Jump to content
Gibson Brands Forums

The DIY thread


Dub-T-123

Recommended Posts

VERY nice looking build so far, man!

 

There's something so cool about point to point wiring isn't there?

 

thanks! it's a lot of fun once you get going. [biggrin]

 

i've been meaning to finish this one for a while, and now i'm inspired.

 

Don

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 1.5k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Here's a gutshot of that point to point wired Devi Ever Soda Meiser clone that I built.

photo-1516.jpg

sorry about the ugly wiring. I built this late at night when I couldn't sleep and didn't put much effort into making it look pretty. But it sounds really gnarly, just like the Soda Meiser that I built for Jeff-7. This one has a switch that engages the "chaos" mode which is crazy as hell.

 

I was pretty surprised when I turned it on for the first time and it worked perfectly. I've never built anything on turret before and it's kinda weird soldering stuff together on it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ugly wiring? lol, that's beautiful! [biggrin]

 

my amp is quickly becoming ungainly in the wiring dept, but i am doing my best to keep the leads as short as possible, and the joints as clean as possible. i've also been carefully checking connections with my meter along the way.

 

i've yet to build an amp that's worked perfectly from first power-on, but i've been fortunate that my mistakes have been relatively easy to discover. i hope this one's the same...

 

Don

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What wires do you use Dub? They look like you bend them and they stayed bend...

I use the wire from mammoth. It kicks ***.

 

dbreslauer - thanks man!

 

I think the board itself looks sweet. Some of the offboard wiring is a bit uh.. hectic though. There were a lot of wires that had to go to ground so it was kinda hard to keep that looking neat. Plus I was jonesin late at night..

Turret is actually really forgiving. Plus you get that mojo..

 

Your amp looks amazing. Those tasty sozos! That's a lot of wiring.. I dunno if I'm up for that

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I use the wire from mammoth. It kicks ***.

 

dbreslauer - thanks man!

 

I think the board itself looks sweet. Some of the offboard wiring is a bit uh.. hectic though. There were a lot of wires that had to go to ground so it was kinda hard to keep that looking neat. Plus I was jonesin late at night..

Turret is actually really forgiving. Plus you get that mojo..

 

Your amp looks amazing. Those tasty sozos! That's a lot of wiring.. I dunno if I'm up for that

The ones the spool or pre cut ones?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I got a whole bunch of the pre cut ones but I waste so much wire with those

I'm gonna start getting the spools. The thing about the precut ones is that you end up cutting the wire to get it to fit nice and then whatever you cut off usually gets wasted.

 

dbreslauer - that looks amazing. I don't know if people appreciate how tedious all that wiring is. So what do you have left to do before it's ready to go?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I got a whole bunch of the pre cut ones but I waste so much wire with those

I'm gonna start getting the spools. The thing about the precut ones is that you end up cutting the wire to get it to fit nice and then whatever you cut off usually gets wasted.

 

dbreslauer - that looks amazing. I don't know if people appreciate how tedious all that wiring is. So what do you have left to do before it's ready to go?

 

 

thanks!

 

i am powering it up w/tubes out tonight, to make sure it doesn't burn up and to measure some voltages. then i'll put in some tubes and hook up some speakers (if all goes well) [biggrin]

 

then comes the really un-fun part: making a cabinet for it. lol!

 

Don

Link to comment
Share on other sites

photo-932.jpg

here's a Zvex Woolly Mammoth clone I made. I got this drilled blemished enclosure for free, it's got some weird holes drilled into it. But it sounds pretty rad.

 

I guess it's supposed to be a bass fuzz but it sounds a lot better on guitar IMO. It's not the best bass fuzz I've ever heard but it has this insane blown out ripping fuzz sound on guitar that totally rocks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

this is a 5w head amp and 2 cabinets with 12" celestion greenbacks,it`s the first time i`ve tried to build anything like this, i wanted a retro look to match

my `57 goldtop

IMGA0662.jpg

IMGA0668.jpg

IMGA0665.jpg

 

Wow! out loud. That rig has an extremely cool look. I'm imagining a very brown sound.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

all wiring done!

wired.jpg

 

this is the top of the amp:

top.jpg

 

Looks great. 1 tip from ( cough ) experience. Plug your tubes in a few times before you power it up and double check that none of the wiring lead pins on the bottom of the socket short out against each other. When I built my JTM 45 I had gone through all of the pre-checks before installing tubes without issue. Plugged the tubes in and a few seconds later it looked like a 70's Foghat concert! msp_scared.gif Found that the pins shifted just enough when the tubes were inserted that the heater wire pin grounded out on one of the power tubes... After the smoke cleared I had luckily caught it in time and only had to replace a bit of heater wire...

 

Another tip for keeping grounding clean is using ground lugs bolted to the chassis. I did this for my whole amp and it kept it clean and very quiet.

 

b1086024.jpg

 

Great Job!!!

 

Andy

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looks great. 1 tip from ( cough ) experience. Plug your tubes in a few times before you power it up and double check that none of the wiring lead pins on the bottom of the socket short out against each other. When I built my JTM 45 I had gone through all of the pre-checks before installing tubes without issue. Plugged the tubes in and a few seconds later it looked like a 70's Foghat concert! msp_scared.gif Found that the pins shifted just enough when the tubes were inserted that the heater wire pin grounded out on one of the power tubes... After the smoke cleared I had luckily caught it in time and only had to replace a bit of heater wire...

 

Another tip for keeping grounding clean is using ground lugs bolted to the chassis. I did this for my whole amp and it kept it clean and very quiet.

 

b1086024.jpg

 

Great Job!!!

 

Andy

 

 

Hey Andy, that's beautiful! are thos NOS mustards? [biggrin]

 

 

I had a similar issue with heater wiring with the first champ amp I built, so when doing this one I actually checked continuity while hooking them up. I know exactly what you mean.

 

For first power-up, i always follow this checklist document at Paul Ruby Amps. (It's a very good idea to never assume when working with these things...)

 

http://paulrubyamps.com/info.html#FirstPowerUp

 

you can't see it in the previous pics, but I have a ground lug right by the dual cap, and then one right below the input jack. i've read that its good to ground right after the input to also help with hum and the such.

 

ground.jpg

 

 

The power up went well, and all my voltages are all good. For this amp I have to use a "vintage voltage adapter" box to pull my house current down a bit though. this neat gizmo drops my house voltage by -6 and -12: the PT in this amp wants 110V in... [mellow]

 

vva.jpg

 

 

I'm debugging the amp now: only getting very low sound at the moment (other than hiss, which leads me to believe my problem is either with my input, preamp or PI.) I get a nice loud pop reading DC off of the PI at pin 7, so i think the OT and power sections are ok.

 

This amp is an "18W Plexi", with the normal 18W style power section (EL84), but a JCM800 style tone and preamp setup. I can't wait to actually HEAR the thing. debugging sucks. [smile]

 

here's a pic with all the valves in:

tubes.jpg

 

 

thanks!!!

Don

Link to comment
Share on other sites

transformers, sockets and inputs all wired. next up are the controls. then, on to voltage testing. [biggrin]

 

tonenext.jpg

 

Very nice looking. One of these days I will build and 18watter. After my current Dumble build and the Train Wreck I've have most of the parts for. One of these days...

 

The word on the street is that those Zoso caps take longer to break in. I use them sparingly and usually on the tone controls. It would be nice to hear a sound comparison of when you first finish to after 100 hours of playing. Just a thought.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm debugging the amp now: only getting very low sound at the moment (other than hiss, which leads me to believe my problem is either with my input, preamp or PI.) I get a nice loud pop reading DC off of the PI at pin 7, so i think the OT and power sections are ok.

 

This amp is an "18W Plexi", with the normal 18W style power section (EL84), but a JCM800 style tone and preamp setup. I can't wait to actually HEAR the thing. debugging sucks. [smile]

 

here's a pic with all the valves in:

tubes.jpg

 

 

 

it lives! [biggrin]

 

there was a small error on the layout i used, and fixing that i now have a very LOUD amp. Fortunately i also posted on an 18 Watt forum and someone was able to help me: the connection i needed to fix was on the bottom of the board, and i'd made that connection over a year ago. i was really starting to lose my mind! :)

 

now, to the fine tuning: the gain on this thing is crazy, and the master volume is not subtle enough for my tastes: time to tweak!

 

oh yeah, and i gotta get around to making a box for it too. [unsure]

 

Don

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Man.. Knowing the satisfaction of spending hours wiring up a pedal and then turning it on and having it work properly and sound good, I can only imagine how glorious that moment was when you got that amp rockin.

 

That's annoying about that layout error. At least you were able to get it sorted out.

 

I'm looking forward to seeing how your box comes out. You seem to have a lot of attention to detail so it should be nice.

 

Nice work!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


×
×
  • Create New...