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10-23-2023, 12:25 AM
Thank you for your replies!
I have bought all my eyelets from London Power and didn't know there were size options. I could also have distributed the connections among more eyelets, and will consider these things in the future.
I use #22 hookup wire, and I tin the ends. I used hookup wire to connect the grounds, but I will consider buss wire in future.
With the Portaflex, I stayed pretty true to the schematic in TUT3, including the heater stand-off, the ground lift, the test jacks, decoupling, etc, but I confess I went my own way on the layout, although I incorporated the distributed capacitance concept. I can see where following Kevin's layout in the splitter area would have made for less crowded eyelets, although I will point out that from the input we see an eyelet with two shield connections, the grid leak, the cathode resistor, the filter cap, and the link to the next ground star, which is the kind of junction that for me was much neater after I bolted it together.
What spurred me to start this thread was taking a look inside my second build recently, and thinking it looks like a dog's breakfast and if I was to do it over again, what would I do differently? For my second amp, I took the Ampeg preamp, added a tube with the triodes paralleled (on the principle that if you want more "tube" tone, use more tube stages), and mated it with the output section from the Kelly amp in TUT5. After some experimentation and tweaking I've ended up with an amp I really love, and use on most of my gigs. It's quiet, it's touch sensitive, it's the right power level for most of my gigs, it even looks pretty good on the outside, but when I look inside I want to start over again! The bolted together grounds aren't the worst looking thing about it, but it's a solution I haven't seen elsewhere and I half expected you to explain to me why I shouldn't do it that way.
Despite my dissatisfaction with some aspects of my work, which is entirely down to me trying to do things my own way, I have two amps that I'm getting a lot of use and enjoyment out of, so thank you, Kevin, for all the guidance you have provided through your books!
Martin
I have bought all my eyelets from London Power and didn't know there were size options. I could also have distributed the connections among more eyelets, and will consider these things in the future.
I use #22 hookup wire, and I tin the ends. I used hookup wire to connect the grounds, but I will consider buss wire in future.
With the Portaflex, I stayed pretty true to the schematic in TUT3, including the heater stand-off, the ground lift, the test jacks, decoupling, etc, but I confess I went my own way on the layout, although I incorporated the distributed capacitance concept. I can see where following Kevin's layout in the splitter area would have made for less crowded eyelets, although I will point out that from the input we see an eyelet with two shield connections, the grid leak, the cathode resistor, the filter cap, and the link to the next ground star, which is the kind of junction that for me was much neater after I bolted it together.
What spurred me to start this thread was taking a look inside my second build recently, and thinking it looks like a dog's breakfast and if I was to do it over again, what would I do differently? For my second amp, I took the Ampeg preamp, added a tube with the triodes paralleled (on the principle that if you want more "tube" tone, use more tube stages), and mated it with the output section from the Kelly amp in TUT5. After some experimentation and tweaking I've ended up with an amp I really love, and use on most of my gigs. It's quiet, it's touch sensitive, it's the right power level for most of my gigs, it even looks pretty good on the outside, but when I look inside I want to start over again! The bolted together grounds aren't the worst looking thing about it, but it's a solution I haven't seen elsewhere and I half expected you to explain to me why I shouldn't do it that way.
Despite my dissatisfaction with some aspects of my work, which is entirely down to me trying to do things my own way, I have two amps that I'm getting a lot of use and enjoyment out of, so thank you, Kevin, for all the guidance you have provided through your books!
Martin
