Update Dec 5 2020: GT5 Plans (TB and TMB models) now available@: www.elamscafeboutique.com/shop Mark II Version now available in comprehensive Full Plans Pack.
holy hell, man...meticulous workmanship!! it was instantly recognizable. i work on tube amps and audio circuits for a living, i see a LOT of circuits and lead dress, this is easily top tier work. top notch lighting and camera work as well!
That's really slick when you lift your completed board & sockets off the template and drop 'em in the chassis. And they fit: ta-dah! Even though I watched you do the templates and drill the chassis and re-use the template to use as a jig, it's still really schmick when you just drop it in. Excellent work!
Very nice work. My compliments on the entire build. I just wish I had the understanding of the build to follow through. I have no knowledge of electrical whatsoever. I can soldier and I can run electrical wiring in my home and that's it. BUT I'm a hands on person. I have to visualize what I'm doing. With that said... I would love and I'm sure many others like me if you can find the time for a video first with a list of everything needed, then a step by step on the build. I know it's too much to ask, but I'm sure it could be the number one most watched video on a tube build amp. Thank you so much for sharing your expertise. Again great PROFESSIONAL build. Hats of to you
Thanks Gil. I hear you, and I too was in the exact same position. I knew how to make stuff, including welding a soldering iron, however had no clue how tube amps worked. For me it was just brute force perseverance until something clicked one day. I was planning on a set of theory videos to go along with these step by step build videos however, they seemed like they caused more confusion rather than the opposite. I decided to let the build videos run and then I would post a set of theory vids to try and unravel the mysteries of the tube amp. I quickly found that it is a very hard subject indeed and it will be a challenge simplifying things down into a coherent series but it needs be done as I think the information, delivered in understandable terms, is missing. Thanks for your comment and hope we can get to a level of understanding in the end. Have a great day and thank you!
I have always want to build a tube amplifier since i started building speakers, i am definitely a newbie to this area, and by watching your video, i can actually learn to build one on my own. And wow! The video quality is also on point! Those close ups are so detail, what a pleasure to watch your work! I'm gonna watch the whole playlist lol
Glad the videos were helpful. I'm just filming another build series of the same amp with a 3 band tone stack. It should be a bit more informative with regard to design aspects of the build. It's a long haul wrapping your head around tube amp design but if I can get there, I'm sure you can too. Many thanks again, cheers
First time I stumbled upon your channel what amazing work I just got into the hobby of tube amplifier building myself I will use your level of work as a goal to achieve. 👍
"Surgical." That's exactly the word that came to mind as I watched this. A couple of years ago I built my first amp, a Princeton Champ, from scratch using hand picked components, NOS tubes and 16ga aluminum for the chassis. It looks and sounds fantastic if I do say so myself, but only from the outside. The inside looks like it was assembled with a blow torch and pliers as it shows my poor soldering skills. It is not something that I am proud of. On a positive note I do have the chassis mounted inside a home build cab where only the chassis is visible. I am the only one that knows what lies underneath the cherry red chassis, and yes it still bothers me.
Sounds like a cool little amp you made!. For some reason I get a kick out of having things looking solid on the inside, even though very few may ever see it. The more and more amps I build, the more it feels like creating a sculpture or something. I find it very satisfying to try and improve the design by creating a rock solid layout with everything easily accessible and as neat as possible. Its an interesting thing, thanks for the input and comment. Have a great day!
