sometimes i tend to here scratchiness/crackling on the EF86 side, idk if that's the best way to describe it so we may not be on the same page, basically as the EF86 channel distorts it gets a little scratchy and rough around the edges, almost similar to a solid state clipping? i'm running a cheap electro harmonix tube for the EF86 and wonder if that could be causing a weird distortion, or could it just be a bad pot or other similar issue anyone else is having?

alright thanks, i might try snipping the bright caps, i have nothing but bright guitars so the rigs a little harsh sometimes. i definitely need to get the 150k resistor to swap before the effects loop as well, the uneven volume level bugs the crap out of me, even though it isn't drastic.

hey, so i check out your mods to the schematic and read up what you had to say, but i still wonder two things. first, it looks like you were doing mods in search of a thicker/rounder/warmer/lower sound, did this all work out for you if i am correct? if not what was your goal in doing so? secondly, do you have any sound clips or videos after these mods?

yeah, i was a little confused by the buss bar as well, but on the bottom of the board theres a wire running from the bottom of the buss to the pin that it goes to on the layout to make up for it. and yes! this amp is very loud, i was kind of nervous at first thinking that it wont be able to stay clean with a heavy handed drummer, but even with active pickups it has great headroom.

dont be dissapointed if it doesnt sound magical at first, it wasnt untill about 5 hours of time on the amp that the tone really sunk in and made me wanna cry.

yeah, or you can look at the turret board, each wire connects to a different point which is fed off the output of the ef86. i determained which is which by using the capacator value to figure out the tone from thick to bright. i dont remember the starting point, but it goes in alphabetical order.

heres the picture of how i rewired the amp, i'm pretty sure the bottom pin is going to the caps from what i remember, i didnt look carefully, but you can probably tell from the pic.

the connection where the heating wire from the transformer meets the tube heaters and bulb heaters. i'm pretty sure it was just dc volts.

i was wondering if anyone has used a volume box in the effects loop.
i know the amp has a master volume, so it seems kinda pointless, but my thinking was that i could bypass the master volume, and put the volume box in the ef86 loop, that why i can crank the ef86 channel, and keep the 12ax7 channel clean.

anyone know if this will work? i'm not so sure on the whole scheme behind the loop, i've never seen one like it before so is there anything else i'd have to do or something?

ps. i'm not sure if i sound stupid for asking this, but i've never used a volume box, and idk if it works like a master volume so you can achieve breakup, or simply just lowers the volume all together.

hey, i brought my amp into a tech to get it inspected, tubed, and started. its actually a problem with the way nik has the amp layed out i think, or maybe we both read the diagram wrong. its a problem with the stand-by wiring, i dont remember off the top of my head how we decided to change it, but i'll post back later today with a picture of my wiring after my amp cools and i discharge the caps.

ps. what was going on with mine was that the heating wire was only putting out about 5.8 volts instead of the 6.3 it should have, and the mains to the power amp section were hotplating the tubes once off standby. the wire change solved the mains and brought the heaters up to 6.15 which is still lower than should have been, but most likely the tollerance on the tranny was low, or there was a miniscule solder error.

i'm guessing this is the same problem you had?

i went with grabbing some buss wire from radio shack.
all they had was 24G, but it should suffice.
i dont think i'm gonna worry about the 2 conductor shielded wire,
seems a bit extranious to me.
i just dropped my capacator board in yesterday and should have
my amp finished by tonight, i'll put some pics up of the chassis,
then i'm sending it off to my tech who builds his own amps to inspect
and throw in the tubes for me.
look for a thread up soon and tell me if i've missed anything.

thnaks for the help, i'm at the point where i need to wire up the jacks,
i just ripped open some romex house wire and stole the copper cores out of there,
i'll look to measure the gauge but it looks about 20 or 22 so i think it should work out
just fine, thanks.

hey, did this come with all of the wires you needed?
i noticed from the pictures i'm missing some special wires,
the solid copper wire, the double wire, and the thiner gauged
wires that are used on very short connections.

i checked the parts list check list and saw 60in shielded wire,
which i have, and just 1 wire set?
i'm wondering if they didnt send me all of the wire set or if i am
expected to pick up these wires seperately.

what was your situation for this?

sweet, im ordering it tommorrow or monday, can't wait to hear it.
So far my favorite clean amp has been the mesa boogie lone star,
and i have faith this will be a fair competetor.

Hey, im pretty sure im going to get this amp,
i under stand it has a bright and brilliant tone, which i love,
but i like a lot of roundness to it. something that is very warm,
with a shimmery high end and cut.
Andy Timmons-esque tone he'res a reference



he plays the song at about 2:52