Non traditional express builds?

[collinsamps]

Has anyone ever used less real estate to build an express? Say.........cap cans and one board and smaller chassis? I know the purists would balk, but there isn't really enough to one to dictate that size chassis and the sparse coverage layout like the originals. The whole amp could fit in about 1/2 the chassis and still keep tranny and component layout far enough aaprt to keep interelectrode capacitance or other issues from being an issue. anyone?

[RJ Guitars]

Same Chassis size, but definitely not the conventional power supply. I really need to finish this rascal... rj

[M Fowler]

rj,

How about McGyver's home brew wreck now that was not the norm.

Mark

[Structo]

Has anyone ever used less real estate to build an express? Say.........cap cans and one board and smaller chassis? I know the purists would balk, but there isn't really enough to one to dictate that size chassis and the sparse coverage layout like the originals. The whole amp could fit in about 1/2 the chassis and still keep tranny and component layout far enough aaprt to keep interelectrode capacitance or other issues from being an issue. anyone?

I don't know squat about the Express other than what I read here but it could possibly be due to the on the edge of stability that requires the real estate.

Even with the larger chassis, I have read of guys having problems getting the amp stable.

So real estate and lead dress seem to be very important on these amps.

[Clyde]

This is the final stage of the evolution of "Heresy", of which (whom?) I posted an earlier pic below. I decided to build an Express on my angle front chassis using my layout to see if the mojo was in a faithful reproduction of the real estate or not. I'd have to say no. The amp sounds great and other than a cold solder joint at the beginning, it's very quiet and stable-no hums or buzzes, but like all Expresses, requires some (a lot!) of tweaking to make it happen. Oh, and I had a sophomore wiring error that had me baffled for awhile too. I'm hoping to have some sound samples this weekend, just getting all the participants lined up. Thanks to everyone on this forum who contributed-you all did.