Toe-Knee
New member
I wasn't going to bother with this but misterwhizzy expressed interest in more pictures.
I didn't start taking pictures right at the beginning so I only have bits and bats so far.
First up is the preamp PCB thats populated with Mallory 150 Capacitors Vishay & Panasonic resistors & F&T Electrolytic capacitors.
Preamp PCB
Next up is the filament bridge (faux centre tap if your power transformer doesnt have one. This one does so it's just a bridging point for the filaments)
Filament Bridge
From there the filament/heater wires go around the inside of the chassis
Filament Wiring
Then it joins onto the Lamp/Power Indicator.
Lamp
It then comes out from the lamp and goes to V5 (Phase Invertor) pins 4/5 & 9
V5 connection
The heaters are then wired in a parallel fashion straight down pins 4/5 & 9 for each 12ax7.
Heater Bus
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
That is all for now as I kinda neglected this today as I got some new pickups so spent most of the day playing guitar. I do however have four days off work now thanks to the queens Jubilee so I shall spend it building!
Also it is very dusty inside there currently. This will all be cleaned up before the preamp & power amp get installed.
Update 02/06/2012
I haven't really done much today because I wasted my day travelling to Farnell to find they were closed even though the website stated they were open.
This is the Filament/Heater bridge that I started on before but it now has the 6.3v 9A Filament Tap from the power transformer hooked up to it.
Filament Bridge
From here there are two wires that go on to the power valve sockets which heat the filaments. In this shot you can also see the bias test points and external adjustment pot which are what I will be working on next
Power Valve Heaters
Update 03/06/2012
This morning I've wired up the transformers mainly other than the High voltage tap as that connects to the power amp PCB.
Up first is the Impedance switch this is where the OT connects and also the depth mod and Slave out.
Impedance Switch
Next up is the Slave out.
There is a 47k resistor going to the 8ohm tap on the impedance connector which connects to the level control for the Slave Out which is for using a wet/dry setup and of course can be used for direct recording as it captures the entire amp then you can just stick some cab impulses on the track and you are good to go.
Slave Out
And then we have the power valve wiring that is now complete
Power Section
Then finally we have the power transformer wiring in it's current birds nest phase. This will all be neatened once the power & preamp boards are in and the wires are shortened to the correct length.
Birds Nest Phase Wiring
That's it for a few hours. I've got a massive headache from the solder fumes and a friend has come round so i'm going to go for a beer.
Right I had a longer break than expected but i've managed to get a bit more done
Here's the power amp PCB nothing to say about this really other than it has a lot of filtering which again is a bit part of the SLO sound.
Power Amp
From here now there's just the preamp, Pots & FX Loop to do but theyre all pretty minor so will only take a couple of hours. Then it's first power up and voltage testing time then time to come back and shorten a few wires.
Update 04/06/2012
Here's the initial pot wiring.
Pot Wiring
And going on from the pots you get to the Clean/Crunch & Bright switching section which I will add is an absolute pain to get looking presentable. I'm not 100% happy with this so I will probably end up redoing it once I know everything's 100% working.
Clean / Crunch & Bright / Normal Switches
And then finally for a few hours until I wire the preamp in here's a shot of the amp in a much tidier state than before but still not optimal.
Amp Top View No Pre
Update 05/06/2012
Hey guys! I finished this one very earlier but had too much fun playing it and also tweaking it a little.
Yesterday I said that I have the preamp to wire in.... here's the photo before
Angry Porcupine
Then from there all I had to do was connect each section of the preamp to the corresponding valve. here's V1 which is the input stages and the second and third gain stages.
V1/V2 wiring
From here I Continued on along the other 3 valves and also wired the grid stops to the power valves and connected the tonestack & other controls up
More Wiring
And then onto one of my least favourite parts of amp builds. The effects loop. It's so damn fiddly getting all of this done in such a small space.
Effects Loop
Then It's just a case of wiring up the footswitch hack and front panel toggle but those are boring so heres a top down pic.
