Just finished my first build

[milocj]

I haven't made the third check of all my wiring before putting 120VAC to the amp but I figured I would post a link to some pictures. Hopefully it'll be running before I have to hit the sack. This was a lot of fun (as long as it works).
http://s78.photobucket.com/albums/j1...t=DSC01779.jpg

[tubeswell]

Hey milocj - nice progress, very tidy work!

[milocj]

Thanks for the comments. I've soldered on eyelet boards before but never turret boards so that took some getting used to. Trying to figure out neat ways to run the wiring took more time than anything else.

If she fires up and works on the first try (fingers are crossed) I've got a Weber 12A125 that I can run it through, but I'll have to decide whether to look for an original P12Q or spring for a Blue.

[MLC]

Extremely clean wiring, milocj. You definitely won't have any issues due to sloppy lead dress.

Congrats on the new build.

So, did you get to fire it up?

[milocj]

Not yet. I made all the final checks for continuity and connections last night but I have to get up at 4AM for work. Not all the outlets in my house are grounded so I'll have to haul the chassis into the basement so I can hook up the old light bulb current limiter and put some juice to it. I should be able to do that as soon as I get home from work tonight.

It's going to be a long day.

[milocj]

Just a quick note since I'm up way later than I should be. I got a chance to fire the amp up and I'm about half successful. The normal channel seems to work very well, if not too well. It's loud and it breaks up very early. The tone
control seems to have almost no effect, and the bright channel has very little volume with the bright channel volume pot acting more like a tone control and the normal channel volume pot being the only thing that really affects the volume of the bright channel.

I thought that I had checked the wiring very thoroughly more than once before firing it up and it seemed to have good grounds. I have to admit that I haven't tried even tracing a wire since plugging it in because it's too late and I've
got to get up early. I also just got this RCA 12AY7 so I have no proof that the second triode is working right and I haven't tried a tube swap yet, either.

Anybody have any similar symptoms with a new build before? I apologize for not having more info right now but 4AM comes really early. I think one or two of you may see this over on the FDP, too.

[milocj]

Woohoo, she's working now. The more I thought about it during the day it had to be related to only a couple of wires and most likely at the pots since they piggyback off of each other and I knew that the amp was visually wired correctly.

It took about 30 seconds with my DMM to find that even though both wires that connected into the first lug of the normal channel volume pot were solidly connected that I had over 2 meg of resistance when testing that feed at the tone and bright channel volume pots. Somehow I had a cold solder joint on just one of the two wires. It's fixed now and sounds great. I think my cabinet is arriving by Fedex tomorrow so I can actually finish everything up then and start trying to decide on what speaker to buy for the thing.

[dobsont]

Photobucket pics look great! I'm jealous of that cabinet. Congrats!

[milocj]

Thanks!

I forgot that I had updated the pics. The cabinet was an Ebay purchase from Clark Amps and is really nice. I also snagged a Weber Alnico Blue Dog from my favorite local music store (couldn't believe they had it in stock) and I'm extremely happy with the amp.

The only thing I don't know is how accurately it represents a true Fender Deluxe because I used a Kendrick output transformer. I think it may be a bit beefier than a stock replacement but I don't mind because I was a bit worried about overall volume and headroom being a bit too low. It's plenty good for my use.