Guitar Amp Talk

Cabinet for my 5E3 (with Herzog option)

2011-11-19T21:39:00.001-08:00

Howdy folks. When I left you, this was the present state of my Tweed Era Deluxe with a dummy-load and line out (with volume control), as well as a Variable Voltage Regulator. I should note that I did change that red wire at the top left so that it goes from the pot to the speaker jack (orange wire tab) now so that I always have a line out option whether a speaker is connected or not. Now it's just the dummy load that switches in when there is no speaker. Not sure I need the option of running the herzog ewhile it's also connected to its own speaker, but at least there is that option.

Anyways, this amp has bee carried around to gigs in a milk crate fro long enough. It needed its own cabinet, and I finally started on the project. Here is the box all clamped up as glue dries. I used 3/8" Baltic Birch Marine Ply-wood but ended up doing to coats of wood (a box around a box):

Got it all routed and sanded:

Got to paint the inside black:

With the two layers of 3/8" plywood, the corners are rabbeted like so:

Here it is with the amp inside and the new faceplate I made out of Purpleheart with a Tung Oil finish:

My first ever try at tolexing. My dad did all previous tolexing and most cab building:

Done around the outside. Now to do the intricate edge/corner work:

There we go. Here's a tip. Tolex glue does not wash off a brush with warm soapy water. It is basically a rubber sort of glue. You can rub it off surfaces, but not a brush.

Time to tolex the front valence. Me thinks white marine vinyl will be nice...

There we go! I like it. My Dad hates it. He says it wouldn't be so bad with some sort of emblem. Maybe I will whittle something some day.

The feet took a lot of work because the screw go right through to hold the chassis in with speed nuts. There is a bit of lining up to do and precise drilling. Got the handle on to; but not without pounding my left index finger with a hammer. Can't really play guitar anymore. Especially since I cut open my left middle finger with an exacto knife during the the tolexing on the same day.

You can almost see the feet in this pic, heheh, but you can see how the front valence is attached with two screws from the inside:

Ran all over town today looking for 4 more of the 16 screws I needed for attaching the corners:

But it turns out I only needed 12 out of 16 anyways because the feet are right there and there is no space/need for any screws on the bottom side of the corners. Then feet hold them on from that side.

Here it is all finished:

And the back:

And the top:

And right from front and centre:

Practice amp -> 5E3 Deluxe Conversion for Bert

2011-11-09T15:18:00.000-08:00

So, Bert had an old broken 1x12 Transistor Combo amp (Eg). So, I am taking the chassis and building a 1957 Fender Deluxe into it so he can put it back into the original cabinet. This will be the third time I have built this particular circuit (it's a real simple and classic amp). I finally got a chance to get started on it. Here is the Current State of the project:

I had spent some time drilling out the tube socket holes and making a new wooden faceplate out of ash.

Then I got all the hardware mounted:

Then I got the board drilled for the eyelets and installed the eyelets:

Loaded up the capacitors and resisters on the eyelet board:

Wired up the pots and input jacks as well as soldering flying leads on the eyelet board:

Finished wiring up the board:

Next will be to plug in some tubes and try it out in the morning;

Got the tubes plugged in and labelled:

Connected a speaker wire to come out the bottom of the chassis and a special "Line Out" for the back of the amp that gives line-level signal after the power amp to go to soundboard (or another amp if you want):

Then I wrote up some instructions complete with a diagram:

I couple quick samples with someone watching TV in the background. Using a Strat because that's what Bert has:

5E3 Tweed Deluxe/Herzog Project

2011-09-22T20:50:00.000-07:00

People always talk about the "American Woman" tone from the Guess Who in the 70s, and that was the Garnet Herzog into a bigger (clean) amp. They still do reissues, but they are like $700 and I figure I could build one for less than $200.

It is essentially a Tweed Champ amp with a dummy load and a volume control fed into the front end of another amp. Randy Bachman was just plugging the output of one tube amp into the input of another amp and getting cool sounds for a few minutes before the amps blew up. Gar Gillies (Garnet Amps) asked him what he was doing because he was always having to repair his amps and so he told him he would build it so it was actually safe.

Anyways, there are a few different generations of the Herzog, and some people generally are less than impressed with. I think the key is that the big amp needs to be just that. A big clean amp that is not going to distort on it's own. You let all the parts of the Herzog overdrive (power tube too) and then feed it into the clean amp or even just the effects loop input of the big amp. I didn't think too much of this before, but Gordie Johnson (Big Sugar, Grady), uses the Herzog and gets really great tone (IMO). Of course, I think he just feeds it into the power section of a couple SVT Bass Amps. He's known to be crazy loud.

Anyways, this idea could be done with any small amp. I think the simpler the amp, the better. Since All my amps right now are at least 30 watts, I'm thinking I'd like to try build one. But then, I was thinking, if I don't like the effect, I would like to have a decent amp on it's own that I could least sell.

So, since I already have a Push-Pull 4k3 primary Output transformer, using it for a single-ended amp is not really realistic. It's meant for about a 30 watt amp, but I'm thinking I can use it with a a couple 6V6s and use the higher secondaries and it would be appropriate for a 5E3 tweed deluxe which is a great simple amp on it's own. I figure I could use 4 10Watt power resisters in parallel as a dummy load to handle the 13ish watts a Tweed deluxe could put out.

So, here is the new amp build under way:

First, using the "headphone trick" to find the most silent positioning of the transformers:

Then I started planning the layout of everything else on the handy plastic wrapping of the Hammond Chassis and drilling and filing:

The Hammond Chassis ($25) are not super thick, but quite handy. I can't imagine how much more difficult it would be to hand-file the shape of some of these holes in anything thicker. I have most everything drilled for now, but still need to widen the holes for the octal sized holes... dreading it! My Uni-bit only will get holes as big as preamp tube sockets.

So, it is first of all a 1957 Fender Tweed era Deluxe (5E3) amp. And I added Variable DC Plate Voltage to it (VVR). So, it can be played as an amp on it's own and it is a very famous/popular/classic amp. Here is a clip of it as an amp with my 4x10 cab:

But then, it also has a dummy load and a volume control for sending the signal out a different jack to a second amp like this. Here it is as an effect into another amp:

Josh's Re-wired 18 Watt TMB

2011-09-22T18:33:00.000-07:00

One thing I've been meaning to do for a little while is to rewire Josh's amp. When I originally built it, it was an 18 Watt T-Rex but I built it Point to Point because the turret board material got delayed arriving in time for Christmas. But I finally drilled the board material and installed all the eyelets. Here's a pic of how the inside was and the new board that I installed:

Here is the Chassis after I cleared all the components and terminal strips out. I had problems with some oscillations and noise with the T-Rex circuit and so the gain was continually lowered to cope; not cool.

So, this time I was going to wire up the more common 18 Watt TMB circuit. The TMB channel would have its own master volume in addition to the global Variable Voltage Regulator for the whole amp. I know that Josh liked the sound of the JCM amp and some modern Marshalls, so I would recapture the option of those MV style amps. Also, I think Josh does not have the option of playing very loud and at REALLY low voltages, the amp reacts differently and does not have enough gain to distort much. Using the MV in combination with the VVR should allow low volume but not have to get crazy low voltages and therefore, lots of gain is still salvaged.

Here's the amp all finished after all the rewiring:

Here is the amp back in the Cabinet:

Then I also made a good simple A/B pedal with the 2 cables that go to the 2 channels hardwired into the pedal. He doesn't have to use the pedal, but it is a great way to flip back and forth from clean to distorted at preset volumes at the stomp of a foot.

Here is a clip of the new amp with the new pedal. The voltage is turned down a bit, so you will notice it is not too loud:

So, now that this is done. I need to get it back to Lethbridge quickly. I don't think I have space to take it on the road with me for me touring/travels.

Elkford's 40th Birthday

2011-07-17T16:22:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Jan's photography, we actually have some pics from the Gig in the Park on Saturday. It was a hot and sunny day, and we ended up only playing for just over an hour. We were going to fill another couple hours in the mid afternoon, but it got called on account of some threatening clouds. Here is a few pics of the stage setup. I preferred the lower, deeper stage of the Wildcat Days, but it is more fun to play in the ball fields than the tennis courts. And, when it comes to playing outdoors, mid-day is more fun than evening. The gear we used was different too...

Canada Day Show

2011-07-15T11:05:00.001-07:00

The Burn Ins played at the Wild Cat Days in Elkford for a few hours before the Fireworks on Canada Day. No photos from the show, but here are a couple pics of the stage setup.

Since this is the Amp Blog. Let me tell you what we used for power. I used just my Trainwreck Liverpool Clone with my newly built 4x10 Fir/Purpleheart cab. I ended up turning off my VVR and actually running at normal operating Voltage for a Trainwreck. (Only ever get to do this outdoors because this 30 Watt tube amp can really get loud). Kristine used her (600 watt)Markbass amp into my Ampeg 4x10 Bass cab. We were both also fed into the PA system (I by miking my cab and Kristine by her DI out on her amp). We ran into the Lyalls' Yorkville Elite EF500 (800W x2) Active Speakers. We also used her Yorkville NX25 speaker (200W) as a vocal stage monitor.

We play again tomorrow outside in the Ball Fields for the Elkford 40th Birthday Celebration. The stage setup will be a bit different, so stay tuned for some media from that show.

Home Stereo Tube Hifi

2011-07-08T18:28:00.000-07:00

We're about to take a new step in unchartered territory for Yeomans Instruments. We are about to become elitist home audiophile snobs... well not quite in the over-the-top crazy sort of way where we demand all connectors to be gold plated and paying$2000 for a power cable. But, we will venture into the world of Valve Home Stereos. We already know that vacuum tubes make things sound better when it comes to instruments and guitar amps, organs, so it was only a matter of time before we ventured into applying ourselves to our music "listening" experience at home. True audiophiles demand tube amplifiers for their HiFi experience claiming a sweeter, warmer tone with greater definition to the music. Well, we need some of that!

Our first project is for Bryant and Bev's new home. There are places in the main kitchen/living room area ceiling for ceiling-mounted speakers and the house is wired up for a digital in-house system with cat5 cables and wall-mounted controllers. While that idea is sort of commercial style and trendy, it doesn't seem to be actually useful towards enjoying a high quality listening experience. So, while the house was wired for a system like this:

http://www.altecpro.com/commstar/index.htm

I'm thinking we should be more aiming for a nice stylish mix of High quality tube amplified sound mixed with the space-saving convenience of in-ceiling speakers.

I've been researching in-ceiling speakers and while there are a number of brands that produce them, not all are chasing after the most musical sound as much as the ability to pop in lots of units over a huge amount of space in order to make P.A. announcements or bad background music to scare off kids. We don't just want sound, but pleasing sound. One important requirement for our tube hifi is to have efficient speakers. Many modern speakers are not very efficient because transistor amps do seem to have an abundance of power. I'm thinking that something in the 90-100 dB/W at 1m would be good. Also, about 8" speakers seems appropriate and we will be aiming for 4 of them. I have been advised to look into some classic brands such as JBL, Altec, and Electro Voice that made names for themselves decades ago for making high quality and efficient speakers and they are well known to guitar amp builders already. It's true though, my favourate speaker that I've found so far is an Electro Voice Pro8A:

http://www.electrovoice.com/sitefiles/downloads/Pro-8aSerie

s-eds.pdf
8" model, 96 dB, 30 Watts, (80 - 16,000 Hz +-3dB)
Actually here is a youtube demo of one in open baffle:

I think I found a place that sells them online and they are only about $100 each.

When it comes to HiFi amp building, it seems that my amp building peers seem to trust the old Dynaco kits. They have always had some of the best transformers and have been quite popular for about double my lifetime. There was some concerns about the caps and resisters chosen so we would make sure go over-spec with those components with our build. Bryant would like to build a nice fine wood cabinet to dress up this amp, but right now I am thinking one of these amps might be appropriate:

http://triodeelectronics.com/hifikits.html

I am thinking that the Stereo ST-70 might be right for this venue:

The other option is that perhaps that a single MonoBlock Mark III might be a good way to start and then if more power is desired, we could go for a second (two speakers one left and two speakers on right instead of all 4 speakers from one on mono)

***********Update*********

This project is sort of on hold until we can find out exactly what sort of wiring the house is already set up to choose exactly the right system. I think that I have personally decided that I would someday like an ST-70 amp for myself some day, regardless of whether this house gets one. Stay tuned for the next post to see what system this house gets. If you are lucky, there may be an amp build involved...

Photos to the finish!

2011-05-13T22:36:00.000-07:00

4x10 - Many more hours

2011-05-11T23:56:00.000-07:00

Drying the Glue

2011-05-09T11:27:00.000-07:00

So, the two sides dried in the clamps over night, but we need to wait a full 24 hours before doing anything else with them. This morning I got the top and bottom ready for gluing and they are now in the clamps as well. So, tomorrow we can move on to putting these through the planer (the yellow machine that is sort of hidden in this photo):

In the meantime I'll start getting the Dovetail jig ready and maybe start on the Baffle board.

Started Cutting, Planing, Gluing

2011-05-08T22:29:00.000-07:00

Got a late start this afternoon due to Mother's day, but finally started building.

My Father hasn't wired his shop for 220V yet, so I had to borrow a Aaron's table-saw to bring with me for this visit. Unfortunately, it isn't nearly as precise as my Dad's, so I had to learn how to hand-plane the wood in order to glue them together. 2 sides glued each, and drying in the clamps for the night. Still need to do more planing of the boards for the top and bottom...

4x10- the wood

2011-05-06T14:32:00.000-07:00

So, things are about to start, this weekend.

