Potential newb builder here in need of advice on an Express

[le_plastique]

Hello,

I have no electrical experience what-so-ever. I've been interested in wrecks for a while and I was cruising youtube and I found a great clip of a clone that was build by a member here who maintained that prior to building his wreck he had never even touched a soldering iron. Anyhoo, I'm wondering if I should give it a shot. I'm also wondering where I'd get the most authentic parts and how much I should expect to pay. I'm only interested in building a chassis, I don't need a fancy head cab or anything. Oh, and I want to use 6v6s instead of El34s, if that helps.

Best

[Trigger]

My advise would be to follow the original layout and get your lead dress to match the Francesca pictures in the files section. If you encounter any problems this will make it easier for the experts on this site (which I am not one of) to help troubleshoot and get you to a working Express. Any deviation could cause you issues. This may be a tough build with no experience. I have a few Tweed builds under my belt, and my Express has proven to be a tough build. High gain amps are tough to get just right in my experience. I deviated from the original layout so my advise is from experience. I tend to have alot of "experience" not as much knowledge. Hope this helps.

[le_plastique]

[quote="Trigger"]My advise would be to follow the original layout and get your lead dress to match the Francesca pictures in the files section. If you encounter any problems this will make it easier for the experts on this site (which I am not one of) to help troubleshoot and get you to a working Express. Any deviation could cause you issues. This may be a tough build with no experience. I have a few Tweed builds under my belt, and my Express has proven to be a tough build. High gain amps are tough to get just right in my experience. I deviated from the original layout so my advise is from experience. I tend to have alot of "experience" not as much knowledge. Hope this helps.[/quote]

Took your advice and I'm looking at the Kelly and Francesca stuff right now. Do you have any recommendation on where I should get a kit and parts? The best I can think of right now is getting the bulk of my stuff from Ceriatone and my transformers from Tone Slut. I would imagine they have instructions for their kits that are very thorough.

[bluegate]

There are no instructions included in Ceriatone kits.
You just have the layout and must figure out where everything goes.
I've build an Overtone Special, that was very hard and certainly no beginners kit.

[M Fowler]

There are several ways to go. I ordered my chassis from Allynmey sent him a pm, the loaded board from Joebob, toneslut trannies, Bourns pots from Apexjr and the remainder off the BOM in the Trainwreck files.

Also RJ at http://www.rjguitars.net/Parts_for_Sale.html has kits as well as several others members here and check the for sale section.

Or just keeping asking questions on specific parts and we will help you out.

Mark

[Ron Worley]

Part of the journey here is actually doing it... and making mistakes, which causes learning....

Chassis from Allyn, Trannys from ToneSlut, boards from RJ and virtually everything else from Mouser and Allied. you can have virtually everything on order in a matter of a couple hours.

You can find some things cheaper if you have a local Surplus place, but then it starts becoming time consuming. But if you are going to start building amps as the addiction sets in, the surplus place is the way to start building your parts supply.

I have a build guide in the files section that is fairly informative (it's not a color by numbers guide). Using that and all the documentation there is from Francesca and others, you can build a Wreck even if you are a beginner. You have to be very detail oriented beginner, but still you can do it.

Ron

[mumford]

My first amp was a ceriatone kit, I did ok with just their layout drawing, but was very careful. I did have a lot of soldering and electronic experience beforehand building effects, though.

In retrospect, I love the express, but probably should have gone with something a little less finicky as a first build. Mine works and sounds good, but has some noise issues I need to track down--something I doubt would be a concern if I had started with, say, a Champ.

[Trigger]

For me part of the fun of a project is ordering the parts. Mr. Worley's BOM list is a great tool. He has done alot of hard work putting together all the information for building one of these amps. There have been alot of people who have successfully built one of these amps and with patience you can be added to that list. Ken had to be one of the most patient guys in the world to fine tune his amps to what they are. I look forward to seeing your build progress.

[Ron Worley]

My pleasure, thanks for the kind words... that makes it worth the effort.

Another kit that's a good one to start on is a 5E3 deluxe..... a little more complex than a Champ, but still pretty easy. Plus, it a GREAT amp to have....

Bruce and Mission Amps will help you as you build his kit, so it's a great beginner amp....

[le_plastique]

[quote="M Fowler"]There are several ways to go. I ordered my chassis from Allynmey sent him a pm, the loaded board from Joebob, toneslut trannies, Bourns pots from Apexjr and the remainder off the BOM in the Trainwreck files.

Also RJ at http://www.rjguitars.net/Parts_for_Sale.html has kits as well as several others members here and check the for sale section.

Or just keeping asking questions on specific parts and we will help you out. :)

Mark[/quote]

PM sent.

[le_plastique]

[quote="Trigger"]For me part of the fun of a project is ordering the parts. Mr. Worley's BOM list is a great tool. He has done alot of hard work putting together all the information for building one of these amps. There have been alot of people who have successfully built one of these amps and with patience you can be added to that list. Ken had to be one of the most patient guys in the world to fine tune his amps to what they are. I look forward to seeing your build progress.[/quote]

Advice taken. I'm going to create a new folder and put that and the Francesca stuff in it, along with any other good information I come across.

[le_plastique]

[quote="Ron Worley"]My pleasure, thanks for the kind words... that makes it worth the effort.

Another kit that's a good one to start on is a 5E3 deluxe..... a little more complex than a Champ, but still pretty easy. Plus, it a GREAT amp to have....

Bruce and Mission Amps will help you as you build his kit, so it's a great beginner amp....[/quote]

Haha! I plan on buying or building a Deluxe too. As far as I know, running treble boosters and MKII based tone benders into a wreck would be bad form, and I really like those sounds and from what I've heard they go great with tweed Deluxes.

[camden_guitarist]

Hi there le_plastique, judging from your name you're out here in France like me? Well, if you are, drop by any time on my facebook page where I keep my online photo diary of my Express clone.

Talking of which, I'm coming along nicely, but I have hit one tiny snag...how do I properly fit the heater supply to the output tube guys??? The wire is just too damn thick, for the moment I've split it in two and put one end through the hole on the socket and wrapped the other part around it and soldered it like that...it doesn't look very good though and I'd like some comments.

Anyway, le_plastique, happy soldering times to you and drop by anytime:

my facebook handle:

paul van kesteren

and some free publicity for my band while I'm at it:

www.camdenmusic.net

Cheers,

Paul.

[M Fowler]

Paul,

I asked the same question a while back on this form because the tube sockets on Ron Worley's excellant BOM (lot of hard work on his part) were of the small variety. So I trimmed part of the large wire away to fit. I did this because I wanted it to look like the original and not use a terminal strip in between. Also I was not using the 6.3v pilot lamp. If you are using the 6.3v pilot lamp you can wire the OT wires to that first and then smaller gauge wires to the tube socket.

The answer to all this is put another tube socket there that has the larger holes or double holes on the pins. Then the layout will follow with the original design.

Mark

[camden_guitarist]

Hey Mark,

Thanks for the heads up. My sockets have indeed double holes in the pins, so I'll split the heater supply wires, use the 2 holes and solder the heaters wires to the other sockets onto that...thank you very much for your insight, I am using all from Worley's BOM so I should be ok I think.

Cheers,

Paul.