Next step..attempting Sluckey's AC-15

[Ed_Chambley]

In case you may wonder, here is the daddy.


I built a head and cab as you may notice.  I owned an original years ago and it was a combo.  I had so much trouble with microphonic and heat that I sold it.  This tube up design cured the heat problem and the Celestial Blue is inside the closed single 12 cab.


I always wished I had never sold it.  There are a few mods that have been done.  I found slowing the tremolo, making both channels available, but I do like to be able to switch off and muse the 12Ax7 without the EF86 for lower volume playing around the house.


I also have my Plate Voltages a little below what other run at.  Mine runs right at 300vDc with 120ac.  This is for 2 reasons.  One is it changes the breakup point to almost immediate with a hard touch and the volume is much closer to my Princeton since it runs 2, 10's.


Great amp!  Looks like yours is coming along nicely.




And yes, it has a Stand By switch and doesn't need it until you want to sell it.  Guitar players do not like thing to change and I still install a Standby and I know it is not needed.  I also could not get a JTM45 build to sell because I used the standby for a hot switch.  Removed the Hot Switch and the amp sold the next weekend.


I am not selling these for profit!


Gotta thin the herd every once in a while.

[sluckey]

That looks great Ed. I really like the mouse door on the rear panel!   

[purpletele]

Sluckey is leading you on.  I was building one at the same time and had no worries at all. 


I did hold off a tad until one fired up, his.



 Gotta say it has turned out to me my most used amp of the last few years.  Most used for playing that is.  As I mentioned before, I use this as my clean and overdrive amp along with a Princeton reverb and the 2 together are really nice.


Here is a couple of pix of mine complete.  I went with my Early Restored 62 Bassman having a baby look.

Nice work Ed!

That's sharp. 

[ratgon]

Ed. Those are some beautiful amps! Nice work!

And I'm glad you showed up as I have a question for ya. I believe I've picked up along the way that you make your own faceplates. If so, what do you use? What materials and methods?

Thanks.

And again...really nice work.

[schutone]

Looking good so far.  I just finished mine last week.  Go slow, verify, verify, verify    When you are done, you will be well rewarded with an awesome sounding amp!  Here are a few inspiration pics of mine to help on your way

[sluckey]

Beautiful work Schutone! Thanks for sharing.

[Ed_Chambley]

That looks great Ed. I really like the mouse door on the rear panel!   

I will have you know I did not do that little mouse door and I will make a comment back to you even though you are just jealous.  I will say my cabinet work is just a tad better than yours tho.    That hole was someone drinking Icehouse, really!  I was rolling tubes and a "friend" was sitting holding it. Stood up and fell over to the left into my drill press, so I simply cut off the smashed corner.  Dang Icehouse drinkers.




FACEPLATES, yes.  Well, I own a printing company and we do work for a sign company that makes Dye Sub ink printed aluminum.  I just use Illustrator and get the printed on a large sheet of Aluminum.  Since the machine they use to print will print on a 5.5 foot x 10 foot you can get a lot at once.


Really, I cannot say the cost of them since they just do it for me.  I usually get a few done at once.  I know it is sad I have no life outside of amp building.

[Ed_Chambley]

Looking good so far.  I just finished mine last week.  Go slow, verify, verify, verify    When you are done, you will be well rewarded with an awesome sounding amp!  Here are a few inspiration pics of mine to help on your way

Yea buddy, that is nice!

[ratgon]

Wow Schutone! That looks great! It's beautiful!

It's such a trip and inspiration to see another amp following Sluckeys layout to a tee like I am. This is a great reference.

Great cabinet work too. I'll be starting my cab build as soon as I can reclaim some workshop space which at the moment is devoted to concrete kitchen countertops. Always making something.

Thanks for sharing those. Clearly I'm in good company

[sluckey]

Icehouse... Gateway to innovative ideas!   

[schutone]

Beautiful work Schutone! Thanks for sharing.

Thanks to you for sharing your awesome layouts!

[sluckey]

Did you have any problems following the drawings? Any suggestions for improvements? Did you run into anything you wish had been done differently?

