Simon Says
51% lizard
THX, better pics
Three Amplifiers vs One Man. My DIY quest
- Thread starter Simon Says
- Start date
WingerRules
Julie who?
- Joined
- May 4, 2023
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I am curious about your choice of boards. Is this just your preferred build method, vs. say a turret board?
Simon Says
51% lizard
Thanks haha. I had not much time for the amp in the past two days as it was my wife's birthday and I had to make a cake and effort. But I made some progress in the input assembly this evening. Is it perfect? No, but it's good enough. I'm not a fan of working with "flying components," of which the AC30 has a few. With the capacitors linking board A to the board B, I have secured them with hot glue to the other components on the board. Here, I just had to measure 10 times and solder once. The only thing the assembly is missing at this point is the ground link wire between the upper jacks and the lower row. I have some PVC-coated solid core wire, but the coating is melting even if you look at it funny. I'm still looking for a decent Teflon solid core wire for this and the heater wiring. The assembly is mounted to the front of the chassis only for better access for soldering. It will obviously be mounted on the other side with the bus wire extended to the potentiometer and ground reference.
I have the patience, yet I still have a chance to electrocute myself. I do the planning, assembly and the quality control. Taking your time is the only way to survive this.
This is the type of boards as used in the past era AC30 amplifiers. But yeah, I really like tagboards. Back in the days when I used to be quite obsessed with building amps, I made a lot of layouts on tagboards. I created layouts for various amps like Marshalls, Soldano, tweed era Fenders, and also for effects like different fuzz pedals and even a Univibe. There's something about tagboards that I find very appealing.
Simon Says
51% lizard
I've officially ordered the cabinet yesterday. I had a bit of issues with it. The initial plan of going with Zilla died; they refused to build one due to several reasons. No hard feelings.
Since I had no idea what to do, I started looking around on Google and I found Mark at AF Custom Cabinets in Wales. It all checks out; he is located nearby, very responsive, not asking for prepayments, and makes amazing looking cabinets.
There is a waiting time of around 10 weeks, which is fine, as I just can't decide on tolex to save my life. Luckily, Mark said there is no need to decide on this quite yet. Unfortunately, the bare pine is not an option.
Here are the options I currently have: https://www.tubetown.net/ttstore/en/components-10662/tolex-grillcloth/tolex/
Since I had no idea what to do, I started looking around on Google and I found Mark at AF Custom Cabinets in Wales. It all checks out; he is located nearby, very responsive, not asking for prepayments, and makes amazing looking cabinets.
There is a waiting time of around 10 weeks, which is fine, as I just can't decide on tolex to save my life. Luckily, Mark said there is no need to decide on this quite yet. Unfortunately, the bare pine is not an option.
Here are the options I currently have: https://www.tubetown.net/ttstore/en/components-10662/tolex-grillcloth/tolex/
Simon Says
51% lizard
I will probably go fawn, and call ot a dayI Like The Fawn, Sand, Cocoa Cream, Smooth Or Rough Blonde
Alnus Rubra
Loving nature’s wonders
Thanks haha. I had not much time for the amp in the past two days as it was my wife's birthday and I had to make a cake and effort. But I made some progress in the input assembly this evening. Is it perfect? No, but it's good enough. I'm not a fan of working with "flying components," of which the AC30 has a few. With the capacitors linking board A to the board B, I have secured them with hot glue to the other components on the board. Here, I just had to measure 10 times and solder once. The only thing the assembly is missing at this point is the ground link wire between the upper jacks and the lower row. I have some PVC-coated solid core wire, but the coating is melting even if you look at it funny. I'm still looking for a decent Teflon solid core wire for this and the heater wiring. The assembly is mounted to the front of the chassis only for better access for soldering. It will obviously be mounted on the other side with the bus wire extended to the potentiometer and ground reference.
I have the patience, yet I still have a chance to electrocute myself. I do the planning, assembly and the quality control. Taking your time is the only way to survive this.
This is the type of boards as used in the past era AC30 amplifiers. But yeah, I really like tagboards. Back in the days when I used to be quite obsessed with building amps, I made a lot of layouts on tagboards. I created layouts for various amps like Marshalls, Soldano, tweed era Fenders, and also for effects like different fuzz pedals and even a Univibe. There's something about tagboards that I find very appealing.
You’re the best Dude. Hope Mrs Simon Says had a great birthday. Cake looks tasty.
Your work is looking stellar as always.
See, you're not too knackered, solder on the amp, icing on the cake! Perfect!Thanks haha. I had not much time for the amp in the past two days as it was my wife's birthday and I had to make a cake and effort. But I made some progress in the input assembly this evening. Is it perfect? No, but it's good enough. I'm not a fan of working with "flying components," of which the AC30 has a few. With the capacitors linking board A to the board B, I have secured them with hot glue to the other components on the board. Here, I just had to measure 10 times and solder once. The only thing the assembly is missing at this point is the ground link wire between the upper jacks and the lower row. I have some PVC-coated solid core wire, but the coating is melting even if you look at it funny. I'm still looking for a decent Teflon solid core wire for this and the heater wiring. The assembly is mounted to the front of the chassis only for better access for soldering. It will obviously be mounted on the other side with the bus wire extended to the potentiometer and ground reference.
I have the patience, yet I still have a chance to electrocute myself. I do the planning, assembly and the quality control. Taking your time is the only way to survive this.
