Pittman, O'Connor are a couple names you should know before building.
I'm guilty though.
The authors of my knowledge are named Aiken (Randall), and Weber (weed through the tall grass carefully).
Oh, and another tip:
Fire up using a current limiter.
And always fire up after sleeping on it.
You would be amazed at what suddenly flashes into your mind what you might have forgotten to look at.
If you don't want to fry anything on first power up, build a light bulb current limiter. Start it up with no tubes and watch what happens with the light bulb, if it starts bright and dims, then you should be okay. Next put in the rectifier and try again, then add the tubes and finally remove the limiter and fire it up. If the bulb comes on bright and stays on you have a short somewhere that you need to fix before you add the rectifier or tubes.
Pittman knows substantially less about amps than GW. Both are equals in the huckster field.Originally Posted by Cygnus X1
Pittman, O'Connor are a couple names you should know before building.
I'm guilty though.
The authors of my knowledge are named Aiken (Randall), and Weber (weed through the tall grass carefully).
I live dangerously. I don't have a current limiter.
Several guitars in different colors
Things to make them fuzzy
Things to make them louder
orange picks
I didn't either until about 3 amps ago Kap'n, then I kept reading about people frying PTs and decided that for $10 in parts it was cheap insurance.
Well, back in the day, that's all there was out there!
I got the Pittman material out of the public library and took notes. If he was a huckster, at least he didn't get this dog's money.
I learned quite a bit from Weber's Vintage Guitar articles, if that's any better. But really the most I have learned has been the Aiken articles and the thick and thin of the Interweb. Most of the best amp builders are right here!
Yep, that and the Jack Darr book. That's still the benchmark.
Hosted by Uncle Spot
I've still got my Tube Amp Book II. That thing is one continuous typo and error. The schematics are cool though.
Several guitars in different colors
Things to make them fuzzy
Things to make them louder
orange picks
Looks like you followed NTB' advice to go slow - NOT! Sounds like somebody took a sick day, or two!
Seriously, you picked IMO the absolute perfect amp to start on. Not only is the small tweed circuit super simple, intuitive, easy to follow and build - it sounds frickin unreal.
There are two lessons to take from this one. First, less 'clutter' in the signal path usually means better tone. Second, don't think this is all there is to it. Most other builds are WAY trickier.
If was your 'amp daddy' I'd MAKE you tinker with this one for a few months and completely understand it before trying another. In fact, one of the really fun things with the small tweed circuits is soldering in and out this and that (diff bypass, bright cap, coupling cap, values, etc.)
The last little thing like this we built - a 2x6V6 parallel amp, the stock values didn't work right. I then changed bypass caps, OT and finally it was the ceramic bias resistor that did the trick - tubes weren't at optimal bias.
Half the fun in these is swapping tubes, speakers and even components.
Can't wait for the results.
ps - don't get discouraged if it's not right to begin with. can get cold solder joints if not careful.
Heh...welll whay y'all don't know is that H-bob and I have been in almost constant contact via e-mail and IM all along.
He's got the time to work on this a lot, compared to those of us with family and/or professional obligations.
How I wish I could go back to being a college student again.
"...pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field;
that, of course, they are many in number; or that, after all, they are other than the little,
shriveled, meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome, insects of the hour."
-Edmund Burke
Feels like a thread hijack, but it isn't.
Checkmate, Kap'n.
I forgot about that one.
SO, how is it?...
I know how you feel. I was lucky me 5e3 worked first power up. I took my time. When I got confused I backed off, studied, looked at pictures. Went back to it the next session, checked my work...I started each time with what I knew what was right. Now it is wonderful.
P e a c e
KYC
well, hopefully i'll finish tonight. i'll post updates soon.
Don't rush, if you feel tired leave it till tomorrow. Working when your tired is when you make mistakes. It can take more time, and money, to correct mistakes that to take your time.
Good point, Wingnut. Sometimes, it's best to sleep on it before firing it up.
"...pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field;
that, of course, they are many in number; or that, after all, they are other than the little,
shriveled, meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome, insects of the hour."
-Edmund Burke
ok guys, finally got it all wired up.
what's the next step?
Sleep on it!
Well, not literally.
But give it a rest.
It's as essential as the current limiter.
Trust me on this one.
well i've only been up for 9 hours today, so i'm nowhere near tired. i didn't do much work on it today, just making sure everything was connected right.
This is a pretty oft-referenced site on first power-up:
http://paulrubyamps.com/info.html#FirstPowerUp
"...pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field;
that, of course, they are many in number; or that, after all, they are other than the little,
shriveled, meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome, insects of the hour."
-Edmund Burke
WFT is the wurd hippie boy???????????
I've been on IM with H-B over the last several nights. The amp is healthy from the power cord all the way back to V1. Not getting good numbers or pops on the plates in V1, though.
For some weird reason, the pot casings are not grounding, so the two grounds that got soldered to the pots weren't grounded. I think H-B's working that out now.
Anything newer to report than this, H-B?
Last edited by NTBluesGuitar; 02-24-2009 at 01:27 PM.
"...pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field;
that, of course, they are many in number; or that, after all, they are other than the little,
shriveled, meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome, insects of the hour."
-Edmund Burke
???????????????
Apparently not. Come on, git 'er running, hippiebob!
He's got it running. But I'll let him tell you more when he gets to it.
"...pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field;
that, of course, they are many in number; or that, after all, they are other than the little,
shriveled, meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome, insects of the hour."
-Edmund Burke
sorry guys haven't been able to post much in the past week or so. i'll get some pics up tonight
Edit: I have it running and it sounds pretty good. There was an issue with rattling but I narrowed it down to a rattling baffle and one of the 6V6's is a little shaky (stock from Weber)...I've yet to order any EH6v6, but I've heard they are good new production. Anyone got any suggestions for 6V6s?
JJ/Tesla!
"...pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field;
that, of course, they are many in number; or that, after all, they are other than the little,
shriveled, meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome, insects of the hour."
-Edmund Burke
Old GEs rule...
Those wouldn't be 'new production'.
"...pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field;
that, of course, they are many in number; or that, after all, they are other than the little,
shriveled, meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome, insects of the hour."
-Edmund Burke
Yeah, if you're going new production, JJ is the only choice.
For old stock, I've got a boatload of GE's. They're my back up when I run through all the RCA pulls.
Several guitars in different colors
Things to make them fuzzy
Things to make them louder
orange picks
Well there ya go Kapn's got ya covered. FWIW I don't like the JJ 6V6 too 'hard' sounding, though they are loud. Old is IMO the only way to go with 6V6. Lots of choices there.
Well, old is more expensive. Fifteen years ago, there wasn't any new production that wouldn't self destruct in five minutes, so it was the only choice.
I've not played the JJ, but it gets a lot of credit for being robust. That at least makes the manufacture of 6V6 amps a viable option for a company that doesn't build them one at a time. If it wasn't for JJ, I doubt we would have seen the FMIC '57 Deluxe RI.
Several guitars in different colors
Things to make them fuzzy
Things to make them louder
orange picks
JJs sounded great in my Princeton Reverb, not as good in my tweed Deluxe clone.
I traded for a set of GEs and they kick butt!!!
I'm fine with new production tubes in anything except my tweed Deluxe clone.
tweeds are really picky with tubes, due to the simpler circuits. i've used jj's and really like them, yeah they aren't as creamy as the older ones. but i've had great success with them in my st. george and modded bassman. they are tough little boogers, strong enough to be put in a 50 watt bassman.
"don't worry, i'm a professional!"
Sylvanias are good too...
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