[schutone]

Did you have any problems following the drawings? Any suggestions for improvements? Did you run into anything you wish had been done differently?

I thought the layouts were super easy to follow.  This wasn't my first amp build, so I had some previous experience to go on, but your board layouts and showing the wiring were amazing.  It takes a lot of guesswork out of it.  It probably won't be the last of your layouts I build 

[Willabe]

Here is a couple of pix of mine complete.  I went with my Early Restored 62 Bassman having a baby look.

That amp looks great Ed! 

And do I spy with my little eye a Snark tuner? 

[Willabe]

Looking good so far.  I just finished mine last week.  Go slow, verify, verify, verify    When you are done, you will be well rewarded with an awesome sounding amp!  Here are a few inspiration pics of mine to help on your way

That's a great looking amp too!

What kind of wood? (Saple?)

[purpletele]

Shutone is smoking!

Nice looking amp!

That is a puzzle of a circuit board

[Ed_Chambley]

Here is a couple of pix of mine complete.  I went with my Early Restored 62 Bassman having a baby look.

That amp looks great Ed! 

And do I spy with my little eye a Snark tuner? 

Brad, I have 15 Snark Tuners.  A flea market guy has some, don't know where he got them, and was selling them for $10 each.  The nice rubber coated ones.  Running my mouth as usual I said I will give you $50 for all you have left if you will throw in these 3 tubes.  The tubes were new in box RCA Gray Plate 12Ax7a.

I was joking!

Dude said deal!


Gave a couple away and put one one every instrument I have.  I have 9 instruments that have to be tuned.  Of course, I rat holed the tubes.


The tuner is on my Suhr Modern Pro.  I never found a Stratocaster I was happy with, so I ordered this cheap old thing.  It is a Guthre Given spec Bingle Burst Mahogany Body with a Roasted Maple neck and Ebony fingerboard and has the Blower switch.


Sorry for the hijack, but blame it on Brad.  Blame everything on Brad.

[ratgon]

Hi. So, first of all, I hope the drawing makes sense and is legible. I don't have Visio or really anything else available at the moment. So, thanks for looking

I know the PPIMV is a simple enough circuit but I really just wanted to run by my idea of how it's wired into Sluckey's layout before I just went hacking away.

It seems I'm removing the two 220k resistors and the jumpers connecting them to the coupling caps and replacing them with the ganged pots and 2.2M resistors. But I also want to make sure the top cut is incorporated correctly.

So, if you can, have a look and hopefully, I got it and can get moving forward.

Thanks. I appreciate it.

[ratgon]

Am I even close?

[pompeiisneaks]

it looks right to me from the PPIMV perspective, but not really sure about the top cut, if it still fits in this type of setup still etc.  I don't know if that now creates a different interaction and may negate it or cause other unwanted behavior, Hopefully sluckey or someone else can let us know.

~Phil

[ratgon]

Thanks. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Not sure if it changes the top cut filtering.

And if it does then I'm not sure which of the two would be most beneficial.

Thanks for checking Phil.

[sluckey]

I suggest you build it stock and play it a while. Add the MV later if you still think it needs one. Let your own ears tell you if it's a good thing. I don't need an mv on mine.

[ratgon]

Thanks Sluckey. That makes sense. I think I'll take your advice. It looks like it'll be easy enough to insert if needed.

[ratgon]

Hey all. So I just finished wiring this guy. Gonna take a break and then get the highlighter out for a couple passes. Here's hoping. If anything jumps out at ya please let me know.

Thanks

[sluckey]

Only thing that jumps out at me is... Damn! You're fast! 

[purpletele]

That is intense!

Nice work.

[Ed_Chambley]

Looks good from here. Colorful too.

[tubenit]

Well done! Looks fantastic!


With respect, Tubenit

[pompeiisneaks]

Outstanding, I like how you did that shift network, instead of lining up all the capacitors you have them in a diagonal downwards, looks cool :)

~Phil

[Tony Bones]

It is amazing to look at. That vibrato / tremolo had better be mesmerizing with all that circuitry! 