We went out and selected the wood this morning; ended up at Windsor Plywood.
Found some 3/8" Baltic Birch Plywood ($36 for a 5'x5' sheet) for the Baffle.
I was still trying to figure out what sort of wood the cab would be made from. The original idea was for solid Pine. Was considering laminated pine for extra strength and straightness. The concern was that pine is difficult to finish nice because it is rather oily and can stain blotchy.
We looked at Maple. It would have looked nice and light, but in the end I felt it would just make the cab too heavy. (It would be rather expensive too while still not finding a wide enough plank so it would have to be laminated.)In the end we settled on solid fir. It's darker than pine but still quite light(in weight) and perhaps slightly stiffer. It has a much nicer/straighter grain too, so it should finish nicer. There were no wide planks, but I decided on laminating a 4.5" piece to a 5.5" piece with a strip of purpleheart in the middle (which I already had). The back panels will be made from an 7.5" piece and the front top and bottom 1/4" thick narrow panels that the baffle attaches to will be Purpleheart as well.

Upcoming Cab Build

2011-04-18T09:02:00.000-07:00

This one will be a solid wood with the wood finish look instead of covering with tolex. I have high expectations on it being reasonably light as well:

Will be building within a few weeks time.

YGL-3a to Dumble Overdrive HRM mods part 2

2011-04-07T21:23:00.000-07:00

I didn't give up on this amp. It was put aside for awhile but I did find time to work on it again several times in the last month. I reorganized (with better components) the OD mod section of this amp. I also moved the OD insertion point to where the existing Master Volume was located in the schematic. (It is after the trem and Reverb, so Reverb can get pushed to too much easily if it isn't to subtle when the OD is switched on.)

Another thing I did to this amp was to Decrease the amount of Negative Feedback. I added a 250k pot in series to dial something in that opened up the tone and gave some nice drive/grind to the clean channel if I want it. I'll measure the sweet spot and replace it with the appropriate resister soon (probably around 50-100k). If I had tried this first, I may have never have even bothered with installing an OD... but then I would have missed out on all this fun!

So, I used this amp today for band practice and I must say that it is very versatile and great sounding now. I don't think I've ever had an amp that could pull off so many different tones with such effective controls. I had no problems with i

t , and I didn't experience any hint of squeals, oscillations, feedback, or unstableness anywhere near the sounds I was dialing in. (I should have tried e

ven harder to find some, but didn't feel the need today. Things are pretty good since I have had this layout cleaned up. I have some pictures now too.

So, everything left of the blue electrolytic capacitor is part of the HRM overdrive circuit:

And so all the controls that used to be for the normal channel are now for the HRM overdrive. Very tweakable with a huge of range in styles of tone. The Master Volume for the overdrive channel is on the very left beneath the toggle that activates the overdrive:

So, I'm thinking the next step is to venture into the world of relays in order to put this overdrive switch into foot pedal form. Also, because I now have the overdrive circuit occurring after the reverb and trem in the Traynor circuit (right where the Clean Master Volume is), any significant amount reverb gets sort of too much when the overdrive is clicked in. So, I may think of doing something about this. Not sure if I would just always have the reverb footswitch ready, make another relay for it, or think about moving the overdrive again...

I'm not worried about it right now; because I go light on the reverb anyways.

Series/Parallel Box

2011-04-07T21:05:00.000-07:00

This is just a quick post to document a quick and useful box I made about a month or so ago.

I was thinking along the lines of adding a mod to speaker cabs that will allow me to connect them in series so that I could possibly connect a couple 4 ohm cabs up to an amp, but not having to go down to only a 2 ohm load (because amp s

peaker jacks are always parallel).

Then I realized I could make a handy little box that I could just use when I need it.

But not only will it allow me to put two separate cabs in series, it also allows me to expand to 2 parallel jacks if an amp only has one. OR, I could even plug in 3 speaker cabs at once. 2 will be in series and 1 will be in parallel with them. So, if an amp has 2 parallel jacks, it allows you to actually get to 4 jacks in essence. I know, it gets complicated, but it solves some challenges with cabs of different impedances, etc.

Anyways, it was a quick and easy box. The series jack in it is bypassed unless it is plugged into.

Another possible use for this box would be to split a signal like a Y cable, if you wanted to split a guitar signal to go to 2 amps. You would just go out the 2 parallel jack to the 2 amps (and you may need to lift the ground from what of the amps to eliminate ground loop hum, because they would share a common ground through this box).

The Reverb Tank becomes a Pedal

2011-02-16T16:09:00.001-08:00

So I had about 3 home-made pedals that I think I posted on here, I figured it was time to cut down on connecting cables and just put them into one big one with a few more features that I desired. Unfortunately, I had to sacrifice components from my fuzz and looper pedal in order to make this, otherwise I would have had to order some more footswitches from America (which I will do some day later when it is worthwhile).

Amyways, as you can see, I began with a Reverb tank that had some unfixable issues and had to be replaced in my old 1973ish Traynor Amp. I started by drilling holes about where I wanted all the footswitches and LEDs to be.
Here is the inside. Some components got moved around by the end. But on the right you see the 3 jacks going out to a potential 3 different amps.
Here is the pedal with everything labelled. This end of the pedal has some controls and inputs. From left to right: Input from guitar signal, output to any FX that will be in the switchable True Bypass Loop, a volume knob for the internal Fuzz pedal that is also in the loop after the FX input, the FX input (for me this comes from the whammy pedal), the power switch which (dis)connects the internal 9V battery, a switch which decides whether amp #2 gets a dry signal (like amp#1) or a signal that gets what it is in the loop (like amp#3), and then an input jack hich goes to the momentary switch for tapping tempo (This is to come from my delay pedal). That last switch could also be used to control the organ's leslie or a tremolo or whatever.

Here it is all wired up and sitting above the pedal board that I shielded with some aluminum foil. This is basically what the pedal looks like inside now aside for a bit more grounding wires.
And here it is on the pedal board along with the rest of the ones I use regularly with "The Burn Ins". I will leave you now with a video from a Burn Ins practice. It's sort of like candid camera, because we all seem pretty unaware that anyone would ever watch this (even ourselves).

Amp Cooling Fan

2011-02-01T21:14:00.001-08:00

Some tube amps seem to gather more heat than others, depending upon layout and design.

Most manufacturers are pretty aware of the amount of space and airflow around the power tubes (which get the hottest). Some models have the tubes hanging down underneath the chassis, so there is the potential for the rest of the amp to heat up quite a bit.

One such amp is an old (early 70s) Traynor that I have that was once a combo amp that has been chopped down to just a head. A previous owner also retrofitted it with a larger tube type (not a recommended mod in most cases, but the old Traynors were vastly overbuilt pieces of ingenuity, making them some of the toughest amps ever made.

So, this amp has the HUGE KT88 power tubes instead of the stock EL34s. there are 4 of them along the back with barely any space between them because of their size. This makes this amp quite the efficient heater. So, it seemed wise to get some airflow in there since this particular amp did not come with a fan (while I notice other Mark 3a amps in the next few years did have fans).

So, I took on the project of installing a tiny 12VDC computer fan that I had scavenged. I found this little diagram online from people had done a similar thing for their amps:

Running a 12VDC fan at about 6.3 volts seemed like a good idea because it should last longer and make less noise while still getting some air moving. The heater wires from

the Power Transformer to each of the tube sockets supply 6.3 volts AC, so I would just need to parallel off of one of those socket connections and convert f

rom AC to DC with the use of a Diode. The image shows the use of a 1N4002 diode, and I had some 1N4007 rectifier diodes, so I used one of those. I know barely anything about the difference between solid state devices (because transistors are the devil, right?), but I figured it would do the job- probably just overkill for power handling capacity.

I also, didn't go off the pilot light because it was a 110 volt lamp wired not to the heater supply. Instead I connected to the heater pins of this nearby 12ax7 which I think was for the tremolo (although I didn't even bother to investigate):

So, now you can sort of see where the fan is and how it blows out toward the power tubes. I used some silicon glue to stick it on two sides (chassis and OT). It seems to work well and quietly. Perhaps a bigger fan would have moved more air, but I bet this is a vast improvement from before.

Acetone Organ to Guitar speaker cabinet conversion

2010-12-18T12:08:00.000-08:00

So, I have this old transistor organ with a built-in Leslie. We all know that Transistor-anythings are worth less than their weight in dirt and they sound cheesy and bad, so I figure some of the wood and speakers might be useful for guitar. So this is the Organ just slightly opened up before I really started:

As you can see, the Leslie is that part that swings out from the back. It has a couple of motors, a spinning foam piece, and a 4 ohm driver. I'm thinking now at this point that I will convert that in to its own speaker cab unit with its own foot-switch for selecting the spinning speed.

Then, while there is a lot of wood in the organ, it seems that every piece has a hole somewhere that sort of ruins its potential. But I am thinking of using that baffle-board and whatever else I can salvage to make an open-backed 2-12 speaker cab. I'll try this 8 ohm ceramic speaker with another old alnico I have kicking around. We'll see if I can make something not too ugly and still portable out of this...

Liverpool & DC30

2010-12-01T17:00:00.000-08:00

This is likely a shameless plug for my band in the form of a low-quality video of a cover song, but I figure it only fair to give a real world example of how I use my two main amps together: My DC30 and my Liverpool (both of which I built):

Dave's TC15 Part 9: Clips

2010-11-04T21:55:00.000-07:00

Dave's TC15 Part 8: Finished...I think...

2010-11-03T20:16:00.001-07:00

So, here are the tube sockets all wired up to the board:

Everything else is done too, I think. Usually now I would test it but I don't have any patch cords or speaker cabinets here at home. I would normally race up to the church to try it as well, but my van is in the shop. Hopefully, I can get it back tomorrow, otherwise I will have to hike all the way to the opposite side of town with this under my arm (not a good idea).

For, now we just get to look at it:

Dave's TC15 Part 7 - Quick Update - front wired to board

2010-11-03T14:44:00.000-07:00

Dave's TC15 Part 6 - Front panel wired, shielded wires, grid caps for VVR

2010-11-03T12:05:00.000-07:00

So, another full day put into this amp. It's funny, the things that you think are going to only take a few minutes actually end up taking a few hours.

For instance, wiring up these input jacks probably took a couple hours.

Add that to the loading of this 6-position tone contour switch, and you have an afternoon.

I'm getting pretty efficient at working with shielded wire too. You'll notice I had to add some terminal strips in order to add a cap before the grids of preamp tubes where a pot may be used. This is because when you use the VVR on really low voltages, you can get some DC leaking back to the pots connected to them, resulting in scratchy sounds. The cap blocks this from happening and doesn't change the tone. So, no scratchy amp or guitar volume pots.

I should also point out that Dave's tubes finally arrived from thetubestore.com since I last had time to work on the amp. So, now when I finish (later today??) I can actually plug it in and try it out.

If I don't have my van back from Kal-Tire (pray the repairs are cheap) when I finish, I'll have to get a ride to the church, or try wiring the amp up to a speaker here that I don't have in a cabinet.

If You Hollow Out An SG, Is It Still An SG? Final Post

2010-10-02T15:29:00.000-07:00

So, I zipped down to America today and picked up the __ip--shots for the guitar. Hipshot tuners and Tripleshot pickup ring. Just got them all installed.

The new tuners even almost filled the holes from the old ones. Pretty close:

I like these shapes much better than the old semi-circle Grovers that were relic'd. I think the open gears are cool too.
Here is the wiring for the Tripleshot. Now I have all the options for my P-Rail Bridge Pickup. P-90 coil, Rail coil, Series Humbucker, and Parallel Humbucker. You'll notice that I switched the colors from what it suggests because this makes more sense for selecting each of the single coils. This way you flick both switches in the direction of the coil that you are using, instead of away from it. But seriously, as far as the single coils go, I'll be using the P-90 almost exclusively.

So, here is the completed Semi-Hollow SG. At Last!

Pedal Build #3: The Fuzz Pedal

2010-09-30T22:59:00.000-07:00

So, I finally built this simple fuzz pedal:

From this site:

http://www.home-wrecker.com/bazz.html

Well, this is the third pedal built in my little series. I actually built most of it down in Chilliwack a couple weeks ago but needed my uni-bit to drill out the hole big enough for the 3pdt footswitch. I did test it down there and would just turn it on with the toggle before. Now it is ready for stage use with an LED coming on when activated and true-bypass when off.

Anyways, I'll give it a go tomorrow with some different amps and guitars, but the idea was to help give the whammy pedal some extra squeak. We shall see.

If You Hollow Out An SG, Is It Still An SG? Part 3

2010-09-29T11:55:00.000-07:00

Well, it is hopefully dry enough to start putting this back together. I put the bridge on and drilled the holes for the controls. I had the locations easy enogh to follow because I could see from the inside the holes in the mahogany:

Next, I got one of the pickup rings screwed on. Then I lined the Bigsby up with some thread and then mounted it too. Here I am with a couple strings on trying to line up the other pickup ring for mounting:
Here we are with the strings all on and pickups mounted. It's starting to look like a finished guitar (almost):

Here it is; finally all together and tuned up. Too bad it is after midnight and I won't be able to plug it in until tomorrow:

I got the rosewood control cavity cover screwed on the back too. See?:

I gave the guitar a go on the amp. It seems to sound pretty good. I need to play loud to really figure it out if I got the whole feedback thing working better. At least I know that the guitar doesn't sound worse in any way. I feel like I can hear a bit more of that hollow sort of tone, but I wonder if it's mostly my imagination. I need my usual rig in my usual surroundings to properly make the comparison and judgements. In all, I am quite pleased with the result already. Also, because I removed the toggles, the p-rail is currently hard-wired in Parallel Humbucker mode (which I hadn't ever been able to try yet), and I quite like it. It does have a very cool vintage humbucker type of tone. I think that will be a favourate setting for the future.

