Auricaps in SSE and SSE as a guitar amp.

[DanP]

Hi,

Question 1.

New to the site and this whole business and starting to get my thoughts gathered for a kit build. I like the look of the simplicity of the SSE but pretty new to all this and will be doing a fair bit of head scratching. I am looking at using Auricaps in the build as recommended by George, but can't seem to find the 0.22uF 5W 450V model. Audience have 200V, 400V, 600V and higher on their site, but no 450V. Can I use a 600V in place of the 450V?

Question 2.

Can I use the SSE as a guitar amp? Would I need to add a pre amp or similar?

Question 3.

George says to use Aux Power Cap and Power choke to improve power supply, but doesn't list any specs or anything like that. Can someone please assist with specs and maybe where I can get them from? I will be getting parts from Mouser and Digikey so if they were from one of those it would be good.

As I said, I'm pretty (extremely) new to all this so can we please speak in little words...

Dan

(I thank you in advance for your patience)

 

[nic6paul]

Get the 600vdc capacitor. For the supplemental power capacitor you want to find a motor run capacitor. These are used in air conditioner units a lot. This one will work just fine in the SSE MOTOR RUN CAPACITOR They will cost you much more purchasing them from digikey or mouser. I have bought a bunch of motor run capacitors from this seller.

The choke again you will probably have to buy else where. Depending on what power transformer you buy you may be able to find the choke there as well. Allied electronics has a budget power transformer as well as a choke which is suitable.

TRANSFORMER
CHOKE
Nic

 

[fandersen]

For the supplemental power capacitor you want to find a motor run capacitor. These are used in air conditioner units a lot. This one will work just fine in the SSE MOTOR RUN CAPACITOR They will cost you much more purchasing them from digikey or mouser.

Dan lives in Australia so buying from ebay will not always be a good option as many sellers in the US won't ship outside of the US. Buying from digi-key may well be cheaper, especially if he is already putting in a digi-key order. See digi-key part number 338-1863-ND.

 

[SemperFi]

You can always use a cap with a higher voltage rating.

Using a HiFi amp for guitar is doable, but probably wont sound really cool. The flat response gives a rather dull tone, good for jazz, but not much else. Besides the power supply is way too stiff.
Yes you will need a preamp unless you like clean tones at low volume, which of course you dont. Some pedals with lots of gain and high output may work as an emergency solution.

 

[Tubelab_com]

Using a HiFi amp for guitar is doable, but probably wont sound really cool. The flat response gives a rather dull tone, good for jazz, but not much else. Besides the power supply is way too stiff.

Actually I have made some rather cool sounding guitar amps out of a SSE board. There are several issues. They can be dealt with.

Yes, some sort of preamp is absolutely necessary. A guitar doesn't put out near enough signal to crank the SSE into the distortion zone. The simplest solution is the use of a guitar preamp made for this purpose. I have an old ADA MP1 that uses a pair of 12AX7's and a bunch of chips to deliver all sorts of pre-programmed patches from mellow to full metal racket! The MP1 hasn't been made in years, but there are similar devices still being made. Another option is to build your own preamp. There are several preamp designs on the AX84 web site. Good amp designs too. The usual HiFi preamp won't give you Jimi's tone. It will make a squeaky clean sound maybe useful for an acoustic guitar.

A large expensive HiFi quality OPT will also give you a clean sound. You want the transformer to overload a bit, so use one on the small side. I find that the Edcor XSE 15-8-5K cranks pretty good. Cheap too.

Yes, the power supply is somewhat stiff. This is useful for some playing styles, but not for a long sustaining distorted sound. So, use a 5U4 instead of a 5AR4, and reduce the capacitance value for the power supply caps. 22uF for the first cap, and 22 or 47 for the second cap. Still observe the 500 volt ratings.

I also served up some extra distortion by removing the CCS chip, replacing it with a jumper wire and changing the 10K resistor connected to it to 39K. Different resistor values give different sounds. You can even stick a 12AX7 in place of the 12AT7 and use a 100K resistor for more gain (not for HiFi).

The instructions for the SSE detail wiring the amp for triode mode, or for UL mode. These modes do not do Jimi. You need to wire the amp for pentode mode to get it to scream! It makes more power this way too.

There two channels on the SSE board and a guitar amp usually needs only one. I have addressed this 3 ways. Most of the time I just leave the parts out of one half of the board to make a single channel amp. It is also possible to run both channels in parallel to get double the power output. A different OPT is needed.

There is another possibility that I have used twice and I haven't doccumented it yet, but it makes the SSE into a real contender in the guitar amp world. It requires an external phase splitter in the preamp. I have built two, both were different, and I haven't quite finalized it yet. Why would you need a phase splitter in an SE amp? You need it to make the SSE board into a screamin 50 watt push pull amp.

I have been stuck at work for 10 to 12 hour days for the past 2 months, and things won't change for a while, but this one needs to get finished. Why, because I have been quietly building a secret project in wood shop class (when I can actually go). What is it? It is the first Tubelab guitar. Yes, tubes inside the guitar. It won't be done for a while, but I am going to need a new amp since I don't own a working guitar amp at the present moment.

 

[DanP]

Thanks guys.

George, you lost me at "actually"... Hehehe... Ok maybe not totally, as I said, I am very (read totally) new to all this, but have done a bit of reading, so some of what you say makes sense.

I am interested in your second last paragraph. I was hoping to keep the board as stock as possible (less chance for me to stuff it up). I might be getting the wrong idea, but are you saying that by adding a phase splitter, I can use the stock SSE board, or the board with the previously mentioned mods? If I can change the SSE to a screamin PP, why wouldn't (couldn't) I just build the Simple Push-Pull? As I said, I'm a newby to this so try not to laugh at my dumb questions too hard...

I've been looking for the pre amps on the AX84 site but not finding them. Only references to it on the description of one of the kits.

Dan