Single ended Class-A tube wear question

[Jared Purdy]

Which is probably part of the reason so many of these mass produced amps have so many issues: puttign more $$ into share holder's wallets is more important than maintaining tradition and quality, if they think that the majority of people really don't care what's on the inside, as long as it's pretty and they can plug in.

[Jazz P Bass]

Just finished repairing a Fender Pro Junior.
The tube socket board solder pads where cracked & actually lifting up off of the circuitboard.
Talk about bean counters.
This amp had a single sided board for the tube sockets!
What kind of mechanical strength can you get from a single sided board?
I ended up attaching sockets to the chassis.
Rewired them down to the board.

[Jared Purdy]

same as on the PRRI $$ is the lowest common denomenator for them

[ThermionicScott]

Leo was always trying to get a good deal on his parts and labor. It's arguable that he would have eventually switched to circuit boards if he were still running Fender. (That said, perhaps we hold him in such high esteem because he got out of the business when he did. )

- Scott

[GregS]

Greg, I replied 2X to your PM, but my sent folder is showing "0 messages sent". Not sure what is going on. Drop me a call when you get a chance.

Jared, I did get your messages and have replied. I'll try calling you tonight.

Greg

[JoeM]

Greg, I replied 2X to your PM, but my sent folder is showing "0 messages sent". Not sure what is going on. Drop me a call when you get a chance. xxx-xxx-xxxx.

Jared, I recommend editing your post and deleting your phone #. I wouldn't put my number out for all to see.

[Jared Purdy]

Thanks for the concern, though I'm not to worried about it. It's a cell number, and who wants to call me anyways!!?? Just the same thanks, and I removed the number.

[Enzo]

Damn... we were going to start calling and then just hanging up...


Enough on this "mass production" stuff. leo fender was already using circuit boards. Putting eyelet boards together instead of point to point wiring or amps saved him a lot of labor and gave a more consistent product. They may not be printed circuits etched into wiring, but they were stil circuit boards. And if you want to limit "circuit boards" to etched things, fine, but those assembly lines of Mexican women knew to solder the yellow wire from this hole to the third pin on that socket. I bet Darn few of them had the remotest idea what playing guitar through the amp was like.

Unless you are two guys in the basement turning out a few custom amps each year, you most likely hire someone to do your amp wiring. Now we expect that someone to care about his work, but we also probably don;t expect the guy to be some sort of amp guru. You don't have to be a five star chef to keep a nice salad bar in shape, you know? You don't have to know a darn thing about load lines to do nice solder work and follow a wiring chart. SOme assemblers are paid for their time, others by the piece. But even piece workers are expected to maintain a standard. If a lot of their boards come back as defective from the build-up line, then they won;t be getting that piece rate much longer.

But let's think a moment about that awful mass-priduced crap. EVERYTHING in a Best Buy store is mass produced. (Or Sears, or wherever.) All those high tech TVs, DVRs, CD players, telephones, computers. And all that stuff works, and pretty darn reliably. My cell phone has been bopping around in my pocket for several years. The finish has largely work off it from coins rubbing against it, but it works. And when someone has a problem with their cell phone, how often is it really the fault of how well the phone was made, as opposed to a reception problem or a network issue?

Here in Michigan, on a night when it gets down to 20 degrees below zero, I can walk out to my car, turn the key, and the mass produced computer board in the thing will start the engine right up, and the mass produced car stereo in the dashboard will fire right up, and I can listen to it immediately.

[Tom Phillips]

... leo fender was already using circuit boards. Putting eyelet boards together instead of point to point wiring or amps saved him a lot of labor and gave a more consistent product. They may not be printed circuits etched into wiring, but they were stil circuit boards....

There is an interesting point here. Many people refer to amps that use eyelet boars or turret boards as being "point-to-point" wired. However, true point to point, IMHO, is when the parts are wired directly to the tube sockets, pots, switches and terminal strips.
It ends up looking like the attached photo. Beautiful to my eyes! It was easier to do when parts were supplied with longer and heavier gauge leads.

[Enzo]

I think most folks these days mean tube sockets on the chassis with wires to the part board when they say "point to point" instead of actual point to point wiring. But eyelet boards are what they are, a way to put all the parts on a board assembled elsewhere.

[Tom Phillips]

Agreed. I think eyelet board construction is also the easiest to service.

[GregS]

Agreed. I think eyelet board construction is also the easiest to service.

And also provides support for the components to sit on. I don't see any advantage of the point to point example posted a few threads ago over an eyelet board. There are still a lot of flying wires resulting in slight inconsistencies from amp to amp just like an eyelet board.

[Enzo]

And eyelet boards are by their nature restricted to relatively simple amps. A Fender Twin Reverb is about the complexity peak if you ask me. Try building some latter day Mesa that way or even just a gain behemoth like a 5150. So chances are you won;t have any recall of sorting out some godawful switching circuit problem in an eyelet board.