Here we have the guitar loaded up in its case, ready for transport back to the "Rock & Roll Capital of the World" (Elkford):

The final changes will be made back there once I pick up (from my american mail box) the Tripleshot Pickup ring (for switching between P-Rail modes without having to use toggle switches on the guitar), as well as these these new tuning machine heads:

If you hollow out an SG, is it still an SG? Part 2

2010-09-28T20:21:00.001-07:00

I arrived back in the country and got right back to work. I got deadlines and I need a guitar to play. (This is the only one I brought with me to the coast).

Here I am sawing out the pickup cavities. I had to remove the blade and re-install it through a drilled hole in the wood:

Finally finished all the hand sawing and can work on the top with the dremel next:

Once I got the pickup cavities at exactly the right shape, I used those to hold the top in place. I then drilled the holes and inserted the bridge posts to help hold in position:

Finally finished dremelling all around the top, making it the right shape and size. This is how the top will now look on the guitar:

The rosewood top is all shaped and sanded and ready to be glued on. Got to make sure I poke that ground wire to the bridge post hole first:

Got the top glued on and clamped down with every clamp I could scramble to get my hands on in the shop. Needs to be clamped for at least 30 mins:

Just put in a bit more glue in the edges and holding down a few points that didn't get held down well earlier:

Wow! The first application of Shellac really darkened up the wood nicely. I researched different finish types and wanted something organic that won't negatively effect vibrations. I spent monday morning researching "French Polishing" specifically, and finally ended up doing this quick and rough simplified version of the same sort of substances. This stuff is just in a can and I rub it on with an old pair of underwear, sanding with high grit sandpaper in between applications.

Here is a look at about coat number 3. Each time I hope it is the last. I don't want it too glossy or too thick of a finish. I want a rough and dirty guitar (just how I like my rock and roll).

This is after shellac application #5. It takes one second to accidentally brush the finish and ruin it until another hour is passed so you can re-sand and put another coat on. The stuff dries so quick that you have one pass of the rag and then you can't touch where you've applied. I guess we have to do a sixth coat. I've decided it will have to go horribly wrong to not be the last one.

I've decided this is the last coat of Shellac (#6). Now we wait for it to dr and then I can go crazy rebuilding:

If you hollow out an SG, is it still an SG? Part 1

2010-09-18T21:14:00.000-07:00

Or does it become an SHG? I heard that Gibson made their first batch of these Double-cutaway electric guitars branded as Les Pauls. But Les Paul (the guy) hated the look of them and told them to take his name off them. Then they just got the name "SG" which stood for "Solid Guitar".

My SG is becoming a "Semi-Hollow Guitar".

So, the plan would be to route the guitar from behind and make the F-hole real. I bought some 1/4" maple in Calgary that I could use for the new back.

I started by removing the hardware:

I thought I'd take a picture of the wiring in case I want it the same:

Well, here is the bare naked top. I wiped off the painted on F-Holes with some nail polish remover just in case I was going to reshape or reposition the real ones:

Hey, wait a minute! We found this Rosewood in a box in the basement (I think it might even be Brazillian: sshh!):

It was going to be for some acoustic project from 15 years ago or so. That guitar will never be finished. Besides, I saw some problems with that centre binding. It would be great for this project though. So, with such a fine piece of book-matched rosewood, we will now route from the front and put a new (rosewood) top on.

I started with way too fine of a grit of sandpaper. If only I knew how far I would be going:

Getting through:

I don't know; this is maybe 3 or 4 hours into the sanding process. Foolishly thinking I'm almost done. I had already really wished the palm sander or belt sander or electric planer was here and not left at my grandma's house.

Getting that last bit of paint (or primer or whatever it is) off:

Well, just when I thought I was almost finished sanding, I notice that this isn't really the bare mahogany yet! There is still some sort of coating. I can't let that stuff choke out the tone of my guitar!:

I think we are finally scratching into that real wood at this point:

Now getting more of the real mahogany showing:

Not there yet! Still a bit more of that stuff to get off:

Here we are! Finally finished sanding I then started drawing where the chambers might be (leaving some edge for the rosewood top to attach to):

First we drill a few holes going down to about 1/4" from the back surface...:

Then we drill lots more holes:

At this point I am done with the drilling on the drill press and will move on to the routing:

Here is the top finished being routed and chiseled, finishing the cavities:

I routed out the control cavity so that the mahogany is thin, yet enough left to help brace the thin rosewood top for the input and controls so they will be stronger:

Here we are in the midst of getting that rosewood top cut in

the right shape:

Here it is with the Rosewood control cover screwed on. Will still have to finish that wood:

YGL-3a to Dumble Overdrive HRM mods

2010-09-18T20:51:00.000-07:00

So, I have done tonnes of projects in the last week, so I need to give some updates. First I made a fuzz pedal, but I don't have my unibit to drill the hole for the footswitch, so I'll post about that one when I'm done.

I brought my old Traynor with me to Chilliwack, and wanted to rip out the normal channel in order to install a dumble overdrive circuit in its space. It took a while, but here it is. I have a high pitched steam whistle sounding oscillation that comes in if the gain is too high or the treble is too high. But even though I couldn't yet eliminate it, it's still usable.

Well, despite buying some neat little breadboard type things in B&E in Calgary during my stop there, I decided to just

rip components off the Traynor board and build right there on the end.

After a couple days, I would not say it is completely finished. I ended up keeping the original master volume in the amp, and adding the "Clean Level" and "OD Level" pots in place of the High and Low inputs from the Yanked (Normal) channel. The Normal channel volume becomes the OD Gain Level and the Bass, Mid, and Treb become the OD tone controls. However, they don't work too much like a typical amp tone-stack would and do not lend themselves well to guests. Oh, and the Bright switch for the normal channel has been replaced with a DPDT switch of the same style and is now the switch that engages the OD. I'll post pics if I can find a camera cable here to borrow.

The Effects Channel continues to function the same and the tremolo and reverb are still great. Then I can engage the OD switch and can achieve a nice smooth lead tone not crunchy or abrasive at all (just thick). The notes sing well. I am not finished

however, because there is a parasitic oscillation that appears if he gain is too high, or if the signal is too bright (only when OD is engaged). Sounds like a steam whistle and is quite annoying. I can set up the amp to work fine, but that is usually just shy of whistle territory. Also, If I switch t o a brighter pickup and the tone knob is not rolled back, it will also start

whistling.
That thick dumble overdrive is a little harder to get out of single coils without rea lly rolling back the guitar tone knob or else it will also start whistling.

I should also mention that the plate voltages are around 150v and a typical ODS goes for about 200v usually. I've heard that is an important element to the sound as well. However, I'm too dumb to figure out how to boost plate voltages and I've really been more concerned with the oscillation at this point.

So, it's finicky right now. I can basically grab my choice of about half the knobs on the amp and turn it in order to get that whistle to appear (while in OD mode). I've been chop-sticking, adding shielded wires in places, changing the first OD grid resister, added 250pF caps between the plates and cathodes of the OD tube, etc, and still have not been able to eliminate that oscillation.
IN the end, even if I can't eliminate that oscillation, I will keep this amp this way, because it does sound decent, and I don't lose my original Traynor clean channel whenever I want it. It's definitely not a fool-proof design that I can recommend to others yet though.

It turns out that if I plug the guitar into the normal input instead of the high input I have more usable range before whistle territory. It's enough to let me put the lid on for now until someone gives me another good idea (because I am at a total loss). Here is the front of the amp:

And, here is a quick video of some off-the cuff playing. Regular clean channel at first and then you see me switch the OD on:

Dave's TC15 Part 5 - 0T wired, impedance selectors and Heaters finished.

2010-09-08T21:08:00.000-07:00

Well, the tubes did not arrive today. You'd think they would arrive fast because they are coming from within Canada. Oh well; I hope they come tomorrow. I also fit in a band practice this afternoon because Aaron was on his split.

Before dinner I then finished off the heater wiring. Then we had pizza and watched a TV show on volcanoes and Earth Quakes. Apparently there are Neutron Stars (Magnatrons??) that are very small and massive. When their crust shifts by a millimetre, it creates earthquakes thousands? of times more powerful than the most extreme earthquake ever recorded on earth.

Anyways, I got back to work after a couple fresh cookies too and finished wiring up the Output Transformer wires. The impedance selector is now finished that matches to the speaker load as well as a small toggle that chooses between two different Primary Impedances on the OT. (I should have done this on my Liverpool (if I only had known it was safe on the switch). The higher impedance (8k) will give bit more of a saturated tone and the lower (5k) will yield a bit more headroom.

I then snipped the excess component leads from the board and installed some connecting wires that go across the back of it.

I think that next I will tackle that 6 position contour switch...

Dave's TC15 Part 4 - PT wired, VVR and heaters started.

2010-09-08T13:53:00.000-07:00

Guess the title says it all. Just going to take a break from my least favourate part of amp building: doing the twisted pair of heater wires to every tube socket. It's especially awkward on combo-style chassis, but I've worked on worse than this one for sure. It makes the shoulders tired with my elbows up in the air the whole time.

The VVR is pretty much done, just have to connect 2 wires to it. I started off the day by drilling the hole to mount the Mosfet.

Anyways, I'm going to go check the mail for the tubes and eat some lunch. Then I'll get back to it. There should be a few posts today. I just figured I wuld like to split up the progress for the blog to make it more exciting. Ok, see you in a bit!

True Bypass Looper Pedal for Whammy

2010-09-02T15:12:00.000-07:00

So, this is about my new experiences with a Whammy pedal. I thought I would post what I did a couple weeks ago. I had one previously and did not feel inspired enough to use its capabilities and traded it away. I have recently bought a new one and hope to put it to better use.
First of all, the Whammy sucks tone, even when off, because it is neither True Bypass, nor has a decent enough buffer. Since I use mine with a Trainwreck (which don't like pedals to begin with), I decided this must be rectified. Here is a link to a guide on how people True Bypass their WHammies, including adding an LED and an optional momentary on switch:
http://www.rodrigoconstanzo.com/Whammy.html
I got all the stuff and was geared up to do this mod, when I started toget scared. I was scared about brazenly voiding my warranty and destroying my Whammy with one fatal swoop of an Exacto knife. Then I realized that I was about to internally do inside the whammy what I could do externally in a separate pedal: A True Bypass Looper (With LED and an additional momentary switch).
So, I went to this site:
http://www.singlecoil.com/tb-strip/tbstrip.html
and used the schematic for a single loop pedal:http://www.singlecoil.com/tb-strip/images/single_loop.gif
and I added a momentary DPDT switch to that layout between the input and the 3PDT, with the signal jumping to the send and coming back from the return to the DPDT before going to the 3PDT.
Here's a pic:

And Here is a sketch of what I did:

Here's the inside:

THe LED just comes on when I use the 3PDT because I obviously know the loop is activated while I am holding down the momentary switch.

Anyways, I'll add pics to this post later of this pedal.
I may later actually do the True Bypass mod on the Whammy to save pedalboard real estate if I'm not always using it with a fuzz, but for now I have this neat looper pedal that can also be used as an A/B pedal (just don't use the "return" jack). Besides, the real advantage to this setup (aside from not having to open up the whammy) is that I can put a fuzz pedal or something in the loop with the whammy so that they both come on together for a second or two in a song when I hold the momentary DPDT.

My goal is to get that saturated squeaky tone like Jack White often uses like
1:12 of this song(I'm sure there are better examples- I am going for more saturated than that):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5roz5-wdjBg

Anyways, since I also traded my Huckleberry fuzz pedal away last summer, I don't have a fuzz pedal and I am planning to build this really simple one and experiment:
http://www.home-wrecker.com/bazz.html

Anyways, that's my experience so far with the Whammy since I got it a couple weeks ago. I mostly just use the 1 octave up so far going through my dirty amp in a two amp setup. If I get the fuzz working well, it may move to my clean amp or both amps.

_________________

Dave's TC-15 Part 3: Board Populated

2010-08-30T15:45:00.000-07:00

So, this afternoon I got the board populated with all the appropriate components. Despite all the various shapes and sizes and colours, it's all just capacitors and resisters. I put the caps on first because they are immediately obvious on their values (because of size as well as labeling). Then I went through the supply and measured the resisters with my voltmeter as I mounted them (because I don't exactly have the colour-stripe codes memorized for resister values). You can see that by default, most of the resisters are carbon composites (dark brown resisters). They aren't exactly the most precise in value, and they aren't the most silent either, but as old-school style resisters, they have the potential to add a "sweet warmth" to your tone when in certain places within the circuit. Again, this is another place where I feel Trinity has made some good choices on parts selection.

Anyways, you can see that I have not yet snipped the leads for all the components. I will do that right before the next step when I solder the eyelets with the appropriate flying lead wires. Chances are, that will be later today or tomorrow. This is the week where I think I have the breather in my schedule to try and get this whole amp finished.

I have also decided to figure out the exact placement of the VVR circuit at this stage. Here is a picture of the VVR control mounted in the faceplate position reserved for the master volume.

This is what I did in my DC-30 because it always sounded best with the master volume bypassed anyways. I assume that this will also be the case with the TC-15 which is a very identical circuit type. The other option is to keep the stock Master Volume and put the VVR in the power switch position (2 spots over). Then the power switch and standby switch would be put into one centre-off DPDT switch mounted between the Master Volume and the VVR controls. The reason why this can also work is because that faceplate position is labelled "Standby" below the switch and "On" above it. The Label on the faceplate for the VVR would say "Power" below it and "On" above it (which is also appropriate when refering to a knob that controls the overall voltage and power of the amp). Dave will have to decide this. I think just replacing the Master Volume slot with the VVR control is the tidiest and most stock looking, but I have done both configurations depending on the amp.

