Amplifier raffle to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society

[Wombaticus]

Hi Guys,

For a number of years, I have been a big supporter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and their "Team in Training" program, which raises funds for blood cancer research and for patient assistance. Over the years I've been both a fundraiser and volunteer, but this season I am back to fundraising to support the critical mission of this great charity.

The main thread describing this is over at AX84, my usual hangout.

To summarize briefly, I am doing something a little bit different this year to support my fundraising. Namely, I am raffling off an amplifier that I will design and hand-construct between now and the day of my event on June 3. The amplifier will have a 2x6V6 push-pull power section, and footswitchable tremolo and reverb. It will not, however, be a typical tweedy amp, but rather a modern design with something a bit more like a Gibson flavor. I'm still actively developing the schematic (which I'll post here in due time), but I'm really pulling out all the stops, and I think this is going to be something special. If I can shoe-horn it in, it will also include a footswitchable overdrive section.

In the meantime, however, I have received generous donations from a number of individuals to help offset the construction costs.

Brian Schmittling of Dirty Dawg Amps has agreed to donate one of their custom-bent aluminum chassis, *and* a suitable output transformer.

Mason Wolak of Tiny Man Inside amps has graciously donated a custom laser engraved faceplate.

Finally, AX84 and Gothik Amps stalwart Ben Sykora is donating a beautiful handcrafted wooden head cabinet. For an example of Ben's work, check out the gorgeous work he did on the cabinetry for his "Lucky7" amps.

For those of you not familiar with the type of gear I build, have a quick peek at my blog...I'll be posting regular build updates there as this project progresses. But the bottom line is that with everyone's generous donations, I'm confident this amp will sound AND look great.

In any case, the drawing will be held on or about June 3 this year. All you need to do to get in on this is to make a tax-deductible donation to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society through my fundraising page. Each $25 donated will count as one "ticket" in the raffle. The raffle itself will be transparent and conducted by a disinterested third party.

The amp will be built with a universal PT, so international participants are welcomed. However, I will only cover shipping costs for the continental US/Canada, if you live outside these areas, you are welcome to participate but would need to help out with the final shipping cost in the instance that you win.

Anyway, amp raffle or not, this is a superb charity and a very worthy cause. Please consider making whatever donation you are able to help beat blood cancers!

Thanks,

Wombaticus, AKA Paul Fawcett

[Wombaticus]

Hi Guys,

Just a quick update on this.

After an extended period of design and layout, the raffle amp to has really started to come together over the last little while.

Ben Sykora has almost completed his handcrafted cherry wood head cabinet for this project, and the last week or so, I've been getting started on the boards. You can find the current schematic, my working layout, and some build-log pics of the main board here on my blog.

The final design is pretty full featured for a lower power amp. Here's what it's packing:

2x6V6 power section
3x12AX7 preamp
Three-band tone stack (James style B&T, Framus style mid)
Channel switching - clean and Dumble-style OD
Tremolo (solid state LFO)
Built-in reverb (LM386 driver, LND 150 initial recovery, tube based virtual earth / local feedback gain stage for mix back to dry)
Footswtiching for tremolo, reverb and OD
Chokeless capacitor multiplier based screen filter
DC heaters for preamp tubes

As before, each (tax-deductible for US residents) $25 donated to my Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Fundraising page counts as a ticket in the raffle, which will be held in June!

Please, even if you're not interested yourself, please consider sharing this link on your facebook page, and help this go viral... together we've already raised over $2200, but I'd really like to hit my target goal of raising $3000 this year for the LLS!

Cheers,

Paul

[Wombaticus]

Banged out the board for the circuitry around the power tubes the other day -- boring build log type pictures here.

[Wombaticus]

Hey guys,

Work is progressing rapidly now. I've finished all of the point to point boards, and one of the PCBs, only the small PCB for the solid state trem circuit is left to be fabbed. But the really cool news is that my amp-building comrade-in-arms Ben Sykora has now completed the cherry wood head cab that he has donated to the raffle, and the results are so outstanding I just had to share. Take a look at Ben's work:





Remember, each $25 donated to my fundraiser to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society buys you a ticket in the upcoming raffle!