It was fun but a little frustrating - similar to the range of emotions someone playing golf might experience. A couple of solid drives and you're king of the hill, but 2 balls in the water on the next hole and you feel like the lowest rookie on the course. A major point of my frustration is that after planning for a couple of weeks I expected better results. I wanted to challenge myself by going DIY all the way instead of buying a kit so I started with a flat sheet of scrap aluminum from a metal shop. I planned to form the chassis myself but they offered to bend it for me and I didn't say no. t's roughly the same size as yours and turned out perfect. With a perfect box for my chassis I then began the layout for the transformers, tubes, jacks, etc. After several hours of research, planning and cutting I stated assembling the amp and discovered very quickly that soldering would be my "fly in the ointment." Oh I got it right technically. The amp sounds great and is free from the the hum that Champ circuits are known for. I attribute that to shielding. grounding and placement of the tubes, but certainly not my workmanship. I do not consider myself a perfectionist but I believe I am capable of doing better The outside really turned out well though. I used etching primer and then sprayed it a deep red with 3 coats of clear. And at some point in the painting process I decided to continue on and make a mini-stack. I fabricated a head cab,and included a black wire mesh grille from a storm door,, and then a cab for a 12" speaker all covered with black Tolex, Fender handles and chrome cab corners. For the grille I used the silver blackface Fender cloth. The red chassis with chicken head knobs looked somewhat odd mixed with all that black and silver so I framed the inside of the head and speaker cab with 1/4" oak stained with red cherry and secured with brass screws. What I ended up with: GE NOS tubes F&T filter caps Jupiter tone stack Hammond transformers Bourn pots + one extra for the NF loop. Metal film resistors WGS 12" Jensen clone - don't remember the exact model. 1 lb. of solder (well maybe not a pound) :-) What I have described may seem unique and maybe even attractive to some but to me the inside of the amp is not. It was my first so perhaps my expectations were a little high. It looks good and I enjoy it even with the flaws. I wish that I had your skill. I've seen many amp builds and I am sure a factory built amp wouldn't look this good.
Very clean build! I've seen very expensive hi-fi tube amps that didn't have that level of care or precision. I favor stranded wire personally, I find it withstands the wiggling movement of tube socket pins better, and for that reason I don't mount passive components directly to tube sockets. But this arrangement of yours results in a very compact design and minimal wire lengths. Everything's a tradeoff.
Thank you! Indeed solid core yields when bent too many times. For that reason I also use stranded wire for my shielded cable. Where there is little chance of movement, I use solid core as it keeps its shape. Wiring components straight on the tube lugs is certainly problematic in terms of replacement, however the potential reduction in noise overides this for me, a trade off for sure. Great points, thanks for commenting, much appreciated.
I love working with turrets - such a clean look and very asthetically pleasing. I use a more military style of soldering on my tube sockets where instead of simply pushing through and soldering - I wrap the wire around the connector tab ensuring a good connection before soldering. Not judging - I see your style of soldering on tube sockets often enough - but I also repair a lot of tube socket connections soldered in that manner as well. Great work. I should video some of my work as well.
Thanks for kind words. Definitely wrapping the eyelets of the tubes with component leads is the best technique indeed. I just lay them in the lugs as I often change their position and once it's wrapped it's very hard to remove or change. I find that if the leads are tinned well and the solder joint is a nice meniscus then I have few problems. Very good observation though and quite correct. Thanks again and all the best for your builds!
You do nice solder work! Very meticulous. Nice to watch. Very satisfying, since i likely won't be able to do this myself, but would love to build "my own way" a Fender Deluxe. Best regards from the west coast of Canada! - ss
I commend you for your soldering. It’s very common to see leads trimmed after a joint is flowed. Those clipped ends need to be tinned to prevent oxidation inside a wire.
@@elams1894 Excellent. The reason I ask is that any of the diode implementations also benefit greatly in full wave from a tuned snubber at the xformer hv secondary. This needs a scope. If you try, hear, and like the different diodes, you'll pick up more fluidity and beauty with a snubber. You have to exert care to tune it fairly exactly with an analog scope for each particular combination of PT, B+, diodes, filter, load. I am at gmail if you want to discuss over email.
Thanks Rick! I love Kiwame, very nice resistors. I also have some Takman carbon films I've yet to try out. The Japanese stuff is very nice indeed. Cheers!