Dave's TC15 Part 2 - Mounting Sockets, etc.

2010-07-15T18:13:00.000-07:00

So, we had a practice session this morning with our fill-in keyboard player. Lorrie-Anne has played with our band (The Burn Ins) for a few live shows now, and we are getting her to add the Hammond and Rhodes tracks to our debut album that we have mostly recorded. Hopefully we will head back into the studio in a few weeks to finish it off. It is mostly waiting for these keys parts.

Anyways, this afternoon was open, so I figured I would make use of it to work on Dave's amp. I've been way too busy lately, and I don't like how much Dave has

had t

o wait so far with no progress at all. I put in a good 4 hours or so on a table on the back porch. (I also had been noticing that I rarely get to go outside either).

I started by mounting the transformers, then moved on to the tube sockets. I was quite impressed with the nice lock-washer/nuts that come with the kit, until I discovered that they shortchanged me on the number of them. Good thing I have a good supply of nuts, bolts, and lock-washers by now too.

I sure find it difficult to work within this style of really tight combo amp chassis. It can sometimes get really frustrating mounting tiny little bolts around th

e corner of the chassis lip with no room for tools inside the chassis. But, it wasn't too bad, just rather time consuming. I then mounted the pots and jacks on the front along with the faceplate. That would have taken less than 10 minutes at the end along with the knobs too. It's funny how the most time-consuming parts don't change much in terms of appearance, but a few minutes can make it look like lots has been done:

The next stage will be to either start wiring the heater wires to each of the tube sockets

or to mounts resisters and caps to the eyelet board. We shall see.

Anyways, here's another photo.

Dave's TC15

2010-06-14T11:53:00.000-07:00

So, last Friday Dave's kit from Trinity arrived home from the post office. It's been a busy weekend, so am finally unpacking it.

I am quite impressed with all the documentation that comes from Trinity. The give you quite a book with these explaining practically everything. Large Layout and Schematic are included as well as a list of possible mods and troubleshooting guide. It has pictures of everything too. The eyelet board does not come populated so yo are left to build basically everything, but they make sure you aren't left in the dark on any of it. The components all seem to be good quality too. The Transformers were mounted inside the chassis for shipping. I'll be starting by mounting them on the outside.

So, thumbs up to Trinity for putting together a great kit. Anyone wanting to try building an amp shouldn't be afraid to try a Trinity.

So, for those interested, the TC-15 looks to be basically a half-powered version of the 2-channelled Matchless DC30.

It has a 5AR4 Rectifier tube, two EL84 Power tubes, three 12ax7 tubes (1 phase inverter and 2 for channel 2 preamp), and an EF86 preamp tube for channel 1.

This particular amp that Dave ordered seems to be the combo style chassis where the faceplate controls will be on the top rear of the amp (like a Tweed Era Fender, or a Vox).

The Dot 335 Mods

2010-05-16T12:10:00.001-07:00

Kristine had a stock Epiphone Dot 335. Unfortunately most normal Epiphones come with absolutely horrible garbage-end-of-the-scale electronics in them. Her main complaint was that all the pots were scratchy. However, on a semi-hollow body guitar, you don't want to be working through the f-holes more often than at all possible. (I heard they are referred to as "f-holes" not just because of their shape, but rather because of some words that are often used by guitar techs when working with them.) So we decided it was best to replace the dull and muddy sounding cheap Epiphone pickups as well. It was decided we would put a Seymour Duncan Phat Cat (P90) pickup in the neck and a Dimarzio 36th Anniversary PAF Humbucker in the bridge. Both are great sounding authentic pickups without really breaking the bank for a poly-coated guitar.

I started by yanking out the pots and wiring harness out the f-hole. I taped up the bidy a bit first to avoid scratching the poly on the top. You can also see the new products beside, awaiting their installation. We got some 500K Audio taper Dimarzio guitar pots. The idea of wasting $6.50 per pot was to ensure that they would be the right size (which wasn't quite accurate):
Then I yanked out the crap pickups:

Here is a pic with the new pots all wired up and the new pickups in place. It turned out that I would have to widen the holes slightly to get them in:

This is the ingenious little trick that makes getting the pots back into their holes through the f-hole even possible. Shoving tuibing through the pot hole and then taping it to the shaft of the new pot:

From there it was just a matter of putting the knobs on and stringing the guitar up. Apparently even the ends of the Dimarzio pot shafts were too thick to get the old knobs back on. So, for now we are using some chickenhead knobs. I like the look and ease of use of the chickenheads, but I don't think everyone would agree:

And Voila! It is finished. Kristine used it it to lead in church today for the first time since the mods last week. She seemed pleased enough.

Guitar modified a bit

2010-03-27T22:31:00.000-07:00

I figure I should keep the blog updated with any electronics work that I do. I keep customizing what is meant to be my main guitar. I installed a new 3-way Pickup Selector Switch (Allparts). I was spurred to do this because I thought that it was the cause of one pickup volume control affecting the other pickup too when in the centre (both pickups) position. As in, if you turned down one volume all the way, I got no sound at all while in the middle position. I learned this is one of the original ways these were wired, and I just had to switch the wiring around on the volume pot lugs. I installed the new switch anyways because it is more of a classic style and should be much better quality and last longer.

If you have a keen eye, you may also notice that I added another mini toggle switch. This is a phase switch for the neck pickup. It allows me to make the pickup in or out of phase with the bridge pickup when both are on. They are wired in parallel, so when out of phase, they cancel out the redundant frequencies giving more interesting new tones. It is most effective when the pickups are very different from each other.

The old mini toggle that I have (near the output jack) is for the P-Rail Pickup. It has 3 positions and chooses either P90 coil, rail coil, or both coils in series as a humbucker. I am starting to appreciate all three more and more and now giving even more tones when mixed with the neck pickup.

Two other possible options that I am considering adding to this guitar, but holding off on to avoid more toggle switches (maybe I should try some push/pull pots), is the options of putting pickups together switchable to series (for extra hot/full distorted sounds), as well as adding the Parallel humbucker mode for the P-Rail (not as hot, but more vintage PAF sounding).

But for now, the next mod will be swapping out the Burstbucker Pro in the neck for one of these which I have ordered:

Magnatron

But it will look like this to better match the guitar:

Anyone notice anything else different abut my guitar?

2 latest Projects: Hammond L112 Leslie connection and JCM800 VVR2

2010-03-22T22:42:00.000-07:00

Now that I am retired from my Pastoral Work for the time being, I took off to Chilliwack and got busy two long awaited projects. Here is the work station I set up for my electronic work:

First, I got the Hammond L112 wired up so that the Leslie 25 can be plugged in to it. That took many hours over a couple days, but it's working great now.

Then, I finally worked on installing Variable Voltage Regulating in my JCM 800. That also took many hours and a couple days to complete. Then I moved on to troubleshooting some intermittent problems that I had noticed in the JCM. Not sure if it was cold solder joints or a bad input jack, but those are the last two things I did between tests to find that the problem has gone now.

Anyways, VVR seems to have really made another amp shine and much more usable with great tone at indoor volume levels and anywhere in between. This amp is now ready for me to either use regularly or sell...

Here you can see the JCM800 with the Power switch gone and the VVR (power) knob in it's place. The Standby Switch is now a 3-position, centre-off switch. Down is standby and Up is On.

I've been testing the amp through the Eminence Private Jack speaker that I had mounted in this Leslie 25 for my parents. It actually sounds quite cool to use a leslie for a speaker cab because it has great bass response due to the size of the closed cabinet, and the speaker points down into the ramp, not blasting you in the ear. It actually gives a neat room-reverb sort of effect too.

I'll put some new clips of the amp on Youtube soon...

Replacing my J5 Telecaster with this:

2010-02-05T22:37:00.000-08:00

So, it was sort of a spur of the moment thing; hummed and hawed over it for an afternoon when in Kelowna a couple weeks ago. IN the end I took it home because it seemed to feel pretty good and quite resonant.
I had been planning to go to a mahogany bodied guitar that I could go to a P-90 with and add a bigsby.

Well, I have already swapped out the humbuckers it came with and popped in a SD P-Rail and a Bridge Position Burstbucker pro into the neck spot. So far I am liking it. I added a three position mini toggle switch to choose the coils of the P-Rail. I mostly use the P-90 setting, but I find them all quite usable. Anyways, this guitar seems quite versatile and I look forward to adding a bigsby.

Anyways, the company is supposedly Blackpoole Custom Relics, so it is made to look sort of old and a bit worn. It was a decent deal; less than $500 canadian. I don't feel bad modding it up and it is a good base.

The Collection

2009-10-09T14:30:00.001-07:00

Here are a couple photos of Yeomans Instruments builds that remain in the possession of myself and my brother in-law, Josh. His is the 18 Watt Combo that is on the lower right. A description of those in the photos: Back Row: 1x12 semi-open-backed cab, 2x12 closed-back cab,
Front row on counter: Trainwreck Liverpool, JCM800
Floor: DC30 2x12 combo, Class Act 1x12 combo, 18 Watt 1x12 combo

Voltages

2009-09-03T09:10:00.000-07:00

So, I am trying to reduce the gain slightly in one stage that seems to be too high and causing fizziness to the channel, and squealing at higher volumes.

After checking voltages, I feel like it might be at that last gain stage on the TRex channel before the phase inverter. I don't know what reasonable voltages would be, but what is the best way to reduce that one? Should I reduce the value of that plate resistor? I've also read that a snubbing capacitor parallel to it is a popular thing that Mesa will often do.

YGL3 Master Volume bypassed?

2009-09-02T17:56:00.000-07:00

So, there should be more posts soon here, now that I am retired and have some time to work on important stuff again.

One thing I thought I would do is put this Traynor YGL-3a back to stock. I had been looking at schematics online and from my cd-rom that accompanies the Tube Amp Book. They all signaled that both channels should be affected by the Master Volume knob. However, my normal channel is not. This seemed really strange to me, so today I was going to put it back to stock. Well, it looks like my specific schematic inside the chassis of the amp (I love Traynors), shows it to be different than the other versions online. It seem like the amp alread is stock...

My Liverpool 30 with VVR

2009-07-21T09:37:00.001-07:00

This has been together for quite some time now, and has made its way to Elkford to perform perfectly in a jam about a month ago.
Anyways, here is the Liverpool in its pine cabinet that Bryant built. There is a wooden faceplate as well that needs to be drilled out and labeled and mounted. However, It might not happen because this amp will eventually receive a very fancy hardwood cabinet to replace this one. The final faceplate will likely be purpleheart.

Joe's Express All Together

2009-06-18T06:38:00.000-07:00

Test Clips of the Express and Liverpool

2009-04-21T11:52:00.000-07:00

Sorry about my playing. I didn't even give a thought to the idea that I should play the guitar well. It's sloppy, but it's just supposed to give an idea of the amps' tone.
First We have the Express Clips with My Tele. Most of these are with the Humbucker in the Bridge:

Next We Have the Liverpool. This First one is with my Strat:

This next one is with the Humbucker into the Liverpool:

Liverpool Finished

2009-04-21T09:53:00.001-07:00

Living in an apartment sucks. Tube amps are loud. I finished the Liverpool last night. I just tried to start it up again this morning but I heard someone moving around above me so I turned it off. I thought everyone was out right now. I'll try again later. Even trying at somewhat low levels is still really loud for an apartment. Even a 22 watt tube amp on 1/3 voltage with the gain halfway up will make it impossible for anyone to do anything else in the building. Aaaargh!!! I need somewhere to play my amps! I'm dying inside here. I need a different place!
Well, I can post pictures at least.

Express Powered Up

2009-04-18T13:08:00.001-07:00

I popped tubes in and took one more photo last night before going to sleep:
Then, this morning since I woke up, I've been busy working on the amp again. First I had to go over all my noted again on how to bias, and then install the 1 ohm 2w resistors to do so. Biasing amps is such a pain it seems to me. I've gotten quite experienced at it, but it still might play a role in the fact that I prefer cathode biased amps. Anyways, after lots of adjustments, the Plate Voltages seemed to stay at 392 for these EL34s. It seems that Ken Fischer (as well as the league of the best amp builders in the world found at the ampgarage forum) biased his Expresses at about 55% plate dissipation, so I biased it at -35mA.
In case you'd like the formula for biasing tubes:
an EL34 is rated at 25 Watts so:
25W/392V = 63.8mA
55% of 63.8mA = 35mA
In case this looks wrong to you, we are able to get from Volts to Amps by using that 1 ohm resister to measure across.

Anyways, there was lots of hum issues and I realized that the bright switch is centre-off so right now it stops the signal in the centre position. I resolved much of the hum in this very unstable styled amp by making a bottom plate out of an old pedalboard that I glued a couple layers of Aluminaum foil to, as well as putting the shilds on the preamp tubes (I stole them from my DC30 - I'll need to buy more). The cabinet will have the foil sheld on the inside bottom of it. I still need to swap in a 2-position bright switch, and I will do that some time today as well.
Well, I really wish I lived in a place where I could turn this up to hear it properly. I don't dare play anything through it without the Voltage most of the way down (Horay for VVR!). So, I can get an idea of the sound, but these things are made to play loud and get your speakers interacting with your guitar more. Anyways, my initial impressions are very positive. It seems well balanced and usable. I expected it to be bit higher gain, but it is actually balanced right where I like it. 12 o'clock seems to be a nice amount of breakup when turning up the guitar volume, and a very rich and beautiful clean sound to a softer touch or lower guitar volume. I am extremely impressed by the voicing, and the amp sound very rich and harmonically pleasing. I'd say you could go from rhythm to lead playing with just a flip of the bright switch too. This amp seems to really give your guitar its voice. Anyways, I may check all the voltages throughout the amp to compare with other Express owners and see if anything could use some value tweaking.

