Dub-T-123 Posted February 25, 2017 Share Posted February 25, 2017 I really never would have anticipated this when I bought this ac30 but since it's been so problematic and has a lot of features that I don't want, I just decided to gut the whole thing and rebuild it using the chassis and cabinet. Here's the gutted chassis, which is going to be great to work with since it has so much space And here are most of the circuit boards that came out I'm going to rebuild it using tagstrips in a similar style to the old ac30/4 and ac30/6, but with just the (EF86) normal channel and top boost channel If anyone has a cool suggestion on what to do with an unused triode in this circuit I'm all ears! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Farnsbarns Posted February 25, 2017 Share Posted February 25, 2017 May I suggest making up some turret board instead. You can get a much nicer layout when you decide where your junctions sit. Would be nice to follow this project if you fancy posting updates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdgm Posted February 26, 2017 Share Posted February 26, 2017 Ahh....the old, pre-circuit board AC30 was the most common amp combo when I started, there were loads of them and they used to go very cheap. Under £200 when a Fender Twin was over £300. Now of course....... It shouldn't have circuit boards anyway!!!! Believe they were a fairly straightforward design, plenty of schematics on the net or I can send you them out of Tube Amp Bk...I have a vintage Vox AC10 amp (just the amp in a home-made box) which pops and hisses now but has the thickest clean tone of any amp I ever had; think the valves are 'full-on' all the time in old Voxes and that components can burn out regularly, that's what I was told about my Vox bass amp once long ago. Could you use the unused triode for a trem/vib? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dub-T-123 Posted February 26, 2017 Author Share Posted February 26, 2017 May I suggest making up some turret board instead. You can get a much nicer layout when you decide where your junctions sit. Would be nice to follow this project if you fancy posting updates. I wouldn't be opposed to turret at all but I've already got the tagstrips and I'm pretty happy with how my layout is looking. I'm using a few terminal strips where extra flexibility is needed. I will keep you updated. I still need to order transformers, the speaker, and some hardware. Ahh....the old, pre-circuit board AC30 was the most common amp combo when I started, there were loads of them and they used to go very cheap. Under £200 when a Fender Twin was over £300. Now of course....... It shouldn't have circuit boards anyway!!!! Believe they were a fairly straightforward design, plenty of schematics on the net or I can send you them out of Tube Amp Bk...I have a vintage Vox AC10 amp (just the amp in a home-made box) which pops and hisses now but has the thickest clean tone of any amp I ever had; think the valves are 'full-on' all the time in old Voxes and that components can burn out regularly, that's what I was told about my Vox bass amp once long ago. Could you use the unused triode for a trem/vib? With the tremolo channel they were relatively complicated amps. Without the tremolo it's pretty straightforward The models currently mass produced by Korg have solid state reverb drivers, tremolo, effects loop, and now rectifier as well. So these are quite different from the originals. The extra triode could be used as the LFO for a bias modulating tremolo. I'm looking at the trem on the Vox Cambridge schematic as a possible option for this cathode biased amp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surfpup Posted February 27, 2017 Share Posted February 27, 2017 Cool project. It's gonna sound so much better without all that printed circuitry. Hoping you will post often. I'm lately thinking about a JTM45 build - though your 5E3 is tempting too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dub-T-123 Posted February 27, 2017 Author Share Posted February 27, 2017 Cool project. It's gonna sound so much better without all that printed circuitry. Hoping you will post often. I'm lately thinking about a JTM45 build - though your 5E3 is tempting too. Thanks Pup. Are you wanting to build yourself or have your buddy do it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surfpup Posted February 28, 2017 Share Posted February 28, 2017 Thanks Pup. Are you wanting to build yourself or have your buddy do it? I'll probably want to do it myself. He can always troubleshoot if I screw something up. I'd probably have him their at power up - in part because he has a Variac that's great for powering up slowly the first time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dub-T-123 Posted February 28, 2017 Author Share Posted February 28, 2017 I'll probably want to do it myself. He can always troubleshoot if I screw something up. I'd probably have him their at power up - in part because he has a Variac that's great for powering up slowly the first time. Sounds like a great plan to me! Are you thinking about getting a kit or buying all the parts separately? I'm freakin madly in love with that 5e3 btw man thanks for the help with that. I STILL haven't built the cabs but I finally found the router bit I wanted for the box joints and it's on order and should be in any day now. I'm getting the cabs professionally finished by my buddy in exchange for a little custom shelf so they should look pretty legit when they're finally done. Can't rush perfection Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Farnsbarns Posted February 28, 2017 Share Posted February 28, 2017 Don't wanna be teaching any grandma's to suck eggs but I learned a valuable and expensive lesson about Variacs once. Be careful of dual voltage power supplies. I once powered up a monitor I was working on with a Variac, little did I know, when it first powered up, it had detected 110 volts. I ramped it up to 230 once it seemed to have powered up. BANG. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dub-T-123 Posted February 28, 2017 Author Share Posted February 28, 2017 Don't wanna be teaching any grandma's to suck eggs but I learned a valuable and expensive lesson about Variacs once. Be careful of dual voltage power supplies. I once powered up a monitor I was working on with a Variac, little did I know, when it first powered up, it had detected 110 volts. I ramped it up to 230 once it seemed to have powered up. BANG. In America we would stop at 110-120 since that's standard here. Good advice though!! I bet that was scary :0 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badbluesplayer Posted March 1, 2017 Share Posted March 1, 2017 In America we would stop at 110-120 since that's standard here. Good advice though!! I bet that was scary :0 I think British variacs go up to 11. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saturn Posted March 1, 2017 Share Posted March 1, 2017 Don't wanna be teaching any grandma's to suck eggs ..... What does that mean? :) Regarding the OP, do all the newer AC30s have a reputation for having "issues"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dub-T-123 Posted March 1, 2017 Author Share Posted March 1, 2017 What does that mean? :) Regarding the OP, do all the newer AC30s have a reputation for having "issues"? Ac30s have sorta been problematic all along because they run the tubes hot The newer ones have the disadvantage of being much more difficult to work on, and they have some considerable changes to the old designs. They still sound great, though the reverb on this model (CC1) sounds like crap and the trem isn't crap but isn't great either The reverb on the more recent C1 and C2 models sounds much better than this model. The C1 and C2 models changed to a solid state rectifier which has a considerable effect on the sound. The solid state rectifier would also probably make the amp more reliable by reducing the amount of heat in the chassis. The rectifier tube heats up like a mother****er in there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dub-T-123 Posted March 24, 2017 Author Share Posted March 24, 2017 The barrage of parts coming in the mail has begun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surfpup Posted March 25, 2017 Share Posted March 25, 2017 The barrage of parts coming in the mail has begun Mmmmmmm.... parts porn.... Don't.... stop.... Don't stop.... Please don't stop.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dub-T-123 Posted March 25, 2017 Author Share Posted March 25, 2017 Mmmmmmm.... parts porn.... Don't.... stop.... Don't stop.... Please don't stop.... Gor some juicy Classic Tone iron incoming too! I got the Celestion gold in 8 ohm so I could also use it with the 5e3. Damn. It sounds awesome with the 5e3! Dunno if I'm just trippin out but it feels more like a Marshall, at least until you totally crank it to the max and flub out the bass with the neck pickup. Still happy with the ceramic Weber in there but the Celestion is a fun change too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dub-T-123 Posted April 6, 2017 Author Share Posted April 6, 2017 I gotta vent here a little bit. Forget anything positive that I may have said about Triode Electronics in the past. I bought a few hundred dollars worth of parts from them last month on the 21st. They sent an email saying my order had shipped, and included a link to usps for tracking but did not include a tracking number. So I wait for the package to show and it doesn't. After emailing them for a day or two, they send me another email saying my order is shipped. Same deal with the link to USPS but no tracking number. So at this point obviously I'm suspicious so I ask for the tracking number. Once I get that, it says the shipping label has been created but USPS didn't receive the package. By this point it's already been two weeks since the order, so I basically resort to calling them and emailing them literally begging them to send out the order. Fast forward to today and the package shows up missing literally every part except for the two transformers. Never got any heads up on that of course, otherwise I would have ordered those parts from someone else weeks ago To top it off, they charged me almost $20 for a $12.40 flat rate box that they never would have even sent to me if I didn't beg for it One other thing I noticed on my last order with them. They have a little scam going where they have a bunch of parts that are listed as "in stock" on their website. Then they'll send you an email saying all of those parts shipped to you. Then you get the package and may or may not notice these parts are missing, and you have to specifically ask them to refund you. In other words, they're charging you for a bunch of stuff they don't even have with hopes that you don't ask for a refund Long story short, I sure won't be buying anything else from them, and I'd encourage you guys to shop elsewhere as well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surfpup Posted April 7, 2017 Share Posted April 7, 2017 Bummer dude. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dub-T-123 Posted April 7, 2017 Author Share Posted April 7, 2017 Bummer dude. Despite all that, I'm still excited about the Classic Tone transformers. Obligatory photo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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