First amp build...yeah.....

[TNblueshawk]

Well, while Josh and Brian are trying to straighten me out on my Aquaboy build  , poor guys.....

I finished this little 5F1 up I got at Triode. The BYOC Champ amp kit is what got me moving in this direction but I went with Triode as I wanted my own chassis to punch etc...

Now I need to build an enclosure around it to match the cab. The amp is a tad on the dark side right now which I don't mind. I would rather add brightness for my tastes. Need some playing time, speaker break in, try another preamp tube maybe and if needed make two cap changes to brighten it up a smidge. Or not. A TS might take care of that for me in and of itself.

[alanp]

Looks like you had fun with that! You'll get better at heater wiring as you do it more -- I still want to redo the wiring on my 5E3, I just can't be bothered.

You're in the right place to post an amp and then follow up with "... a TS might take care of that"! How are you liking the character of the amp itself? Most people I've met who've played them like them, apart from shred and heavy metal dudes who really don't want sag.

[sgmezei]

Nice build dude! Looks super clean. How is it sounding?

You are hooked on amp building now. It costs 10x as much as a pedal......


Looks sweet!

[TNblueshawk]

Thanks dudes. Hey Alan I'm all ears brother. How would you have wired up the heater wires differently? I won't take offense. I'm all about learning and then learning to do it better for the next time.

Sound wise, there  was a ton of info at BYOC on mods and ways to brighten it up etc... I decided being my first I simply would not complicate matters and build to stock, more or less. So, I like the sound. I like the non ear piercing highs if you will. You know when you play down the neck, man sometimes your ears will bust on you and I simply prefer a little darker amp anyway for my blues hacking. Having said that in a perfect world I would like just a tad more presence or treble. Not much really. I could have added a swith to get this and have both sounds but did not. I may add a cap across the volume pot to see if I can up it just a bit.

I also have this notion that if you change the amp too much, are you not changing the character and then it no longer becomes a Champ? Sort of struggled with that. If you change it too much...well...just build a different amp right    Not real important really, but just thoughts I had about it. Can't wait to run some pedals in front of it and see what jives with it. Only had a few minutes with it and then it was light out.....Lady Blueshawk informed me 

You are right, ten times more expensive is probably about right. I can see myself building one per year, maybe two for the short term. I have this idea of 5 head and 5 speaker cabs and then having all kinds of fun. Who knows.

[nzCdog]

Great build TN!  You beat me to it on the tube amps... hoping to buy a kit later this year!
Good work, looks tidy

[DutchMF]

Love the look of that man, must have been loads of fun building. And if you put it in an enclosure that looks as good as the cab, it's much to pretty for the stage or rehearsal. My wife would probably let me keep it in the living room..........

You are hooked on amp building now. It costs 10x as much as a pedal.......

LOL, must stop reading stuff like this, to expensive!

Paul

[stecykmi]

Thanks dudes. Hey Alan I'm all ears brother. How would you have wired up the heater wires differently? I won't take offense. I'm all about learning and then learning to do it better for the next time.

good work, amp building is a whole new ball of wax. There are so many more considerations compared to pedal building.

most people recommend laying down the heater wires first (so all other wiring is stacked on top of it), and always tightly twisting the pair. Since the heater wires aren't rectified (they're usually at 6VAC), the idea is they can add more noise to the amp through electromagnetic interference. The easiest way to prevent excess noise is to twist the pair so the fields cancel each other. I see you used cloth-covered wire which may be harder to twist. I've had good luck with teflon wire (although it's a bitch to strip, get good wires strippers) and recommend it if you try another build sometime.

check out some other DIY amp builds and scope out how they did their wiring.


edit: 400'th post!

[TNblueshawk]

I'll make a note of that next time. I knew those wires could cause a problem and in particular high gain amps, but I had not read to lay them down on the enclosure kind of thing. Easy enough to do. This amp is quiet as a church mouse. I got lucky being it is only a 6watter I'm sure.

I loved that cloth wire though. Just push back and solder. The heater wires were 18g I think and due to the thickness stayed together real well when twisted. I had read where others hated stripping the teflon so I didn't get it this time. Maybe next time to see what I think.

Thanks again guys.

[jubal81]

Congrats on the first build. It sure doesn't look like something from a first-timer.

That cab looks really classy, too. Any plans to make a matching head cab?

[TNblueshawk]

Congrats on the first build. It sure doesn't look like something from a first-timer.

That cab looks really classy, too. Any plans to make a matching head cab?

Thanks. Yep, have a good strip of purple heart wood left to match that cab I built. Thinking about leaving the front and back open, routing some channels in the top half and having some plexiglass cut to size and just pop it in there. But, the down sides is when I need to gain access to the amp, I'd have pop out the back piece. Not sure I like that idea.

Still need to come up with something though.