Amp building

[neato]

Sorry for not responding to everyone's SUPER helpful posts sooner, I've been trying to soak in all the information. Just wanted to say thank you so much! All these responses to my original post are very much appreciated.

[neato]

I just did myself a hypothetical "what would I do if starting today" scenario. Weber still has a lot of good options, and some creative variants but nowhere near what they had when I started. Now a lot of their amps are pretty much the same as what's offered everywhere else. I wandered over to Mojotone, however, and saw their NC3015. Knowing what I know now, and knowing what I prefer, that's got winner written all over it. AC30 style circuit but without the stupid dual chassis and scaled down to 15 watts. Complex enough that you get a lot of amp, but simple enough for a first time build and its got tons of chassis room to play with. I wish they had a 30W version but oh well...

https://www.mojotone.com/British-Style- ... lifier-Kit

Thanks for pointing this kit out to me, I think it would be right up my wheelhouse as well. It doesn't look like Mojotone offer a set by step build documentation for this kit. Not sure if this is even needed since they do include the schematic and wiring diagram. Would you recommend this to a first timer?

[Dr Tony Balls]

I just did myself a hypothetical "what would I do if starting today" scenario. Weber still has a lot of good options, and some creative variants but nowhere near what they had when I started. Now a lot of their amps are pretty much the same as what's offered everywhere else. I wandered over to Mojotone, however, and saw their NC3015. Knowing what I know now, and knowing what I prefer, that's got winner written all over it. AC30 style circuit but without the stupid dual chassis and scaled down to 15 watts. Complex enough that you get a lot of amp, but simple enough for a first time build and its got tons of chassis room to play with. I wish they had a 30W version but oh well...

https://www.mojotone.com/British-Style- ... lifier-Kit

Thanks for pointing this kit out to me, I think it would be right up my wheelhouse as well. It doesn't look like Mojotone offer a set by step build documentation for this kit. Not sure if this is even needed since they do include the schematic and wiring diagram. Would you recommend this to a first timer?

Yeah I think it would be just fine. As I said before I started with a Weber kit which was the same deal, just a schematic and a wiring diagram, but there was also a forum full of people to answer questions. Mojotone doesnt have a forum but between OSG and some others out there your bases should be covered in terms of people that can answer questions for you and comment on your work, the build process, etc.

[hulakatt]

Care to share the rationale for that? I fail to see how, all things equivalent, a quad of tubes will produce different tone than a pair.

True if all things are equivalent

Alright well that answers my question. Just dont want anyone to get the impression that if you, say, pull two tubes out of your Super Lead you're gonna lose low end or something.

Oh no, not at all. You'll hardly lose any volume either. I didn't want anyone to get the impression that slapping the same preamp on a tweed Deluxe power amp or Soldano SLO 100 power amp will yield amps that have any similarities whatsoever. Everything still affects everything and there's quite a difference between pulling half of the power tubes and a power amp designed for 15 watts vs one designed for 30 watts.

[hulakatt]

The internet is the world’s largest repository of misinformation

Can this quote be bannered on the site header?

[DeathJag]

I had the great fortune of having a real tech in my house today, and he walked me through the '61 Super's 6G4-A circuit. It was super awesome, but also crazy out of my knowledge. I now have a good parts list to bring that thing up to spec, and I've ordered them. There are so many damn things I don't know about elecrticity, and I want to know it all! In fact my brain gets stuck when one thing doesn't make sense. I also am starting to learn the terms and what they do. Bypass caps, coupling, load resistors, filter caps, etc. But MAN it's a lot. I am seriously thinking about getting into some beginner EE type courses. I want to know what the electrons are doing!

Also the last tech butchered the bias supply, and the whole thing runs very cold, about half the mA it should. So I'm going to attempt to follow the schematic and rebuild that to its original spec. And hope that fixes that issue. The damn thing sounds really nice though! The rectifier is a 5Y3 rather than the GZ34 that is in the schematics, maybe that helps it. It's much more quiet than it should be also. I suspect the previous owner wanted the tech to mod it so he could play quieter with a nice tone. While it totally does this, I want to fix it back to spec. I'll end up biasing cool anyhow because I like that tone...

