) or treble (turned to the right of noon) in the pre-amp. This amp has a single Volume control which simultaneously affects gain. Both Hi and Lo inputs are used for a wide range of input sensitivity, and finally a Hi/Lo gain switch. This switch takes the amp from very clean to very crunchy, giving you plenty of gain options paired with the Hi/Lo inputs.
After building several of these in different power tube configurations I determined it would be best to offer the Steamboat Classic 18 with either EL84 OR 6V6 power tubes. The EL84s have a stronger hi-mid range and break up a little more, while the 6V6s remain a little clearer and shift the mid frequency emphasis to the low side. Both 6V6 and EL84 models are cathode biased, so no adjustment is necessary in replacing the power tubes. The Classic 18 also uses a 5Y3 rectifier tube and two 12AX7 pre-amp tubes.
A good friend and long time customer, Alfredo Salmeron, came by the shop and picked up a pair of Classic 18s for the week and got some pretty comprehensive clips of both the EL84 Model and the 6V6 model. Thanks a million Alfredo!
Steamboat Classic 18 – EL84 model
Clip 1 – Clean
Clip 2 – Clean Chords
Clip 3 – Medium gain
Clip 4 – Overdrive
Steamboat Classic 18 – 6V6 model
Clip 1 – Crunch
Clip 2 – Clean
Clip 3 – On the edge of breakup
