Tube Amp Archive

What Steve is referring to re finding it fast, an open secondary will cause very high voltages to appear on the primary and damage to the insulation. I suspect because you were playing at low volume you avoided an expensive repair. Oh absolutely. Mucho relieved when I discovered it was a loose sold...

Yeah the way I wired it, the wire in question was obscured thus I didn't get a good flow. What led me to that area was the jack itself read open, yet the tab on the impedance selector that fed the jack read like 4 ohms. Then I started jiggling things around. It’s good that you found it fast . Those ...

Turned out to be a bad solder joint on the output jack tab that connects to the impedance selector! She's up and running great now! If you plug headphones into a speaker jack do you hear anything? If not then start resistance checking the OT as it may have gone open. Even when they go the other way ...

So I built a HIWATT clone that has been performing beautifully for the last few weeks. Last night, I was playing at relatively low volume when I head a small "tick" and it just cut out completely. No hiss...nada... No fuses blown, no smoke, indicator light is on, cathode current shows normal bias et...

I was going for the lowest noise, most precision components I could find so all of the preamp resistors on the turret board are metallic-film, 2w. Thin-film resistors are among the quietest. Metal foil and wirewound are a little better, carbon film are a little worse on average. Carbon composition ...

I've tried building an amp with all "big" resistors as well, and had similar results. I think it's something most of us do once. I suspect you will find that sprinkling in some 1/2w resistors in positions that do not need 2w of power handling will improve the sound. Carbon film vs metal film is lar...

Greetings, 1st post here! Probably subject that's been beat to death but here it goes... Just finished a DR103 clone. I did source some parts from Mojotone, but most of the resistors/capacitors I sourced from Digikey. Anyhoo, I was going for the lowest noise, most precision components I could find s...