[Dr Tony Balls]

I had the great fortune of having a real tech in my house today, and he walked me through the '61 Super's 6G4-A circuit. It was super awesome, but also crazy out of my knowledge. I now have a good parts list to bring that thing up to spec, and I've ordered them. There are so many damn things I don't know about elecrticity, and I want to know it all! In fact my brain gets stuck when one thing doesn't make sense. I also am starting to learn the terms and what they do. Bypass caps, coupling, load resistors, filter caps, etc. But MAN it's a lot. I am seriously thinking about getting into some beginner EE type courses. I want to know what the electrons are doing!

Also the last tech butchered the bias supply, and the whole thing runs very cold, about half the mA it should. So I'm going to attempt to follow the schematic and rebuild that to its original spec. And hope that fixes that issue. The damn thing sounds really nice though! The rectifier is a 5Y3 rather than the GZ34 that is in the schematics, maybe that helps it. It's much more quiet than it should be also. I suspect the previous owner wanted the tech to mod it so he could play quieter with a nice tone. While it totally does this, I want to fix it back to spec. I'll end up biasing cool anyhow because I like that tone...

A 5Y3 is going to drop quite a bit more voltage than a GZ-34, which will affect a number of things, including overall volume and bias. If you want to keep it that way, that's cool, but if you're going to change back to a GZ-34 i'd do that before you tinker with the bias supply.

[DeathJag]

I had the great fortune of having a real tech in my house today, and he walked me through the '61 Super's 6G4-A circuit. It was super awesome, but also crazy out of my knowledge. I now have a good parts list to bring that thing up to spec, and I've ordered them. There are so many damn things I don't know about elecrticity, and I want to know it all! In fact my brain gets stuck when one thing doesn't make sense. I also am starting to learn the terms and what they do. Bypass caps, coupling, load resistors, filter caps, etc. But MAN it's a lot. I am seriously thinking about getting into some beginner EE type courses. I want to know what the electrons are doing!

Also the last tech butchered the bias supply, and the whole thing runs very cold, about half the mA it should. So I'm going to attempt to follow the schematic and rebuild that to its original spec. And hope that fixes that issue. The damn thing sounds really nice though! The rectifier is a 5Y3 rather than the GZ34 that is in the schematics, maybe that helps it. It's much more quiet than it should be also. I suspect the previous owner wanted the tech to mod it so he could play quieter with a nice tone. While it totally does this, I want to fix it back to spec. I'll end up biasing cool anyhow because I like that tone...

A 5Y3 is going to drop quite a bit more voltage than a GZ-34, which will affect a number of things, including overall volume and bias. If you want to keep it that way, that's cool, but if you're going to change back to a GZ-34 i'd do that before you tinker with the bias supply.

Thank you for your thoughts! I was gonna keep the 5y3 for now, thank you! I know the 5y3 is lower output and I think I like it like that. I only have one other tube rectified amp but that's an Epiphone. Tube rectifiers are new to me. I don't really understand the math.

[Dr Tony Balls]

Tube rectifiers are new to me. I don't really understand the math.

There's not much to understand. They work the same as diode rectification, they just have losses in terms of voltage drop. Some drop more than others.

[hulakatt]

2) Tweed-style Fender amps have a relatively crowded and cramped chassis, compared to 60's Fender-style amps or most English style amps. A lof of people start on tweed style Fenders so i'm sure its okay but if you want more room to work, the other style kits provide you with that.

I mean, just look at all that space to work in!

[Dr Tony Balls]

Hahaha Hiwatt's are absurd.

[øøøøøøø]

i look forward to seeing how this hiwatt build develops!

looks like a great project

[hulakatt]

Thanks for pointing this kit out to me, I think it would be right up my wheelhouse as well. It doesn't look like Mojotone offer a set by step build documentation for this kit. Not sure if this is even needed since they do include the schematic and wiring diagram. Would you recommend this to a first timer?

If you want to look over some step-by-step instructions, head over to Valvestorm and look over the jtm45 build documentation. They provide full step-by-step instructions for the first time build of a jtm45. Once you've gone through that, the sequencing is pretty much the same for any tube amp you build.

[hulakatt]

Bear in mind, I'm just doing this for 15-30 minutes at a time in between other things. Gotta say, wiring an amp this way is tedious and time consuming but it looks so damn neat and tidy! Is it more to keep track of as you go though and requires the most processing power out of any amp I've built to date. There's a lot of parts where 3 or 5 things all need done at the same time.

I'm sticking to the color coding on the layout from Mojotone but it really bothers me when they use green for something other than ground.

[fever606]

Gotta say, wiring an amp this way is tedious and time consuming but it looks so damn neat and tidy!

That’s looking great! Excitement building!