My Express Build!

[Lonely Raven]

Howdy all!

I'm new here. I heard about this forum from some gents in The Gear Page, they suggested I root around in here to pick up info for my first 'wreck build.

Sadly, I didn't realize till reading these forums that Ken was no longer with us. I hear he was a cool cat, and someone I'd love to have a beer and chat with.

Anywho, I've built a couple BF Champs and a Tweed Deluxe I gave to my Dad for his 55th birthday, but this was my first kit, and as I've been told quite a complex amp. While I can sorta read a schematic, I've basically been following layouts like a paint by numbers, while pouring over Dave Funks book to try and figure out what I'm really doing. So with that said, here are some snaps of my 'wreck.

This is a Ceriatone chassis and parts, ToneSlut transformers. Haven't decided on tubes yet as I've not been able to crank it (apartment living)

(Note: I love photography, but I was a bit too excited to take really good photos - sorry)

My Bengal inspecting the polish I put on the chassis after taking all that plastic off and buffing out the burnt plastic around the cutouts.

[img:800:537]http://lonelyraven.zenfolio.com/img/v3/p965739552-4.jpg[/img]


Getting Started:

[img738]http://lonelyraven.zenfolio.com/img/v3/p661437115-5.jpg[/img]


I wanted to build the boards myself.

[img738]http://lonelyraven.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p910696728-5.jpg[/img]


I think I did a good job!

[img738]http://lonelyraven.zenfolio.com/img/v2/ ... 0159-5.jpg[/img]
[img738]http://lonelyraven.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p615965056-5.jpg[/img]

I um...was very involved in the amp and forgot to take photos up to this point:

[img738]http://lonelyraven.zenfolio.com/img/v3/ ... 3625-5.jpg[/img]


COMPLETED!

[img1073]http://lonelyraven.zenfolio.com/img/v3/p584804759.jpg[/img]

As I said, I've not had a chance to do more then plug it in (with random old tubes since I wasn't sure it wouldn't blow up) and give it a little twang and listen. It's LOUD! I can't turn up more then a hair before the crazy lady upstairs starts banging on the floor. I get a bit of hiss, no oscillation, or other badness, a bit of 60 cycle hum but that's probably because I don't have a bottom for the chassis yet. I didn't realize it wouldn't come with one, so I have to figure something out.

So hows it look?

[geetarpicker]

Congrats on the build! Looks nice.

Yep they are loud, but were designed for gigging 1st and nothing but. I play my original though an old Marshall 4x12 with old 25s (or Scumback M75s) onstage either straight up or attenuated no more than 4db usually. If it needs more than 4db of attenuation on stage the drummer ain't hittin' hard enough!

My original has a 6.6k primary which does make for a quieter amp, and 25 watt Celestions are noticably less efficient than most other speakers. Both of those factors tame the volume somewhat.

Very cool CAT too!

[hairyandy]

Looking good to me, nice job!

Andy

[drhulsey]

So hows it look?

She looks fantastic I'm sure she'll sound great, as well
Bottom plates can be bought from Allied Electronics:
http://www.alliedelec.com/Search/Search ... 806997617F
That's one Allymey turned us on to (Did I just end that sentence with TWO prepositions?). You can use aluminum flashing available at home stores, and some have uses metallic tape on the bottom of the cab.
BTW, I know why the build went so well for you. It was the pre-start-up CAT SCAN

[Tubetwang]

Looks good!!

I was so happy with mine after turn on...that i proceded to play along Bob Dylan's Love Sick...huh... CRANKED ...

One EL34 went cherry red after distorsion caper...

I've put in a Winged C matched set for now and will put 1 ohn resistors when my next order arrive.

I just love the simplicity and sound of this Express.

Enjoy your amp!!

[Lonely Raven]

Congrats on the build! Looks nice.

Yep they are loud, but were designed for gigging 1st and nothing but. I play my original though an old Marshall 4x12 with old 25s (or Scumback M75s) onstage either straight up or attenuated no more than 4db usually. If it needs more than 4db of attenuation on stage the drummer ain't hittin' hard enough!

My original has a 6.6k primary which does make for a quieter amp, and 25 watt Celestions are noticably less efficient than most other speakers. Both of those factors tame the volume somewhat.

