Low Plate Skyline 100 Watter

[tubedogsmith]

Just this past Sunday night I finished a low plate skyline 100 watt amp. I made a few tweeks to it Monday and started breaking it in. Firing up and tweeking a new amp is akin to waiting for the UPS truck and opening the box on a new fiddle!! I don't know about you guys but I just absolutely love working in a new amp and seeing where it will take you. The more you play a new one the better and better they seem to sound. After a few hours they begin to settle in and you start to hear and feel what it's going to do. Just like a box of chocolates

[kd]

Congratulation on a successful build. I always wondered if it was just my ears becoming accustom to the sound of a new tube amp build or the amp was actually changing tone. After building a few, I've come to the same conclusion you have, a new amp does change tone as it burns in and starts sounding better. According to what I hear(think I hear??), a tube amp that has been played 30 to 45 minutes sounds better than it did in the first 5-10 minutes of playing. But then I could also be totally wrong .

Ken

[Structo]

That is true, an amp that has been powered up for at least 30 minutes will even sound better once everything is up to temperature.

Tweaking an amp can be fun but it also can be an exercise in futility if you aren't real experienced.
I have come to know my amp pretty well now and know what altering a value here and there will do but sometimes it is also frustrating because sometimes those same tweaks are a trade off in another part of the tonal package.

After building the D'Lator I understand what all the fuss is about.
This is an essential part of this amp. I never really, truly believed that until I built mine.
I am now a believer! [IMG:33:35]http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b392/ ... banana.gif[/img]

Another thing that has been preached here but not often followed is the first part of your amp you want to fine tune are the voltages to your preamp and PI tubes.
This can really make a big difference.
I recently installed a choke to replace the 10 watt choke sim resistor.
At the same time I adjusted the dropping string to get a bit more voltage on the tubes.
This really helped get closer to the D tone.
I may have to knock a few volts off of V1 but I am pleased at the new results.