Fully Loaded Rocket

[Jackie Treehorn]

Nice work! Hey Jackie, did you use Kimber TCSS Hookup Wire for this build? I read another thread where you touted it highly.

Of course! The white and blue stuff is the Kimber TCSS. The green and black wires for the heaters and the relay power is solid core, tinned copper 18 & 22 gauge, I think. The big stuff in the spaghetti tubing and for the big ground runs is 16 gauge, tinned solid core.

[rawnster]

Nice work! Hey Jackie, did you use Kimber TCSS Hookup Wire for this build? I read another thread where you touted it highly.

Of course! The white and blue stuff is the Kimber TCSS. The green and black wires for the heaters and the relay power is solid core, tinned copper 18 & 22 gauge, I think. The big stuff in the spaghetti tubing and for the big ground runs is 16 gauge, tinned solid core.

Nice, I've got to try some of that...but in Red of course.

[PlinytheWelder]

I thought that I was being esoteric in my Express with BlackGate cathode caps and PIO's all over the place....

[Jackie Treehorn]

Well, I wired up the three relays and a four button footswitch. I chose some 9v panasonic relays which were extremely small so they'd fit. Consequently, I had to switch to some 22 ga wire (core of some Canare star quad mic cable) for some of the connections. I'm not super pleased, as it's a bit more delicate than I'd like. I may order some more relays and try a different construction methodology.

But, about a week ago, two of the output tubes started to redplate. I thought it was due to higher line voltage at the time, around 126 volts. I also have the amp biased a bit hotter with a resistor that measures around 47.7 ohms. I swapped the redplating tubes for the non redplating tubes and carried on. A couple days ago, the tubes in the same sockets started redplating at 120 volts, so it wasn't a tube problem.

It turns out that the expensive Jensen PIO caps were leaking voltage into the power tube grids. The non redplating side leaked .25-.27 volts, while the redplating side leaked .68-.78 volts when I was measuring. That one had a lot of variance. I didn't get a chance to measure in a tube meltdown moment. Sooooo out with the paper in oils and in with the 716P's. Parts Connexion was very gracious and said I could exchange them even though it's past 30 days. However, I've read of unreliability problems of the Jensens in positions where they're exposed to some heat. I may not put them back in this amp, which is kind of a shame because I do think there was a richness to the sound initially which the 716p doesn't have at the moment. The 716p is rated for high temperature and doesn't leak though!

Clips coming soon!

[Richie]

didn't get a chance to measure in a tube meltdown moment.

Once had an amp repair here that had about 250v leaking to the grid, not much time before meltdown or fuse blowing to get a instant reading.. I know what you mean..

[Jackie Treehorn]

Here are some clips. I didn't have a ton of time and I blew most of it on this Lanois type clip. Plus everything is a bit out of tune, it seems. Oh well!

This one is the Les Paul Special into the top boost, 1x12 with fairly fresh Celestion Gold. CLIP 1


Need to do more!

[PlinytheWelder]

I have some Jensen PIO's in mine and they've been OK so far, but the rest are the Russian military surplus jobs and I just love them....
Nice solid caps.

[Jackie Treehorn]

I have some Jensen PIO's in mine and they've been OK so far, but the rest are the Russian military surplus jobs and I just love them....
Nice solid caps.

The Jensens are definitely not solid, they're liquid and have a limited lifespan like an electrolytic. Audionote used to sell a rebranded Jensen, but switched to some sort of polyester/oil type due to the inexplicable failure rate on the Jensens. I'm not saying they don't sound good; they're delicate, though. The russian surplus might be more rugged and I'll probably get some of those, too.

[Jackie Treehorn]

Well, I reworked the EF86 into TB overdrive mode. Basically, the output of the ef86 into the little 1 meg pot (on the front panel that looks like a bright switch) with a 150k across it making it a 130k pot, the wiper of the pot to a 120k resistor with 500 pf ceramic cap in parallel, for a little low end rolloff, to the 33k TB grid resistor. Also, off the wiper, a 50 pf back to the ef86 cathode for a touch of local feedback/top end rolloff.

Sounds much better and responds very well to the volume knob. Here's a clip from trying it out last night during a sloppy jam. Unfortunately, I was on bedroom level of the airbrake since the police showed up at rehearsal a couple weeks ago.

[ampmike]

Thats really cool,sounds really good Dude,I want one!!!!!

[Jackie Treehorn]

Thats really cool,sounds really good Dude,I want one!!!!!

Thanks, Mike, I appreciate the kind words.

I did a few more tweaks here and there, touched up the tremolo.

Here's another quick clip of the cleans That's an SM57 into my Zoom H4, strat, celestion gold 1x12.

The first minute is the top boost, then top boost with tremolo.

Around 1:15 it switches to the top boost and EF86 channel in parallel. It gets slightly louder there. Putting the channels in parallel gives a little volume boost.

By 2:00 it's the EF86 channel on its own, then with trem. The EF86 has got more mids and there's quite a bit of bottom still, even though I dropped the coupling cap quite a bit. I left the bottom there, though, because it sounds a bit more jazzy than the top boost.

Around 3:50 it's back to top boost. I think that demostrates the EF86 vs Top Boost cleans pretty well. I'll need to do another with both channels dimed at some point if anyone is still interested. The EF86 gets very grindy.

[ampmike]

Awsome Jackie,Really nice cleans,great playing too!!!Ypu built a really great sounding amp.Yea,post some more clips Im interested!!!!!Mikey

[Colossal]

Here's another quick clip of the cleans That's an SM57 into my Zoom H4, strat, celestion gold 1x12.

Great clip Jackie! I love the tones you're getting. The piece is very nice too; kind of Jimmy Page-ish in a White Summer/Black Mountain Side sort of way in parts and has the feel of the English countryside. The tremolo adds a nice texture.

[Jackie Treehorn]

Thanks for listening and commenting! Colossal, I am a fan of all that early 70's English folk music, Fairport Convention, Pentangle, John Martyn, etc. and of course Zeppelin! So I appreciate what you said!

I was kind of lukewarm on the trem, having previously used a tremulous lune I built which is a fantastic tremolo pedal. After doing a direct comparison though, the bias wiggle trem really sounded a lot better, although definitely less flexible.

[KellyBass]

Very nice! Richard Thompson would love your amp!