Express Wiring Finished!

2009-04-18T01:16:00.000-07:00

It is now 2:20 am on Saturday morning and I am going to go to bed now. I just completed all the wiring for Joe's Express. It is tradition to finish amps in the middle of the night and complain about how you are unable to plug it in because of the need to be quiet.

So, after spending a few more hours wiring, all that is left now is to check voltages and bias the tubes and eliminate hum and noise, make sure everything works properly, etc. So really, this could mean that things are just getting started, and some of the biggest headaches are yet to come. Tomorrow should be interesting.

Express Power Supply Wiring Completed!

2009-04-17T11:49:00.000-07:00

Well, it's only been a few hours since my last post but I want to be diligent about my progress reports. I know have the Power Tube Sockets, and Filer Caps and VVR circuitry completely wired up. All that is left is the preamp section.

Express Progress Continues as Liverpool on Hold

2009-04-17T08:29:00.000-07:00

Well, back to Guitar Amp building. In recent news, I have acquired a sales job at my favorite musical instrument store. I fly down to Vancouver for training in just over a week, so I have some time before then to complete some projects. First on the list is these Trainwreck guitar amps. I'd also like to remove the Leslie control switches from my M3 to give to my parents while I am down there. So, I'll need to wire up something else next week as well. But first of all, you'll notice that I installed heatsinks for the VVR Mosfet on both of the Trainwreck amps:After this was completed, I made the executive decision to cease sumultaneous work on both amps in order to complete one at a time from this point on. Because of the difference in power sections in the amps, I was trying to figure out plans for two different at the same time and this was becoming very non-productive. Too many decision had to be made regarding VVR wiring and placement and they are going to be completely different for each amp. Therefore, since I need Joe to reimburse me quickly for the parts for his Express (in order to pay my bills) I decided to finish that one first.
So, as you can see, I have now fully wired the PS board side of things and it is officially mounted. The cap stack as been glued down and is about to be wired as well. I am also almost finished wiring up the VVR PCB.
So, next I will wire up the cap stack and finish the power section and bias circuitry. I'll try to keep posting regularily now. My tendency at this point seems to be finishing quickly on a roll without taking more photos. So, I will resist the urge to priorotize finishing over documenting in this case.

More Organ stuff

2009-04-06T15:46:00.001-07:00

I'm currently trying to wire up the Leslie connector kit into my M3.
I've run into the snag of not knowing which wires are for what going to the organ field coil speaker. 4 wires instead of the 2 that are found in modern Permanent Magnet Speakers.

Organ House

2009-03-29T21:05:00.001-07:00

So, currently I have 3 organs: a Hammond M3, a Hammond L-112, and a Lowrey Fesitval. Then I have the 2 Leslie Cabinets stacked with their backs off at the moment. A 142 and a 25.

My Current Amps

2009-03-19T22:32:00.000-07:00

Well, Here is the current progress of my Liverpool:
Here is my Traynor YGL-3a plugged into the closed back 2x12 at the bottom that holds a Veteran 30 and a G12H. Between them is the DC30 with a Celection Blue and a G12H:
And Here we have the JCM800 sitting on top of a 1x12 open backed cab with a Veteran 30, as well as a Single-Ended Combo called the Class Act, with a Jensen P12N speaker:

Shawn's Overdrive Special

2009-03-09T21:05:00.000-07:00

I remember promising to post pics of the Dumble Clone that I built for Shawn with the cabinet that Shawn built for it all completed. Well, a week ago he cameout for my farewell potluck and service, and he made sure to bring his amp to play and to make sure that I would get a chance to post pics of it finally.
So, without further ado, here is Shawn with his amp:He used laminated pine boards and box-jointed(?) them together. I forgot to get a good pic of the joints. Oops.Here's the back and inside. That's a special ordered Weber 1265 speaker, which is supposed to compliment this amp well. Anyways, I gotta say that Shawn makes a very nice wood-finished amp cabinet.Here's one more pic for the road:

The 1962 Lowrey Festival and Leslie 25

2009-03-09T19:16:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally wired my leslie 25 up to the Lowrey. I've had the leslie for about a year and a half, and have only used it with guitar amps so far, bypassing the power amp that is in it. Now I got to use the whole thing how it was meant to for the first time tonight. (If only I knew how to play keyboard, you would get more than a C chord in the youtube video).

So, Leslie cables are all over $100, so I spent $12 today on 6 meters of 7 conductor cable. I hard wired one end right into the connector chassis of the Leslie, and then took the socket that I bypassed and put it on the other end of the cable to plug into the organ.
I should also mention that today I fixed the organ in other ways too. I bought a new 6x8 pentode-triode tube to replace one that had died, (ruining any F# notes). I got the vintage Sylvania from an old store that I just discovered today called Voss Electronics. The old German guy there is hard of hearing but super nice, and I think that store has been there forever. There is some really cool old stuff that you can find there. The guy looks A LOT like my late Grandpa Kanwischer. Anyways, the new tube is at the far bottom right of this back plate of 80 tubes. Yes, I said 80! Look at this thing with the back cover off!!!:I also thought the old Alnico 12" Jensen speaker had a cone tear, but it turned out to be a small chunk of broken plastic from one of the flapper switches on the front. I grabed it and glued it back in its spot. Now, I'm only missing on flapper chunk.
Ok, here are my first couple movie clips I made on imovie. I know, I should have edited them.

Boards Populated

2009-02-13T07:32:00.000-08:00

I don't know how this happened in the midst of all the business this week. I think I just started loading the boards with components whilst doing other things, and it just got finished. Anyways, the preamp and PS boards are all loaded. There's just a whole lot of wiring left on these amps to do.

The Best Candidate for Enquiro

2009-02-11T17:28:00.000-08:00

I'd like to take a break from our regularly scheduled awesomeness, to make one more nonamp-related observation. I think Ryan Monson is the best candidate for Enquiro. I can't imagine someone else better suited.
Check him out:
http://ryanmonson.com/enquiro/

Heater Wires finished

2009-02-10T21:01:00.000-08:00

Here's the latest progress on the Trainwreck Twins. The Power switch, Pilot Lamp, fuse socket, power receptacle and tube heater wires have all been wired now on both amps:You can't tell, but I also installed the 2 amp slow-blo fuses and the lamp bulbs. I guess the next step shall be to populate the preamp boards that I have already eyeletted.

First Post on the Trainwreck Twins

2009-01-29T15:51:00.000-08:00

So, I finally have all the parts needed to make the last two amps. I am building these two models of Trainwrecks simultaneously. They are nonidentical twins because one is the Express for Joe, and the other is a Liverpool for me. I am very excited because this promises to be my favorite amp of all time. The Express is the more popular out of the two, but the Liverpool is an EL84 amp, and I prefer those sorts of power tubes by personal preference.

I began them quite a while ago. I had sourced all the parts from all over the place, trying to build the best. Crucial to Trainwrecks are the Outut Transformers with the correct primary impedance, so I ordered those from Toneslut. The Chassis' and Faceplates are from Ceriatone. Most of the components are from Mouser and Antique Electronc Supply. I got some Bourne's Pots from Apex, and turretboards from Watts Tube Audio.
Heres a picture of the board Material that I waited for 3 months to arrive. I have just finished drilling and installing the eyelets:
Don't ask why the pic is sideways. It turned thatway when I loaded to to blogger.
Here's shots of the chassis, with the tube sockets, speaker jacks, and transformers mounted. I have also wired up the output impedance selectors:

The Pure(?) Point-to-Point 18 Watt T-Rex

2008-12-09T18:54:00.000-08:00

Well, the latest amp is well under-way. Turret-board material got lost in the mail(for over a month now), so in the end I decided to attempt my first all point-to-point amp. I guess this will make this one more "boutique". There's a few companies that will build "Point-to-point" allowing them to charge an extra few thousand dollars in cash more for the amp due to it having the most direct path for the signal and less wire, causing less loss of tone. I generally don't buy that it is necessarily any better, but I figured I would eventually try one. Besides, it may take more painstaking work, but it should still be faster than the 3 months that turretboards.com will make me wait (to be sure) before they send me another shipment of what I ordered back in October.

The Dimentions of this Chassis are: 6" x 2 1/2" x 20".
The 4 mounting bolt holes are 1/2" from the two outside edges of the chassis.

So, what follows is documentation of the build, with most recent progress going to be at the bottom this time.
I did quite a bit before taking the first picture. Here we have all the Power Transformer mounted and wired up (including heater wires to all the tube sockets). Obviously the sockets, cap can, ac mains, fuse, and Transformers are mounted.You can see from this pic that the front faceplate is on, as well as a couple pots, inputs, switches and pilot lamp. (I had to drill out the hole in order to make the Fender Lamp fit). Don't worry, I bought a special $40 unibit especially for that sort of work. Ya, the fender lamps are by far the prettiest and you can put in different colors of jewels. Josh will have his choice from the colors that I bought, but I'm starting with the amber. (I think it looks classy). He might prefer blue to tie it in with his guitar color.Now we have the rest of the pots on the top panel installed. You can also see that the standby and power switches are wired up, as well as the pilot lamp. The other key element installed is the infamous VVR circuit wired to the chassis floor. Yes, that's right; A Variable Voltage Regulator. This will allow that cranked old-school all-tubes-distorting tone while scaling back the power to the B+ rail. In other words it sounds great at even less than ear-piercing volumes when you turn down the knob labeled MV on the top panel. You can treat it like a master volume control, but it works much more like a real "Master" volume should when you think of the term. It just turns down the volume. It's generally a pretty easy circuit to add to cathode biased amps. Cheers to Dana (UR12) for sharing it with the world. I've purchased a couple of his PCB versions for fixed biased amps, but this terminal strip version will be more appropriate for this P2P amp. I should also mention that the design of the 18 Watt T-Rex is actually the brainchild of Dana's brother Richie. That would be a neat family to be a part of.
From this picture you can see some more progress. The Output transformer is wired up (wires coming through the grommets in the chassis floor). As well, you can see that the top panel "Official Marshall Knobs" have been installed. Official Marshall knobs feel cheaper than I expected, but it is the right look for this amp. Maybe some heavier feeling ones can be found some day if Josh chooses. The top left corner of the pic also shows that the output jack (to speaker) is also installed. I just used the 8ohm tap. I couldn't find or decide on a place for an impedent selector switch, so for now, if Josh wants to try out different speaker configurations with external speakers, a different tap from the OT will have to be soldered to the output jack instead. (It's pretty quick and painless, just takes the amount of time for a soldering iron to heat up.) The switch on that bottom wall is the Negative feedback switch. You can switch between 2 levels of NFB; it's basically a presence control. The next picture will have to show evidence of a real commitment to the Point to Point Design because the remaining components and wiring would have been a part of the Turretboard...As you can see, the cabinet construction is also underway over in sunny Revelstoke. This time the cab will be of made of the lighter weight laminated pine instead of our previous Birch Plywood.I should hopefully make some progress on the amp portion today. I have purchased a number of Terminal strips for the wiring, and I am still wrestling with exactly how to lay this out...Well, after a long day of staring and sketching, I barely got anything done. Planning this layout turned out to be a much bigger and more difficult task than I planned. But I eventually got a start. Here is the power tubes wired up somewhat with the B+ and filter caps. I can't seem to find the 2 Watt 2.2K resister that I thought I ordered. Gonna need one from somewhere...Well, we have a 2.2K 2Watt Resister coming inn the mail from Abbotsford. They traveled down there just to find one for me. In the meantime, I have continued the work. It is progressing slowly. I drill holes to mount terminal strips as I need them and vacuum out the aluminum filings as we go. I guess I am slowly working my way left from the right side of the schematic. Or, you could say I am working my way right, wiring up the tubes. I finished my first preamp tube now. I still, wonder whether this qualifies as pure point to point, because I somehow imagine that there must be possibly shorter distances from each point to point than what I have achieved. I doubt this is any improvement from the eyelet board method and the eyelet boards sure would be easier. Well, maybe this will look cooler. It definitely won't look tidier.Got a little bit more done today. I moved one cap, and did a bit of attaching wires to the pots on the T-Rex side. Check out my special new shielded cable that I got last time I was in Calgary; especially made for audio. Much nicer to work with than dissecting patch cords... Today I also took a break to fix up the Top Boost Channel of my DC30. I put some of the new shielded cable in that too.Progress is painstakingly slow. However, I just finished my second last preamp tube. Now we can move onto the final tube wiring (which includes the tonestack and input wiring). I had to get creative when the 2.2k 2watt resistor arrived from Abbotsford today. That is because it was a 22k resistor instead. So, I wired up 2 separate 1watt 4.7K resisters in parallel instead. It's a real MacGuyver move, but it gives me a 2.3K resistance(easily close enough for the part of the amp it's in) and the current would be split between them giving them a total power handling capability of 2watts. So, it should be perfectly all right. Everything is above code.So, today I got the rest of the front of the amp wired up; as in the input jacks and the components and wiring off of the front pots. All that remains now is wiring up the first preamp tube. I plan to finish it tonight. Then we will see if the thing works.Meanwhile, cabinet construction has resumed in Revelstoke. This is the Tolex being prepared for the perimeter of the cabinet.Bryant continued to work on it from this point today (Christmas Day). Next, he started wrapping and gluing the tolex around the edges.The wrapping and gluing of the edges are completed around the front of the cab now.The amp building part is hopefully completed. I manged to plug it in in order ot have it squeal at me. Thanks to all my online reading, I automatically knew that that would caused by the Output Transformer Secondary wires having been swapped. I quickly swapped the wires on the two power tubes and tried the amp again.Due to a baby sleeping in the house, I could really not check the amp properly. There is guitar signal coming through though. I tried the amp through a speaker cab face down on my bed with a pillow over the back, and with the Variable Voltage Regulator as far down as it would go. Still, I dared not try for very long. We have guitar sound, but the question will be how good does it sound? is there hum? is there enough gain? does everything work properly? I will have to try taking it to church in the morning to check everything more throughly. There still may be some chop-sticking to come. Next will be the troubleshooting and tweaking.
Well, I spent Sunday afternoon playing around with wiring and placement (mostly the VVR pot and NFB switch), I headed to Revelstoke on Monday. We continued to work on both the electronics and cabinet for three more solid days before finishing the job. Here is the end results.
It's a pretty versatile amp. I think now, that if I could only have one amp, it would be something like this, if not this exact model. 2xEL84 amps seem to be my taste. It does nice rich cleans to ripp-roaring Marshall Distortion. I'd easily trade in my handwired JCM 800 for this. This one is definitely a keeper--for Josh.