This is the type of boards as used in the past era AC30 amplifiers. But yeah, I really like tagboards. Back in the days when I used to be quite obsessed with building amps, I made a lot of layouts on tagboards. I created layouts for various amps like Marshalls, Soldano, tweed era Fenders, and also for effects like different fuzz pedals and even a Univibe. There's something about tagboards that I find very appealing.
Simon Says
51% lizard
She did okay. I bought her a coffee maker and the cake was better than it looked. It was my first attempt at making a carrot cake, and it was delicious.
Thanks, man. I'm emotionally exhausted, though. I'm on the verge of packing this stuff up and ditching it in the attic forever. I have a few EE friends, and I was chatting quite often with one to understand things better. Please mind, I'm not an engineer; I'm a paramedic who decided to build an amp after a decade-long break since the last equally big project. Not sure if you've ever had a chat with an amp builder, but they're frequently difficult to deal with. This mate of mine is especially stiff. For example, I'm asking him a relatively simple question about the screen resistors, and instead of forming an answer for my noob brain to understand, he is asking more questions with complicated math that I just cannot understand. I literally lost my cool earlier today and explained to him how the conversation we have looks like. It's like him, if he would ask me how to do CPR, I would start asking him, "Well, how old? Do some math. How many ribs does the average male in the 30-65 age group have? What is the average circulation volume in this age group? What is the skin resistance with a 200-joule shock delivery? Give me the chemical composition of adrenaline first! Besides, it all depends on in what way they hit the ground." It... ****... me... right... off!See, you're not too knackered, solder on the amp, icing on the cake! Perfect!
The amp is currently in the box, but I will return to it in a couple of weeks when I cool down
WingerRules
Julie who?
- Joined
- May 4, 2023
- Messages
- 2,820
Understand, but don't let it discourage you! I have a friend that is an engineer and he does the same thing but at least he's very cool about it.
You may remember me talking about years ago spending most of my online time in amp and pedal building forums. I was into building and modding SE amps. It was a great place to start, because of the simple designs. I had tone stack calculators and R/C calculators saved to my desktop and used them daily. Most of the guys in those forums were VERY helpful. Some were very smug and liked to spew knowledge that wasn't even needed or relevant to the topic of the day.
You've gone well past the point of stopping, so give it a day, cool down and get back on that horse!
Prina
Avoiding imperial entanglements
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2023
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- 1,419
Sounds like a great resource if the forums are still like that. Any current recommendations?
WingerRules
Julie who?
- Joined
- May 4, 2023
- Messages
- 2,820
I hung out mostly at SEWatt.com
There was another amp building forum I hung at regularly but I can’t remember the exact name . Let me see if I can find it.
When I was 23 I decided to build an FM tuner from a kit. In the kit were unpopulated circuit boards, instructions, chassis, faceplate and other parts. Lots of parts. Tiny parts.
I enjoyed building it, and it worked from the first moment I turned it on.
Would I do it again?
I don't think so. At this point in my life I like building music. But there's one little problem: The box is empty when you get it, and there aren't any instructions.
So...my FM tuner worked straight away, but I spend a lot of time building a piece of music that often just doesn't work for me. Does this make sense to you? Probably not. It certainly makes no sense to me.
On the other hand, beating my head against a wall with this stuff is a source of amusement when there's nothing else to do...
I enjoyed building it, and it worked from the first moment I turned it on.
Would I do it again?
I don't think so. At this point in my life I like building music. But there's one little problem: The box is empty when you get it, and there aren't any instructions.
So...my FM tuner worked straight away, but I spend a lot of time building a piece of music that often just doesn't work for me. Does this make sense to you? Probably not. It certainly makes no sense to me.
On the other hand, beating my head against a wall with this stuff is a source of amusement when there's nothing else to do...
Simon Says
51% lizard
I'm not discouraged. I was just a little bit angry and frustrated. My mind is all over the place; I need to understand how things work and I often delve into the minutiae. It's like you said; well past the point of stopping.
The SLOclone is a great resource, but it's currently not very active. It's still online, but joining may be a bit challenging. I'm not sure if they're still accepting new members, but in the past, the admin worked hard to make it difficult. It's a unique place full of good technical info. The Plexi Palace used to be great for classic amps, but it's no longer online. However, you can access some content via the Wayback Machine. For AC30 research, I often used 18watt.com and ampgarage.com; both are full of very knowledgeable people, some of whom are active on TGP. Hoffman, also known as EL34world, is pretty cool too.
Thanks, Les. I have no plans to suddenly go back to DIY full time. There's an element of fun in building an amp, but it consumes me way too much.When I was 23 I decided to build an FM tuner from a kit. In the kit were unpopulated circuit boards, instructions, chassis, faceplate and other parts. Lots of parts. Tiny parts.
I enjoyed building it, and it worked from the first moment I turned it on.
Would I do it again?
I don't think so. At this point in my life I like building music. But there's one little problem: The box is empty when you get it, and there aren't any instructions.
So...my FM tuner worked straight away, but I spend a lot of time building a piece of music that often just doesn't work for me. Does this make sense to you? Probably not. It certainly makes no sense to me.
On the other hand, beating my head against a wall with this stuff is a source of amusement when there's nothing else to do...
Here's something cool I found on YT
Alnus Rubra
Loving nature’s wonders
Nice share bro.
Alnus Rubra
Loving nature’s wonders
Like the Sweet switch on early PRSi?
