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I have the great fortune of building an amp for Shane Neifer. This isn't something I plan to do on the side, but when Shane expressed interest, I was eager to get it going because of how well he's treated me. The amp will be done this week and we thought it would be fun to do an in progress thread.

Shane wants an amp for blues and plays an ES-335. I decided to design the amp around a Dumble ODS because of the clarity and expressiveness. Dumbles tend to lend themselves towards smooth sounds (Robben Ford, Larry Carlton), so I made some adjustments to give it more grit and to focus it up for a 335. I changed the cathode bypass caps to 4.7uf, with Fender values on all cathode and plate resistors (1.5k, 100k). The mid cap is .01uf rather than .05uf. I almost used 1uf on V1a's bypass but stuck with the 4.7. I expect this to sound like a refined Fender Super.

And now the pics



The wiring goes into what's called a chassis. These come un-drilled so you can lay things out to your liking and 'punch' them, as they call it.



Same thing goes for the board material. I printed the layout so I could just tape it on rather than spend half an hour drawing grids. Old guitar molds make good backers for this and support the argument for a drill press.



Electrical components solder to these little eyelets. You press the eyelet in and flare the back side with the screwdriver.



Believe it or not, an afternoon's work; and I work moderately fast. Layout takes forever.



Then it's time to populate the boards with all of the above. I did that last night but can't take pics in low light. Today's goal is to punch the face and rear of the chassis, install the hardware, and wire up the board and tube heaters. Wednesday should see it completed.

James,

That's way cool. I'm looking forward to seeing more pictures as you build.

Has anyone warned Shane's Llamas yet

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

I understand. What kind of amp are you interested in? The trouble is that
these are all so different, and I've been learning for two years now. John
Mayes triggered my interest when he mentioned an 18 Watt he was
building. I can help you get started if you have a bit more direction.

For example, these are the NEW things I'm trying on this:
- small chassis
- teflon wire

To help taylor the sound for this amp, I ordered transformers with
specific iron (M6) for the core and specifications for the interleaves, etc.

There's just too much for a tutorial to lend itself to THIS amp, but I can
get you going. You CAN build an amp without understanding plate
resistors, cathodes, and all that mumbo jumbo. My first amp was a
Matchless Lightning. In fact, if you go to trinityamps.com, you'll
see a lot of my learning taking place, and they have layouts for you or
even kits.    James Orr39385.6266203704

This is great, James.  Are your amps self biasing?  High current or low?  I know Shane will be pleased.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Thanks, Hesh. That amp got a great review from the buyer when I
realized I needed to sell it. I was very proud of it. I plan to do this in
three days. If I had a kit, I could do it in one long day. Laying everything
out and drilling it, then cleaning the edges takes a while. If I were to do
this for a semi-living, I would have these things fabricated for me. You
have a twin now. What kind of amp would you be interested in?

Thanks, Waddy. This will have a bias adjustment so Shane can switch
between 6V6 and 6L6 tubes (the output transformer was designed to
handle that). He'll touch a digital multi-meter to a few test points and
adjust the pot until it reads correctly for the tube. Much easier done than
read.

Ok, I'm off to layout the face now. I need to squeeze two more knobs on
the front and maintain the separation I like between channels.James Orr39385.6464814815

Yeah it isn't so mysterious if you know where to put the probes.  I used to work on amps with my son.  Way over my head, but very interesting.  He's owned a number of "boutique amps" that allowed tube changing.  Some even to the point of having secondary tube sockets for using the smaller tubes in the power section.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Hesh, there are lots of little amps to build. I built a nice early deluxe that uses a pair of 6v6's for about 12 watts and it gets a very nice clean sound and ya can always crank it to thicken things up without killing yourself.
Lots of info out there on the web for tube amps.
I also built a nice sterio for my shop using a pair of 2A3 tubes for a total of about 3 watts but it cranks loud enough into my "voice of the theatre" system to be heard over the table saw.

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

WOO HOOOO! My job is to make the cabinets. I am waiting on some fabric, grill cloth and speakers. Once they are here I will post on that part of the process. We are going to run twin 12 inch celestions in an under over fashion with the amp as a seperate head. It is going to fun!!

Tanks again James!!

Shane

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Canada

Shane, with the professional look to the last amp James posted I'm sure it will sound tremendous. I'm jealous.


James, you must stop posting these amp threads. I can't take on yet another project.

must... resist... amp... project... must... resist... amp... project...must... resist... amp... project... must... resist... amp... project...must... resist... amp... project... must... resist... amp... project...must... resist... amp... project... must... resist... amp... project...

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nay

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Hesh .. sounds like what you need is a 62 Brownface Vibrolux (fronted by a Mesa V-twin) ... mine arent for sale though

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Chris, I would look up the Brownnote D'Lite with channel switching.
Google for Brownnote's site, and I think you'll be able to learn things on
their forum and find layouts. Do some looking first, but I have their
layout with relays for channel switching. Their D'Lite is similar to a
Dumble ODS with a few differences. Do some research and then PM me
when you have questions. I can give you part numbers on transformers.
It would be very complicated to do as a first project, but if you're careful,
you can do it. What's great about the D'Lite is that you can take the
power section and buddy it up to a different preamp, which is what I've
done.

Hesh, I think you would really enjoy building a 5E3 kit from Trinity. The
5E3 is the 12 watt Deluxe John mentioned. I was able to spend time with
one and marvelled at the versatility it had. They can exude clean warmth
and dirty up nicely. Even 12 watts is LOUD! Best yet, the circuit is very
simple, and the kit will give you a beautiful finished product. I'd like one
for myself.          ;