Yes, you only ground one end of coax.

I didn't take it to a tech for the first power up. I bet the farm and all was well. 
There is a start up process you can do that will eliminate most possibilities of catastropic failure. A variac is the best method. Are you familiar with the light bulb wired in series to the mains?

As far as the mains wiring. IMO and I could be mistaked, but I believe most have chosen not to wire up the ground switch. Are you planning on using it as a ground lift?

Good job on the printed photos. Like I said, I'm frugal and didn't want to waste the ink. 

Sounds like you have done a good bit of research already and have a grasp on some of the details that aren't always known by a new person. Which I pretty much am, except for the fact that I have succesfully built one amp. (HRM 50)

About grounding, my instinct based on my education would be more in line with your thinking. Which is, you run into grounding issues when there is a large difference in ground plane potential from one point to another. I think in this case the key "power supply" grounds are to one point. And the signal grounds are going to the chassis in a couple spots, but is not going to cause any issues. I would get some other ideas about this beside mine. I can tell you my amp is very quiet.

Doing the contol wiring on the outside is a good idea, actually a must as far as I'm concerned.

Keep up the good work.

I went with 2X12 16ohm in parallel for 8ohm load.

Hello GuitarHack, welcom aboard,

I don't know if you have done this yet, but I downloaded all the photos from Ceriatone site and then had a laptop or computer screen nearby to follow the layout of the photos as close as possible and staying as close to the way things are routed as possible. Also had the printout of the layout on photo paper for durability. You're right, there are some differences between the photos and what was sent in the kit. Mainly I paid close attention on what wire I used for the higher voltage areas. I tried to follow colors closely, but I was able to not use as much wire as was sent of certain colors and kept using it until it was gone. I ended up with some extra wire for another project. I'm frugal that way. To a fault sometiemes.

I used the solid core wire for some of the switch and contol areas and some of the preamp tube wiring. I realized afterward that what would've been nice was to understand the breakdown of the key sections of the design and use the same color per section. Partly this was due to lack of knowledge at the time and some assumptions that weren't exactly correct. But none of this will cause any problems.

One change I did was wire the heater wires which are the twisted wires going to the filaments of the tubes above the tubes instead of in the corner. This is not anything to get worried about if you already done them. And then when it does come to a question or problems a picture tells a 1000 words. Take the time to photograph and post here. You'll get help.

Everything the previous posters said is really good info too. Take your time and when you start to get cranky at 2:00 AM stop and take a break. 

Oh, and try not to bend the leads too much. They can take some abuse but not much and can lead to problems down the road. In fact if you think you really boogered up something it's better to redo or replace the component.

Very nice. I've been to the last 2 PRS open houses and the SE's are just getting nicer and nicer. It makes those of us who spent 3 grand on a PRS a little jealous. 

Seriously though, the Satana SE's or SE Torero (for getting my metal rocks off) would be a serious consideration for me someday.

Looking good!!!

Really nice build.

Very cool. Looking forward to seeing the progress. Yep, tell him "always one hand in the pocket".

There's some information in this thread regarding this. Other than quality shielded instrument cable this is an approach to take.

http://ceriatoneforum.com/index.php?topic=3460.0

I think the C-lator in the enclosure is something you want to keep considering. From a protection from noise and damage point of view. I would some how figure a way to work it into the back somehow. With the knobs facing out the back. I don't know if there is room to slide it in the head cab or not. If it is, that's what I would consider. You would have to connect the cables in the back of the C-lator first.

Not bad, not bad at all. I really like the riffing from .31 to .50. Cool funky breaks.

Are your relays in correctly? This sort of sounds like a problem someone had with a older version of the amp where it was easy to get them backwards. It seems now it would be rather difficult to get them backwards, but maybe not.

Also, make sure your soldering around the relay boards and rectifier boards is neat. No solder running underneath & between the two boards.

Go to this site and watch from number 58. Or all of it if you want. Some useful info there.
http://www.overtonehrm.com/video/default.html

I would offer to build one for you if you were not so far away. It would be cheaper to buy one then to pay for all the shipping and everything.

I have a HRM 50 that is darn nice. I thought about messing with snubbers on V2, but definitely not before its broken in and probably never. I think by this point in time, Nik as done most the experiementing for us. The different versions he is offering are darn near spot on and give a wide range of options. IMO...of course!

I built the Univibe myself. It's based on the R.G. Keen design www.geofex.com (which is just about an exact reproduction of the original) & what is known as the "ForumVibe" from here http://classicamplification.net/Forumvibe/ForumVibe_File.htm

It sounds great, much like the original. Probably better in someways. I found most present day Univibes don't cut it sound wise. Or they are way to expensive if they do sound good. I would suggest a Fultone DejaVibe http://www.fulltone.com/stpframe.html if I was to buy one retail. I actually did own one (an older version) and I liked it a bunch. But, sold it like a dummy. Although I'm happy now with mine. I will get some clips up sometime soon...I hope.
P.S. I just playing through a Vintage 30 from another amp also. I'm looking to get a G12-65 type speaker(s).

Here's some pics of the one I built.

If you mean influences, I'm sort of all over the map. (to a point) at one point or the other I was heavy into anything from John McLaughlin, Santana, Jeff Beck, Steve Morse to Pat Metheny, Lary Carlton, Mike Sipe, to my prog rock, David Gilmour, Steve Howe, Robert Fripp. And then there's Jimi....Hendrix & Page, and even Jerry Garcia (an no, I'm not a dead head) just like to hear someone take guitar around & around. There's a bunch more, but that sums it up pretty well.


Yeah, I have a bunch of nifty pedals that I'm anxious to try out on the HRM 50. I've been sort of holding off putting anything in front of the amp just yet. I'm soaking in all the goodness just by itself.  I do have a few hand built fuzz's and a Xotic BB preamp that I'm thinking will sound killer. And a nice optical compressor & clone UniVibe that always sound cool. I'm getting there.

I'm building the head cabinet myself and still have to put speakers in the cabinet I have for this setup. I'm almost finished the head and about to pull the trigger on some speakers. I left room in the head to put a C/D-lator. I haven't decided whether to buy the C-lator kit or source the parts myself and build a D-lator. Probably the later.