SG John
Ambassador of Cool Guitars and Amps.
Like I've mentioned in a few other posts, I started hanging out with these guys from different bands in the local scene who work at M.I.T., and have Saturday morning "Amp Club." They get together to drink way too much high test coffee, and then build and/or troubleshoot amps and maybe some pedals. They pass on their knowledge, and have a pretty nice selection of parts handy to build stuff. I was introduced to them this summer by my friend Chris who had gone to nursery school with Tim, the owner of the house. They are all a great bunch of highly intelligent geeks who have been in various bands, Tim's being my favorite... Archbishop's Enima Fetish.
When I was introduced to them, Tim told me that "You must come back now and build an amp or two." So, I started researching what to build. SInce I bought the book by Dave Hunter, "The Guitar Amp Handbook", I thought I would start with a 5F2A Fender Princeton, since that circuit was the basis for descriptions of how each section of an amplifier works. I wanted to learn as much as I could, especially so that I could play along with the many informative posts by Ivan, Steve, and Sysco, and many others here.
So, I bought a chassis, some transformers, tube sockets, tubes, and a couple of other little bits. All the caps, pots, resistors, and other odd electronic parts I was able to pull from bins in Tim's cellar. They were surprised I bought all the "right" stuff for the build, as most of the people going through there are always looking to get stuff done cheaply, on a musician's budget. I used the Fender schematic and the Weber layout drawing for reference. After a couple of months of random Saturday visits, I finally finished it in December. It fired up and worked first time, but there was a bit of internal distortion that may have been caused by a cold solder joint. Since I needed to tidy up the wiring anyway, I hit all the joints with the soldering iron. After that was done, I had an empty DST Engineering box for a U84 TNT amp and 10" speaker. Bob D. gave it to me when I bought a U84 TNT head, so I could have a speaker for it. There was a Fender badged Eminence speaker in it. I modified it a bit, and mounted my Princeton in it.
Now that I've played with it a bit, I can say that it likes P-90s and single coils better than humbuckers. I need to mess with the tone stack, as it needs to always be on twelve. If you roll off the tone knob, it starts to sound like there's a pillow in the speaker. Other than that little issue, I'm quite happy with it. Especially since it was my first build, and it works. Now to try a KT-66 powered JTM45 after I save enough money to buy the necessary hard goods.
Gratuitous porn:
When I was introduced to them, Tim told me that "You must come back now and build an amp or two." So, I started researching what to build. SInce I bought the book by Dave Hunter, "The Guitar Amp Handbook", I thought I would start with a 5F2A Fender Princeton, since that circuit was the basis for descriptions of how each section of an amplifier works. I wanted to learn as much as I could, especially so that I could play along with the many informative posts by Ivan, Steve, and Sysco, and many others here.
So, I bought a chassis, some transformers, tube sockets, tubes, and a couple of other little bits. All the caps, pots, resistors, and other odd electronic parts I was able to pull from bins in Tim's cellar. They were surprised I bought all the "right" stuff for the build, as most of the people going through there are always looking to get stuff done cheaply, on a musician's budget. I used the Fender schematic and the Weber layout drawing for reference. After a couple of months of random Saturday visits, I finally finished it in December. It fired up and worked first time, but there was a bit of internal distortion that may have been caused by a cold solder joint. Since I needed to tidy up the wiring anyway, I hit all the joints with the soldering iron. After that was done, I had an empty DST Engineering box for a U84 TNT amp and 10" speaker. Bob D. gave it to me when I bought a U84 TNT head, so I could have a speaker for it. There was a Fender badged Eminence speaker in it. I modified it a bit, and mounted my Princeton in it.
Now that I've played with it a bit, I can say that it likes P-90s and single coils better than humbuckers. I need to mess with the tone stack, as it needs to always be on twelve. If you roll off the tone knob, it starts to sound like there's a pillow in the speaker. Other than that little issue, I'm quite happy with it. Especially since it was my first build, and it works. Now to try a KT-66 powered JTM45 after I save enough money to buy the necessary hard goods.
Gratuitous porn:
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. You now have a new addiction. The build looks very nice. I bet you had a big old smile on you right after your amp fired up for the first time. The DST cab is very classy looking, too.
