4-4-0 build - done 2-14-15...happy Valentine's Day!

[RJ Guitars]

Hi Ho Silver and where are my cowboy boots... Can't wait for the internals to bring that unit to life!

Did you ever get all you Sozo caps? I had a pretty good round with them a couple years back where I didn't hear anything for weeks after I ordered some caps. I finally sent them a note and asked them if they were still in business and even then they sent me nothing until they next production run was finished. I eventually got the caps and now I try to stash a few just in case...

[johnnyreece]

Hi Ho Silver and where are my cowboy boots... Can't wait for the internals to bring that unit to life!

Did you ever get all you Sozo caps? I had a pretty good round with them a couple years back where I didn't hear anything for weeks after I ordered some caps. I finally sent them a note and asked them if they were still in business and even then they sent me nothing until they next production run was finished. I eventually got the caps and now I try to stash a few just in case...

Thanks for the look, RJ!

Nope. Not a word on the caps. I actually ordered these from Weber. I have a pretty good history from them. They said those are on back-order (and I have no reason not to believe them). I contacted Sozo to ask where you can get the standard mustards (as all they sell on their site now in the mustard line are the "vintage" ones...at twice the price). No reply yet (although, I did get a read receipt). I'm starting to wonder if they ditched the standard ones, and that's why I've not gotten them. There's seriously no mention of them on their site anymore. I'm nearly to the point where I'm going to either A.) Just order the damn vintage ones or B.) Rip them out and just use something else. If I get much more impatient, the latter may be coming. I mean, it's been a month and a half...

[romberg]

Cab is tolexed. My first tolex ever. Not terrible; not great. I learned a few things, if I ever do this again.

Yep. That cab is SCREAMING out for a wood-burned steer on the faceplate. Nice!

I found covering cabinets for the first time kinda fun. It helped to do two at the same time and have a little extra material. The second one came out better than the first so, it is sure a skill that can be improved with practice.

Mike

[martin manning]

Cab is tolexed. My first tolex ever. Not terrible; not great. I learned a few things, if I ever do this again.

Damn good showing for your first rodeo ;^) A steer would be good, cowboy on a bronc; maybe a bull rider?

[johnnyreece]

Thanks, guys. Got a little of the maple from the front panel left over after ripping it to thickness. I think I can get a 1/16" plate or two out of it. We'll see! Gonna hit a local shop up after work and see if they could laser me something onto a faceplate. I was going to go simple and woodburn something, but now I gotta see if I can get some longhorns on it, or something.

[johnnyreece]

Using the faceplate design that was posted, I came up with this. Too corny, or just the right amount of cornball? I found a local print shop that will burn this for me. Thinking of having them also do a rear plate for me, but not sure yet...I'm thinking they'll be my go-to place from now on (depending on how this turns out). It's hard to argue with a place that's on my way home from work.

[Colossal]

That looks fine, just the right amount of cornball. One thing...you might want to ask the shop their thoughts on the level of achievable resolution since the laser is going to be working on wood. The horse's mane has a fine level of detail in the graphic; just wondering if they will be able to pull that off on wood vs. depth of the mark. That said, I've had good results with laser on many substrates.

[johnnyreece]

Good thought. I'd sent that to them, and they said it would work, but I don't have much of this particular material, so if it's bad, I'm stuck with it. I'll ask about that!

[romberg]

I had all the lettering and holes done with a laser. It was also a piece of flame maple. I was surprised at how good the detail of the serifs on the letters came out. The gal that ran the laser did not think all the detail on the insert would work in maple. So, she did it in acrylic.

Note that the laser left no charing where it burned the lettering. I went in and filled it with a paint pen you use to mark tires. If yours does not char either you may wanna do something to highlight them.

http://home.comcast.net/~mike.romberg/a ... CN0348.JPG

Mike

[johnnyreece]

That really is sharp. What grit did you sand to before having it burned? Did you sand it any after it was done? I really don't want to screw this up...

[romberg]

That really is sharp. What grit did you sand to before having it burned?

Ampmike made my cabinet and faceplate. So, I did not sand the faceplate at all before having the lettering done. I did not wanna risk taking off the blue stain ampmike put on. I bet if you shoot him a pm he could tell ya what grit he sands maple with.

Did you sand it any after it was done? I really don't want to screw this up...

No I did not sand it. I just tung oiled it and glued in the acrylic insert. Mostly I wanted to point out that maple is pretty hard and can take smaller detail than you'd think. Also that the laser does not char. Maybe there is a setting/method to get char. So, I'd ask your laser preople about that.

Mike

[johnnyreece]

Ah, that looks like something ampmike would turn out. Gorgeous! Well, I dropped of my panel today. They said that whatever they etch should burn the wood, and it should be ready next week. I'm hoping by next week they mean tomorrow. Once it's ready, I'll still have to drill the holes and add a finish (probably Tru Oil). I got impatient with Sozo, so Colossal hooked me up with some he had on hand. With any luck, I should be able to hear this thing by next weekend!

[johnnyreece]

Update: Got it together, but at minimum settings on the bias pots, I'm getting about 3W plate dissipation per tube, with a 2.5W maximum. So...stopping for tonight, since the wife is giving me dirty looks (and not the good kind). We'll see what kind of progress we can make later on in the week. Also getting about 360 on the plates, so I may bump that down a little.

I did strum for like two seconds to be sure sound was coming out, and I think it's going to be a beast! It was sure breathing fire (for all one can tell from a couple seconds of strumming).

[johnnyreece]

Next update: faceplate has been engraved. My only gripe is that they did it right in the middle, so I only get one plate from this, but oh well.

[IMG1365]http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc165/moto_xxx199/Amp%20designs/33C8D087-A1BA-4833-B2E6-3559781A776B_zps21tbiixs.jpg[/img]

[johnnyreece]

Okay, I made a couple tweaks last night, and was able to play a little. I added a 1M resistor parallel to the 180k resistor (giving me 150K) where my bias comes off the secondary. That put me where I needed to be to get enough range to bias up properly. Eventually I may order one, as all I had was a 1/2W 1M resistor...and it kind of looks silly. However, I'm also lazy, so there's that.

My plate voltage is 318...I think I must have measured the A node, rather than the plate voltage when I made my original measurement. That's all I can come up with for such a discrepancy. So, I'm going to leave that as it is. I was able to noodle around for 15 minutes or so and it didn't explode. The power tubes didn't get much hotter than the preamp. Being in a metal shell makes it a bit tricky to see what's going on. This pair was reasonably well matched at idle. I am still surprised at how loud this bugger is through a 10" speaker. I had to take it easy, as my kiddo was sleeping by the time I was running it through its paces.

On a side note, I failed once again at guessing which way the OT primaries go...Boy, does it howl when you get that wrong...

Anyway, when I get the faceplate cut and installed, I'll take some more pics and post it up. Can't wait to get my 2x12 back and see what it sounds like!