Wiring the power tubes and start the foot switch

I spent the evening wiring the caps onto the power tube sockets and then I started working on the foot switch and the manual mini-switches. These switches allow you to switch to overdrive without the foot switch. They are located next to the input for the foot switch.

Here are the caps added to the power tube sockets




Here is the start of the mini-switches and foot-switch

The next part in my amp build.This may well end up being one of the hardest parts for me because I'm color defecient (so the military says). On those resistors there are reds, greens, browns, violets and all of those other colors that look the same to me.

I had to have my wife help me see the colors.As a result, I have started labeling my storage bin with the various caps/resistors for future builds. Then as I buy some I'll just put them in the appropriate bin.In the pics you can see that I moved my vol/tone pots to the outside of the amp. I did this to make soldering easier. I imagine those who build a lot of amps probably has a jig.

1. I started with the input jacks. Wire all the connects between the two jacks. In this amp the FET input jack has 6 lugs whereas the normal input has only 4.

Some of the resistors are not soldered just wrapped around the connection point. This is done because there are other wires to be connected in the same place - no need to solder twice.

2. Oddly, I then went to the far left pot that gets a resistor. In this case it happens to be a 500k bass control. The 10k connects to the left lug on the pot and to the brass buss bar. The other orange resistor connects between the outside lugs on the same control.The I worked left to righ for the other caps/resistors in the tone stack.

Next, I'll move the controls back inside the chassis and begin making some ground connections and other connections that go to the other side of the chassis into the poweramp in and preamp out (effects loop).

Pics for Steps 2

Twisting the Wire

Solder starting at the ground connection

Then solder the power tube heaters.

End at the pre-amp pins.

Step 1 & 2

The parts arrived and the first step is to mount the hardware. This will make sure I have all of the parts. It also gives you an idea of what it looks like up close. This is an easy step.

Step 2: wire the heaters to the tubes.
1. Twist the black and red wire together using a vice to hold the wire at one end and place the other end in a drill. Slowly run the drill to twist the wires together. Be careful not to over-twist as the wire can break.
2. Cut back a small amount of wire and tin one end with solder. Connect this to the 5 connector ground located just below where the power transformer will be.
3. Run the twisted wire up to the first set of power tubes. Cut & solder on pins 2 and 7. Do not solder them yet. Go ahead and run the wire to the next connection which will be from these pins to the next power tube - again pins 2 & 7. Once you have enough length then solder the first power tube.
4. Trim the wires to the 2nd power tube then make the next run wich will be to the first pre-amp tube - pins 4/5 and 9. Cut enough length of wire to go thru pin 4 and over and back out of pin 5. Once this length is obtained solder the pins in the 2nd power tube. Continue this pattern to the last power tube.

I'll post pictures later as my computer is giving me problems right at the moment.