#16
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Last night's work. Rectifier socket is wired in now.
The filter caps are glued to the board with a thin bead of silicone adhesive. This protects them against vibration cracking a solder joint over time. I'll wire up this board later today when I dig in again. Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk
__________________
"You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great." -Zig Ziglar Acoustics 2013 Guild F30 Standard 2012 Yamaha LL16 2007 Seagull S12 1991 Yairi DY 50 Electrics Epiphone Les Paul Standard Fender Am. Standard Telecaster Gibson ES-335 Gibson Firebird |
#17
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Looks like nice, clean build, clint!
Bob
__________________
"It is said, 'Go not to the elves for counsel for they will say both no and yes.' " Frodo Baggins to Gildor Inglorion, The Fellowship of the Ring THE MUSICIAN'S ROOM (my website) |
#18
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What, no circuit boards and chips?
Looking good, Clint. |
#19
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Thank you.
I wired the input jacks this morning. I use the chassis to hold the jacks still, so I can work freely. The method I use uses the leads of the 1M resistors to connect everything here. Learned that one during my tweed Deluxe build. Just have to make sure the resistor will be clear of the cable when inserted. I also built a ground bus for the preamp section of the board this morning. It's a more modern system than the old school brass plate Fender used, and is far easier to install. Soldering to the plate or even the chassis takes a really powerful iron. The part that will pass under the jacks has a piece of heat shrink insulation, just in case. Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk
__________________
"You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great." -Zig Ziglar Acoustics 2013 Guild F30 Standard 2012 Yamaha LL16 2007 Seagull S12 1991 Yairi DY 50 Electrics Epiphone Les Paul Standard Fender Am. Standard Telecaster Gibson ES-335 Gibson Firebird |
#20
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Takes me back to high school when my friend and I built a 40 watt stereo amp from scratch...without a kit, just some schematics and enthusiasm. It worked but sounded awful. My father owned little electronics company, and I grew up with the smell of solder. But its been many decades since I tried actually building/assembling something electronic.
I suppose you other baby boomers recall Heathkit? So maybe the old ways are better? Tell me that this kit will save substantial $$, because it seems a lot of work. |
#21
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The closest commercial offering is the Fender 57 Custom Twin-Amp. 40W, hand built, and a street price of $2999. An original Bassman of this era will set you back $7k easily, depending on condition. The Mojotone kit is at the high end of kit price ranges, and will set you back around $1100 or so with shipping. There's cheaper kits out there, though. My time and labor don't cost me anything out of pocket, either.
On a cost comparison against the reissue PCB amps, the kits fare poorly. That's an apples to oranges comparison, though since there's a lot of skilled labor in a hand built amp. However, the kit will be easily serviceable and should last for decades with proper care. Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk
__________________
"You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great." -Zig Ziglar Acoustics 2013 Guild F30 Standard 2012 Yamaha LL16 2007 Seagull S12 1991 Yairi DY 50 Electrics Epiphone Les Paul Standard Fender Am. Standard Telecaster Gibson ES-335 Gibson Firebird |
#22
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My father built our entire HiFi system from KnightKit and HeathKit kits, as well as a Ham receiver. I experimented with his Heath mono reel-to-reel and ended up so smitten with recording that I eventually made it my career. One of the first Christmas gifts I recall is a Knight electronic experiment station that allowed me to breadboard together probably fifty different devices such as radios. When it came time for me to have my first guitar amp we modified his little 30 watt Knight HiFi amp.