[ratgon]

Thanks everyone. But all credit goes to Sluckey. It's a beautiful layout and design. All his work made a fairly, for me at least, complex amp manageable. I'll keep ya posted as I get to putting some angry wall pixies into it.

[Willabe]

Did you use a nylon bolt with 2 nylon nuts and a ring terminal to fasten a grid resistor(?) to the chassis? 

[ratgon]

I did. Of course my first move was to start out with a regular screw then that "oh jeez, cmon man" feeling washed over me

[Willabe]

Great idea. 

[ratgon]

Ok. So I fired it up. Good news and bad news. The normal channel sounds great! It was a quick test as I have to head to class but it sounded great, the brilliance selector and top cut sounded fine and it was very, very quiet at idle.

The trem channel, however...nothing.

So I tried to trace a signal from a generator with a scope. Signal comes through the input switch fine (I used the one input threeway switch mod). It goes in and out of the first ax7 fine. I didn't have time to verify gain but it seems fine and very clean. I traced it through its filtering to the modulator tube and then nothing.

Weirdly though, as a press on pins 2 and 7 of the 12au7 to check signal input I get intermittent sound if the press the pin hard enough. But I don't think I hear any vibe or trem so not sure what's happening.

I took out the tube and reinserted it...socket looks fine.

Then I tried it with guitar and again pressed the grids of the modulator. Couldn't reproduce it.

Oh, I also had found a ground on the trem volume I missed. But I fixed that before I fired up, in case anyone notices it in the pic I posted.

I'll get back at it when I get home..

Thanks

[ratgon]

Ok, well...here's an update. I got home after a four hour class and proceeded to start tracing the signal again. I kept finding it! So I plugged in the guitar and it works perfectly!

Thank you Sluckey. What a great amp. I have it through only a champ 8 inch as I wait to get its speaker and build the cab but it sounds great. Super quiet. The trem is rich and deep and as slow as ya like. The vibrator is crazy. Like aflanger almost. And bridging the inputs allows all kinds of great sounds .

I'll take all voltages tomorrow and see where I am and let it cook some.

Honestly, having it fix itself feels pretty dodgy so I'll stay with it awhile.

Thanks!

[ratgon]

Just checking in with this as I start to build a cab for it. I gotta say that this amp sounds incredible. This was well beyond the scope of any of the champs, deluxe and even the 18w kit I've built. Sluckeys design and layout truly walked me through it.

However, it's one loud amp. I think I'd def like to try the PPIMV in it which should be easy enough so I'm hoping I can get a look at what I think to be the proper wiring of it. It's a little bit up on the thread. I'm happy to repost my drawing when I get back to my comp if needed.

It seems pretty straightforward, just not entirely sure if I'm tying it into the top cut circuit (pot) properly.

Anyway, thanks to all you who've helped so far

[sluckey]

I would do the PPIMV like this...

[ratgon]

Sluckey! Thank you so much! I really appreciate this. Again, and probably not for the last time, I love this amp. The fact is that it makes me want to simply play guitar more. And that's a big deal. I'll keep ya posted as I work on the cab and the MV. I just got a Celestion Blue for it.

I have managed to squeeze in a 5E3 build that's for a friend's daughter's graduation present. Have to have that fully built by Tuesday.

Thanks again.

[sluckey]

Give us a report on the PPIMV when it's done.

[ratgon]

For sure. Tonight or tomorrow

[sluckey]

FYI, I added the PPIMV drawing to my AC-15 mods document.

     http://sluckeyamps.com/VAC15/Vox_AC15_mods.pdf

[ratgon]

I gotta say the full switched input mod is amazing. I'd really be interested in any reasons why you wouldn't want to add it to any build, short of trying to replicate a "real" build and chassis layout. It's just so functional.

[sluckey]

That simple channel select switch would work great on a lot of amps. Any two channel amp that you can jumper the inputs together would be a candidate. But some two channel amps will have a phase difference between the two channels that will actually cancel the signal rather than add the signal. This causes a rather thin, mostly unpleasant  sound. All of the two channel blackface Fender amps are like this, so this mod will not work for those.