Soldano influenced High Gain Amplifier Build. Now with Audio sample

This again is a follow up from the modded preamp that I did around December.

Because I've done similar builds before on here I will just post a few pictures from the build.

It turned out incredibly quiet. Elevating the heaters is an invaluable approach that really should be in every amp as it's so inexpensive and effective. I can confidently say that the noise floor in this amp is considerably lower than most production amps!

I removed one of the mods that I originally did as I found that I preferred the amp with less saturation than what the mod produced.

First up we have a few shots of the preamp that's populated with Mallory 150 Caps, Sprague & F&T Electrolytics and Vishay & Panasonic Resistors.

Here we have the spot where there would usually be a Faux Centre Tap but I got the transformer built with an actual center tap so this is just a handy spot to bridge the heaters.

This is the wire that comes from the heater tap and goes to V5 pins 4,5 & 9

This photo shows the input jack wiring and also the Clean/Crunch & Bright switch.

Here we have the power valves and also the rear panel bias test points and adjustment pot.

Here's the amp before installing the preamp.

This is the same as above but with the preamp PCB bolted in before wiring. I call this one the "Angry Porcupine" stage.

Here we have the cab outputs and the impedance selector. You can also see a 47k coming from the 8ohm tap this goes to the Slave Out circuit which is an amazing addition to any amp as it allows for wet/dry setups and also direct out recording that includes the entire power amp that you can use with cabinet implses for a very clear and punchy sound.

Here is the above mentioned Slave Out pot & Jack.

Here is the power amp! I carefully selected these capacitors for their ripple rating to keep the amp really tight and precise.

Here is the effects loop. There isn't really much to say about it really.

And here is a close up of the V1 & V2 wiring.

And here is the entire amp fully wired up. Now that it is confirmed and working as intended I will go back and shorten some wires and tie wrap some of them to make it generally neater.

And the finished amp!

Here is a quick audio clip.Enjoy!

InMadOut Transformers - Soldano Replacements.

This post is a follow on from the heavily modded SLO post which can be found here.

I had a few reasons for choosing these transformers. The main one being that I am building this amp around a dual KT88 Power section and these transformers are perfectly specced for the application.

These were made to order and had a very short lead time of around 10 days which is another fantastic reason to use these.

There was a bit of the impregnation resin on one of the endbells which I cleaned off but it also took a bit of the black paint off too so i'm possibly going to dissasemble these and spray them matte black.

The power transformer is an absolute beast!

So now all that i'm waiting on for this build is the chassis & a headshell that I am getting custom made.

Hopefully there will be more posts soon.