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!

Dave's Custom Amp - None More Black! Updated: Thursday 8th March 2012

THIS AMP IS NOW FINISHED!

Well here is a little something i'm putting together for a friend of a friend!

So far all the pcbs are populated and the chassis & headshell are in which I am going to prepare for the final build steps this weekend.

The transformers should hopefully be here in the middle of next week.

The spec is as follows

50w
Sprague Orange Drops
Vishay CCF60/ Koa Speer & Panasonic Resistors
Sprague Atom, F&T, Nichicon Muse Electrolytics
Onetics Hi Def Output Transformer
Onetics Custom Power Transformer
Onetics 5H Choke
SLO style Chassis & Headshell - none more black.

And here are a few pictures of whats been done so far.

Resistors Populated Vishay CCF60 1% MF for ultra quiet operation.

Panasonic Power Resistors.

Full preamp resistor population shot.

F&T Electrolytic Capacitors added

Sprague Orange Drop 715p/225p Capacitors

Sprague Atom Electrolytic Capacitor

This one is pretty much the entire preamp populated

Power amp Using Nichicon Muse Series Electrolytics & UF5408 Diodes

Vactec VTL5C1 Optocouplers for Silent & Instantaneous channel switching

Recton DB101 Bridge Rectifier for the channel switching voltage rectification

The Headshell when it arrived

This headshell needs a little adjustment. The front grill sits about 11mm too far forward.

 

And that is all for now. I shall update this post as and when things happen which should be a fair amount over the coming week.

Update: Sunday 19th February

I started work drilling the chassis today should hopefully get the amp finished by the end of the week.

This one is a fairly boring update as not much went on as this part takes quite some time as I countersunk the holes by hand as I find it a lot easier to do it accurately this way.

The reason for countersinking all the board mounting holes is so that the transformers can sit flush against the chassis.

Transformer Drilling #1

Transformer Drilling #2

Update: Friday 24th February
I managed to get a good amount done today, the amp is mainly wired up im just waiting on the preamp & power amp valve sockets as the ones I had didn't quite fit the chassis or they were the wrong pin orientation for how I wanted to do the wiring.

All that's left to do now is wire up all the heaters/valve sockets and wiring the actual circuitry in.

The Pot Shot!

Faux Center Tap

Lamp Wiring #1

Lamp Wiring Close Up #1

Lamp Wiring Close Up #2

Clean/Crunch & Bright Switch Wiring. This part needs redoing.

Pot Wiring

 Transformers Mounted

Clean/ Crunch, Bright & Channel Switches

Power, Standby Switches & Lamp

Onetics Power Transformer Hookup Schematic 

Power Amp Wiring

Preamp Wiring #1

Preamp Wiring #2 In this photo you can also see a wire joining to the preamp PCB mounting post this is coming from an RF cap that is just an extra measure that I was made aware of by my co blogger Bob that just stops those annoying radio frequencies that can sometimes be picked up by guitar cables.

Pot Wiring & Effects Loop

 

Test Run #1

Final Assembly 

 Front Right. You can see in this picture that the front panel now perfectly lines up with the front of the chassis.

Rear Right 

Signature 

This one is just for the sake of it really. These two amps are practically the same circuit wise the main differences being mine (the white one) is running on JJ E34L and Daves is running on JJ 6l6GC so it's kinda the evil twin scenario!

And here is the final shot of the amp in my posession where it went through around 8 hours of constant play testing at a range of volumes (which my gerbils weren't too happy about when it got higher)

 

Dave is coming to pick up the amp this evening after a 6 hour tattooing session and is extremely excited.