Those Pins are crooked

2008-12-09T18:37:00.000-08:00

I don't know what prompted me to pull the rectifier tube out of the box that I bought for Josh's 18 watt build (pics coming soon), but I took a look.
I was not pleased to see that the pins were not straight. This did not make me happy. The EZ81 is not a crazy-expensive tube, but who wants to blow $12 on a tube that can't be used? I tried to straighten a pin and it broke and fell right out. That hurt, until I realized that it was an unused pin (only about 5 pins on the rectifier tube is actually used), so it's not so bad. Now that I know not to touch the pins individually, I still wonder if the tube will be able to be coerced into its socket. I will seek online advice.
Update:
Well, I managed to coerce the tube into an unmounted socket and it seemed to straighten the pins enough to get in (without losing any!). I think we should be safe. I guess crooked pins are not supposed to be any big deal.

Channel 1 Volume issues

2008-11-21T11:24:00.000-08:00

***********Updated (see bottom)************
So, ever since I did my VVR installation on my DC30, I have had some issue with my channel 1 volume not working right. There is a severe lack of gain. I never really use that channel so I put off fixing it. I want to get everything set right now though.
I am supposed to do these additions to that channel after the VVR is installed:

This type installation will turn down all of the voltages in the amp as you adjust the power control on the board. This kind of implementation will require you to move the 1meg resistor on your guitar input jack and the installation of a cap between the input and the grid of the first tube. You also need to install another 1meg resistor and cap between the vol control and the grid of the tube it feeds. See the schematics below.
While you can play with the value of the caps a good rule of thumb is to start out with the same size caps that are feeding the signal from your phase inverter to the grids of the power tubes. This should not cause any change in tone compared to the original tone of the amp. Some people just use .1uf. The reason for the changes are because at low voltages the signal on the grids of the two preamp tubes leaks a little dc voltage onto the guitar pot and vol control when the signal hitting these grids drive them more positive than the bias voltage applied. In simple terms it removes the scratchiness from the guitar and amp vol controls.

Now, this is fine and dandy for a trainwreck schematic, but now we need to know if it should be different for my DC30 channel 1, because something is wrong as is. I did the red stuff to channel 1:
***********Update************
There didn't seem to be any problem with the circuit design after all. I replaced the shielded cables I was using with some new stuff that I got, and double-checked all solder connections involved. It seems to work very well now. Channel 1 does still have lower gain than the EF86 channel, but I think that is just the nature of the design. It will come out loud and clear now and you can turn it up. Both channels have very nice and uniquely different tones. I love this amp!

Current Progress of Shawn's Overdrive Special

2008-11-04T19:35:00.000-08:00

Finished!!!
Unfortunately, I did it again. I try to document a build but everytime, around the two-thirds mark, I get too excited to finish and stop taking pictures. Sorry everyone who might have wanted to watch the progress. I'll try again for Josh's amp.Filter caps wired up.
Relays are wired up

7) Once I figured that the pots were on to stay, I figured I would finish off the look of the front panel by putting the chicken-head knobs on. Oh ya, the pilot light is wired up now too.

6) I got the copper buss wire mounted to all the pots on the front panel. It took a while. I mounted some of the components on those pots and switches while they were still accessible.

5) I got a lot accomplished since the last picture. The Power Transformer is fully wired up. And most of the back wall of the chassis has been installed and wired up now too. Also, we have a couple more eyelet boards mounted on the other side wall of the chassis behind the power transformer.

4) Some components have been added to the tube sockets while they are easy to get at. Notice how this amp includes some bias test points and a bias pot that will be accessible from the outside of the amp(very nice and handy). Also notice that some components and an eyelet board are now installed on that end side wall of the chassis.

3) Ok, now we have the filament (tube heater) wires all twisted and connected up to the tube sockets. For me, it's one of the more annoying parts of amp building, so good thing it is one of the first steps. It sure is a lot easier wiring up the tube sockets before all the back panel is full and blocking the way.

2) The Next thing I did was to mount the transformers and the tube sockets, as well as a few other pieces that mount to the bottom of the chassis towards the back of the amp. The back of the amp is facing me in this picture.

1) Here is the Start of the project. A blank chassis.

Joe's Head Cab Choices

2008-10-18T10:12:00.000-07:00

So, here are some rough ideas for Joe to pick his choices. This is the general design of the Head cab:Sorry about my Microsoft Paint skills but the corners should look more like this:
What do you think of the tolex and piping design I came up with for the front? We have some of that Maroon coloured Vinyl that we haven't used yet, that's why I thought of it. You could choose different colors of Tolex but they would cost you more (Maybe an extra $20 -$40 or so).
If you want to choose your own tolex besides black or Maroon, check out this site: Tolex
Make sure that you notice that there is a 2nd page of choices and you can click on the individual pictures to see them closer.
So, the main Question right now is the selection of a type of knob. What do you think Joe?:

Tilt-Back Legs for DC30

2008-10-14T20:05:00.000-07:00

It seems like favoritism, but Thanksgiving rolled around again, and who should be chosen to receive a gift, but my DC30 Combo. It seems this first amp that I built gets all the upgrades; removable casters, doubled coupling caps, a Variable Voltage Regulator, and now some Tilt-Back Legs.I was always leaning this amp back on a box to keep it pointed up at me at the front of the stage. I had bought an amp stand, but I needed the amp to be in front of me pointed back and a stand was just too much in the way for that. It needed a low profile.
It seemed that the only Tilt-Back Legs that I could buy were made by Fender (with their name engraved on them), or a company called "Adam", that I didn't much like the look of. So, with a bit of help from the guys on Guitars Canada Forum (especially "Big White Tele"), I set out to make some legs this holiday weekend.
I stopped in Canadian Tire in Fernie on my Way to Revelstoke for Thanksgiving and picked up a 3' piece of aluminum for about $12. I hack-sawed it in half into 2 18" pieces and then ground the corners off with my Dad's Grinder.
I then used a palm sander to try and make the aluminum looked more brushed.
Then this morning I used steel wool and paint Thinner, and then chrome polish and a cloth, and then paper towel to get it all clean and shiny.
I stopped at Home Hardware in Cranbrook on my way home today and picked up some sort of special furniture bolts that work perfectly for this and some nuts and washers. Here's the inside:
Well, it's time to put the back back on the amp. Thanks everyone for your help! I am quite pleased.

Make into a Bass Amp?

2008-09-18T13:15:00.000-07:00

Update:
It turns out that no messing with the amp is necessary to make it appropriate for bass. It sounds great on it's own. It's my most powerful tube amp with the most headroom. However, it is the speaker cab that was the limiting factor. Fortunately, a week and a half ago on a trip to Long & McQuade in Calgary I found a used Ampeg 4x10 bass cab for an absolutely screaming deal (About 60-70% off!). It is nice and rugged and sounds amazing!
Originally, I was wondering how can we make the Basic channel of this Traynor YGL-3a head into something more voiced for Bass guitar?

VVR Installations

2008-09-08T11:57:00.000-07:00

It's probably been almost a month since I did the two VVR installations, but it's about time I talked about it.
First I did the installation in Shawn's 5e3 Tweed Deluxe that I built for him. It did take several hours because it was my first time and things are sort of tight. I reworked the grounding scheme and moved the Standby and Power switches into one 3-position switch.
Anyways, here is a picture of the finished product before putting the amp back in the cabinet:
The VVR is controlled by the black knob (I later put on a cream colored one to match the rest). Anyways, the blue mess of wires the connects to other components behind that black knob all are part of the VVR circuit. It's not quite as complicated as it may look. a main component is that square black transistor that is screwed down to the chassis to keep it from getting too hot.
Here's a closer look at the VVR:Anyways, the Tweed Deluxe was a prime candidate for VVR. The voltage for the entire amp is scaled down by the knob to bring multiple tone options at whichever volume you want. Before, he had to play it pretty loud to get that famous tweed distortion. So, this is now a truly versatile amp. Shawn is pleased.

I proceeded to go and install VVR in my DC30 the next day as well. I replaced the Master volume circuit and faceplate position to also scale the whole amp. I never used to use the Master Volume knob, because I didn't like the way it degraded the tone as I turned it down. The VVR now works much better and I use it all the time. Another success! Horay for VVR!

My Sisters Contribute to an Amp

2008-09-06T13:34:00.000-07:00

So, as I have mentioned before, I changed my Vibrochamp into a new sort of High Gain Offering. I ripped the guts out and made it into the Schematic called the Class Act. I made that during my holidays this summer. It is now paired up with a Celestion g12H speaker (12") and sounding great.
I also made a new faceplate out of wood for it. I stained and varnished a faceplate out of a piece of ash. There remained the problem of how to do lettering though. In the end, my sister Tamara came to the rescue and suggested embossing. My older sister, Melissa, had recently given her some new letter stamps for her scrap-booking and card making ventures. Tamara used these and with the special embossing powder and heat gun, she made the words. Here are some pics of the finished amp re-assembled with the new faceplate. The goal was to match the ash faceplate with the Purpleheart strip on the cainet that my dad made. It seems to have come out pretty close.
Hey, close enough for Rock & Roll (as they say).

VVR: The Greatest thing ever?

2008-07-05T21:46:00.001-07:00

I've come familiar with the Term "Variable Voltage Regulator" in recent months as the ideal way to scale back power/volume in Trainwreck styled amps. Keep the nice amount if interactions between parts of the amp and nice distortion at a lower volume. Sounds like a dream, and the guys at Amp Garage seem to love it.
Today I found out how it is done and it looks not too complicated to do in a Cathode Biased Amp. Here is the schematic fitted into an 18Watt.
Here's the basic layout that someone posted using a terminal strip:
Oh, and I don't know if the link will work for everyone, but here is a link to a clip of a modded Valve Junior Amp trying out different tubes and the fourth time of the riff is played with the VVR on full attenuation. Notice how quiet it is, but still great tone!

Webcor 6V6GT with EF86 and ECC83 pres & VVR

Shawn's Tweed Deluxe

2008-06-23T11:17:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of Shawn's cabinet that he built for his Tweed Deluxe. He says that he's a little embarrassed about some of the sloppiness, but I'd say that it has a nice look to it. It is a great size and weight for a combo cab. I'd say it has about the perfect amount of power for many applications at about 12 Watts. Anyways, it's made out of stained pine. It gives it a nice furniture look, while remaining quite light. It sounds great in that cabinet as well. Anyways, this is my recommendation of a good combo amp cab style. I'd tweak a few things. It has an actual blueprint too. I had found one and emailed it too him originally, and that is what he built it from.

Here are the cabinet plans in pdf format:

http://home.att.net/~scole90/photos/5e3_cabinet-SHEET_1.pdf

http://home.att.net/~scole90/photos/5e3_cabinet-SHEET_2.pdf

http://home.att.net/~scole90/photos/5e3_cabinet_SHEET_3.pdf

Schematic for my Champ to wreck mods

2008-06-04T16:55:00.001-07:00

Ima gonna convert my Champ clone into this:
Here's the Layout I made for it . I know it's sloppy but it should look alot better with real wiring instead of by mouse and cursor:

Choosing an Amp Part 1; The Revered Amp Builders: Dumble and Fischer

2008-05-28T09:26:00.000-07:00

This is part one of my guide to finding the perfect amp to suit you. It's a funny pace to start, but I will start with talking about the 2 highest revered names among amp makers. And, no I am not refering to Leo Fender and Jim Marshall (They will come in another post entitled: "Beginnings and Classics")
First, let's view a funny old clip of Mr. Dumble himself explaining why he thinks tube amps are better. He's on some really goofy guy's TV show, so it's hard to know how serious he is, but it is clear that tube amps are better in everyone's opinion:

Mr. Dumble is legendary for his amps and there are many clones of his "overdrive special". For example, here is clip of Ceriatone's Overtone Special:

They are supposed to be one of the most versatile amps. They are also one of the more expensive ones to try and build because of the amount of parts.

