adding reverb to spot meant for tremolo, badly bent leads :(

[mikepukmel]

Started figuring out where the components will go, to add reverb on this deluxe frankenamp. Thinking back, I should have bought the whole kit, reverb and all and just left the tremolo parts out. Mea culpa. Toyed with the idea of removing everything and starting over with a full deluxe reverb board, didn't think it was worth it.

Everything seems to fit not too badly except for one 0.003 uf cap that goes to the reverb pot. I had to bend the leads around quite a lot to get this cap to fit the existing eyelets.




The wiring isn't all in yet, but would this cause a problem with the leads bent around like that? I haven't seen other builds with leads bend this much. There is one other cap that goes to the PI in this amp with bends but not so badly bent. Should I go back to the drawing board? I did order a pack of eyelets and a staking tool but Id have to remove the whole board to work with it, and that's a lot of unsoldering/resoldering.

[Tom Phillips]

The lead bending itself is not a problem. The electrons don't care if they travel a winding path.

[mikepukmel]

Thanks Tom.

[Enzo]

I will say that there was no reason to add a couple curves. I would have moved the cap closer to the eyelets, and just sent the wires direct to the hole - like angled 45 degrees rather than the extra corners. The electrons don't care, but the longer the wires are, the more freedom the part has to wiggle around. Wiggling leads to wires snapped off from metal fatigue. If you like the way this looks better, no problem, but I would put a dab of silicone sealer under it to hold it in place.

[mikepukmel]

I will say that there was no reason to add a couple curves. I would have moved the cap closer to the eyelets, and just sent the wires direct to the hole - like angled 45 degrees rather than the extra corners. The electrons don't care, but the longer the wires are, the more freedom the part has to wiggle around. Wiggling leads to wires snapped off from metal fatigue. If you like the way this looks better, no problem, but I would put a dab of silicone sealer under it to hold it in place.

Enzo, ok, Ohh (duhh) got it, thanks <slapping forehead>. I couldn't picture it, but got it. Don't need the extra 90, just flip it up and into the hole. Shorter leads. Yes, can do, thanks. I don't care how it looks, but very concerned about how it will work, and hopefully not, but ... malfunction.

My worst skill so far is still navigating the soldering iron tip. So, I went out of the way to put stuff in a place so I could muscle the soldering iron tip in there without melting anything. Had that problem in a few places earlier. (dang, melted a wire. Take all apart, put in new wire ... dang, melted a different wire, ...) I will re-route the cap, thanks.

(Now if I can only get the house empty for 1/2 a day so I can open up my tiny office, put the fan in the window, and finish soldering this thing up).

[Randall]

I like the ground bus copper.

[mikepukmel]

I like the ground bus copper.

Thanks Randall! Some path to get here, but this is working better than I had thought. Thanks to you for posting photos of your awesome builds for me to model!

[mikepukmel]

The rest of the parts arrived a few days back, reverb tank, tubes, reverb transformer, and a few discrete components. (along with a fender style handle for the top). Its been bitter cold, too cold to put my makeshift fume hood exhaust out the window. Warmed up nicely this week, so with any luck channel 2 will have reverb by this coming weekend!

[olddawg]

Do you really get that much fumes? If you have a stove with a hood you can always put a piece of plywood on top of the stove top as a bench surface and turn on the hood fan?

[mikepukmel]

Do you really get that much fumes? If you have a stove with a hood you can always put a piece of plywood on top of the stove top as a bench surface and turn on the hood fan?

Hi OD, to be honest, almost no fumes at all. A tiny puff of smoke sometimes when the rosin burns, but if I wander around the house, I don't notice it.
My wife, on the other hand, is paranoid about "the chemical smell", so if I close my office door and open the window slightly, I'll hear from downstairs "Are you SOLDERING up there????"
So the makeshift fume hood is mostly (99%) a peace keeping thing.

[Leo_Gnardo]

I'll hear from downstairs "Are you SOLDERING up there????

Answer: "Soldering? Heck no honey, I'm smoking hash!" That oughta get a rise out of her...

[mikepukmel]

Answer: "Soldering? Heck no honey, I'm smoking hash!" That oughta get a rise out of her...

Oh man, Id be sleeping in the back yard!

[mikepukmel]

How to Connect shields on RCA jacks for wiring to/from the reverb tank.

Worked on the amp 1/2 day yesterday, unfortunately the Mrs got home when I was soldering (big frown). Almost there with the reverb mod's.

Newbie question for the gurus on how to solder up low end RCA jacks: I got these cheesy RCA plugs: https://www.tubesandmore.com/product...or-type-3501mx
Did not look at them carefully before purchasing. There is no solder tab for the shield. I found a youtube video where the guy stripped a fairly long piece of the inner conductor, tinned it, pushed that all the way in until it stuck out the end of the jack tip, then just put a little solder on the end, and cut the piece of wire hanging out the end.

OK, but for these jacks, what do you do with the shield wire? Just by sheer dumb luck I had bought shielded wire that fits into the end of these jacks with a little bit of an interference fit unstripped. Should I leave the shield hang out over the insulation, twist and solder just a bit on the outside of the plug? The shield must be connected someplace?

A related question: if the shield is connected on both ends of both cables then won't there be room for a nice big ground loop? I think that one of the shields should be connected on both ends so that the reverb tank itself will have the case grounded to the amp chassis. So, should I connect one cable shield on both ends, and the other, the shield on the amp end only?

[ric]

Worked on the amp 1/2 day yesterday, unfortunately the Mrs got home when I was soldering (big frown).

Mike, with the fan in the window, don't forget make up air. Hard to get any air to move out without a way for more to get in. I had a latch for my shop door to the garage for a one inch opening when I ran my exhaust fan.

[Leo_Gnardo]

leave the shield hang out over the insulation, twist and solder just a bit on the outside of the plug?

That right there, exactly. Don't worry about ground loop here, Fender never did, how many millions in service with no complaint? DO make sure you mount the tank with the output end away from the end of the chassis with the power transformer. Of course you can place it "backwards" for a quick experiment to hear how much hum you'll pick up, then you'll know why you want to place the tank right way 'round. I use these RCA plugs all the time. Bigger fancier plugs just stick out the back too far and inevitably get damaged.