So yes, I remember kits. Quote:
Are they worth it financially? I commissioned a hand-built 5E3 Tweed Deluxe repro with meticulous component selection and a high-quality cabinet and repro speaker that priced out at just a little more that half the cost of the modern Fender PCB repro. To jump on the vintage 5E3 Deluxe acquisition merry-go-round would have involved an entry price at least three times my investment and would have put me in possession of what might easily have been a fragile or marginally operational amp or a museum piece that couldn't be gigged for fear of damage. At the very least you'd have to remove and store the vintage speaker to protect the amp's value and the worst you could expect to replace every capacitor to bring it back to health. So, anyway, I'm wanting to dive into the kit market myself. I know I will have to start at the bottom with something like a Tweed Champ or something similar to get my trouble shooting skills back up to snuff. Bob
__________________
"It is said, 'Go not to the elves for counsel for they will say both no and yes.' " Frodo Baggins to Gildor Inglorion, The Fellowship of the Ring THE MUSICIAN'S ROOM (my website) |
#23
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KnightKit, another name from the past. The idea of hand-wiring a 'new' vintage amp is a new one to me...seems like a lot of fun... As I recall the quality of the old amplifiers was directly related to the mass of the transformers; and it looks like this kit has pretty heavy ones. Also, you could stand a chance of understanding the electronic circuits with this old school design. I'm unable to decipher the simplest circuit board.
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#24
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clint: very cool build!!
i'd love to build a princeton reverb clone since i can't afford a real one. i have been impressed with the 68 custom deluxe reverb that my friend has tho. the thing with clones is to love them and play thru them. resale is never the thought as it is your love that went into it, and, you probably can't get back what you put in. with the modern cap cans, caps, resistors, and trannys, you can build something that will basically last forever. good luck with this build. enjoy it. play music!
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2014 Martin 00015M 2009 Martin 0015M 2008 Martin HD28 2007 Martin 000-18GE 2006 Taylor 712 2006 Fender Parlor GDP100 1978 Fender F65 1968 Gibson B25-12N Various Electrics |
#25
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Still moving along. Finished the bias circuit, including the trimpot for adjustments. Installed the filter cap board and main board into the chassis today, and wired up the jacks and controls.
Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk
__________________
"You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great." -Zig Ziglar Acoustics 2013 Guild F30 Standard 2012 Yamaha LL16 2007 Seagull S12 1991 Yairi DY 50 Electrics Epiphone Les Paul Standard Fender Am. Standard Telecaster Gibson ES-335 Gibson Firebird |
#26
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Well, my real job steps in today. I'll pick this back up next week. I had another repair come in too, so that'll bump this off the bench til that's done.
Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk
__________________
"You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great." -Zig Ziglar Acoustics 2013 Guild F30 Standard 2012 Yamaha LL16 2007 Seagull S12 1991 Yairi DY 50 Electrics Epiphone Les Paul Standard Fender Am. Standard Telecaster Gibson ES-335 Gibson Firebird |
#27
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Looking good, Clint. Is all the wire cloth insulated? Is this how the kit comes? Or are you just doing this for originality?
__________________
Maton CE60D Ibanez Blazer Washburn Taurus T25NMK |
#28
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The kit comes with several feet each of yellow and green wire. Green is 18ga for heaters, yellow is 22ga for everything else. I'm going for a pure vintage sound and look in this amp, so traditional colors it is.
For my other amp work, I've got several colors of wire, all with the push back cloth. It's my favorite because of how easy to use it is. Here's the other big project on my bench, a customer's tweed Deluxe kit that he bought pre-assembled, but very poorly built. I did a complete gut and rewire on this one, and am working on getting it dialed in before it goes back home. Multicolor is much easier to follow. Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk
__________________
"You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great." -Zig Ziglar Acoustics 2013 Guild F30 Standard 2012 Yamaha LL16 2007 Seagull S12 1991 Yairi DY 50 Electrics Epiphone Les Paul Standard Fender Am. Standard Telecaster Gibson ES-335 Gibson Firebird |
#29
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Is that a MojoTone diagram? My builder wired my amp from a Mojo diagram that had the bright wire going to the normal pot. After finding the fault and talking about it with him I shifted the wire to the right pot and all was well. I think they've updated the diagram.
Bob
__________________
"It is said, 'Go not to the elves for counsel for they will say both no and yes.' " Frodo Baggins to Gildor Inglorion, The Fellowship of the Ring THE MUSICIAN'S ROOM (my website) |
#30
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Quote:
Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk
__________________
"You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great." -Zig Ziglar Acoustics 2013 Guild F30 Standard 2012 Yamaha LL16 2007 Seagull S12 1991 Yairi DY 50 Electrics Epiphone Les Paul Standard Fender Am. Standard Telecaster Gibson ES-335 Gibson Firebird |