[Wombaticus]

Yesterday was pretty exciting, as I both completed the tremolo PCB (that's the last of the boards for this amp), and UPS also dropped off a big package with the head cabinet and chassis. This means that everything is here in Richmond, and the final assembly phase is now beginning!



So who wants to build an amp!? Here's an update with some news about the timing of the raffle and how it will be conducted to ensure transparency and fairness.

This amp could be yours! Each $25 donated to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society on my fundraising page counts as a ticket in the raffle. Help me reach my fundraising goal of $3000 and help stamp out blood cancers!!

[Wombaticus]

The day of the race has come and gone (it was Sunday), and I'm back home in Richmond, tired and happy, having completed my sixth Team-in-Training event in support of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

As for the race itself... Well, I had some challenges with my training for this event, getting sick during a few critical weeks, and missing several key long runs. In the end, my level of preparation just wasn't where it needed to be to run the full marathon as I had intended (it would have been my fifth). So in the end, I decided that discretion was the better part of valour, and dropped back to run the half marathon. This turned out to be a very wise choice, and I ended up finishing the race in a fairly dismal time of 2h:13m, which is a full 25 minutes slower than my best time for the 13.1 mile distance. But don't get me wrong, it was a great day and it was wonderful to be out running with the sea of TnT teammates with their distinctive purple Team in Training shirts.

The crowd support from the people of San Diego was also outstanding, with lots of funny signs along the course.. My two favourites were a Leave-it-to-Beaver looking kid holding a sign that said "Worst. Parade. Ever.". And also the attractive young woman with the sign that said "Your stamina is pretty good. Call me, maybe?"

All in all, of approximately 30,000 registrants for the San Diego Marathon and Half Marathon, over 2,500 were raising funds for LLS. In total, I'm proud to report that, collectively, over $7.3 Million dollars was raised for blood cancer research through this one one event alone. This year, the majority of donations to my personal fundraising efforts came from generous people on online forums like MEF. Together, we have so far raised over $3150, so please, if you have already participated in the amplifier raffle, give yourself a nice pat on the back. If you haven't, please remember that the drawing will be on 24 June, so you have until then to make your own contribution, and to get in on the raffle. This weekend should see the final assembly of the amp.

My Fundraising Page

Thanks to all!

[Wombaticus]

Hi guys,

The big day is almost here, the amplifier raffle to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma society is happening tomorrow, 24 June!

So this is the last chance to get in on the action. Remember, each tax-deductible $25 donated to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society through my Team-in-Training fundraising page counts as a ticket in the raffle.

To count towards the raffle, you need to donate before noon EDT -- that's when I'm going to upload all of the donor names to the Randompicker website, which will pick the luck winner.

It looks like tomorrow, semi-coincidentally, is also when the amp will get its first juice. I'm finishing up the wiring to the sockets and the pot tonight. Of course, there will likely be a brief period of troubleshooting and final tweaking, but the finished amp will be shipped off to the lucky winner as soon as possible.

Check out yesterday's build shots on my blog.

Cheers,

Paul

[Wombaticus]

The raffle for the Wombat Amps Quest amplifier was conducted today using the RandomPicker.com website. You can see the details and the protocol that was used.

I'm excited to announce that David Morin of Monmouth, ME is the lucky winner!

Many thanks to everyone that so generously donated to support the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and this project. Special thanks are also in order to my collaborators from the Gothik Amps consortium that so graciously donated time and materials for the amp project.

This includes Ben Sykora of Sykora Custom Tube Amps, for his donation of a beautiful hand-built head cabinet, Mason Atom Wolak of TMI amplification, for the engraved faceplate, and Brian Schmittling of DirtyDawg Amp chassis for the custom aluminum amp chassis.

In the end, we raised almost $3800 for cancer research, with donations coming from five countries (USA, Canada, Slovakia, Australia, and the United Kingdom) and three continents. Many thanks and sincere gratitude to all.