Wire from volume wiper

[toskrlec]

Hi, I build my first Express, and read some instructions and sugestions from forum. Have question about wire from volume pot wiper. Some sugest to move it from chassis and pot ( i understand ground), and some to use coaxial shielded wire to reduce microphony. It confuse me little, which option is beter, shielded wire isnt problem ?

Thanks.

[marcoloco961]

Hi, I build my first Express, and read some instructions and sugestions from forum. Have question about wire from volume pot wiper. Some sugest to move it from chassis and pot ( i understand ground), and some to use coaxial shielded wire to reduce microphony. It confuse me little, which option is beter, shielded wire isnt problem ?

Thanks.

Using the shielded wire will help to reduce the un-wanted noises that can happen with high gain amps. I would suggest the shielded FWIW.

[geetarpicker]

My original and two clones do NOT have a shielded wire there and none of the amps have any noise issues above the norm for wrecks perhaps even less than typical. I'd first try it without and see how it sounds.

[paulster]

If you need shielded wire from the volume pot then then you should probably revisit the lead dress on the amp because it shouldn't need it.

[Jackie Treehorn]

I've tried shielded (shield connected at one end to ground) and unshielded on that run. Unshielded didn't sound any better, but shielded was quieter.

[M Fowler]

Well when I built my Express it was considered the norm by this forum to put shielded wire to the pot so I did.

[ckpop]

Use the sheilded wire in that location if you need to. I spent alot of time being very detailed about the lead dress and matching it to a real TW and never had an issue.

[paulster]

My thoughts exactly. I always considered the norm not to use shielded wire (except from the input jack) and to use it only in extreme circumstances.

[ckpop]

My thought after looking at several TW's ken's lead dress was almost idenctical in every amp. The way he curved the wire just so which gave him a consistency which helps on noise and stability.

[marcoloco961]

I have one wreck which is a nice clean build, on which I tried to follow the layout, actual pics of wrecks and allyn's amps for lead dress and routing very closely. It has a non shielded wire in this position, just like the pics and the layout. I don't have, nor have I heard a real wreck live to compare, but it is rather noisy in my opinion.

I also have a bench wreck I built for testing. It is built using and old rusty Montgomery Wards amp chassis, used sockets, used tubes, some cheaper Sprauge Atom caps and left overs. It does however, have decent transformers. The lead dress is horrible, since I used the existing PTP connectors and did a very amature job of the layout myself in PTP style. I did use the shielded cable for the volume pot on this amp though. It is actually quieter than the good build. Since all other parts of the amp are totally whacked, I contributed the improvement to the shielded cable, I could be wrong. I guess I should have said IMHO not FWIW.

[Jackie Treehorn]

Well, I don't really see it as a matter of necessity; it's a preference. It's like saying twist your heater wires only if you have to or only in "extreme cases." If you want to make the amp as quiet as possible, you do it, especially if it has no other adverse effects.

[Jana]

Shielded or not doesn't matter, it's the color that's important.

[Richie]

I agree with jackie treehorn, i've tried and used both ways.
Sometimes their were grid stoppers used on the tube pins too, and a few other things in that section.
one might look back and see the ginger thread plexi67 posted, looks like it too may have used shielded wire.

[rbryerton]

...
I also have a bench wreck I built for testing. It is built using and old rusty Montgomery Wards amp chassis....

Bwahah hahahaha.... hey... wait... that's kind of cool!

[marcoloco961]

...
I also have a bench wreck I built for testing. It is built using and old rusty Montgomery Wards amp chassis....

Bwahah hahahaha.... hey... wait... that's kind of cool!

LMAO.........................The thing is a true "Wreck". And I don't mean "trainwreck". It has old crappy used pots out of the monkey wards amp, etc. etc.

I am going to try and get some clips of this ugly thing up soon thought, you would be surprised at how it sounds. It nails the Dokken, AIC, metalhead sounds well. Ugly as it is, I was actually shocked when it worked, then pleasantly surprised when I heard it.