Complete Wiring
And a final assembly even though it's not really final.
Complete Head
I didn't start taking pictures right at the beginning so I only have bits and bats so far.
First up is the preamp PCB thats populated with Mallory 150 Capacitors Vishay & Panasonic resistors & F&T Electrolytic capacitors.
Preamp PCB
Next up is the filament bridge (faux centre tap if your power transformer doesnt have one. This one does so it's just a bridging point for the filaments)
Filament Bridge
From there the filament/heater wires go around the inside of the chassis
Filament Wiring
Then it joins onto the Lamp/Power Indicator.
Lamp
It then comes out from the lamp and goes to V5 (Phase Invertor) pins 4/5 & 9
V5 connection
The heaters are then wired in a parallel fashion straight down pins 4/5 & 9 for each 12ax7.
Heater Bus
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
That is all for now as I kinda neglected this today as I got some new pickups so spent most of the day playing guitar. I do however have four days off work now thanks to the queens Jubilee so I shall spend it building!
Also it is very dusty inside there currently. This will all be cleaned up before the preamp & power amp get installed.
Update 02/06/2012
I haven't really done much today because I wasted my day travelling to Farnell to find they were closed even though the website stated they were open.
This is the Filament/Heater bridge that I started on before but it now has the 6.3v 9A Filament Tap from the power transformer hooked up to it.
Filament Bridge
From here there are two wires that go on to the power valve sockets which heat the filaments. In this shot you can also see the bias test points and external adjustment pot which are what I will be working on next
Power Valve Heaters
Update 03/06/2012
This morning I've wired up the transformers mainly other than the High voltage tap as that connects to the power amp PCB.
Up first is the Impedance switch this is where the OT connects and also the depth mod and Slave out.
Impedance Switch
Next up is the Slave out.
There is a 47k resistor going to the 8ohm tap on the impedance connector which connects to the level control for the Slave Out which is for using a wet/dry setup and of course can be used for direct recording as it captures the entire amp then you can just stick some cab impulses on the track and you are good to go.
Slave Out
And then we have the power valve wiring that is now complete
Power Section
Then finally we have the power transformer wiring in it's current birds nest phase. This will all be neatened once the power & preamp boards are in and the wires are shortened to the correct length.
Birds Nest Phase Wiring
That's it for a few hours. I've got a massive headache from the solder fumes and a friend has come round so i'm going to go for a beer.
Right I had a longer break than expected but i've managed to get a bit more done
Here's the power amp PCB nothing to say about this really other than it has a lot of filtering which again is a bit part of the SLO sound.
Power Amp
From here now there's just the preamp, Pots & FX Loop to do but theyre all pretty minor so will only take a couple of hours. Then it's first power up and voltage testing time then time to come back and shorten a few wires.
Update 04/06/2012
Here's the initial pot wiring.
Pot Wiring
And going on from the pots you get to the Clean/Crunch & Bright switching section which I will add is an absolute pain to get looking presentable. I'm not 100% happy with this so I will probably end up redoing it once I know everything's 100% working.
Clean / Crunch & Bright / Normal Switches
And then finally for a few hours until I wire the preamp in here's a shot of the amp in a much tidier state than before but still not optimal.
Amp Top View No Pre
Update 05/06/2012
Hey guys! I finished this one very earlier but had too much fun playing it and also tweaking it a little.
Yesterday I said that I have the preamp to wire in.... here's the photo before
Angry Porcupine
Then from there all I had to do was connect each section of the preamp to the corresponding valve. here's V1 which is the input stages and the second and third gain stages.
V1/V2 wiring
From here I Continued on along the other 3 valves and also wired the grid stops to the power valves and connected the tonestack & other controls up
More Wiring
And then onto one of my least favourite parts of amp builds. The effects loop. It's so damn fiddly getting all of this done in such a small space.
Effects Loop
Then It's just a case of wiring up the footswitch hack and front panel toggle but those are boring so heres a top down pic.
Complete Wiring
And a final assembly even though it's not really final.
Complete Head
Last edited:
