New Express build.......with a few twists

[evh0u812]

Ive been lurking here a while and thought it was about time I gave one of these classic circuits a go. Not easy when you cant even fit 3 noval sockets next to each other. New powdercoat and a bit of welding and we have the start of something that might be cool.
6V6's instead of el34's, big plate voltage to try and get some more clean headroom from the JJ tubes, upside down mounting in the headshell and a variable gradual/fast circuit to dial in the tone when its done.
I blame a fellow member here, Azatplayer for me wanting to get into this one. Ive heard a couple of his TW inspired builds in person and they were AMAZING.
While this is far from traditional, its fun to try squeezing it all into a chassis that is just too damn small, lol.

Thought I might post some pics of the progress of this build.

Chassis after powdercoat....
[IMG:799:482]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v87/x ... 164817.jpg[/img]

[IMG:799:482]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v87/x ... 164839.jpg[/img]

[IMG:799:482]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v87/x ... 164847.jpg[/img]

Board staked, turreted and loaded....
[IMG:799:482]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v87/x ... 165120.jpg[/img]

Heater wiring done....wrong but fixed now. Too many hours building and not enough sleep. haha.
[IMG:799:482]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v87/x ... 121924.jpg[/img]

Chassis wired, ready for the board wiring...
[IMG:800:496]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v87/x ... 190932.jpg[/img]

Headcab covered ready for the chassis....
[IMG:800:600]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v87/x ... 151630.jpg[/img]


Still waiting on a couple of minor things for the board before I can get it installed and I also need to get cracking on the faceplates. This is what I had in mind....

[IMG:798:131]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v87/x ... mockup.jpg[/img]

[IMG:800:600]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v87/x ... mockup.jpg[/img]

[Cantplay]

Super clean wire job. Meticulous turret board too.

Until you try yourself to get results like this, no one understands how much extra time this really takes to achieve.

John

[martin manning]

Great looking amp inside and out! Recycled chassis? Can't tell now.

[evh0u812]

This is the third time its been rebuilt. Dont think there will be a fourth!

[MCK]

Wow! There times the charm!!! Great job all around. So much for me to learn from.

Quick question. I see the heaters are tightly coiled until the last run to the tubes where the two wires go parallel. Do you get any hum? Just trying to understand the limits of coil vs no coil and at which point hum starts to creep in. Thanks for sharing.

[evh0u812]

Thanks. I always do my heaters this way and never get any hum, although I suppose I could twist the parallel wire too. As long as its not a performance issue I like the look of it done this way. Every build is different so you have to be willing to adapt if need be. Maybe ive just been lucky!!!

[MCK]

Agreed it looks great!!!

[RJ Guitars]

Nice looking implementation... any news on how it's going? Looking forward to more images and maybe some sound clips. rj

[evh0u812]

The amps up and running. Ive still got to fit the fast/gradual switch, but she sounds amazing. One thing that surprises me is the lack of noise. I think having the first triode directly under the input jack has great benefits. Its hooked to the input with a 33k resistor......no sheilded wire. The only piece of sheilded wire runs from the gain pot to the rear of the chassis. Ill get more pice up soon.