We can't have a discussion about famous amp makers without mentioning the late great Ken Fischer; the owner and designer of Trainwreck amps. He may be the most revered of all amplifier designers, and if you are lucky enough to even see one of his amps in real life, you will likely have to be willing to spend well over $10, 000 to acquire one. Of course, thanks to the internet, there are large groups of people on forums that work together from pictures and a few Trainwreck owners and personal friends of Ken, to help achieve the ultimate tone of his amps. It seems it honors his memory to try to replicate his tone, as long as it is not for personal profit. Before he died (in 2006), he helped the well known boutique amp-builder, Dr. Z build some "Z-wrecks" that were essentially Ken's design, built by Dr. Z. An example is Brad Paisley's Hattie-Mae which is essentially a Trainwreck Liverpool built by Dr. Z. Trainwrecks are known to ave their own style of wood-finished amp cabinet. Apparently Ken felt that his best sounding amp was his Rocket. The Rocket and the Liverpool are both EL84 powered amps that are based off of the Vox AC30 styled amp. The rocket is much closer to the AC30 than the Liverpool and is slightly a cleaner sounding amp than the AC30. The Liverpool's preamp is much the same as most of his amps and has much more crunch.
I should mention that the output of the Rocket is actually cathode biased and uses a rectifier tube, compared to the rest of his amps are fixed biased with a solid state rectifier. Don't worry, that does not at all mean that they are solid state amps. Click the Rocket Faceplate for a clip of possibly the only clip of a rocket on the internet at all:

The rocket is generally not common. But because it may be known as having the best sound in the world, I am considering joining a group build on a forum and building one. This is the faceplate someone from the forum made for the group build.
Here is the slightly gainier Liverpool:

Ken Fischer's most used design was his Trainwreck Express. This one is identical to the liverpool in regard to the preamp, but with the EL34 output tubes. This means that it is roughly about 50Watts in power in comparison to the roughly 30 watt liverpool and rocket. The express would have tighter bass than than a liverpool and rocket. El84 tubes can give a different sort of chime to them with still a lot of grind.
I better end for now with a clip of a Trainwreck Express:

How To Wreck a Champ

2008-05-13T21:17:00.000-07:00

Hello, Meet My Champ. I like the sound pretty much but you can see that it has no faceplate. The chassis is painted gold. Also, I have disconnected one of the input jacks to reduce a bit of hum. I think that there will be a bit of unavoidable hum due to the Single Ended nature of this amp. The Cabinet is beautiful and even holds a 12" Jensen P12N speaker right now. I also have had a Celestion G12H in it. It sounds good. However, I think I'd like to give it the option of a bit more gain and I am interested in the Trainwreck sound and style. I'm wondering if I could alter this to something a bit more that style.

Here is the current layout (pretty much)
Here's the preamp, I would like to fit into it and make work somehow if possible:
So, I worked on the new layout a bit today for what I am calling the Lil' Choo-Choo. You will notice that it is basically a combination of the two layouts above if you look carefully. I've had a bit of trouble figuring out about the areas connecting the preamp to the power section and specifically where those three loose wires are:

I know this is not about amp stuff; but I'm starving...

2008-04-03T09:15:00.001-07:00

No, not right now; but I will be next Friday, April 11-12 for 30 hours. I'm involved in it with the youth. So, this is organized by World Vision and most of you know that it is a great cause.Click on the 30 hour famine logo to contribute and feed a child and their family who really need it.

My Whammy

2008-03-20T13:55:00.001-07:00

This is my Whammy Pedal that I am thinking of selling. It's great for all sorts of Tom Morello style effects and tricks. But, apparently I'm not him and people groan when I try his stuff. So, maybe I will offload this in favour of a nice fuzz pedal.
This is the Nylon case that it comes with:Here is the top of the Whammy:
This is the right side:
This is the left side:
This is the bottom (note the high quality velcro included for attaching to a pedalboard):

I have pimped my Wah -Updated

2008-03-15T12:16:00.000-07:00

I'll give more details later, when I get home and actually try it, but here is a pic of the inside:A few of the mods are:
The switch on the far left changes it from guitar to bass guitar wah. *Seems to work alright. Don't really like the bass wah sound much yet. I'll try calibrating the pot differently.
The next switch hopefully changes it to a volume pedal. *Does not Work. I removed this switch.
The external knob/pot controls the Q (vocal sound). *Not a huge Change at first but I have since fixed the wiring to the pot and it works great.
The blue trimpot on the PCB controls the volume level going out. *Successful
The red round thing in the middle is a Fasel Inductor for a more vintage voice. *Successful
The main wah pot (blue) is a Life Pot. *Successful
The switch is now a DPDT for true Bypass. *Successful

*Updates in Red

Footswitch for the Leslie Motor -Updated

2008-03-14T22:01:00.000-07:00

So, for now I have decided to bypass the amp on the Leslie Cabinet and treat it as another speaker cab for my guitar amps.
The Motor to spin the Leslie needed away to turn on and off, so I have now successfully finished making a footswitch to do so. I used the old SPDT switch from my Dunlop Cry-Baby (it now has a DPDT for True Bypass). I also needed to get a 0.01uF capacitor and a fuse holder and I put it all in an electrical box.So, now I will likely change out the Jensen P12N Speaker for my WGS British Classic Lead Speaker that can handle 80 Watts RMS and have it connected by speaker cable to a 1/4" phone plug that I can use to plug into any guitar amp. I'm not sure how much the old Jensen speaker can actually handle, so that switch will make this Leslie more versatile as a speaker cab. I'll try it when I get back to my home town.

I had a chance to finish getting this hooked up and it sounds amazing. It is way cooler than any Chorus or Tremolo pedal that you will ever try. Not the most portable thing in the world for one type of effect, but still worth it to use whenever possible.

Big Brown Box

2008-03-13T22:30:00.001-07:00

Here's my new box that I got for free today from a church that was trying to get rid of it. I rescued it from being sent to the dump. It is the Leslie Model 25 "Orpheus". It is made in 1971 I think.

Anyways, here is the back opened up. I don't have a Hammond organ, but I hope that I can try using it with guitar. We shall see:
It comes with a little tube amp in the bottom.I need to see what I can do to adapt this 6 pin input.

The Magical Black Box

2008-02-05T15:09:00.000-08:00

So, I finally got my new toy in the mail yesterday. It is a new Weber Mini Mass. The people at Weber are famous for their guitar speakers. Apparently they make some nice speakers at a cheaper price than Jensen or Celestion. But, they also sell other things like amp kits and attenuators. And that's exactly what my Mini Mass is; an Attenuator.Basically, it makes it so that I can run my amp pretty loud, while keeping the sound coming out of my speaker, not so loud. Ok, so you might think that this is the most pointless invention ever. You must think I am crazy and stupid to buy an item that costs $100 plus another $50 in shipping, handling, customs fees and taxes. Well, let me tell you, this is probably the most valuable accessory I have bought for my guitar and amp(s). See, when you play through tube amps, the louder you play them, they better they sound. This isn't just because I like to rock hard (which I do); it's because the tubes sound better, the harder you push them. You may say, "well, why don't you use the Master Volume knob and turn that down and turn up the gain". This is because the Master Volume turns down the Output Tubes, and the output tubes are the ones that sound the best when they are really pushed. So basically, I just have to play really loud. Even my 7 Watt Champ is much too loud when turned up. This is why there is such a thing as Power Scaling, and people may spend about 800 dollars to buy a power scaling unit to install in their amp. An attenuator is a cheaper solution, but most cost about $300. The Mini Mass, is a cheaper alternative. It simulates a real speaker load on the amp, while only allowing as much power to go through to the speaker as you want. Now I can get good tone, without deafening everyone. I'll try it tonight on my DC30. I found that a 50 Watt Mini Mass isn't quite enough to attenuate my (supposedly) 50 Watt JCM800 very much. But it does help.

Footswitches for YGL-3a (Mark 3 head)

2008-01-17T09:45:00.000-08:00

Well, I have finally found my place on the internet. It seems that there is a lack of explanation online for what sort of footswitch will work for a Traynor YGL-3 amplifier. So, it is my duty to make my life useful, and share my experiences.

I bought one of these Apex two-button switches with a stereo phone jack output. It came with a stereo patch chord as well that I use if I want extra length.I then bought one of these cables that splits the stereo input into two mono plugs:I then plugged in the red mono plug to the reverb footswtch jack on the amp and the yellow into the tremelo jack. This makes the left (1) switch do the reverb and the right (2) switch do the tremelo.So, while this works, I do notice that using this footswitch does introduce a mild "buzz" while the reverb switch is engaged (even if you switch the yellow and red choices). It's not bad, but it's enough to make me rather use the reverb manually without a footswitch.
I do have a single latching footswitch by apex as well, that I don't really like the plastic button on. I tried it today and found that it does not introduce any buzz when used for the reverb. So, there you have it. Your experiences with different latching footswitches may vary, so try different ones out. Basically any latching footswitch should work. Try one from Long & McQuade and return it if it doesn't satisfy.

The Crappiest Amp in the World

2008-01-12T12:03:00.000-08:00

I need to post these pictures in order to link to them on an other site to help get it fixed- hopefully. It's Joe's and I did not build it. It contains the "T" word, rather than real tubes.

Working in the amps during the afternoon off

2008-01-06T20:40:00.000-08:00

Here's an email I just sent to my parents that asked about how the new cabinets are working out:
I didn't get a chance to put them all to good use until this afternoon. The all work really great. I was very impressed. I was a bit worried about the closed back cabinet at first (that it wouldn't give me bass power that I hoped for) butit really impressed me this afternoon. It works great with my Traynor amp especially. Makes that amp sound so much better. (I think there was something wrong with the speaker (15") in the cabinet I used to use with it.
I used the 1x12 cab with the JCM head. I use the ABY pedal to connect the guitar to both the matchless DC30 and the JCM800. The matchless provides really great clean sounds and I use that primarly, and then click the "both switch" to add the JCM800. They sound really great and full together. The matchless adds real clarity and definition to the mix even when playing with the JCM's great distortion.
I'm extremely happy with the sound. I basically spent the whole afternoon off at the church, playing songs through them with Joe. (from 2pm-7pm) Joe played bass through the Traynor with the 2x12 closed back cab.

I didn't play the champ today. I will probably play a bit with it tomorrow. It is still my most portable amp (and most versatile as far as playing in quieter settings).

Completed Amps and the New Rig

2008-01-03T17:29:00.000-08:00

So, I've been back in Elkford for several days now after bringing back the new completed amps in their cabinets with Anh. So, here is a picture of the JCM800 amp head completed. Here's a picture of the BF Vibro Champ in it's new cabinet with a Celestion G12H Speaker:
Here's all of the newest cabinets together at my parents' house before we left Revelstoke with them:

And, here's the latest pic of my rig:

Everything is Ready to be brought together

2007-12-22T13:43:00.000-08:00

I finished biasing my tubes for my JCM yesterday. Once we got it figured it out, it wasn't bad. I could do it again now without much trouble.
The cabinet for my Vibro Champ is done now as well. JUst finished a few mins ago and received the pics from Revelstoke. Here they are:

Day of the JCM800

2007-12-20T20:33:00.000-08:00

Well, would you believe that I built a JCM800 in only 2 days? Well, it seems to be true. I can't believe how efficient I have become at amp building. Anyways, I finished the amp, before I had to go out tonight. I haven't tried it yet because I still need to bias the output tubes. Hopefully I can figure it out. It's the moment I feared ever since I started building amps. Fortunately, all the amps I have built up till now have been cathode biased tubes. So, basically there are tubes biasing the tubes. Now I have to do it.
Well, it turns out that I am right on time with this amp because my dad finished the cabinet for it today as well. Isn't it a beauty!!

Productivity!

2007-12-19T20:44:00.000-08:00

Well, I brought Shawn's Tweed Deluxe to Church today for him to pick up. He seemed to really love playing it. I think he is happy.

I also put in a good deal of work on my JCM800 this afternoon and evening. I'd say that I'm over half finished now. That means I did about half of this amp in one day. I'm getting pretty efficient.

Also, my Dad has completed another cabinet. We refer to it as Project D, and it is a 1x12 extension speaker cabinet that will house probably my Eminence Governor Speaker. Here are the pics:

Some Projects Completed Today.

2007-12-18T20:44:00.000-08:00

With the parts I picked up yesterday in Calgary, I was able to finish Shawn's 5E3 Tweed Deluxe Amp today. I also got the input jack think worked out; I had guessed correctly the other day. The "switch" connector marked blue on the layout is the connector opposite the Hot Connector on the Cliff jack that disconnects from the "hot" when the plug is inserted. Anyways, Shawn will pick up his amp tomorrow morning. It sounds good to me. I just finished making speaker cable with a switchcraft plug, that I will solder to his speaker tomorrow when he brings it.

Also, my dad has finished the first of the 4 cabinets he is currently building. This is the closed back 2x12 speaker cabinet (or what we referred to as "Project A"). So, he has kicked it out of the shop. Here are pics of it:
As you can see (maybe), it holds a 12" Eminence Private Jack and a 12" Warehouse Guitar Speaker Veteran 30. This would be equivalent to the classic combination of a Greenback and a Vintage 30.Oh, we hit a deer on the way home from Calgary yesterday. The car got wrecked but the Lyalls and I survived.