Very cool CAT too!

Thanks! I didn't know about the 6.6k primary being less efficient. I used the 5.2 taps as I thought that's what was used in the original Trainwrecks.

I'm thinking about building the Air Brake, it should help a bit.

I have a pair original, first run Scumbacks with 55hz cones...I think that makes them G12H-55, but they are blue backed and labeled only as SA-16. I picked up some Warehouse Guitar Speakers Green Berets (supposidly Greenback clones), but I found out after the fact that they are 100db!! So that throws things a little louder I expect. I can't afford more speakers at this time, but I might have to try in order to tame the volume some.

So hows it look?

She looks fantastic I'm sure she'll sound great, as well
Bottom plates can be bought from Allied Electronics:
http://www.alliedelec.com/Search/Search ... 806997617F
That's one Allymey turned us on to (Did I just end that sentence with TWO prepositions?). You can use aluminum flashing available at home stores, and some have uses metallic tape on the bottom of the cab.
BTW, I know why the build went so well for you. It was the pre-start-up CAT SCAN

(sigh) I saw the Cat Scan coming from a mile away...

I looked at your chassis shots, and yours is MUCH cleaner then my build! I need to clean up around the power tubes a bit, so I'm looking for good photos and ideas to get this straightend out a bit.

Thanks for the part lead at Allied!

Looks good!!
One EL34 went cherry red after distorsion caper...
I've put in a Winged C matched set for now and will put 1 ohn resistors when my next order arrive.
I just love the simplicity and sound of this Express.
Enjoy your amp!!

I have to figure out what tubes to use. I have some Ruby Tubes, but they drift a lot and I hate rebiasing if I don't have easy access to bias ports and bias trimpot from the outside of the chassis. I'm spoiled by my Peters amp that has that setup. I also have some badly matched EH EL34 and I thought I had some JJ but I can't find them...I seem to have PILES of 6L6 tubes around as I'm a big Super Reverb fan. Chances are I'm going to try some JJ KT-77 since that's a good middle ground of EL34 and 6L6.

I can't pat myself on the back yet...I plugged it in and it made sound, but I've not cranked it...so there may be some builder induced gremlins that I have yet to find and work out.

[jerrydyer]

I like the orange colored caps there. Hey I am having trouble with the transformer guy calling me back. Can someone give me some part numbers for OT and PT. Im building this exact amp. thanx

[Lonely Raven]

www.ToneSlut.com for transformers.

Also, you should check the spelling and grammar on your web page.

[jerrydyer]

toneslut wont call me back and yes, I too am a jack of all trades and master of none, hence the spelling errors on the site. thanks though. I need to get back at that thing. I just threw it up myself.

[mlp-mx6]

I looked at your chassis shots, and yours is MUCH cleaner then my build! I need to clean up around the power tubes a bit, so I'm looking for good photos and ideas to get this straightend out a bit.

If you want "THE" pictures - get the Francesca gut shots in the Files section.

[Lonely Raven]

I looked at your chassis shots, and yours is MUCH cleaner then my build! I need to clean up around the power tubes a bit, so I'm looking for good photos and ideas to get this straightend out a bit.

If you want "THE" pictures - get the Francesca gut shots in the Files section.

I did, but they focus on the boards and pots and not really the octal sockets as I would have liked...and many of the macro shots are botched (blurry). So I'm scouring other peoples builds for ideas. I've already got a couple thoughts for cleaning up the mess.

[gearhead]

There are Two sets of Francesca shots. If you haven't, you need to download Allymey's, which is a 130mb zip file. There are a bunch of high fidelity, Big socket shots, especially of the octals.

[drhulsey]

If you want "THE" pictures - get the Francesca gut shots ...

There are some composite shots I posted on this thread:
https://tubeamparchive.com/viewtopic.ph ... ght=#36197
They were made from "The" pictures. I think you can see the tube sockets well

[Blues Hound]

Lonely Raven,

Great work!!! Very clean

I put 100 ohm resistors on V5 going from Pin 2 and Pin 7 to ground, just like Francesca...

It should help with the 60 cycle hum.

Steve

[Blues Hound]

Here is a pic: