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Location: Florida | Which I'm not! Just a diversion into another passion, building things like this:
http://www.blueshottub.com/Deluxe/index.html
That link above tells the story. Just for the record, when things go sweaty and hairy (ie, during amp building), and its later than I ought to be staying up, out comes my Ovation for a few moments of unwinding, and change of mood. |
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Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Wow, what a great read...
Very nice results. What do you do with the finished models? |
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January 2004
Posts: 648
Location: Florida | Well I don't make them to sell, but have sold some either to finance something new, or because somebody went apenuts over it and I wanted it to have a good home!
I oughta add... I really just enjoy playing on something that I've built. There is a solid satisfaction there that no store bought factory produced item can match. |
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Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | VERY COOL. |
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Location: south east Michigan | Fantasic job!
Most of the tech talk was way over my head. (Perhaps a Federsen toggle should have been used on the tacheon field generator however the Cochren valve interfeared with the Jefferies tube in this instance) |
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Posts: 2850
Location: Midland, MI | Interesting project. I have an HF amp project (ham radio) un-started on the workbench (well, ok, it's been on the workbench for two years). I keep telling myself I'll get to it. But, then I saw that grassroots DIY amp project on the web (can't remember the name...but it was different than your link) and though...hmmm, perhaps.
Is the link your story? |
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Posts: 13303
Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Reminds me of growing up and building things with my dad that were from HEATHKIT! |
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January 2004
Posts: 648
Location: Florida | Yeah Cruster, thats me, my page, my sad story. I think you're referring to the AX84 project. That amp was designed back in 97/98 as I recall, using cut and paste circuits, and fine tuned by builders who worked on it. Sorta like "Open-Source" software, but for amps!
My wife says - why the webpage? And, well I dunno. It was a lot of work. Like many of you, I'd been putting off projects for a bit, and wanted to jump back in whole hog. The thruth is, I had some buds where were "watching the progress" to make sure I didn't quite before it was totally finished. LOL, they wanted like, HOURLY updates!
Anyway, many thanks for the kind words |
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Posts: 338
Location: Toronto | CharlieB - just amazing...
Dano |
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Posts: 2850
Location: Midland, MI | Charlie...yeah, the AX84 was the one I was thinking of. Where did you get the schematic/layout/circuit design for yours? Are you an electrical engineer? It was a very good read. |
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Location: NJ | charlie
very cool
I have a 63 brown princeton that was recovered with a baffle cut for a 12 and I threw a celestian blue frame alnico speaker in there. what a screamer I really love it.
I have a couple more fender projects coming from my tech. one will be a complete rebuild of a bassman chassis into a tweed deluxe with 7591 power tubes and the other is a super secret project that I just can't talk about right now. |
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Location: Upper Left USA | Way to go CB!
Need to talk at about a little project some time! Running ragged right now. Good work. |
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Posts: 648
Location: Florida | Crus, not an engineer, but I've been repairing things electronic for the last 22 years or so, and some of that has seeped into my extraordinarily thick noggin. But even before that, think 1972, back in high school, I was tinkering and fixing and building things. There are worse ways to waste your time (and money) I suppose.
Wooo.... secrets!
Al, on those pages, toward the bottom, you can see my own brown Princeton. Its got a Jensen C10something in it. Pretty dark sounding with that speaker.
Bassman rebuild? I'm assuming its a black or silverfaced one!
The nice thing about working on your own stuff, is that if you're not satisfied with the way it is, you can change it. |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | CharlieB,
Great story and work. You gotta Love it! |
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May 2004
Posts: 2850
Location: Midland, MI | Ok, let's say one was suitably inclined for this type of thing but knows none of the theory behind power amps for instruments. Books? Web sites? Links? Hints? Tips?
I love working on electronic stuff...I built a QRP tuner from scratch with some varicaps, diodes, resistors, etc. I had around. Worked incredibly well with my low power rig. Then a buddy came over and wanted to see if it would match up his portable. Unfortunately, I forgot it was built with QRP in mind and his rig runs 100w.
'Hey, you smell that?'
'Yeah, did you drop your cigar on the chair or something?'
'Nah, it's sitting in the grass next to my beer.'
'Huh...hey, this thing is HOT!'
I did rebuild it, but I haven't used it much since then. :/
Anyway, if you want to take it off board, shoot me an email with anything you have that might help out. I'd appreciate it! |
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December 2003
Posts: 13997
Location: Upper Left USA | Charlie, that is wonderful. I don't speak a word of Electrician but I got more out of your website than I ever got before from any other source on lectricity. I'm guessing that Amp is definately not "Vanilla"! |
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January 2004
Posts: 648
Location: Florida | Crus...
I dunno, ya gotta read all you can, ya know? Then you have to toss out a lot of it too. Its an ongoing learning experience. There's not really any ARRL of ampdom. Hey you Elmer! Check out the Lowe stuff behind the scenes in some of those pics. I'm only a SW listener, but have a GROL for the commercial work I do with my employer.
Woody...
Think vanilla bean, definately not rocky-road
One of these days, something small and clean and flat for the Ovation to sing thru. |
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May 2004
Posts: 2850
Location: Midland, MI | I hear ya. I tried to get to the ax84.com site today, but it seems to be down (or unavailable from ork). I know they had some schematics. Oh well...
As a ballpark, say I want to build something of the vibro-Champ size, what are the electronics going to run me? Where does one get a pre-made chassis (steel bending and plating are not my forte)? Tolex/grille cloth? |
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January 2003
Posts: 1498
Location: San Bernardino, California | If you click on Fender this site wills get you to were you can get Fender schematics: http://www.mrgearhead.com/
This site has amplifier parts and kits (expensive!): http://www.torresengineering.com/
Another source for parts: http://www.tubesandmore.com/
This has an interesting schematic: http://eventcom.net/catalog/tonefrenzyfree.pdf |
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May 2004
Posts: 2850
Location: Midland, MI | Hey, we took it offline so we could let the thread die a dignified death, man. ;) Just kidding...I'm going to take a stap at the basic AX84 P1 just for gits and shiggles; see how that goes. Like I need anythign else to do.... |
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January 2004
Posts: 648
Location: Florida | www.tubesandmore.com are good people to deal with
not perhaps the best price on everything but great support
www.mouser.com has all the Mallory, Atom, Orange Drops etc |
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May 2004
Posts: 2850
Location: Midland, MI | Not surprisingly (given my other hobbies), I happen to have a Mouser catalog right here next to my chair. They're kind enough to send me new ones periodically. :) |
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(OT) Why it may seem like I'm layin' low...
