My voltages are identical to the Spitfire schematic - Nice for a change! The ground thing freaked me out (no self confidence) and I took picts and photo-shopped tags for a desperate help post. The next day, before embarrassing myself on Ampgarage I went back in and found the missing ground. So now I still got a nicely tagged picture show of my amp for you all. BTW this was built in a chassis that had been an AC10 clone that I never liked, which kinda forced my layout.http://picasaweb.google.com/ardpan/Matc ... directlink
Any criticisms or suggestions? Anyone want talk me out of doing this crazy, time consuming p-to-p madness?
I started tinkering in the mid 80s when you had to do everything from scratch and it was real hard to source stuff. Had a girlfriend in Montreal where I'd grab pawnshop Traynors for $50-$100 US for the cab, chassis, xformers and mustards. Found Keystone in Queens and took the subway out there to get perf board and turrets. Spent hours upon hours making beautiful looking boards and wire layouts Hiwatt style - crazy anal stuff. After all that my amps would usually squeal, hum & oscillate. Big bummer for a sophomore. No internet for help. I hit up some NYC techs for advice, one told me that the safest bet is to go point to point, and he showed me an opened DC-30. So I tried that and the amp, 5F6A, fired right up and sounded insane. So I stuck with the narrow Bud box, tight point to point thing where I literally layout the schematic and my only wires are in the power supply string, grounds to the buss bar from the pots and filter caps to the stage location nearest the bar, not much else. Built 6 tube amps over the years this way all have been transistor silent! Only sound is lovely mild carbon comp resistor tube rush. Just did a 5F1 that was so quiet I spent 45 minutes troubleshooting on start up cause I thought it wasn't making sound. I had only had my ear 2' away and didn't even hear tube rush. Finally, desperately, put my ear right against the grill cloth and realized it was working. It was a 20W 8" too, not a 100W 12"!
But I'm seriously thinking of calling my idiosyncratic point-to-point thing quits and start using tag/turret boards. They are readily available for just about every clone I'd want to make, if I get into poop I have the internet to go for help now. I can stop making my own cabinets from scratch, which in the end cost as much as buying from Mojo.
But I also like marching to my own drummer and avoid the kit / paint by numbers thing that everyone else does. I LOVE it when a ptp layout just falls into place perfectly like God was guiding it - No need to extend anything: resistor leads, cap leads, no extra lugs, no shielded wires, just as tight as the schematic - just flows from lug to lug stage to stage.
But it's such a damn big %$#@ bear to troubleshoot and next to impossible to mod or upgrade. Sometimes to change a resistor or cap I have to undo five connections to get at it (phase inverters are hell p-to-p) often I have to trash some nice carb-comps, sometimes I break a socket lug. The hassle keeps me from tweaking and learning. And, I would never sell one of my amps to anyone as they are just to big a pain in the ass for any tech to fix down the road. I don't want anyone cursing my name to hell!
So, should I stay or should I go?
I would do a little of each style.
