The Amp Garage

I use something like this that I bought from HF. Works fine and comes with different size tips. I order the rivnuts off ebay typically.

https://www.harborfreight.com/hand-tool ... 94100.html

The simple answer is 'yes', you can mix preamps and power sections. There is always the caveat that you may have to tweak either a bit for the best sound, but I do that very thing all the time.

Seaside does custom sizes. Any reason you aren't using them?

ViperDoc wrote: ↑Wed Jan 18, 2023 9:29 pm

Dr Tony Balls wrote: ↑Wed Jan 18, 2023 9:12 pm How are you trying to contact him? Through Reverb or something or direct emailing?

Direct email, Reverb messaging, texting him on his cell phone, AND Facebook. I'm almost stalking at this point, so I hope to hear back from him.

I use Seaside and Synaptic, both of whom do custom sizes. Synaptic seems to be a bit slow on comms at time, but does good work.

If the placement of the xformers is in doubt, you might try the headphone trick to see if there is any induced hum.

I've bought grill cloth from parts express previously. They have a flat rate shipping charge of less than $10, so that might be an option.

That seems crazy high. I'm getting ready to start a new combo build. I priced an aluminum grill from Reliable Hardware, and shipping was about $18.

And that can't be folded and put in an envelope like every piece of grill cloth I've ever bought....

I'd just get a faceplate and put it on. It would give the visual you want/need and is easily removed.

I bought most of my tubes like that through ebay sellers. I realize a full time shop can't do that, but it works for me. I don't know how any of those sellers are impacted by the current events.

When I do this, I put the relay before the PI input. Each channel is it's own thing, with it's own tone stack setup. I feed the output of each pre into the relay, and the output of the relay feeds the PI.

Musical Power Supplies is still in business. They make nice quality, affordable transformers.

https://www.musicalpowersupplies.com

I've built a couple of tube preamps using boosters found on ebay. 12VDC to 200VAC boost inverter type things. I've had varying degrees of success with them. I use the 12VDC input to run the heaters, as well as generate the HV.

I'll have to look into the nixie version now.

I've used those (or similar) in a couple of builds. They seem to work well, but don't have any long term data on them. All my builds are from the ground up, so I manage to make room. They are large however. Are you referring to something like this TUBEDUDE? https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/polypropyle...

I've used the Teflon and Tefzel wire. The insulation is very slick, for lack of a better word. I find it hard to strip. I use a automatic squeeze type stripper, and also a traditional hand stripper when needed. They both have trouble grabbing the insulation. Maybe my technique sucks, I don't know. I...

I built the front end of this into a recent pre-amp build. Phenomenal circuit.