AmpBuild: Making Stuff, some times the right way.

VOX AC4TVH Head and Cabs

2009-05-27T09:12:00.000-07:00

So my month long wait finally got me a new VOX AC4TV Head and Cabinets. The fit and finish is amazing for a not-expensive amp, and it sounds great....video to come once i have a free moment

Fender Blues Jr NOS Relic gets a bit more Relic

2009-03-23T19:27:00.001-07:00

I picked up this NOS Relic Fender Blues Jr at Guitar Center a couple years back. It was actually on sale for less than the regular NOS…that is why i picked it up. I have read in a few places online that only 120 of the relic versions were made…cant really qualify that statement…but kinda cool if its true. Its been a great little amp and plays great. The only complaint that i have is that the relic job that they did really messed up the chassis bolts. You would think if you were going to relic a critical component (such as the only part of the amp that lets you access the inside( i.e the chassis bolts)), that you would MAYBE just relic the heads of the bolts and not the entire bolt! What ended up happening was the rusty bolts seized on the chassis. I was able to get about 4 off with some vice grips…a bit of lube and new bolts and everything was fine. But at least two of them stripped and i had to drill them out of the chassis…in effect screwing up the bolt threads on the chassis. Not a huge deal, just a pain….it was so plain to see what would have happened, and did happen, im amazed it was overlooked.

This is my old output transformer doubling as a bird feeder. I replaced it with an OT from Mercury Magnetics… whhoa what a difference!

I found this guy playing out of the NOS:

Wiki info for Blues Jr

Fender 5F4 "Super Amp" Ted Weber Kit

2009-03-23T06:58:00.001-07:00

03/30/2009- Picking up shipment from Fedex sort facility tomorrow at 8 am…Really regretting going to Lowe’s on Thursday…amp would have been done by now!

03/31/2009- It has arrived

I ordered the cabinet as Double Aged Tweed. Finish is just how i wanted it. And worth the $45 so i

didnt have to mess with doing it myself. Not to tough to age tweed, but for $45, and it arriving ready

for me to complete the amp….hard to pass up!

Back of the amp. The cab shipped fully completed with Weber 10 Sigs already installed.

The trannies were actually a LOT bigger than i thought they would be. Roughly double the size of the Mercury trannies for me BJ.

I had ordered the stock capacitors, but i decided to order ATOM and orange drops intead.

I am going to use the brass plate just as a jig for soldering. All grounds from this section (save the Presence ground) will be individually wired back to the first cathode cap ground, then then bussed to the star ground. I'm not sure if this is the most quiet options…but it sounds good in theory.

The ALPHA pots are really the way to go. Very smooth and not to expensive, but worth every penny.

All of the mounting holes for the trannies, choke, and tube sockets were punched in the perfect locations.

This is how to star grounding is going to run:

EDIT: New grounding scheme and shielded input wires explained:

In go the heater wires:
Rectifier tube wired up Just hooked up the heaters and fliped the switch, sweet power!

Video of testing the Power transformer and heater supplies:

Close up of the Orange Drops (716)

Getting close

The ATOM filter caps are so much bigger than other i have seen. I have never heard or seen a difference that leads me to use them, other than they look solid and well built…and that is enough for me to splurge a bit on them

You can see the eyelet terminal i put on the ground of the first cathode bypass capacitor. This will be grounded to the chassis, along with the input grounds, and seperated from the rest of the high power and preamp grounds, which are all going to tie back to the grounding point by the transformers, and then actually some of them under the transformer bolt. Not sure which configuration will be best. I am going to start with everything on one bolt, and see how it is. If it is noise i will move the preamp stage a bit away from the high powered stuff

The Board goes in!

You can see the little square at the end of the board, that is the pot that i used for the bias. turned out really well. it is one of the board mount style pots, i just drilled a few holes in the board for the leads and soldered from behind.

Quick video. Not great. I just realized after looking at the pictures that i tied my presence control ground into the preamp ground buss, which would account for the high volume hiss i was hearing.

Got my MAudio fastrack hooked up. Recorded with a strat straight into the amp, no pedals

Switched the input wires to V1 for shielded 26 gauge wire. Doesnt look to pretty, but really brought down some floor noise.

I really should have purchased some shrink wrap!

