jsnwhite619
Friend of Leo's
I started not to post a thread on this one, but I had so much trouble with it I figured it would be a good roadmap for others down the road to AVOID my issues.
The chassis came from the Zach guy on ebay who makes the chassis. I've gotten a few other from him, no problems, but I guess is measurements are off on his CNC because I had the same issues with the screw holes on my preamp sockets as @Phrygian77 did with his - I had to drill and file them out to fit. No biggie, but it takes a bit more time to do and do it cleanly than just running the screws and nuts. I also had to mark and drill the screws to hold the board on, and because I was making this as a big bore Vibro Champ, I had to drill the new hole to mount the massive 125DSE transformer, plus a couple others for ground connections. I also spent a few days researching solid state rectifiers and debating using one simply because the OT is so big and I was wondering about the proximity to the tubes.
I used an internal cap board b/c I couldn't justify - at the time - paying more than $40 for a cap can when I could use $12-14 worth of F&T's and also bump up the first one to 30uf. Add in that the size of the OT would have been subject to wherever I could fit it in relation to the cap can instead of where I wanted it -- it's huge. So, to mount a cap board, I had to cover the giant whole for the can...couldn't find any kind of premade deal to do that. Had a couple go's with tin snips and sheet metal, but wasn't happy with the end products, and I finally found knockout hole covers at Lowe's and one fit perfectly and is rock solid. But that took a fair amount of time to resolve. Cap board was easy to make - positioning it in the best place and marking and drilling the board holes AND new chassis holes again took way more time than a can ever would have.
I also cut and punched by own circuit board, like I've done for a few years now. When you see that a VC board is only 2.5" wide -- believe it! I went 2-3/4" - and a little longer - and regretted it once it was all going in. Nothing major, but just looks way more cluttered than it should compared to vintage because the leads had to be longer for the longer board. And it's closer to the sockets and controls, so it just looks jammed. Throw in the cap board and it's starting to look like a Mesa Boogie in there...
And to wind up, I have mostly only built my two-knob Harvard/5f2 and their hotrod counterparts for a couple years now...simple stuff. It's been four years since the Princeton Reverb, and that chassis was WAY bigger to work in, not counting my own choices that jammed up this one. I will admit -- this was a much more involved build than I expected - mostly because of what I wanted to do with it, not stock - but my brain just was missing gears on it. I drilled the board exactly like stock...SO many things I would do differently on the holes, layout, where the long wire leads run. I need to make a lot more notes while it's fresh in case I get dumb enough to do this again.
BUT -- it sounds pretty dang good! It is super clean - my Tele pretty much holds together with the amp on 10 unless you really dig in with it. Right now I have the 325v taps on the 290AX, but I think I'm going to swap down to 275v and have more flexibility. Right now, JJ 6v6 and 5y3 had 396v B+(109%) , 5y3 and 5881 were at 388v (approx. 80%) I think. I think I'll drop it down so the 6v6 will be safe for at least a 5y3 or 5u4, then the bigger tubes can have the 5u4/gz34/SS option -- I ordered a plug-in SS rectifier to try. No good pics of the end result yet, but here is a clip from tonight with my Tele clean and with my Blues Driver, through a Jensen C10Q. I honestly think my Blues Driver sounds better and more natural through this amp at a comfortable volume than anything I've ever played it through. The cell clip doesn't do it justice, but best I got til I can mic it. 5y3/5881.
The chassis came from the Zach guy on ebay who makes the chassis. I've gotten a few other from him, no problems, but I guess is measurements are off on his CNC because I had the same issues with the screw holes on my preamp sockets as @Phrygian77 did with his - I had to drill and file them out to fit. No biggie, but it takes a bit more time to do and do it cleanly than just running the screws and nuts. I also had to mark and drill the screws to hold the board on, and because I was making this as a big bore Vibro Champ, I had to drill the new hole to mount the massive 125DSE transformer, plus a couple others for ground connections. I also spent a few days researching solid state rectifiers and debating using one simply because the OT is so big and I was wondering about the proximity to the tubes.
I used an internal cap board b/c I couldn't justify - at the time - paying more than $40 for a cap can when I could use $12-14 worth of F&T's and also bump up the first one to 30uf. Add in that the size of the OT would have been subject to wherever I could fit it in relation to the cap can instead of where I wanted it -- it's huge. So, to mount a cap board, I had to cover the giant whole for the can...couldn't find any kind of premade deal to do that. Had a couple go's with tin snips and sheet metal, but wasn't happy with the end products, and I finally found knockout hole covers at Lowe's and one fit perfectly and is rock solid. But that took a fair amount of time to resolve. Cap board was easy to make - positioning it in the best place and marking and drilling the board holes AND new chassis holes again took way more time than a can ever would have.
I also cut and punched by own circuit board, like I've done for a few years now. When you see that a VC board is only 2.5" wide -- believe it! I went 2-3/4" - and a little longer - and regretted it once it was all going in. Nothing major, but just looks way more cluttered than it should compared to vintage because the leads had to be longer for the longer board. And it's closer to the sockets and controls, so it just looks jammed. Throw in the cap board and it's starting to look like a Mesa Boogie in there...
And to wind up, I have mostly only built my two-knob Harvard/5f2 and their hotrod counterparts for a couple years now...simple stuff. It's been four years since the Princeton Reverb, and that chassis was WAY bigger to work in, not counting my own choices that jammed up this one. I will admit -- this was a much more involved build than I expected - mostly because of what I wanted to do with it, not stock - but my brain just was missing gears on it. I drilled the board exactly like stock...SO many things I would do differently on the holes, layout, where the long wire leads run. I need to make a lot more notes while it's fresh in case I get dumb enough to do this again.
BUT -- it sounds pretty dang good! It is super clean - my Tele pretty much holds together with the amp on 10 unless you really dig in with it. Right now I have the 325v taps on the 290AX, but I think I'm going to swap down to 275v and have more flexibility. Right now, JJ 6v6 and 5y3 had 396v B+(109%) , 5y3 and 5881 were at 388v (approx. 80%) I think. I think I'll drop it down so the 6v6 will be safe for at least a 5y3 or 5u4, then the bigger tubes can have the 5u4/gz34/SS option -- I ordered a plug-in SS rectifier to try. No good pics of the end result yet, but here is a clip from tonight with my Tele clean and with my Blues Driver, through a Jensen C10Q. I honestly think my Blues Driver sounds better and more natural through this amp at a comfortable volume than anything I've ever played it through. The cell clip doesn't do it justice, but best I got til I can mic it. 5y3/5881.