Very impressive! The surgical precision with which you bent leads and wires is inspiring, although I would hate to be the tech who has to change out those caps 20 years down the road.
Thanks! It shouldnt be too hard to replace the components when necessary as the layout is all open plan and fairly easy to get to. I hate it when amps are just a big birds nest, makes it impossible to get to things, especially when wires and such are laid under the turret board. Cheers.
Дуже дякую за відео! Це висший пілотаж в монтажі підсилювачів! 👍🙂 Є деякі моменти в яких я: уникаю монтаж навісним в два поверхи компонентів, а також я ніколи не підпаюю деталі прямо до лампових панелей, так як при нагріві ламп тепло через ніжки передається весь час на припаєні деталі та значно нагріває їх. Це може впливати на довговічність їх роботи. Ну це звісно субєктивно на мій погляд 👍🙂
Ha ha, yeah I like to live life on the egde indeed. I took a massive hit from the plate of a tube recently. For some as yet unknown reason I left the power on, yes, crazy, and then proceeded to fiddle with the plate. The one hand in the pocket saved my bacon. The hardest lessons in life are the ones most remembered. Always stay safe in those chassis man, have a good one!!
@@elams1894 When I modified CRTs for a crude oscilloscope art installation I used to work on them with the "hand grabing the unpluged cord" technique, probably overly cautious but I'm a scared y cat with high voltages, great video man!
Lovely work. You didn’t need to redo the blue and red twisting on that socket. The hum cancelling comes from the current in each conductor going in opposite directions. Twisting simply makes it effectively the smallest diameter for the two conductors. Obviously a blue wire going to the socket twisted with a blue wire coming from the socket WILL be hum cancelling because the currents are flowing in opposite directions.
The board should be between the components and the heat source and interference of the valves? Meaning you should be using wire to connect from components affixed on the board to the valves?
Very neat job👍. I’ve seen fairly expensive amps made way less neat than your little amp there. Valve bases seemed to have quite loose contact tags which would have set off my ocd 🤣. I much prefer solder turrets to solder tag strips. Much neater.
This series is very inspirational! very pedagogic and patient. I am going to start my first 5f2a build, and this is perfect motivation. I want to incorporate some of your technique. Your ground weave is a nice touch. Is it always preferable to only have a single star ground point? I see in quite a few other builds that people tend to at least separate the power ground from the signal ground.
Thanks for kind words. Yes it's preferable to seperate the power and signal grounds. I grounded them close to each other in the same region of this amp. Grounding is ultra important indeed. A single ground region is preferable in low hertz applications as in audio amps, certainly a single star ground configuration is the ultimate for the signal circuit. All the best for your build!
@@andrew_nayes great spotting. It's way easier to bolt from the other direction as you suggest. However because I use tube shields, the nut will not fit if bolted from the other side. The only option I have is to bolt from top of chassis down. What I do now to overcome this problem, as it's a real PITA, is that I glue the nut in position on the underside of the chassis. This makes life much easier. Well spotted though, good eyes.
this looks spectacular... great camera work too. i have a question: is it desirable to keep the leads as short as possible, or is it that in practice 0.5 -> 1inch does not make a difference in noise level?
Hi again Durox. Yes it is very important to keep grid resistor leads as short as possible as the grid, along with input,, is the most sensitive part of the amp. It is best to preserve the AC guitar signal as much as possible. Shielded cable is also recommended, thanks again D, have a good one!!
Nice work! Question, is there any special reason to use the braided grounding buss instead of just lacing the lugs? Also, I noticed you rarely use the top of the lugs for connections...why is that?
Thanks Dan! I use a large braided band as an earth strap as it forms a nice large pathway for the return currents. This setup is much better than having separate earth points all over the chassis. It just means that all the earth currents are going in the same direction toward a single point. The potential for unwanted noise is reduced. I wrap the lead around the turret rather than placing it down the tube as it provides a better connection. Cheers