You can see in this pic the one carbon film resistor i used. it was a 4.7M and i was having a hard time finding one in metal film. I finally ordered one and threw it in there. I used Metal film throughout the amp because they are the most quiet

Revised preamp grounding scheme:

My friend took the Super for a test drive today. Shot with a Canon Elph point and shoot digital camera and onboard mic…so funny, how much the tone comes through and sounds so good, even through the shitty camera mic.

https://taweber.powweb.com/store/kits_50a.htm#5F4

http://ampwares.com/amp.asp?id=93

EA Tremolo build

2009-03-23T05:46:00.000-07:00

http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=142&Itemid=26

This was a really simple Trem pedal. It sounds amazingly rich. This pedal was also one of the waterslide decal jobs I have pulled off.

Here is the blank board. As you can see everything is labeled and very easy to read. GeneralGuitarGadgets has the layout posted online which makes getting everything in its place a snap.

Here is the board populated with all the components. Once you solder a few boards, it really turns to quick work. I would recomend using aligator clips as heat sinks when soldering transistors and electro caps....they help to keep the heat away and prevent damage. Just

This was my first layout idea....pretty standard. For this pedal i wanted something i hadnt really seen.

I went on a bit of a whim when i ordered the enclosure, not knowning whether or not i would have enough space. This was the layout i decided on. I had a couple other ideas, but i liked the verticle line for the pots

Here is the finished product. I wanted to make it as compact as possible (no internal battery).

Marshal BluesBreaker Pedal Clone (Black version)

2009-03-21T20:21:00.001-07:00

http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=106&Itemid=26

These are the pair of BluesBreaker pedals i just finished. That's right...pink sparkle with purple knobs. They turned out really well. You really want to drive the level and gain pretty hard, which gives you a nice top end with a lot of grit for open E string hammers. I actually order the wrong IC off the bat ( i ordered at TL071, and i needed a TL072) Trust me, they are not interchangeable.

BluesBreaker and TubeScreamer 808 comparison

Pedal Power supply "Spyder" 8 output

2009-03-21T20:10:00.000-07:00

I built this power supply because i didnt feel like spending 100-200 bucks for something i knew i could build myself. This project really kicked off my building days. I started with the design i found here:

http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/Spyder/Spyder.htm

It is a pretty simple isolated, regulated 9vdc power supply with eight outputs all rated at 300ma. This allows you to run many pedals off each output if needed. Similar power supplies' outputs are only rated for 20-100ma.

The short and skinny is that this power supply takes in 8 AC leads, runs then through their own bridge rectifiers, power regulators and filters, and then each has their own standard DC output.

For the transformer i picked up a great offering from Ted Weber. Part # WPDLXFMR-1

This transformer, while a bit on the large side, gives you all the outputs you need for this build, plus an extra 9vAC 2A output that you could use to power a pedal that requires AC power. ( i just left this unconnected).

I pick up all my supplies from pedalpartsplus.com
They do some great powdercoating at low cost which is nice to have your enclosure show up ready to go and dry.

By no means did i optimize this build for space. Id say it has the same footprint as the VooDooLabs power supply, but its about twice as think. And as opposed to the voodoo supply, which is about 160 bucks, this thing cost me 50 to make.

As you can see the transformer takes up a bit of space in the enclosure. Youre gonna need a drill press, or a very strong and steady hand to drill the enclosure. For the AC power jack, i used a computer style panel jack from Mouser. I drilled a few large holes for the cut out, and then just nipped around until the jack would fit. This was a real pain in the ass as i did not have legit metal nippers. Prob as easier design would have been to use a hard mount AC cable with a strain relief holder on the chassis. I just like the idea of being able to break the whole thing down with no cable sticking out.

This board was from Radio Shack and cut down to the right size. All of the leads you can see are the actual component leads…no other wires were used.

These board mount wire terminals worked out great. I bought them on a whim…but really it was much easier to manager the transformer wires this way.

I have never been a huge fan of these black isolated DC jacks..i have used them on everything…but i have always been a fan of the metal kind.

To this day i still have not trimmed the leads on the transformer! I was going to, but i got so excited to finish, once i found the box was working perfectly, i just jammed everything in and screwed on the bottom plate:

WHAT YOU CAN’T SEE IN THE PHOTOS THAT YOU SHOULD KNOW:

1.) The AC jack has a chassis mount grounding point for the earth ground….this is a MUST!

2.) The breadboard is supported on two long bolts that act as stand offs. The final version also has electrical tape covering the backside of the board where all the solder points are. ( dont want anyhting shorting out!!)

3.) The LED was just wire in parallel with one of the outputs. I was thinking it would be cool to have 8 leds connected in series to each input, so that a light would come on whenever a jack was connected…in the end that was pointless (like the traction control warning light on the dash of my car) and was going to take two much time.