Early pics of my Express build.

[leadfootdriver]

I tried to do a Wizard Multi Star Grounding. Those F&T caps were small enough that I was able to pack everything on the boards.

The grounding is chained together with each cap as a star point. You can pick out the eyelet where the bond to the chassis will be. I have isolation washers for the jacks.

I fused the PT, as well as the rectifier out. I mounted some MOV's for the OT on the bias board.

I'll paint the chassis before I do the final wiring. Plus, I need to buy my transformers still. I'm accepting PayPal donations at leadfootdriver@comcast.net.

Let me know if you see any potential problems so I can take care of it now! :!:

[loudthud]

Looks good so far except the board is a little close to the front panel. Good luck and post progress reports.

[vibrovox7reverb]

Looks nice and clean. I have always wanted to do a build from scratch.

[Wombaticus]

Looks really clean, except that putting that 25W 1K resistor right beside your PSU e-lytics is a really bad idea. They'll experience greatly shortened life expectancy. The aluminum cased chassis mount wirewounds can be a good choice if you really need such a high rating.

[Diablo]

I think your build is too clean, which will only give you clean tones. I think you need to mess up your wiring a little for more distortion.......just kidding.....

[leadfootdriver]

Yeah, I was worried about the heat coming off' that resistor. So, I out some standoffs under it to get it in the air, and away from the caps.

But I checked the dimensions of some aluminum cased WW's, and they're a lot smaller compared to the cement I have in there. I think I'll pick one up instead. Thanks for that tip!

[leadfootdriver]

Screw it. I just redid that part of the board.

[jmaf]

Very neat build, congratulations.

Is that a 220K resistor going into the bias diode? What AC voltage you got coming into the bias sector?

I'm not familiar with the Express, what is that huge 1K resistor for?

[leadfootdriver]

Thanks. It's a lot of work. I don't blame companies for going PCB.

I don't have transformers yet, so I can't give an exact voltage, but this might help. The big 1K is basically a choke.

http://www.webphix.com/schematic%20h...ck_express.pdf

[jmaf]

Thanks. It's a lot of work. I don't blame companies for going PCB.

I don't have transformers yet, so I can't give an exact voltage, but this might help. The big 1K is basically a choke.

http://www.webphix.com/schematic%20h...ck_express.pdf

Oh it's a Trainwreck, you went straight for a Rolls Royce . The way this is coming out clean, you'll probably be very happy with the result.

There used to be some rather large archives of actual Trainwreck gut photos here. You've probably found those by now? If you haven't, then they might come in handy in case you have any doubts about your own build.

[diagrammatiks]

in your thread we question U!

hey what's that board material made of? fr4? Where'd you get it? It was predrilled I'm guessin?

[jmaf]

AES - Parts Catalog

[leadfootdriver]

I redid a little crate V58 by adding my own board, extra tube, bla, bla... This turned into my test amp as I've change a hundred parts in it by now trying different things. So, the short long is that I've never had a real sensitive, pure reacting amp as it's been described on many forums. But with experimenting, I think I sorta' get the idea of what people are talking about.

So your Rolls Royce analogy is spot on according to it's (Trainwreck) legend. I somehow found my way to it.

I always wanted an EL34 amp, but was never satisfied with the few Marshall's I've tried. It seems that putting the tonestack right after the first gain stage has a huge effect on articulation.

And yes, I'm a member of TAG. Thanks for the link.

[leadfootdriver]

in your thread we question U!

hey what's that board material made of? fr4? Where'd you get it? It was predrilled I'm guessin?

I got' the boards from Watts. He sells a bunch of different styles, including the pre drilled ones; in different colors to boot. He even sells a template to pre drill your own.

Watts calls them Per Board. Circuit Boards, eyelet boards, turret boards

I went with the pre drilled so I could have freedom of layout. It's saved my ass because I've changed sections of my layout more than once!

BTW, once I got my boards, I traced them on paper with parts in hand to see what would fit as I laid it out on paper with pencil first.

[Bruce / Mission Amps]

Yeah, I was worried about the heat coming off' that resistor. So, I out some standoffs under it to get it in the air, and away from the caps.

But I checked the dimensions of some aluminum cased WW's, and they're a lot smaller compared to the cement I have in there. I think I'll pick one up instead. Thanks for that tip!

Forget it.
I use to talk to Kenny once in a while, although eccentric in many ways and full of lots of great BS, a great guy to rag chew with.
I asked about that 1K 25 watt resistor ... he laughed about it, why?... because it was just what he had laying around.
25 watts is really overkill.
Even if the preamp and screens could draw 100ma of current, that would be 10 watts.
Funny how some people pick the weirdest stuff to copy 100% when they don't know what the truth is.