Cygnus Inverted Hystrionic Turnabout.

[Cygnus X1]

NT ain't got anything on me.
Here goes:

After doing some rebuilds, mods, etc. I decided to scratch build an amp. 5E3.
Natural choice for a first time build.
I don't really care about aesthetics-if I like it and it sounds good, I'm happy.
It lives in my vintage style garage so who gives a rip.
So I gut out a Sunn Alpha combo that just happens to work-single 12" speaker, solid sounding cab, not too awfully beat. You've seen it:



So I play it, break it in...try some different speakers.
IT'S TOO LOUD FOR ME!
Sounds awesome.
But WOW it is loud. I toyed with the idea of a master volume, power soaks, other silliness..decided to put it up for sale.
Only got 1/2 a bite, and the guy wanted me to build it into a Tweed Cab. Mmmmm-nah.

Part 2 goes like this:
I was actually toying with the AX84 SEL design on paper for a while.
But I hated the first build.
5 Lbs of "bees in a bottle" and not much other usable tone.
Multiple mods later, I think I came up with a very kickbutt single ended amp that gets all kinds of great tones from passable clean-to cranked Champ-to mild 5E3-to cranked Marshall (think close to JCM800 territory).
Probably 5 watts. Love it. It's nearly all I play besides the Deluxe Reverb. Built two others after it.
Built it into a pretty fair looking head cabinet.


So I got to thinking. Can't sell the Tweed.
And I want the SEL Lead head in a combo.
I use it with just the Sunn combo speaker half the time, so I'll build it sometime for myself.


DingDingDing!

Swap them!
So I stripped them both out.
Wish me luck, I'm going in.

[elicross]

Ah, the old CIHT!

[Cygnus X1]

?

LOL.
(I guess).
What'd he mean by that anyways?

Just kidding about NT.
His work is FAR better looking than mine.

[elicross]

?

LOL.
(I guess).
What'd he mean by that anyways?

By what? "The old CIHT"?

CIHT = Cygnus Inverted Histrionic Turnabout, natch!

[chuckocaster]

best of luck compadre! welcome to my world, making awesome stuff from what you have "just laying around, you know". i know it will be cool as all hell, it's hard making weird stuff, cause it's just "that" much off center.

can't wait to see the results.

[Cygnus X1]

By what? "The old CIHT"?

CIHT = Cygnus Inverted Histrionic Turnabout, natch!

I'm a , but you knew that.

And Chuck-10-4!
I have bought a lot of parts over the past year.
Why not twist things up and make what I want?

Thinking of you, I need to make a couple of stompboxes and amp switching pedals.

[NTBluesGuitar]

Just kidding about NT.
His work is FAR better looking than mine.

But you have the FRESHEST ideas! And this one is another goodie.

[Cygnus X1]

El Doubl'e Posteth.

[Cygnus X1]

Thank you NT!

Now for some ahem..."opportunities":
I came to the sudden realization that the 5E3 is 100% backwards from the way the SEL is set up.

Flip the board upside down?
Strip it and resolder everything in reverse...and add holes and turrets as I need them?

My head hurt.
I took a nap, falling asleep while watching "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives".

And I woke up in the "bed of knowledge", with a picture of something else I had salvaged from a thrift store burning in my brain.

...And that is the only clue I will give right now.

[chuckocaster]

i have a feeling

[phantomman]

But which end do you hook the bass boat to, Chuck......?

[chuckocaster]

"this ain't for eatin. it's just for lookin thru."

[Cygnus X1]

"I just use it to drive it back and forth to work"!

[chuckocaster]

LOL! nice one.

[rudutch]

back seat driver?

[Cygnus X1]

I thought it would be easy...circumventing having to make or remake another eyelet board.
My goal was also to do this at zero money spent.
(I know, you don't have to say it-CHEEP! CHEEP!).

So that awakening vision offered this:


A few extra terminal strips.
Just need to strip them and drill them out.
I've been poking and plugging away for a few days, maybe an hour of free time before soup is served.
Turns out it's like building a ship in a bottle.
The true point-to-point Spitfire was easier in comparison!

I am resolute and pushing forward.
I have a feeling it will sound awesome.

[NTBluesGuitar]

Geez...you're a brave soul...I wouldn't go near anything like that.

[Cygnus X1]

Geez...you're a brave soul...I wouldn't go near anything like that.

"Brave"...or... .

OK, I'll go with "brave".
Thank you!

That comment I made about "ship in a bottle" keeps coming back to me as I do this.

[NTBluesGuitar]

Well, there's no doubt that this is a real PTP project!!!

[Cygnus X1]

Meh, not really.
The terminal strips at least have some anchoring point to design around.
Point to point is just that-and I frequently use the crutch of insulating the long leads to prevent any close encounters of the 3rd, 4th..whatever kind that would cause an implosion of the universe.
Barring any unforeseen mishaps this ought to be pushing speakers by Tuesday.

[elicross]

How long is that thing? In the photo, it looks like it's twelve feet long!

[Cygnus X1]

How long is that thing? In the photo, it looks like it's twelve feet long!

Not really.
About four feet.
It came out of a 50's Baldwin organ.
I salvaged a ton of pristine looking Sprague 200V Tan Beauty caps, carbon resistors, some old transistors I have yet to ID, and the wire!
Oh, that wire is great-cloth covered, clean as new solid core 22AWG. Tightly wrapped with some sort of double wrap.
Much better quality than even the push back cloth wire that Fender used.

[Cygnus X1]

Don't think I forgot about this-I ran into a hiccup ofn the 5E3.
Dead power transformer-it happened when it was in the combo cab. My fault-I believe I picked the wrong transformer for the job.

So I navigated forward and put the 5E3 to the side to get the SEL into that combo (I miss playing it!).
It is shoehorned in and ready to fire up after the required-by-rule sleep-on-it maxim.

Pix to follow soon.
And yes, I promise the wiring is as I usually do it, high voltage criss-crossed to low signal.
Very little parallel.
Ugly, but I believe it works.

[chuckocaster]

live sound usually requires you to run high and low voltage cables at 90 degrees of eachother. that's how i was always shouted at to do it...

can't wait to see some pics amigo.