New D'Lite build - amp/cabinet/speakers...

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wjdunham
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New D'Lite build - amp/cabinet/speakers...

Post by wjdunham »

I received my DLite kit a few weeks back and have finally made some progress on it. I had to make a few mechanical tweaks to add the relay boards, move the bias pot so I could add the OT primary impedance switch. Still need to locate the FX loop board, but I have not received that yet. Thanks to this forum I had an easy time with all the changes, so many beautiful projects/photo's to work from. I spend more time drooling over all the pics than working on my amp :D
I'm also building the head cabinet (complete) and 2x12 speaker cab to match (still in progress). So far the most difficult part of the whole project has been getting the tweed to lay down properly over the compound curve along the top front cutout in the head cabinet. A little paint thinner on the pre-laquered tweed I was using finally did the trick. I've wired up the power supplies and filter boards, switched it on and measured the voltages, so far so good!
Here are some photo's - any feed back, especially on the power supply photo, is always appreciated.
Bill
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Structo
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Re: New D'Lite build - amp/cabinet/speakers...

Post by Structo »

Looking good Bill.

Nothing better than Tweed and Oxblood!

On my D'Lite I put the power supply for the Ironsounds FX loop where you now have your bias pot.

I installed individual bias pots and located them between the PI and the first power tube.
Tom

Don't let that smoke out!
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Colossal
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Re: New D'Lite build - amp/cabinet/speakers...

Post by Colossal »

Nice Floral Jem by the way. Haven't seen one in a long time! I had a Green Swirl Jem back in the day.
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M Fowler
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Re: New D'Lite build - amp/cabinet/speakers...

Post by M Fowler »

Bill,

Nice work on the amp, head and cabinet so far.

Mark
tubedogsmith
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Re: New D'Lite build - amp/cabinet/speakers...

Post by tubedogsmith »

Looking good. One comment though and please don't take it wrong. I prefer the grain of the tweed all running in one direction on the front of an amp. Easy for me to say though as I've never done any tweed or tolex work.
wjdunham
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Re: New D'Lite build - amp/cabinet/speakers...

Post by wjdunham »

I was wondering if anyone would notice :-) There are two things I would do differently, one is the grain on the middle piece in the front, the other is the orientation of the grain on the left side as your looking at the front. I chose to make it run the same direction as the right side, but if you look at the top edges along the left and right, the grain runs in a different direction. It looked OK until I put the top piece on, then I realized my mistake, but too late. The other thing I really debated was the hard corners, tweed amps don't have those, but my corner work was not quite perfect and I chose to cover it up the easy way. Also, I do gig and transport to practice every week and I wanted a little extra protection.

That floral Jem is one of my favorites, and those things seem to be getting more valuable.
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Structo
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Re: New D'Lite build - amp/cabinet/speakers...

Post by Structo »

Yes I did notice the orientation of the tweed as well but I wasn't going to be a buzz kill and mention it.

Traditionally tweed goes with a left to right slant. \\\\\\

I have a Carvin and a ext speaker in tweed and they both have chrome or nickel corner protectors. :wink:
Tom

Don't let that smoke out!
wjdunham
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Re: New D'Lite build - amp/cabinet/speakers...

Post by wjdunham »

After seeing the HRM build thread, I got inspired to burn some midnight oil and get my D'Lite over the hump. On a side note - how the hell does anyone make any money doing this for a living, these things take for ever to build :-) Anyway, I'm 4 or 5 wires away from being ready to fire it up, I'd love to hear any comments or see if anyone spots something that doesn't look right. After so many hours staring at this I'm not sure I would see the obvious...
I'm using the "tweaked" schematic and layout. The extra switch on the front selects between the .01u and .047u mid-cap, the power supply mounted next to the speaker jacks is for the ironsound FX loop, which will be mounted in the plane above V1/V2. I am still planning to add a switch to enable/disable V1B feedback, and the OD treble bleed.
The 110K plate load resistor on the PI is a 1W resistor even though it's not the same size as the others. I've seen some builds where it looks like the treble cap is an orange drop, but I haven't been able to find any in the pf range. Is this really the case or am I missing something?
Thanks in advance for any comments.
Bill
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wjdunham
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Re: New D'Lite build - amp/cabinet/speakers...

Post by wjdunham »

One more photo from a slightly different angle..
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Pete
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Re: New D'Lite build - amp/cabinet/speakers...

Post by Pete »

wjdunham wrote: I've seen some builds where it looks like the treble cap is an orange drop, but I haven't been able to find any in the pf range. Is this really the case or am I missing something?l
The orange drop usually in the position where you have the treble cap is the .002 mid boost cap (in seres with the pf treb cap) what you may be missing is Mid boost. If no mid boost switch, then you have it correct. I'm not real familiar with the D'Lite.
wjdunham
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Re: New D'Lite build - amp/cabinet/speakers...

Post by wjdunham »

No mid-boost switch on the stock D'Lite, so that might explain it. Thanks.
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stelligan
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Re: New D'Lite build - amp/cabinet/speakers...

Post by stelligan »

Congratulations, Your build looks very nice! Keep us posted at power up time. Looks like you are very close to flippin the switch.......
wjdunham
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Re: New D'Lite build - amp/cabinet/speakers...

Post by wjdunham »

I did power it up last night, much to my surprise everything seems to be working!! I walked a tube through each of the preamp and poweramp sockets to make sure the heaters worked and nothing blew up, set the bias to 40ma and let 'er rip. Voltages on all the preamp plates are between 190V and 200V, with my scope setup it's a little tough to get enough resolution to see if I have the magic 190V V1 and 200V V2 values, but close enough for now. About 290 on the PI plates. I can't measure more than 400V so I don't have the exact value for the 6V6's.

What I can't believe is how good it sounds out of the box, with literally no tweaking, I left the OD trim and PI trim at 50%, the only adjustment I made was to the bias pot. I'll post some clips on a separate thread.
doveman
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Re: New D'Lite build - amp/cabinet/speakers...

Post by doveman »

Definitely play with the OD trimmer (between 9:30-11:00) ... there's magic in there somewhere. I just adjusted mine down a little more this week. Tightened everything up a little ... nice.
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