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my new amp - It lives!


Guest Farnsbarns

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Guest Farnsbarns

I'm building a 2/9/18 watt amp based on 2 12ax7's 's and 2 EL84's. Hi/lo inputs. No gain control, no tone stack (although I might add one depending on how I get on with it), 2 direct line outputs. It will all be hand wired, point to point, on the turret board you see pictured.

 

I have everything now except valves, wood and a speaker. Since those will be the last parts I decided to put that spend in another month. I should be able to beg, borrow or steel 2 EL84 valves and I've got old 12ax7s lying about that I can use for testing. I'll plug it all in to my Marshall cab for now, again, just for testing and to provide a load.

 

Wish me luck!

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Guest Farnsbarns

Luck!

 

I get just a red x for the picture.

 

rct

 

Oops, thanks, must use public link in future... Doh!

 

Fixed...

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Guest Farnsbarns

Well, what should have taken a Couple of hours, max, has turned into a day. Anyone who read my other recent thread knows why.

 

I got the layout done and soldered today...

 

 

IMG_20130821_012300.jpg

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Well, what should have taken a Couple of hours, max, has turned into a day. Anyone who read my other recent thread knows why.

 

I got the layout done and soldered today...

 

 

IMG_20130821_012300.jpg

Well I know VERY little about amp electronics so it looks good to me :)

 

And good on you for keeping going despite whats happened. Allow yourself the proper tine to get better but in the meantime you are only on your own schedule so like my build, slow but sure is the way. Keep it up :)

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Hello Farnsbarns!

 

Very nicely organized, clean board. Congratulations!

 

Here are my amps of the same construction:

 

HPIM3105.jpg

 

One of them has a valve rectifier, the other has a diode in place. Since both have the rectifier valve installed (in one of them for decorative purposes only), I can't tell them from each other.

 

Cheers... Bence

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Guest Farnsbarns

Valve or solid state Rectifier Farns? Or both?

 

See the far right of the board, there's 4 diodes which is the rectifier part of the circuit. Because this will be a low powered amp you don't want the voltage sags that you can get with a valve rectifier. Basically, I'm keeping it simple, that's the name of the game here.

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Guest Farnsbarns

We noticed that! :-#

 

Well, you would, as would anyone who knew what they were looking at. That fat electrolytic with the arrows pointing up at the positive line sticks out a bit. I've desoldered it and turned it round now. Electrolytic cap explosion averted. Didn't end up messy either. I already had to turn a diode round. I look at a component, work out where I want it and which way, then I bend and trim the legs, forget it has polarity and solder it in. Actually, I'm surprised I only made 2 mistakes.

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Guest Farnsbarns

The next step is to work out all the wire lengths to be soldered to the underside of the board. To do that I had to build the chassis. Simple stuff, just nuts and bolts, but because the chassis is generic I have to work out the tidiest layout. Here it is...

 

The out side...

 

 

IMG_20130821_175148.jpg

 

No prizes for working out where the transformers were made!

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Guest Farnsbarns

There are a couple of issues coming to light. One, the jack sockets, front and rear, are designed for a thicker material and never fully tighten. Going to have to find some suitable washers, no biggie. Two, the rotary switch I got for the power switching has come with absolutely no documentation on pin outs. Some trial and error with a multimeter is in my future.

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Guest Farnsbarns

Hmm, beginning to wonder if anyone is actually interested. Ho hum, I've started so I'll finish. Having looseley assembled the chassis I decided to wire the valve sockets for heating, I need to keep this wiring away from signal carrying wires so it made sense to have it in before I work on wire routes for everything else. To this end I have tucked it all away at the back....

 

 

 

IMG_20130822_145432.jpg

 

This all comes off a 6.3v section of the power transformer. First it goes to the two power valves and then the 2 preamp valves. The pin outs are different for each but essentially both types need the same voltage, just to different pins, therefore I can piggy back each connection off the last. Polarity doesn't matter either so all green wire. I've twisted these in opposing pairs which helps to keep things tidy but also each pair should cancel out each others magnetic fields.

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I'm building a 2/9/18 watt amp based on 2 12ax7's 's and 2 EL84's. Hi/lo inputs. No gain control, no tone stack (although I might add one depending on how I get on with it), 2 direct line outputs. It will all be hand wired, point to point, on the turret board you see pictured.

 

I have everything now except valves, wood and a speaker. Since those will be the last parts I decided to put that spend in another month. I should be able to beg, borrow or steel 2 EL84 valves and I've got old 12ax7s lying about that I can use for testing. I'll plug it all in to my Marshall cab for now, again, just for testing and to provide a load.

 

Wish me luck!

Often the old 12AX7s are the better... I would rather sacrifice new ones ;)

 

All kidding aside, looks good to me, and to add a tone control shouldn't be a problem if there's enough makeup gain left in the circuit. Did you plan three preamp stages and a single-triode phase invertor/driver stage, ot two preamp triodes and a double-triode balanced driver?

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