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4/7/2009
Magnum Opus unveiling The Magnum Opus is a Class A single ended cathode biased KT88 amplifier which
produces 38 watts of warm, sparkling tone. The Magnum Opus is well suited for gigs, rehearsals, recording.
The Magnum Opus comes with Reverb, Parallel buffered tube effects loop, which lets you adjust the amount of wet/dry signal.
Power Level that allows you to adjust the internal voltage of the amp for cranked tone at lower volumes. The power control
was chosen over the master volume approach to retain the tone of the amp at lower volumes. Also there is a bypass switch for
the Power Control which gives the amp instant headroom.
A Cathode Follower (1+1 cascade stage)
circuit was chosen for the EQ, the Cathode follower doesn't allow high frequency roll-off within the guitars frequency
range. What this equates to is less insertion losses in the EQ stage.
Also unique to the Magnum opus
is the front panel control of interstage attenuation, which usually is adjusted from inside amplifiers with trim pots. Each
stage can be dialed in to your specific taste. Another feature that was added to the front panel is a SUSTAIN control
which allows you to control the attack and release of the amplifiers sustain and compression.
The HI/Classic
switch allows for full headroom on HI power and a more browner sound on the CLASSIC setting. Other key features
to this amplifier are in the power supply design.
Solen (aluminum metalized polypropylene) Fast Caps were
used in conjunction with Stealth diodes to give the amp a tight focused sound with the characteristics of a tube
rectifier. The Stealth diodes allow for even more headroom than a tube rectifier, with a faster and softer
recovery time than standard diodes.
Another key element in the sound of the Magnum Opus is the Output
transformer. A Mercury Magnetics Single ended Output transformer was chosen for it's rock solid reliability
and extended bandwidth.
All components are handwired on terminal strips using a point to point wire wrapping
technique at Whole Tone Music.
1:16 pm pdt
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