Hi everyone,
As some of you may know I've been in the market for a blackface amp of some sort, and was thinking about going for a Princeton. I also considered getting one made by one of the great uk builders about.
But then I thought, I have a fair bit of time coming up later this month where I'll be able to really give it a go, maybe I should jump in and take a chance on building one. As a complete beginner though, a Princeton looks pretty complicated which was putting me off!
I was then speaking to a friend of mine who has an MSC in physics, who was excited to help out on the project so that we would do it together, which has pushed me to thinking this may actually be viable.
We are currently looking to get a Modulus Princeton Reverb Kit and go from there. The circuit on their website looks pretty low resolution, so I have found this one (below) which I was thinking of using - is this sensible?
That said, I myself am still a complete beginner, and would try much appreciate any tips or advice that you have?
I have a couple of questions to get started also...
1) I currently only have a soldering iron, what other tools will I actually need?
2) what is the best solder to actually use for a project like this?
3) Once completed, I think it would probably be a good idea to get a tech to give it a look over just incase there are any obvious issues. What should I expect to pay for such a service - if such a thing even exists!
Many thanks in advance for any thoughts or comments you may have!
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May not be what you are after, but the benefit of this is some really detailed instructions that take you through the process - designed for someone new to it.
Worth a read
https://www.stewmac.com/freeinfo/i-10730/10730.doc.0718.pdf
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http://www.ampmaker.com/wf-55-construction-manual-842-0.html
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Doesn’t look like they have uk spec transformers yet, but I would expect them to add more options at some point
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However, I wouldn’t take on an A1164 as a first build...lots to go wrong and extremely difficult for a novice to troubleshoot any build mistakes. Home brew guys bring me their builds all the time to check over when they’re not working right and they’ve always “triple checked everything and can’t find the problem”.
Start with a 5E3 or similar instead, much easier to build and less sensitive to lead dress issues and the like. The Modulus kits are excellent and Michael offers great support should you need it.
To answer your questions...
1) Wire snips, needle nose pliers, socket set with 8mm, 9mm, 10mm or 3/8”, and 1/4” sockets, multimeter, drill, Phillips+ Pozi+flathead screwdrivers, and test leads as a minimum. I’d also build a lightbulb current limiter if you have time.
2) 60/40 solder is fine for a home build. Silver line AS15 100g is plenty.
3) About an hours labour at whatever rate they charge. Two hours at most if you’ve really messed up.
Good luck!
Rift Amplification
Brackley, Northamptonshire
www.riftamps.co.uk
Anyway, good luck, it will be fun and very rewarding when use the amp for the first time with a big grin on your face
That said I'm quite up for a nice tweed deluxe build as a primer! That way at least I might get a chance to learn at a slower pace. And at the end of the day I'd end up with 2 amps, which is no bad thing!
When you note an hour or twos labour, is that for the A1164 or the 5E3? Perhaps it would be the same for both?
@Keefy & @Jimbro66 Thanks for the tip, I was aware that the capacitors being dangerous even when unplugged - I'll likely be asking a few more questions on here when I get to that stage!
I'm definitely up for making some pedals too, but as I have the benefit of someone to help out that knows what they are doing, I want to give it a go while they are still available. Hopefully I'll do some pedals myself once the build is complete.
My advice would be download the schematic and bill of materials from the Weber site for the amp of your choice - they have loads and buy your own bits. Pretty straightforward really, I didn't run into any problems with that build and it works and sounds great.
I would start with something simple like before progressing to anything more complicated. Troubleshooting is the hard bit as I discovered recently with a phono hifi amp I built - has parasitic oscillation which I can't cure!
Here's a picture of a Tweed Bandmaster clone home-build that was brought into me for intermittently blowing fuses. Can you find the problem with your current level of knowledge? Can your friend?
That depends on how many problems you've 'built in' to the amp!
Rift Amplification
Brackley, Northamptonshire
www.riftamps.co.uk
Having a look at the modulus kit, what is the value of adding the orange drop 715P, F&T caps and CTS pots?
How do these kits fair quality wise with regard to components?