Hoffman Amplifiers Tube Amplifier Forum
Amp Stuff => Tube Amp Building - Tweaks - Repairs => Topic started by: andy81563 on August 28, 2020, 09:22:06 am
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I decided to build my first amp, a 5E3 Fender Deluxe, from a kit. I went with one from Boot Hill Amps and have been very pleased with it so far. However, after wiring everything up and going through the startup phase, I have encountered lots of background noises. The initial check of voltages looked pretty good but there was too much hum, hiss and popping. I am sure my wire dress and soldering job has everything to do with it but I wanted to post some pictures in case there is some obvious mistake I have made. Oh yeah, one other little detail... I stupidly put power to the 6V6 tubes without a load connected. I thought I had the speaker jack in but alas, it was not. So, this may have done damage. I just don't know what usually happens. The OT and PT do not seem affected but there could something else.
Thank you for indulging with any constructive comments.
Andy
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I think you hit the nail. The solder joints at the turrets do not look very good. May not be all your fault. There is a recent thread here on a Boot Hill turret board with poorly plated turrets that would not take solder well. Check that out and see if any of the problems ring true.
Regardless of what you decide to do - I politely suggest that you read up on soldering to turrets, here on Doug's pages, and practice before you rebuild. That will avoid much :BangHead:
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Those hard to solder turrets take so much heat to get the solder to 'kind of stick.. direct consequence is that all your caps, resistors and electrolytics have probably been overheated. So there is a good chance your amp will be noisy when using tose components again...
My 0.02$
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And this is the thread I referred to: https://el34world.com/Forum/index.php?topic=26184.msg286291#msg286291 (https://el34world.com/Forum/index.php?topic=26184.msg286291#msg286291)
No quick and easy way out if this is the problem.
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I've turned my 5e3 on without a speaker connected more than I'd like to admit and I haven't destroyed anything yet. I've also done lots of bad soldering technique and haven't cooked any components yet.
My suggestion is to turn it on, let it hiss and pop, get a wood chopstick and poke around. Sometimes you can find a weak solder joint or wire too close to something else doing that.
Another interesting thing to try is to figure out where the noise is coming from. Does the noise vary with the volume/tone knobs? Does removing V1 or V2 help?