The functional prototype

[Doc B.]

It is my pleasure to introduce the Tode 5W single ended combo amp.

Chassis is .120" laser cut aluminum front and back, with a random brushed finish.
Cabinet is alder. This one has been finished with four coats of Tru Oil, a superbly simple finish to apply. The finish will be left to the kit builder.
Circuit is an EF86 direct coupled to an EL84. There is an adjustable brake on the output to control the level feeding the internal speaker or external cabinet or headphones. An adjustable feedback control allows gain adjustment and adjustment of the overdrive level. A switch allows for mid scoop filters that emulate a Marshall or Fender tone stack set for max mid scoop. The speaker is a Weber Ceramic Signature 8S. An LED pilot light adds a little glow to the Mr. Bottlehead grill.

A shopping cart page for pre orders can be found here.
http://www.bottlehead.com/store.php?crn=227&rn=457&action=show_detail
Regular kit price is $599 plus shipping, but we are offering pre order special pricing of $549 plus shipping. We estimate the delivery of the first kits to happen in four weeks.

The guitar shown in the photo is a work in progress, the Bottlecaster. It has an alder Strat style string thru hardtail body finished with Tru Oil, random brushed aluminum pick guard and miniature Bottlehead style knobs to match the Tode. The neck is a short scale one from a Squire Mini Strat. Single coil pickups are around 7K, with Alnico magnets and custom shielding.

[denti alligator]

Awesome!

[dbishopbliss]

Just ordered mine.  Between my friends and I, I will have a lot of amps to compare it to including:

• 1966 Fender Vibrolux (vintage)
• Trace Elliot Velocette
• Mesa Boogie V-twin/20-20
• 18 Watt Marshall Clone
• Tweed Champ Clone
• Blackface Princeton Clone
• Tweed Deluxe Clone

[Doc B.]

Awesome! Thanks so much for putting faith in this venture, David! We're working hard to get some sound samples up of the finished amp, as there have been some improvements to the performance compared to that in the video of the birth of the POC prototype. The clean setting is more clean, as the feedback was accidentally disconnected on that proto for a couple days before we discovered it. The mid scoop is a neat addition that allows some fairly radical tonal changes. And the Weber speaker I ended up with (the Ceramic Signature 8S "ribbed for your pleasure" version) does a nicer job of transitioning from clean to overdrive than the one in the video, without sacrificing the responsive top end.

[Doc B.]

Thanks so much for the orders that are coming in! Just want to give a heads up that as with all of our new kit releases the first production run is limited. So if you are planning to order one of the first ones it's best to order soon to avoid missing out. I'm working on getting more pics taken this afternoon, of the insides and the back. And we should have some specs posted soon, too. We also have a tentative date to have a vary talented local recording artist come by and do a demo video next week.

[Doc B.]

Woo Hoo! The orders keep coming!

[Doc B.]

Folks, these puppies, uh, Todies are going pretty fast. When I remembered to reserve some kits from the first run that will go out for review and promotion I realized that we have already sold nearly half of the first run in just a couple of days.

[tcell]

I'm so excited!  This will be my present for my birthday coming up in June. I haven't built a Bottlehead kit since Extended S.E.X.  Also have Foreplay 2, Extended Foreplay 3, Paramours with iron upgrades, and Straight 8 speakers.  I've been slowly looking to buy a low-wattage tube guitar amp like Orange Dark Terror or Hughes & Kettner Tubemeister.  But as soon as I got the Tode announcement email I knew what to do!  I'll be changing the strings on my Les Paul Standard, Ernie Ball John Petrucci BFR, PRS SE Allender, and my son's Start Mini.  We'll have a shoot-out for best tone through the Tode.  Pardon me, gotta warm up the ole soldering iron!  Bottlehead rules!  Jeff aka tcell

[Doc B.]

Thanks Jeff!

Although this may seem laughable, don't discount that Mini Strat! As I am more nutty than even the rest of you guys - I put a $16 set of Thomastik Infeld strings on mine after buying it for $40, and it sounded really good! In fact the neck from the Mini is now living on the Bottlecaster pictured in the Tode product shot. Just got it making sound today and even before I have good strings and a decent nut it sounds really nice. I spent a lot of time working on shielding and I now have the most quiet single coil guitar I've done yet, without losing any high frequency energy.

I would like to take a moment to thank the crew - PB for working his butt off helping to get this product ready by doing all the proto construction and panel layouts, PJ for backing me up on the EF86/EL84 direct coupled concept and coming up with the very cool sounding mid scoop filter after my own version was an epic fail, and Shawn for catching PB's cold solder joints and finding us some local talent to do a demo (coming soon!). And of course thanks to my Queen for holding it all together while I was on this project, and putting up with me as always ;^)>

[Paul Birkeland]

This has been a sweet project to work on, and I'm very excited for what's coming next!

[Hank Murrow]

I'm very excited for what's coming next!

Now you have at least one BH wondering...... Cheers, Hank

[Doc B.]

PB has yet to learn what PJ learned years ago. What he thinks might be next might not be - fickle boss's prerogative ;^)>

WRT (that's With Respect To, a common chalkboard term from the 70's in Beserkelys Physics Dept) guitar stuff it might be a tube distortion box or tube tremolo. WRT Bottlehead kits in general it might be a portable tube headphone amp, might be a 300B preamp. Unless something moves on the DAC project before that. Oh yeah, and we're looking at a new version of Crack, still looking at higher powered SE amps, if we can make an all tube MC step up work... hmmm, maybe it's time for my homebrew gin kit? The "perfect hair part" kit? The "world peace" kit?

Man, I'd be satisfied with the "Doc finally learns how to play blues guitar" kit...if you aren't and you love the blues, you should be streaming John Kessler's blues show on KPLU.org tonite

[Paul Birkeland]

I thought we were exploring the realm of personal fitness:

http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/ele/3010888796.html

 

[Paul Joppa]

That would be the famous VT-52, a sort of super-45.

http://www.preservationsound.com/?p=1445

[Paul Birkeland]

Do you think you'd lose less weight if they had gone with a 45?