Boothill 5e3 kit. First time build

Thanks so much guys. I really couldn't have done it without this awesome forum, and RobRob's incredible resource.

My initial optimism that the amp was without hum was, I think, clouded by my rose-tinted, tube glowing eyes and ears. There certainly is some hum (not too bad) there once the volume gets cranked up. I did notice that if I touch the chassis, the hum all but disappears.

Have I created an inadvertent ground loop somehow?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

I picked up the wood today to start the box. Now just gotta practise some dovetails...

Cheers

 

Thanks Paul.

Certainly not excessive hum. I moved my ground bus slightly, as it was contacting the chassis on its way to the input jack. That’s fixed the problem.

 

Been working on the cabinet and have finally finished it... roughly.

It's not going to win any joinery prizes, but a blind man would be pleased to see it. Actually considering that they're the first dovetails I've cut by hand for about 35 years, I'm pretty pleased with it.

Every thing was done using hand tools. I had to figure out how to cut a decent circle in the baffel board. And settled on using a hand router attached to a simple jig. It worked really well.

The amp has so much more bass now. Almost too much.

I found the grill cloth to be a bit of a challenge. So it's a bit wonky. I had trouble getting it tight enough to smooth out the wrinkles.

Anyway. I'll leave the cabinet uncovered for now. I'll eventually end up covering it in tweed. But that part of the project is for another day.

Now I just have to get my guitar skills up to speed to justify the great sounds of the amp.