my first homebrew.

[wsaraceni]

it took a while, mostly because i lost interest and didnt ever order those last 5 parts but it started live as a fender blues jr that someone here on the forum fried the board. i think he put the power tubes in preamp tube socket and the pres in the PA sockets.

so i gutted it, pretty much only used the transformers, chassis, and cabinet. the rest of the stuff went in the garbage, now that i think about it, i should have tried to save it. but oh well.

so i ordered a fresh board from turretboards.com and had a bunch of the parts left over from a express i tried to build but didnt work out so well. i wired up board and chassis separately then plugged it all in.

i used the 18 watt lite iib website from mhuss and this is what i ended up with.


the top only has a volume and tone, i need to add a pilot light, change the switch to a power off/on/ standby 3way and i think i may add a PI/PA scaling from UR12. i already have the board but i need to make it work a little better.

the soldering is a little ugly. but it does the job. now i need to rip the trainwreck apart and redo that. hopefully make it usable

[wsaraceni]

[andrekp]

Nice.

With the empty spaces available, you could add a 1/2-1/4 power switch where you progressively lift the cathode caps and tie the ground ends together (or whatever it was exacly). Then maybe use another spot for a cascade/parallel switch for the preamp tube. Everything's over at 18watt.com on this.

[wsaraceni]

hmmm. cascade/parallel sounds like a real winner. if i do the VVR i dont know if the 1/2-1/4 power would work

[andrekp]

I'd try the power reduction mod (details at 18watt.com) as I hear it sounds really nice. I haven't yet because I just don't have the spot available easily (I'd need to drill the faceplate and chassis on mine first). But you could do it for a few bucks and 20 minutes of time.

If that gives you what you need with the tone you want, I'd prefer it over the added complexities of VVR.

Someone, somewhere, over on 18watt did a real nice layout for the cascade/parallel switch mod. Probably in the download section. If not, just search the board. It's there somewhere.

[Tonic Amps]

Adding VVR is less invasive than adding the 1/2 power switch. It is really quite simple to implement and much more useful. It can seem confusing and complex based on how you implement it as there are a few options like scaling the power amp only vs. the whole amp. The really cool part of VVR is that you have control over the B+ supply and lower/raise within B+ on the power tubes or the whole amp, effectively like having a variac built into the amp. The 1/2 power switching isn't that versatile.

There are many options for the front end of these 18watters, so use your imagination. I posted my generic EF86 Lite layout in the downloads on 18watt.com, which does the Brian May tones really well. The single triode mode in the lite IIb is pure AC/DC and classic Marshall 18watt. Parallel adds a little gain, not a lot though, but does add harmonic complexity.

Anyway, the 18watt platform is a great one for experimenting. Have fun with it!

BTW- Your build looks pretty darn good :-)

[wsaraceni]

Originally Posted by Tonic Amps

BTW- Your build looks pretty darn good :-)

thanks. after looking at the pictures, i wish i had cleaner solder joints. but it works, and sounds good so thats all that matters really.

[Roccaforte Amps]

Originally Posted by wsaraceni

thanks. after looking at the pictures, i wish i had cleaner solder joints. but it works, and sounds good so thats all that matters really.

just a tip when working with turrets:
when you wrap a wire around a post, do it as if it's a coil but make one
complete wrap around. Before you solder it, tighten the wrap.
Some of yours look like a closed C, what you want is the wrap/coil
to continue a little further around the turret. Pull it tight.
I strip wire back 3/4" to work with. Doesn't look too bad for a first build!
Rock on.

[wsaraceni]

thanks for the tip doug. for some reason, i didnt really like the turrets. it seemed that i prefer eyelets and ill probably go that route next time. also, next time it would be a lot easier to wrap the wires around the posts if i did that BEFORE i installed the resistors and capacitors

[Tonic Amps]

There is always room for improvement, but being that you haven't built many amps, yours works and sounds good, so it was a success. You can always go back in and clean things up. If you haven't already, get yourself a nice soldering station with adjustable temp control, something like the Hakko 936, get one. Then google for some soldering tutorials. This will really help your soldering skills. I would also very highly recommend getting a solder sucker. If a joint doesn't look right, heat it up and suck out the solder, then re-solder it. Anyway, amp building is a great hobby and extremely fun. Enjoy!

[wsaraceni]

that was the main problem i had. the soldering iron i had didnt get hot enough, so it took forever. i borrowed a friends soldering station to do the final stuff and those soldering points came out way better. ill check into the hakko

[wsaraceni]

ordered a new OT from GDS so hopefully that will be an improvement.

Also i want to get a on off switch that will also do standby. anyone know the correct part for that.

finally im going to add a pilot light, since i never know if its on or off.

if i can get a faceplate made, then i'll be done. im really digging how this came out.

Now, to clean up the express clone i butchered.