Diy combo guitar amp build log

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I managed an hour in the shop today so I worked on the enclosure. It's 4 sides held together with pocket screws (from the outside). Screwing from the outside will allow me to round over the corners without hitting the screws. The screws hold everything in place while the glue makes it permanent. Next I'll sand the enclosure, round over the edges, and cover it with tolex.

Wow, I cant believe how quick this came together! Awesome work!
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With the live parts unenclosed in a full chassis pointing downwards, wont you risk touching them if you reach inside of the open backed cab?
 
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"which is perfect for my living room"

I hear that! I just rearranged my Deluxe Reverb into putting out about 4 watts so I could still turn it up into the "sweet spot" and have it be tolerable for practice volume. I still think i have to change out the current speaker (103db sensitivity) with a jensen P12-Q I have laying around to cut back the volume some more but I want to try it with a band tomorrow night first.
 
"which is perfect for my living room"

I hear that! I just rearranged my Deluxe Reverb into putting out about 4 watts so I could still turn it up into the "sweet spot" and have it be tolerable for practice volume. I still think i have to change out the current speaker (103db sensitivity) with a jensen P12-Q I have laying around to cut back the volume some more but I want to try it with a band tomorrow night first.

It might be cheaper to just build an attenuator network. I was thinking of building one for my Ashdown LB30 but never got round to it.
 
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"It might be cheaper to just build an attenuator network. I was thinking of building one for my Ashdown LB30 but never got round to it. "


What I did was free and easy :) I just moved two wires around to run in single ended mode. I used the whole primary which doubled impedance seen by the 6V6, there is only one secondary tap and I don't have any 4 ohm speakers so I put in a 6K6 because it's likes larger loads (11,000 according to the datasheet, the 6V6 says 8,000). I might try using a 6V6 with half the primary with a CCS on the other half to offset Standing DC in effect reducing core saturation. But I like an underrated output transformer sound when driven hard so I don't know if it's worth changing (it sounds pretty killer now). Oh well can't hurt to try and post my findings.

I have a thread on it here so check it out if interested. I don't want to hijack kuroguy's thread.
 
Transformers arrive later this week so I started wiring this amp. Here's the power supply caps and dropping resistors and a picture of the power,standby, and overdrive switch and LEDs. I use spare switch contacts as a terminal point for the LEDs. Power comes in the bottom and out to the LED from the middle. The LED lands on the top and then the return is from the top terminal. This way I don't need to add a terminal strip at the front panel and the wiring remains nice and neat. The LED is on when the switch is in the up position.
 

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Worked on the LED wiring. A few zip ties will clean it up nicely. Also got the filament wiring done. The terminal strips for the LEDs, filament/pilot lights, fuse block are all on the left side of the amp. This is the "dirty" side and is furthestbfrom the audio amplification/signal.
 

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Managed to get it about half way wired in about one and a half hours tonight. Will get the rest wired later this week. Also heard from Edcor today. They're running a little behind and should ship the iron next week. Still, 7 weeks lead time for the significant savings Edcor offers isa great deal any way you look at it.
 

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Aside from mounting and wiring the transformers, this amp is done. I expext the transformers to arrive next thursday or friday and I can hardly wait. The first pic shows the overall wiring. The second pic shows the power supply. All those white wires are the various grounds connected to the star ground. hopefully, this amp will be silent until i command it to be crazy loud and distorted.
 

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I'm not so sure about the logo. I think i'll leave it off for now.

Nah! Put it on - I've been putting DUD25 and DUD15 on the little amps I've been designing and building.
DUD being a bit of tongue in cheek for "Down Under Design".

The guys I built the amps for love it but various others have given me a bit of "stick" about it saying I should take the amp building more seriously and that name does not present me as a serious professional.

Cheers,
Ian
 
It's alive. 6av6 seems a bit microphonic and this amp squeals from the microphonic feedback with gain and overdrive all the way up when the volume is aboveabout 70%. Not sure what to do about that yet. Suggestions?
 

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