New Rocket is born!!!!

[redshark]

Sounds great!!!

Couple of things, it has a little hum. I guess I will ground the controls(grounding buss) to the extra grounding tap in the front (as layout)
When I turned the the bass knob to zero it has like a weird noise.
Seems to me less louder than the express but more touch sensitive!!!

[Mrscratch]

cool! you have it built already? nice! what did you name her?

[redshark]

Her name is Analu spanish spelling for Anna Lou, now Daniela or Danielle has a sister!! It sounds awesome, very 3-D, complex and touch sensitive.
The bass control was noisy and had a little hum to it but it was a cold solder joint from the resistor (bass knob) to the grounding buss.
Now is all good, although good power tubes, a good rectifier tube, a cherry cab are needed!!

I love my rocket!!!

[redshark]

Ok I finally got a good rectifier tube coming, Mullard GZ34 so I can get rid of the realistic japanese made (not bad).
I think I will go for a matched set of saratovs and be done with tubes.
What are the favorite NOS rocket tubes for preamp?
I have mullards in V1 and V2 and a telefunken in V3 for now.

[Bob S]

Congratulations on your newborn.
For tubes I've got V1=GE 12ax7 V2 = GE 12ax7 V3 = JJ ECC83S
Power tubes are 6P14P-EV. Put the power tubes in for testing at start up...
So pleased with them, I haven't taken them out to put a set of NOS in.
Well worth the price imho.

[dynaman]

Ok I finally got a good rectifier tube coming, Mullard GZ34 so I can get rid of the realistic japanese made (not bad).
I think I will go for a matched set of saratovs and be done with tubes.
What are the favorite NOS rocket tubes for preamp?
I have mullards in V1 and V2 and a telefunken in V3 for now.

??? What makes you think your Realistic is not a Mullard? Can I have that tube?

[redshark]

That is japanese made and not brittish. I will use it as a backup.

[passfan]

I run a GZ34 with matched Saratovs and GE12AX7 long plates. I also run an extra loading resistor on the power supply which gives me a bit earlier breakup and a lot of clean crunch up high on the gain.

[FYL]

That is japanese made and not brittish.

Matsushita manufactured tons of tubes using Philips-sourced everything which are every bit as good as their European counterparts.

BTW, the most sought after GZ34 came from Philips Netherlands, not Philips UK aka Mullard. Audiofools can pay up to a grand for a NOS boxed metal-base model...

[redshark]

Well, the biggest reason to use a brittish Mullard here is because they last longer than other tubes although some people attributes certain sonic qualities to that tube. I guess I need to find out myself. I think Ken didn't sell a rocket if he didn't have a mullard rectifier in there.

[redshark]

I got my mullard..do I hear a diference? I think I do but everyone would have a diferent answer. I think this has been commented before here. Anyway following the chassis layout precisely the glass of my rectifier is slightly touching the corner of the PT bell. There's no way I could move the PT more...My solution was to put a piece of electrical tape between the metal and the glass as an insulator. The amp sounds fabulous...should I worry about it?

[Cliff Schecht]

I got my mullard..do I hear a diference? I think I do but everyone would have a diferent answer. I think this has been commented before here. Anyway following the chassis layout precisely the glass of my rectifier is slightly touching the corner of the PT bell. There's no way I could move the PT more...My solution was to put a piece of electrical tape between the metal and the glass as an insulator. The amp sounds fabulous...should I worry about it?

I'd remove the tape and find a piece of Kapton to put in there. It's specifically meant to go on PCB's where you can hit it with an iron without cooking it. For some reason one of the Telefunken 12AT7's I recently salvaged has a piece of Kapton on it and you can tell the tape hasn't so much as flinched at the heat put out by tubes. That electrical tape OTOH will eventually cook and leave a gooey mess on your amp transformer and tube.

Kapton is expensive though and maybe not necessary. You're probably fine just letting them touch really, so long as you don't ever cause the tube to clack against the transformer and break. You could also tilt the tube ever so slightly, maybe even shim the bottom of the tube to do so. As long as the pins are making a solid contact in the base, they don't care at what point the socket touches them.

[FYL]

Anyway following the chassis layout precisely the glass of my rectifier is slightly touching the corner of the PT bell.

It shouldn't. Either your layo is incorrect, you've used anotehr set of iron or your GZ34 isn't kosher.

[redshark]

Well, I used pacific iron for the rocket which probably has slightly diferent dimensions than the heyboer. Who knows!! it slightly touches the corner of the bell so I guess it will be fine. I will be of course monitoring that the tape doesn't become messy against the glass. I actually taped the transformer. Thanks for the answers.

[redshark]

[I'd remove the tape and find a piece of Kapton to put in there. It's specifically meant to go on PCB's where you can hit it with an iron without cooking it. For some reason one of the Telefunken 12AT7's I recently salvaged has a piece of Kapton on it and you can tell the tape hasn't so much as flinched at the heat put out by tubes. That electrical tape OTOH will eventually cook and leave a gooey mess on your amp transformer and tube.

Kapton is expensive though and maybe not necessary. You're probably fine just letting them touch really, so long as you don't ever cause the tube to clack against the transformer and break. You could also tilt the tube ever so slightly, maybe even shim the bottom of the tube to do so. As long as the pins are making a solid contact in the base, they don't care at what point the socket touches them.

Thanks a lot for the advice. I got a roll of kapton tape and put a piece in the corner of the bell of the PT that touches the GZ34. Great solution!!