Finally starting my Rocket Combo build!

[Tone_Chaser]

I was always going with the VVR but after all of the clips with the reverb, I had to add it as well.

I do most of the vocals for the Don Henley, and the lead vocals of Randy Miesner and Timothy B. Schmidt. Guitar parts are a mixed bag, a little Don Felder, a little Bernie Leadon and a little Joe Walsh. We don't do a one for one person, just trying to replicate the music.

I appreciate all the support already and will start posting some pictures soon.

[crafty1]

Barry,

I have been playing in an Eagles show here in Australia for over 5 years now. Believe it or not the amp i use for all these gigs is a Carmen Ghia with 1x12 Blue.

I use mainly Tele, Strat and Les Paul ( as you do ) and this amp just does it. I used a Vox ac30cc2 one night and the guys told me to leave the Vox at home!

I have recently built a Z wreck clone which as you know, is based close to a Rocket, to use with these shows. I have only used it for 1 show coupled to a an Alnico gold and it sounded great but could get it better, sounded a little dark and not as smooth as it could/should be. I found myself raising the treble close to max.
My OT was an Experimenters OT i got from Tonesluts a while back - 4,300 and 5,200 ohm taps. I have just removed it and fitted a Dyanco A470 repro from Triode store and man what a difference. Much thicker and smoother onset with better note definition. If you have one of RJ's M19 OT's for a Rocket it should sound killer also.

The other big difference was going to a 2x12 cab with the gold and blue wired in series for 16 ohm. This balanced the whole package and added the treble that was missing.

I think you will find that when you start gigging with the Rocket you can leave the Marshall at home. This amp would work perfect for an Eagles type sound. I can't wait to try my wreck out now but i will have to wait a while as we are re jigging the whole show and are taking a 6 month break.

All the best for the build,

Rich

[M Fowler]

I talked to Dr Z about my wreck being dark as well and I switched from the Russian tubes to JJ's at doc's suggestion. I normally use JJ's that helped a bunch to brighten the amp.

Mark

[Tone_Chaser]

Hey guys, just a quick update. I put turrets on my board and have most of the components on except the orange drops (patiently waiting for them....) and I'm going to try to get the transformers and tube sockets on this weekend now that my reverb transformer came in.

I'll post a couple of pics next week.

[Tone_Chaser]

It took a little longer than planned to get the pics posted. We've been on vacation and things have been pretty crazy since we got back, but here is the board and outside of the chassis. I ordered the hook up wire so hopefully I can start wiring this weekend.

[Tone_Chaser]

Hey guys, my build got put on hold due to some financial issues but I just finished it.

Unlike my Plexi, which fired right up and worked perfectly the first time, my Rocket is having issues.

I've got good voltages on the mains, but on the rectifier I have good voltages on pins 2 & 8 and 0 volts on pins 4 & 6. I also have no voltage on the wires going to the heaters on the tube sockets.

Any thoughts? I would appreciate any ideas.

[M Fowler]

Pins 2 and 8 are the 5v tap and pins 4 and 6 are the PT secondary. Make sure all wiring is correct and that HT center tap is grounded.

On filament that PT should have a 6.3v center tap or use two 100R resistors off each leg to ground and shrink tube the unused center tap.

[overtone]

Hey guys, my build got put on hold due to some financial issues but I just finished it.

Unlike my Plexi, which fired right up and worked perfectly the first time, my Rocket is having issues.

I've got good voltages on the mains, but on the rectifier I have good voltages on pins 2 & 8 and 0 volts on pins 4 & 6. I also have no voltage on the wires going to the heaters on the tube sockets.

Any thoughts? I would appreciate any ideas.

Whoops, if you have voltage on pins 2 and 8 but none on 4 and 6 then I would guess the connections to your rectifier socket are the wrong way around! But what kind of "good" voltage are you talking about- AC or DC?
Check the data sheet for the GZ34 tube against your work.
You should be reading AC voltage "going in" on 4 and 6, then DC Voltage "going out" on 2 and 8. There will be some 5V floating AC on pins 8 and 2. That heater AC voltage rides / floats on the DC HT Voltage. Take your DC HT voltage "out" from pin 8 for best practice.
I hope I did not make that too complicated, just ask or send a good close up photo of your socket wiring if in doubt.
Best, tony

[Tone_Chaser]

Thanks guys, I'll check that tomorrow night or Sunday and post the pic if I don't get anywhere with those suggestions.

[M Fowler]

...and we are assuming tubes are in


Mark

[Tone_Chaser]

LOL! Yes, should have been more clear.

I started without tubes like the guide shows but when I got no bias voltage I went ahead and tubed it up and checked other voltages. I just had no heater voltage on the tubes (pre or power) and the rectifer. I was out of town all day and will be working in the yard tomorrow so I won't be able to do anything on it until tomorrow night.

[Tone_Chaser]

All right guys, I've spent just a little time tonight. I didn't have a lot of time to really start tracing things out. I did that before I plugged it in but it's easy to miss something.

As overtone alluded to, I did foget to change my meter to AC on the secondaries. Those voltages are good too. The main issue with the voltages is no heater voltage. V2 has a couple of pins with bad voltages but I will get that traced out and verify all of the wiring with that section too.

I did take a shot of the power section but my wife is on the main computer right now so I can't get to the picture to post it. But I did fill out the voltage chart so you can see what I am seeing.

[Tone_Chaser]

Okay, she's off! Here is the pic of the power section. It's still a little messy because I wanted to make sure everything worked before I tied everything together.

Please let me know if you see anything or if you need some other shots.

[Tone_Chaser]

I've checked and re-checked my wiring and I don't see any errors but I still have no heater voltage. I did realize why a few of my V2 voltages were off, I used V2a for the reverb and V2b for the preamp. The V2b voltages are good, so again I'm down to no heater voltage. I think my PT may be bad, at least that part of it.

Any other ideas?

[overtone]

I would unsolder the brown wires at the tag board to see if the 0 Volts on the heater circuit is a PT issue, or something "downstream" and take it from there. Double check the CT connection.

The other voltages look good at this stage.

Not related to the heater issue, but I guess you are aware that the VVR part of the circuit seems to be free to wander around at the moment?

Let us know how you get along,
best, tony