Hey Todd, are you using a balanced tube in the PI position? This would be the first step as erwin stated.

I need a second probe to do it properly with my scope, which I'm about to order. But I was messing around with it, and one thing I did (just for proving purpose) was set the trimmer all the way left or right, wait a bit to settle in and then turn it al the way the opposite and then start strumming some chords with some distortion. Since it takes some time for it to settle in, It seemed I could hear when it passed through the sweet spot. (atleast it sure seemed like to me)

Now, this doesn't make it much easier to go back and find the perfect spot, but it did help get some idea of what we're after. Since I'm using a balance tube I find if I set it just a bit off center CCW it gets thing creamier with harmonic content sounding more "swirly" for a lack of a better word.

Any of the experts have any comments on what I'm saying here? or does it sound like my imagination.

Excellent! You can do differently, but you can't do much better then that.

ol man sduck, that's very cool. Yeah, the grill is killer. I bet you can see those valves glowing in there when it's dark. I'm still tweaking at my HRM 50, but was at the frabric store the other day looking at some tolex. I need to get it boxed up soon!

Sounds incredible. Would love to hear it in person. I missed the FET clip over at ampgarage. Boy that is really driving.

Cool grill cloths on the amp and cab.

Is the RG400 cable any special brand?

Hey JD0x0, I really like what's going on in that second clip. It's good to hear another approach to the using this amp.

Yep, I'm measuring 124v at the mains. Thanks for the help and advice. I still have some wire placement and securing them in place to do yet.

Believe it or not they arrived today. Mine were sent on 2/28/11. I had given up on them. So yours were sent just a few days ago. I thought we were talking about this before that? Anyway, USPS from Maylasia is very slow. So I learned a lesson....if in a hurry use UPS and not USPS. 

Yes, the best lessons are from mistakes and troubleshooting. I wanted to get to know this amp in and out anyways. Just with a bit less stress. And really the only stessful thing was being concerned about destroying a few hundred dollars worth of components. If money wasn't an issue, I would have been less stessed.

I would like to do another build soon and source my own parts. Maybe something with a bit lower part count. But first things first, I have a bunch of tweaking to do on this amp. I pretty sure this will become my go to amp.

I had jobs on the road all day today, so I didn't get to play at all yet. I think I'm going to put in the new tubes tonight and get a bit more familiar with it. I can tell right off one thing that is so nice about these amps. They're very dynamic, but compress just the right amount when needed. I was concerned when I would read comments about them being "harder to play" or more likely to "show your flaws". But, I think it's going to suit my playing just fine. 

erwin_ve, I forgot I wanted to get back with  you about this. I do understand what you're talking about, I just want to clarify this a bit becuase I was trying to be conscious of this.

A far as the power tubes, should I just try to position them by bending them farther away or do I need to completel re-route them?

And the pre amp side. I had read what I think was your thread from a while back talking about moving the these wire just above about 1 cm made a nice differenct. Now I did try to do this especially with pin 3 wire. But once again, should I try to just bend them away, but keep them basically routed the same, or should I try to re-route them. And if so, can you give some pointers.

Thanks

P.S.
Here's some new voltages. They seem a bit on the high side. Not sure why this is. But the amp is sounding darn good and quiet. Any ideas?

Don't feel bad, I;m having to play through a Vintage 30 sitting in a Line 6 SpiderValve 112.

BTW, check my other thread.

Yippy, It's alive....(in the voice of dr. frankenstein)

Man ol man, this thing sound great and I haven't even got it totally setup yet, just biased. (using old tubes, and have HRM & PI set at 12:00). Basically, I just plugged in a guitar to try it out and ended up playing for about over an hour.

Thanks again to all that have helped, including sduck, that was on the right trail.

I have some question about voltages, but I'm going to start a new thread and put this to rest.

Yes, this is quite devastating. And it appears it isn't getting better.

Prayers sent out.

Also, if you look at the 22uf filter cap on the tagboard on the wall near V1 your will see that I mixed up the 2.2k and 220k resistors. Nik found this mistake lastnight.

Ok, back to work and hopefully playing soon.

Thanks

Yes, let me declare this now. Mr Todd Wilcox had sent me an email of his finding that I did not have the ground to chassis of the output jack. I'm in the middle of fixing this right now. This ground is of utmost importance, tracing back this grounds the components that erwin_ve was indicating. Besides the screen.

How, I missed this? I don't know. Dumb, dumb. I know one thing even though I relied on the layout considerably, I also relied (too much maybe) on the photos. Which this connection is hard to see. I'm very use to having a schematic to check my wiring. I really missed this part of the equation.

Anyway, I actually had to switch the OT primaries back around, which makes the layout correct. I powered it up did a preliminary check and the voltages are much more in line and it's completely quiet. Next is put better tubes in, bias, and plug in a guitar.

Mainly just want to state where things are and thanks to all that are helping. I get tunnel vision and other eyes are needed.

Here are some images of the build.

I hesitate to post these voltages because they're obviously whacked, but here it is.

One thing that seems rather important is that I'm measuring 380Vdc to ground on the shield/ground of the speaker output. It's just there and not on the chassis. Thank God. So it seems to me that something is wired incorrectly, but I can't find any faults in my wiring compared to the layout. I still have some things I want to check. What's the best way to test the OT for proper wiring?
 
         Pin1  Pin3  Pin4  Pin5  Pin6    Pin7    Pin8
V1    4.15  .041           .050         -.632
V2    421    360             0             .004
V3    422    340             0             298
V4    37mv  481   480  -49.3  479             36mv
V4    37mv  481   480  -49.3  479             39mv

OT CT=480
 

Just to verify, you're saying you heard that these Ceriatone OTS output xfrms 2ndary have been wired backwards?

It's after midnight here on eastcoast so I'm going to call it a night, but thanks for the quick return. Tomorrow i'm going to dig in and get measurements written down. I have a bad habit of taking data and not writing it down thinking I'll remember. I know better. I'm too old for that crap.

Plus, start looking for bad connections. I've been reading about tightening down the relay & rectifier boards too much and causing problems. I may have gotten over zealous. Although I do remember all the HT voltages seemed OK.

Anyway thanks...c'ya tomorrow.