Grounding Champ 5F1

That's a lotta questions Eric! , I'll see what I can do briefly here and if I can be of further help, email me at OKRick at aol dot com.

"I also heard you should connect the two cathode resistors (1kOhm) and the preamp"

No, use 100 ohm.

"- the cap off the fuse"

Don't install that cap. With your "3 prong" power cord W/ground it serves no purpose.

"- the virtual center tap on the filament supply "

Most often, people will install the resistors on the terminals of the pilot lamp, and bend the leads to be grounded around the back of the lamp assy. and solder them directly to the flat back side of the lamp assy., assuming an original type lamp.

"- the Red/Yellow lead off the power tranny "

Install a solder lug under one of the power transformer mounting nuts, and solder it there.

"- the faraday shield (Orange) off the power tranny "

Same spot as the Red/Yellow above.

"- the center tap off the 12Ax7 (pin 9)"

Pin 9 is a filament. You will be putting a filament wire there, don't ground it.

"- pin 1 on the 6V6 (not important on the 6V6GT but I'd still prefer a proper
connection in case I ever use a 6V6 (metal type))"

Kinda depends on the tube socket used. Some sockets have ground lugs on the socket flange, some sockets have pins long enough to just bend over and solder to the flange. Whatever, just make the shortest connection directly to ground from that pin.

"- the green wire from the power cord"

Install another solder lug under a different transformer nut from the one above. It can be soldered directly to the left chassis side, if you have the experience and iron necessary to do it properly. Standards require this to have it's own separate ground point, and it should be very secure. Most important ground you will be making.

"- the speaker output jack "

Will ground itself when installed.

"- the Black wire off the output transformer"

To the ground lug of the speaker jack.

"- the shielding on the shielded wires mentioned above
- anything else I'm missing "

You didn't mention what you plan to use shielded cable on.

"Does it make sense to twist any wires except the filament supply? For example the
other leads going from the power transformer to the rectifier, or the speaker
connection?
Could twisting be a BAD idea, or is it immaterial in other cases? "

Twist all your filament leads, including the rectifier filament leads, and the high voltage leads (red) to the rectifier, nothing else.


Mike Marsh suggested I run a ground buss from the leftmost tang of the volume
pot to the chassis grounded tangs of the input jacks to one of the mounting
screws of the preamp tube.
Do I need to solder anything directly to the chassis? I've heard you need a higher
powered iron for this.

Well, the original amps used a brass plate that installs under the input jacks and volume pot for a ground buss. Obviously, you didn't get one of these with your kit. My best advice would be to get one, and solder your grounds from the board to it, as was done on the original amps. You can buy one from Weber VST. On your Fender layout, all the leads from the board with the little ground arrows solder to the brass plate, and yes, a stout iron, minimum 80 watt, is necessary. I suppose you can probably run all your grounds from the board and volume pot to an input jack ground lug, but I think I would probably run the plate/screen filter ground back to the power transformer. I disagree with running a lead to the preamp socket, unless you are using isolated input jacks.
I really think using Leo's method of the brass plate would keep you out of trouble. You can tinker with experimental grounding after you get more experience.
Good luck, you'll get it runnin'
Rick S