The Plunge

[jurgen]

Hi Guys

What a great forum! Mercifuly free of the usual mythology and food fights.

After much lurking (here and elswhere) I'm getting ready for that first build. I've got years of technical background, NOS, pieces from Nik(and hopefully Moose soon), and just enough tube knowledge to make some really bad assumptions.':roll:'
I'm hoping a few of you can shed light on some of the apparently conflicting info floating around.

1) To FRED or not to FRED? I understand the concept, but is it true that the smoother highs can cost you some punch and low end clarity? Wouldn't this be more pronounced in a Wreck? KF nixed UF diodes in the TW pages but it's a little unclear if he was including the power supply.

2) 5,200 or 6,600 Someone said the lower impedance ratio should yield a little more output and low end wich makes sense to me but elsewhere
it's stated that KF went from 6,600 to 5,200 for guys whose Les Pauls
were just a little too woofy?! I favor Strats and Teles and was goimg to go with 5,200, Do I have this backward?


3) We've all seen the way KF wired the heaters on Franchesca. In theory an elegant solution but Ken seems to have abandoned this Idea ( i.e. the unnamed wreck in the files , Komet etc) I noticed that many of the experienced builders here haven't bothered with this either. Concensus?

Thanks. You're all Gents and Scholars.

[paulruby]

In my opinion, all three of your questions have little (if any) impact on the sound or noise immunity in wreck circuits (not enough high gain to be a concern). I can not hear any difference with FREDs and so never use them. The difference between 5.2k and 6.6k is very, very subtle. 5.2k is great for any of the wrecks, so that's all I use. As long as the filament lines are not running parallel to any signal lines, you'll have no issue. Just keep them down against the chassis and you'll be fine.

[lastwinj]

4k is even better, IMO.

jeremy

[Matt72]

The 6.6 vs 5.2 thing was very pronounced in my express build. I really like awarm sound, but the 6.6k was too warm and wooly. The 5.2 is perfect. Lows are tighter and it just sounds more cohesive overall, if that makes any sense; it was just more loose sounding with the 6.6. FWIW.

[jurgen]

thanks for the responces