couple DYI 5f1 clone questions

[Paul P]

I will change heater wiring back to the original Fender wiring
and see what I get. Will go back and check other wiring against
original Fender layout as well.

I'd keep the heater wiring the way it is, presuming it's wired properly. It's
a better way than what Fender did. I'd forgotten that you weren't using
a Fender schematic.

Removing the center tap should not have any effect on the output apart
from a possible change in hum level. Make sure your resistor leads and
heater wires aren't coming in contact with other pins on the tube.

Paul P

[Paul P]

The caps are now at a slow discharge but its like a ghost. I check B+ and it shows zero one minute then next minute it shows +70 or something. I discharge it by shorting out the filter caps and check a few other things and somehow comes back. At one point I checked B+ side of all caps and they showed zero or +1 and later while I was poking around the wiring on the 5Y3 I got a nasty little jolt. So I put the meter back on the caps and they show like +34.

I get the uneasy feeling something might be wrong with your multimeter or
your probes. You wouldn't want to get zapped with fully charged caps.

It's normal for discharged caps to regain some voltage if you let them, but
not enough to cause problems.

Paul P