I built your 5f1 kit, it's ok. I also built mojotones 5f1 kit. big differences between the two of them. Bottem line is the mojotone kit is a lot closer to the original Fender amp and sounds much better that the tube depot kit.
“This is a great amp”. Also, “The solder just breaks.”. These amps are pieces of crap! I have one so I’m qualified to speak on the matter. Fender = mediocre build quality.
I play Metal music most of the time so depending on how many gain stages the amp has I try to get the first or even second stages on my high gain amp head to have the highest gain rated 12AX7s I can buy at what ever store I get them from. Then my clean head I run medium gain tubes . I have been really lucky with the clean head as its circuits are wired at a pretty low gain on the clean channel using less tubes then my high gain head so I would assume less stages allowing the amp to really keep a nice almost fender clean tone from it when its in its clean channel and then a nice crunchy tone on its distorted channel ... Lots of people will argue that different tubes do not make any difference in tone but I feel they are quite wrong. Each tube has a different gain rating and gain can greatly effect the sound of the tone. I was not aware there was that many version of tubes that shared the exact pinout .. Thanks for the video :)
I would rather hear how different preamp tubes sound at a consistent SPL, if you can do that. Anticipating that lower gain preamp tubes will engage more of the power section.
This! If you measured SPL right as the amp starts to overdrive with a 12AX7, then match all subsequent gain-reduced V1 tubes to that specific SPL, you will get the understanding of how these tubes would behave at a consistent "gig type levels". Now, this is still a very useful video so please don't take this as anything other than a grateful critique. For my '68 drip-edge PR, a volume of "4" is that spot.
Nice illustraion, good work on the video. A few additions I might want to add, though: The tabs that center the assembly in the envelope are most likely not made from aluminium. I am not 100% sure by the looks of it, but solid aluminium does not lend itself very well to be used inside an vacuum environment due to the oxide layer on the surface. It is used on anode coatings but this involves some processing on the pump to make that work. Cooling fins on the grid are to keep the grid cool enough so it does not become an electron emitter itself. The proximity to the hot cathode and the posibillity of barium migrating to the grid from the cathode coating can cause the grid to become able to emmit electrons as well which is not wanted. The getter usually does not contain pure barium as this would be difficult to handle during production, instead it is usually an alloy of barium with other metals such as aluminium and magnesium, both of which are not very good getter materials by themself but help to keep that alloy reasonably stable and workable. Sometimes nitrogen compounds might be added to help with dispersion, I am not sure how common this is, though. Sometimes there is an additional protective coating over that alloy to protect from moisture. When the getter is evaporated this will burn of before the metal evaporated onto the glass. The layer on the glass however is mainly barium in the end. The coating on the cathode is a mainly barium oxide, strontium and calcium oxide might be added, too. Usually it is applied in the form of barium ( or other ) carbonate as the oxide would not be practical to handle in production. When the cathode is first heated in production, the carbonate will convert into the oxide and the gassy byproducts are removed by a vacuum pump or the getter. In operation some of the oxide is reduced to metallic barium which effectively is the electron emitter, not the oxide iteslf. This is btw one reason a tube with this kind of cathode needs a getter, no matter how clean you materials and process are ( which today they are usually not ;-) The cathode itself produces some oxygen in operation which has to be removed. The gold plating on the grid also helps in reducing unwanted electron emission from the grid, but there might be other reasons I am not aware of.
Honestly nothing wrong with the stock tube. Sounds great. I also like the amperex. My feeling about tubes is there are so many variables that in order for a real fair comparison you would need to compare 10 of each model with varying degrees of use and pick the best of each and then redo the comparison. Tubes I think tend to sound better with more use and you can have two of the same brand tube and one sounds great and one unuseable and everywhere between.
The stand you're using for your solder spool is a Great idea! Question: What're you using for a soldering iron? I'm guessing my auto parts store cheapie won't do
you need to back teh camera up, zoom out, so we can see more of whats going on, where wires are going on the other end so forth, its very vague in this manner, you talk about moot things that have nothing to do with building teh amp like whatever you get your solder iron and its deficiencies.. these things don't help anyone at all.. do you want to sell kits? insure your tutorial are much more descriptive you will be trying to show people with all sorts of various handicap's and learning peripherals, humans do not all learn the same, maybe 60% you can group into the same style, if that.. so you have to be very descriptive keeping in mind that you have all sorts of learning abilities.. what attracts folks to this kit is they can afford an amp they otherwise cannot out of a box.. so making crummy how to vids isn't going to urge anyone to go out and just have you build or whatever, they cannot afford it, again that's what attracts people to this kit, 75% guaranteed, so how can you teach that verity how to build it? hint... a new more articulate and precise video folks can make head or tails out of, you don't need to use a macro lens are be zoomed in all the way all the time, if there is something small needs to be looked at sure, zoom in whatever.. but for the most zoom out so viewers can see whats what, it's the equivalent of showing someone how the golden gate bridge was built by zooming in and having only the bolt heads or rivets in the camera lens
Isn't 60 ma a pretty cold two tube setting ? Shouldn't it be more than that At Atleast 70 ? , At 60 for the pair or 30 ma each the dissipation is only at 14.5 watts each on A 30 Watt each tube . In theory 120 ma or 60 ma each should be fine. I know that 70-80 even 90 ma is considered acceptable for most people. I was wondering why Fender would have such a low bias point ? Is it the newer tubes that are the problem or the excessive gain ? . I'd like to understand it more because At 60 ma. For A pair, A lot of The Newer 6L6 GC tubes just don't sound very good.
If these kit's pricing were even roughly in line with the cost of components, I'd be all over it. Why spend that much when you can get a built tube amp for a few hundred more?
Forget about it, for a scientific shootout you need to reamp the same performance, with the same microphone position, etc. Keep the variables consistent and you will be shocked how similar they are.
EH was bottom heavy, mids pulled back, top was thinner clean. Dirty was raw and sounded like drive from a bad fuzz. JJ was a little fuller, better balanced, and a sweeter, more musical clean. Dirty was smoother, with better grit and drive. TungSol was the fullest sounding, but seemed a bit dull. Not as lively sounding. Dirty seemed to be between the EH and JJ. The most balanced sounding of the three. An issue to take note of - pickup selector was in a different position for the Tung Sol clean clip - neck vs middle like the others.
Found this 14 years after you posted and it is a "BIG" help, wish I had this when I was learning but it was the 80s. All you teach I learned from a Scottish Tutor who was super safety conscious and would show us once and then let us get on with it...alone till one of would do something stupid and then come ti the rescue, "Don't blow on the solder lad and don't inhale the smoke" he siad, of-course we ignored his warning till one student fainted and another got his tie caught in a spinning motor and lost the skin off his chin, that's when we all grew-up fast.
