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First built - 5F1 - works right away!

Discussion in 'Shock Brother's DIY Amps' started by Little Jay, Jan 14, 2021.

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  1. Jan 14, 2021 #1
    Little Jay

    Little Jay Tele-Meister

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    I have some experience modding, repairing and maintaining tube amps, but never built one form scratch. So the COVID lockdown was the perfect excuse!

    I had a 4 ohm Jensen P10R and some IKEA-shelves laying around, so I ordered a kit (chassis only) from a Dutch electronics shop (https://www.jukebox-revival.nl/) and off we go!

    The built was simple enough, but man, a 5F1 chassis is cramped! The cab is simple: just glued with dowels and some reinforment slats on the inside. I don't have the tools or the space the make finger joints or dove tails.

    I did change one thing: the elco of the preamp (the last or first one, depending how you look at it) was grounded only with a wire to the ground lug of the input jacks, and thus only through the mechanical connection of the jack to the chassis (the other two elco's were grounded with a seperate wire with a lug on one of the PT-bolts). This seemed a bit strange to me: if the jack comes loose, the elco is grounded thru the guitar strings and the player! Not a good thing imho, so I connected that elco also to ground of the other two elco's. While this may result in a ground loop in theory, the amp is very quiet and only with volume past 75% some hiss and the tiniest hum is audible.

    And it worked right away on the first start up!

    I am very surprised by this little 5 watter! It sounds great and has a lot more volume and clean headroon than I expected. Great for practise at home, but I can see myself doing the occasional coffee-house gig with it!

    The finished product:
    [​IMG]

    My DIY ES-330/Casino sounds simply superb through it!
    [​IMG]

    Unfinished cab:
    [​IMG]

    Some gut-shots:
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
    Jlwctn, dan40, 2L man and 8 others like this.
  2. Jan 14, 2021 #2
    D'tar

    D'tar Friend of Leo's

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    Sweet! Congrats and enjoy your new tube amp!!!
     
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  3. Jan 14, 2021 #3
    Little Jay

    Little Jay Tele-Meister

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    Thanks!
     
  4. Jan 14, 2021 #4
    King Fan

    King Fan Poster Extraordinaire Ad Free Member

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    Good for you. As D'tar says, enjoy. And hey, if TDPRI is any sample, works great on fire-up isn't a universal experience, so feel extra good.

    For future builders reading your post, grounding at an input jack is best done with a star washer under the jack. But there're several quiet ways to do the ground scheme on these little Fenders, and it sounds like yours works fine.
     
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  5. Jan 14, 2021 #5
    Mongo Park

    Mongo Park Tele-Afflicted

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    Beauty, glad you are up and running right out of the box. Your can looks fantastic, these small amps always are much bigger with a big speaker and cab. It is to bad Leo and friends didn’t/couldn’t do the same. I think economic pressures prevented it.
    Cheers Ron.
     
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  6. Jan 14, 2021 #6
    Little Jay

    Little Jay Tele-Meister

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    In spite of the 10" speaker the cab almost has the exact same dimensions as that of the 8" Champ! It's only a little deeper at the bottom, creating a more angled baffle, which makes the speaker tilt back a little more and points the speaker magnet down a little, so it's not in the way of the tubes or trafo's.

    With my Boss FRV-1 it sounds amazing!
     
    Last edited: Jan 14, 2021
  7. Jan 14, 2021 #7
    ping-ping-clicka

    ping-ping-clicka Poster Extraordinaire Ad Free Member

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    Congratulations and very well done . Looking at the fiddly bits inside everything is so net and clean, it reminds me of a look of a High Watts gutty-watts. Your skill set is showing.

    000 My pet rock as a doggie wog.jpg
     
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  8. Jan 14, 2021 #8
    sds1

    sds1 Tele-Afflicted

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    Looks great, way to go!
     
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  9. Jan 14, 2021 #9
    Muzzy

    Muzzy TDPRI Member

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    Looks pretty darn good. It's a nice feeling when it all works out.
     
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  10. Jan 14, 2021 #10
    dan40

    dan40 Friend of Leo's

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    Great looking build inside and out!
     
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  11. Mar 24, 2021 #11
    Little Jay

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    I never posted the video I made of the sound of the Champ, so here it is!



    (The Champ sits on the floor, not visible. I recorded with an SM-58 into a small mixer and from there into my iPhone X with the help of an iRig)
     
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  12. Mar 24, 2021 #12
    jmp81sc

    jmp81sc Tele-Meister

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    DIY Guitar and amp, plus you can play really well!!! Such a tidy build, great attention to detail. Maybe separate you V1 cathode resister from the capacitor as that can get hot.

    Planning your next build yet?
    Take Care
    John
     
    Little Jay likes this.
  13. Mar 24, 2021 #13
    JuneauMike

    JuneauMike Poster Extraordinaire

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