My latest Ebay find. Had been wanting to play with one of these for a while too. Wanted to see for myself what that 'Supermod' is all about. When I first got it and saw the 2 mis-matched tubes sitting next to each other, 1 with a plate cap and the other without, I thought that can't be right. However, after digging up my Varmint manuals, I found out this 2 tube amp is 1 6kv6 (the smaller tube) driving 1 6lf6 (the larger tube). Thats a very interesting configuration. Most one output tube amps don't need a driver tube. However, this is even with 'Supermod' is a basic grounded grid amp. Over the years. I have heard a lot of complaints about how nasty Varmints are and after looking at this one and the schematics of others, in normal mode with the Supermod off, its just a basic grounded grid amp, much like any other sweep tube amp is. However, the Supermod does add -bias to the cathode and changes it from class AB-1 to B or C. Class B + especially C amps do tend to me nasty or noisey, so I'll leave that alone. Except for not having a preamp, which are pretty useless in most amps, it is pretty loaded up. Variable AM/SSB, Standby, tuned input and a driver tune and load. Even though I don't really dig the 1 driving 1, I am kinda liking this amp.