Final setbacks for the Ivany Fire Deluxe

2007-12-14T12:47:00.001-08:00

So, I am just about complete Shawn's Tweed Deluxe. All the church staff and elders are going to his house tonight and I wish that I could present it to him. However there are just a couple minor things left.
1) Get a new resister to replace the one that broke.
2) Get 2 little capacitors that I either lost, or were not included
3) Figure out how to wire up the input jacks.
You see, the layout seems pretty straight forward using a certain type of switching input jack. See:The problem is that these are the kind of switching jacks that I have:
I need a diagram like this instead, or at least have someone explain to me what is going on inside the 3 pronged switching jacks that are on the first diagram:

I need to know if my color coding on this jack coordinates correctly with the first diagram:

Insides painted and most of hardware installed

2007-12-12T21:14:00.000-08:00

I got these pictures this evening form my dad, who took a slower day today, but there is lots of progress in the way it looks. All the cabs have been painted on the inside now, feet, corners, and handles installed, as well as most of the back pieces are now tolexed.
All that's left:
Fronts of amps (valence, baffle, finishing)
the back for the JCm800 head
the jacks to be installed on the 2 speaker cabinets

Smalltown Disadvantages

2007-12-12T16:33:00.000-08:00

Today I had an opportunity to work on Shawn's Tweed Deluxe a bit. Unfortunately, one of my greater frustrations occurred. I broke the wire part off of a 2 Watt 1.5k resister. Despite the part only being worth about 50 cents (but you can only buy multiples of 5), there is no where where I will be able to find the part to replace it anywhere around here. It means I will have to either order online (a 2-3 week wait) or drive several hours to some big city and try to find some store that sells this stuff. Of course, my next chance to escape town only happens every couple weeks or so. So, even if I work on Shawn's amp and get it almost finished, it can't be completed till I get the parts...disappointing.
Oh well.
Today my dad also put the hardware on the cabinets. There should be a more recent photo soon, but this is one of the cabs with the perimeter tolex fully installed:

Have Your Say

2007-12-11T16:41:00.001-08:00

That's right folks. If anyone comes to read here, it means that you are interested enough to have an opinion on what these amps look like. Well, I am looking for feedback on what looks good for the color scheme of the cabinet for my JCM800. We have Maroon, Black, and White Marine Vinyl, as well as some bits of Purple heart wood left. I have mocked up some approximations of some possible combinations for this amp cab in a simple paint program. Cast your vote for your favorite.
Here are the pics:
#1 - Black over white with Maroon piping#2 Black over Maroon with White Piping#3 Maroon over White with Black Piping#4 White over Black with Maroon Piping#5 White over Maroon with Black Piping#6 Black with White Piping and Purple Heart Wood over the faceplate#7 Vertical Strips of Purple Heart#8 White over Black with Vertical Purple Heart Strips
#9 Black over White with Purple Heart Strip
#10 Purple Heart Strip on Black with White Piping#11 Same as 10 but with a thinner strip of Purple HeartOk, I think you get idea. There are more combinations but I don't want to post any more and you probably don't want to see any more. If you don't see what you think would be cool, just describe it. Tell Me which of the pictures makes the amp look best to you....and go!

Marine Vinyl around the perimeters

2007-12-05T20:07:00.000-08:00

So, that's the update. The 4 cabinets are currently being tolexed. Here is the progress:This is what my Dad's been up to. I haven't had time to work on amps lately. Hopefully a bit this week. I've been trying to figure out what to do about my wah pedal though. Should I get my basic cry-baby fixed and modded, or start with something else. If so, should it be a 535Q Cry-baby, or should I go for the gold with the Fulltone Clyde McCoy Deluxe; that one sounds perfect. We'll see... decisions. Maybe I can mod my crybaby myself. It's supposed to be easy, but how much of a hassle is it to find all the parts I need?

Updates and pictures

2007-12-02T20:52:00.000-08:00

First of all, I will post some pictures of my Dunlop Cry-Baby:It is currently not working at all, but it also needs some mods once it is fixed, in order to get better sound. Honestly, I posted these pics because I needed them online in order to put a link to them from a guitar forum where I am asking about it.
Anyways, I am currently in the progress of assembling Shawn's 5E3 Tweed Deluxe. It should hopefully be finishable within a week. Then I can move on to my JCM800. My champ is already finished.
My father is currently working on 4 projects; codenamed A, B, C, and D. Here is a picture of Projects C and D:Here is a picture of all four projects:On the left is Project D: a 1x12 speaker cabinet designed for portability. It will house an Eminence Governor 12 inch speaker. I have this in mind to use with the JCM800 in travel situations.
Second from the Left is Project C: a combo cabinet that will house the champ with 1x12" speaker (a Celestion G12H30).
Second from the Right is Project B: This is a head cabinet for the JCM800 2204 amp.
The far right is Project A: a 2x12" speaker cabinet for use primarily with the JCM800. It will House an Eminence Private Jack and a Veteran 30 from Warehouse guitar speakers. It was originally going to house 2 eminence speakers but the Governor that I bought on Ebay turned out to be 16 ohms (while advertised as 8 ohms). Therefore, it has to be on it's own (project D) and I am putting the Veteran 30 in its place. It's OK, both are covering the Vintage 30 style sound anyways. The only complaint should be that the backs of both speakers won't be red when you open up the closed back.
Well, that's all of this progress report. Expect more soon. Sorry that I don't have my camera here to document my electronics progress. Let's just pretend it's classified for now.

The conductive properties of paint

2007-11-23T07:28:00.000-08:00

I think I may have to go in and scrape paint off the chassis by the star ground and around the tube sockets. I hadn't done this. I assumed the powder coated finish would conduct electricity. Perhaps not. I want to eliminate some hum.

The Champ is Finished!!

2007-11-20T15:16:00.000-08:00

So, I'm sorry that I haven't been taking pictures as I build but Anh has my camera over in Toronto, and I rarely see Ryan so I can't get him to take pictures either. But, anyways, I am now finished the Vibro Champ. It sounds pretty good too. I would say it is the perfect amp for playing in a smallish sized church. It just has one 6V6 power tube giving it approximately 7 watts of power (I think- no has ever told me how much these things produce). Anyways, it's finally an amp that I can actually turn the volume up past "1" with. I could probably even get it up to half volume in a sunday service (well, maybe not quite). And for a Saturday night jam session at the church I could likely crank it and it would be the perfect volume. What I love about this amp too is the black face circuitry that actually gives it some nice distortion starting around 2/3 of the way up the volume knob. I don't know why Fender got so afraid of distortion and eliminated it from their amps during the 70s. I'd say after the Black Faced Champ, Fender amps went down hill. Kinda like some people say for Marshall; after the JCM 800 it was all down hill.
Well, that's why I built a BF Champ and will be building a JCM 800 2204.
Anyways, in other news, I'm waiting for the proper Power Transformer for Shawn's Tweed Deluxe. It's in LA right now and should be here within the week. There was a bit of a mix-up and instead of the proper PT I was sent an Output Transformer for a DC30. (I think they must be very similar in size and shape). Anyways, I was told I couldkeep the extra Output Transformer and I was promptly shipped the correct transformer for free. What a deal?!?! Does anybody need an output transformer for their 30 Watt Matchless amp? Tell you what... only 50 bucks. Maybe I will keep it as a spare for my DC30. I sure hope I don't blow a transformer...I don't expect that would happen.
Anyways, soon I will start Shawn's amp, when the transformer arrives. If I get anxious to build before then and actually have any time, I will start on the JCM 800.
Anyways, I sure could use a cab built for this Champ. Dad, that would be project C. I guess we should finalize some dimensions.

Yeomans Instruments Steps Up Production

2007-11-02T07:03:00.000-07:00

First of all, a correction needs to be made; The front valence is actually Purpleheart and not rosewood. My dad figured this out about a week or two ago. So, let it be known that the Classic Custom Yeomans Instruments Amplifiers feature Black Marine Vinyl and a lightly stained Purpleheart valence for their cabinets. Just so you remember, this is the DC30 that we built. I've decided to call it the "Queen Anh". I named it after my girlfriend. Part of her name actually means "Empress". Everyone knows that amps should be named after girls. As well, Brian May (from Queen) apparently always used AC30's as his amp of choice. I see the Matchless DC30 as just a real fancy version of the Vox AC30.

Now, on to the news. (My apartment building burning down is not real news compared to this):

My latest shipment of supplies has arrived, and I will be assembling 3 new amps:

The Ivany Fire Deluxe -> Fender 5E3 Tweed Deluxe - I am assembling this amp for Shawn on my worship team. He is paying for the supplies that I ordered (he selected) and I will put it together. He will build his own cabinet for it. I will leave the naming up to him because it will be his amp, but for now I will refer to it as "The Ivany Fire Deluxe". The first part is from his name, and the fire is because Shawn is the Fire Chief in town that saved all my stuff from getting burned when our building caught fire- a true hero (I could have lost my soldering iron and more!) Anyways, I should mention again that I will build an amp for free for any friends who are willing to pay for their own parts (and build their own cabinet). If you want my dad to build you a cab, that may cost something; he's pretty busy being retired.

Carroll -> Fender Vibro Champ - My next assembly will be this Vibro Champ combo amp. My dad will build the cab in our usual style (most likely). Obviously, these pictures are just to give a general idea of the shape of the amps. I've wanted an amp with very low wattage, so I believe this is the lowest I could find to order from Nik. He gave me a super deal on it when I ordered the next amp on the list. But, let's not get ahead of ourselves; I named this amp as a tribute to the Telecaster-Master, Nathan Carroll, who recently released his debut country album entitled, The Tye-In to Dyin'. I'm not sure exactly if a champ is really his style. I know he has a beautiful sounding little Bad Cat, but I figure my favourate country star needs a Fender-style amp named after him.

Morella -> Marshall JCM800 2204 HW - This amp is the one that I have always wanted, since I started playing electric guitar. I can't deny it or fight it, so now I'm going to build it. I am naming it as a tribute to another of my guitar great favourates, Tom Morello, from Rage Against the Machine. It's the amp he uses and I can't deny how inspiring his innovation on electric guitar is. Rage is not my favourate band, but it is definately Morello's best stuff. (I guess that I have to admit that all my pedals are directly inspired by Morello's own pedal board.) I'm leaving this amp build to last because it will be the biggest job out of the three for me, and it's output tubes will be fixed biased, which will be new for me to figure out how to do.

My dad will be working on a cabinets for my champ (combo with 1 12 inch Celestion G12H) and a head cabinet for the JCM800. This will be in addition to a couple of speaker cabinets (a 1x12" and a 2x12"). Stay tuned.

DC30 Completed

2007-10-15T12:26:00.000-07:00

Well, this is the post that we have all been waiting for. My father (Bryant) came to town on Thursday evening with the cabinet ready for final assembly with all my components.
I must say, The cabinet looked very nice when I first saw it, and I was excited to finish assembling it. So, the first thing that we did was work on mounting the amp chassis into the cabinet. We spent a good couple of hours doing this (tonnes of measurements over and over to make sure we had it exactly centered and flush against the Rosewood valence on the front. We then went out for Chinese food at Marlin's. Ryan came along too and Bryant payed. Thanks Dad!!
The next morning (Friday) we got up early and started work right away. My Dad ate some cereal (used up the rest of the milk) and tried to operate without coffee. I didn't have a coffee maker at the time (Dad has remedied this since with a real nice stainless-steel Cuisinart), so I took him to the Day-break cafe for coffee. After that, we came back and got back to work. I think we had secured the wire mesh to the front of the speaker baffle before coffee (to provide protection for the speaker cones). Then after coffee we wrapped the speaker cloth around the speaker baffle and stapled it securely as well. This last picture is of Dad stapling the Piping around the perimeter of the speaker baffle.
By this time, most of the more time consuming work was already done. Next we put mounted the speaker baffle into the front of the cabinet and screwed it into the braces from the inside. ere is a picture of the baffle mounted. Oh, I forgot to mention that we had drilled the holes and installed the T-nuts for the speaker bolts before putting the mesh and speaker cloth on. (We actually did that before coffee, so the mesh was probably after coffee time.)
Next, we screwed the speakers in; one 12 inch Celestion Alnico Blue speaker and one 12 inch Celestion G12H30 speaker. Ooooooh! Fancy speakers! This was a pretty quick step. However, he had to wait until I soldered together the right angle 1/4 inch phone jacks to the speakers first. I perhaps should have bought Switchcraft plugs to ensure better quality but after some struggling, I go them together so we could mount the speakers. I decided to do a separate plug for each speaker so that I could choose to go through only one speaker if I ever wanted. Also, when they are each plugged to their own jack on the amp, this makes them wired in parallel anyways (which was what I wanted). OK, almost done!
Well, then we screwed the back pieces of the cab back on and her it is finished! Looks very smooth.
Then, I got out the printed layout for the amp electronics and wrote "amp assembled by..." and "cabinet built by..." on the back of the paper and we each signed it. Then I folded it and put it in a ziplock baggy along with a 3 amp fuse I bought when we went for coffee. I taped the baggy up in the side cabinet wall beside the amp.
Then, We flipped it around and marveled at the finished product. The next thing was to turn it on and play it. Sounded good, but I needed to take it out of the apartment to the church to play it at proper volume. So, we loaded it up and took it up the street. Man! this thing is definitely not a light-weight! I was very very impressed with the beautiful tones, of this amp through these speakers (properly mounted in this cabinet). It has a very full sound and some sweet chimeyness out of that Blue. The open back nicely allows the sound to fill the area all around the amp on stage. But actually having the speakers partially enclosed within the cabinet gave it some nice depth. I am very very pleased. It is very loud. The challenge will be finding ways to use the amp without blowing everyone away and overpowering other musicians and singers. The cleans are beautiful, but I really don't like using the master volume, so perhaps I need to think about an attenuator or something for more saturation without deafening everyone.

The front Valence

2007-10-08T17:21:00.000-07:00

Bryant has been working on the front Rosewood piece that surrounds the amp faceplate. It was stained and a couple coats of varnish have been applied per day, with a bit of High-grit sanding and vacuuming. Perhaps the cabinet will be finished and ready for transport/delivery by sometime tomorrow.

Tolex complete!

2007-10-01T20:18:00.000-07:00

This is a monumental day - the tolex is done! After a polish it is looking GOOOOOD! The back pieces have been screwed in place. The next step will be to add hardware and feet. Work can now begin on the rosewood front valence.

Emails from Bryant: Sept 27

2007-09-28T11:16:00.000-07:00

I was only able to do the top front edge of the cabinet today. It took me 5 hours to do it. It was only two inside corners. It Takes a long time and a lot of patience. It can`t be rushed. I think it turned out O.K. We didn`t use the flash this time so it looks more like real life.Tomorrow I will start putting tolex on the two back pieces. They have eight inside corners. I have been trying to come up with a nice leather corner. The only way to do this is to soak them in warm water and then shape them around the corner. I`m not sure I like the looks of the corner though. The black metal looks very neat and tidy, which is the look I think we should go for. Tomorrow I will try dyeing the leather one I made.