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Phase inverter

Cathodyne

One triode, split load — the economical tweed splitter.

2 amps in the archive

The cathodyne — also called the split-load or concertina inverter — makes its two opposite-phase signals from a single triode with equal resistors above the plate and below the cathode. The plate output is inverted, the cathode output is not, and because the loads are equal the two swings are equal. It costs half a dual-triode and a handful of resistors, and it needs no feedback loop to stay balanced.

That economy is why the medium-power tweeds used it. A single-ended amp needs no splitter, and a big amp wants the gain and balance of a long-tailed pair; the cathodyne sits between, giving a push-pull amp its phase split for the price of one triode. The trade is real: it provides no voltage gain, so the driving stage has to supply the full swing, and its two output impedances differ, so balance drifts as the amp is driven hard.

Pushed, that imbalance is part of the character — the give and bloom of a cranked tweed comes partly from a splitter that stops behaving perfectly right when the output tubes do. See how these stages sit in the signal path in the guide to reading a schematic.

Every cathodyne amp

The matching circuits, with the neighbouring topology choices shown for contrast.

CircuitEraOutputTubes Output-stage biasRectifierTone stack
5E3 1955–1960 12 W 12AY7, 12AX7, 6V6GT, 6V6GT, 5Y3GT cathode5Y3GTsingle-knob
5F10 1958–1961 10 W 6AT6, 12AX7, 6V6GT, 6V6GT, 5Y3GT fixed5Y3GTsingle-knob

Circuits