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Originally posted by Chuck H
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This is an idea I've toyed with. What I found, from a design perspective, is that you still need flying leads to the input jacks, panel controls, effects loop, reverb tank jacks, foot switch jacks, transformers, common ground, etc. There are some circumstances where it may improve things a little bit, but not without undue complication an/or detriment to some other lead dress conundrum.
And, FWIW, I've seen it done in PCB amps where the tube sockets are chassis mounted. I can't remember the model/s I saw like this though.
What I HAVE done is design the board layout and tube locations in tandem. Rather than just row the tubes up along the back of the chassis and then design the board around tube location. So, for example, I may have the input tube very near the input jack on the opposite side of the board from most vintage designs. In one of my Fender/BF type topology designs this means the second triode for the tone stack is also RIGHT THERE and I used a five point terminal strip to mount the tone stack components. Now over all lead length for the first two preamp stages is MUCH shorter than vintage designs.
I will also note that this is for better or worse. Because sometimes it's the anomalous inductive/capacitive loops in a circuit, the components that aren't really there, but are hidden in lead dress and cross talk that give a particular design it's mojo. That is, if you want the tone of a particular vintage design you should not try to "improve" it in any way. It will sound different. So in the end you didn't get the tone you were after. I'm intimately familiar with this phenomenon. It's been said many times here, there's more to an amp than the schematic.
Here's an example the design concept I mentioned. G=ground. Because I run individual ground leads without daisy chains the grounds are located under the board. Since I'm running so many ground leads this makes for a neater appearance.
And, FWIW, I've seen it done in PCB amps where the tube sockets are chassis mounted. I can't remember the model/s I saw like this though.
What I HAVE done is design the board layout and tube locations in tandem. Rather than just row the tubes up along the back of the chassis and then design the board around tube location. So, for example, I may have the input tube very near the input jack on the opposite side of the board from most vintage designs. In one of my Fender/BF type topology designs this means the second triode for the tone stack is also RIGHT THERE and I used a five point terminal strip to mount the tone stack components. Now over all lead length for the first two preamp stages is MUCH shorter than vintage designs.
I will also note that this is for better or worse. Because sometimes it's the anomalous inductive/capacitive loops in a circuit, the components that aren't really there, but are hidden in lead dress and cross talk that give a particular design it's mojo. That is, if you want the tone of a particular vintage design you should not try to "improve" it in any way. It will sound different. So in the end you didn't get the tone you were after. I'm intimately familiar with this phenomenon. It's been said many times here, there's more to an amp than the schematic.
Here's an example the design concept I mentioned. G=ground. Because I run individual ground leads without daisy chains the grounds are located under the board. Since I'm running so many ground leads this makes for a neater appearance.
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