Complete Build VLOG For My Latest 102

[Chris Brown]

Hey everyone, I want to give a huge thank you! I just finished another build... this time #102 with a few tweaks such as extra relays.

I put together a full video from the clips I made as I built the amp. The best part is probably when I realize the overdrive relay is wired backward lol

https://youtu.be/1oI3cojHxS0

[hellrot]

Greate video and built! Thanks for sharing!

[martin manning]

That was fun Chris, nice work on the Amp and the video. I don’t know why some people put preamp tubes in first. The B+ and screen voltages will be much closer to final values with the power tubes installed, and any serious smoke inducing issues will likely be in the power section.

[Bombacaototal]

Great video! I couldn't help but notice the pen markings on the orange drop resistors.

Just wondering if those are for the outside foil of the caps as per article below:

http://www.aikenamps.com/index.php/wher ... capacitors

Also curious on which method are folks here using to determine the outside foil of 6PS Orange Drops caps, is there a pattern on the lettering? Or we always have to go through an oscilloscope?

[pompeiisneaks]

I've used the oscilloscope method where I swap leads while holding hte capacitor, and it's actually pretty hard to detect on most except the very largest ones, like the .1uF ones. Even then, I've built quite a few amps where I didn't even pay attention to outer foil and can't really tell a difference in noise floor, maybe I'm too hard of hearing though

None of the big manufacturers do it, they just throw them in willy nilly.

I too watched some of the video but got sidetracked. Very cool to see the progress of the build for the first 5-10 mins I did watch! Love it.

~Phil

[Guy77]

Great video! Thanks for posting. I especially like the part about placing one hand in pocket. I have been shocked a few times and boy does that wake you up. I think the highest I took was a 280 volt shock once.

Cheers

Guy

[M Fowler]

The amp sounds great.

The video is very good it shows how we find the problems and solve them one by one.

Wiring relay circuits is a PITA. Wiring FET circuits is PITA also.

Good job on the amp and the video, thanks.

Mark

[Bombacaototal]

I've used the oscilloscope method where I swap leads while holding hte capacitor, and it's actually pretty hard to detect on most except the very largest ones, like the .1uF ones. Even then, I've built quite a few amps where I didn't even pay attention to outer foil and can't really tell a difference in noise floor, maybe I'm too hard of hearing though

None of the big manufacturers do it, they just throw them in willy nilly.

I too watched some of the video but got sidetracked. Very cool to see the progress of the build for the first 5-10 mins I did watch! Love it.

~Phil

Thanks Phil, I was wondering how much of a difference it would make...maybe something for the next amp given the one on my bench has the board fully wired up already..

[Chris Brown]

Also curious on which method are folks here using to determine the outside foil of 6PS Orange Drops caps, is there a pattern on the lettering? Or we always have to go through an oscilloscope?

I did the method where you listen for the less noisy orientation.

[norburybrook]

Also curious on which method are folks here using to determine the outside foil of 6PS Orange Drops caps, is there a pattern on the lettering? Or we always have to go through an oscilloscope?

I did the method where you listen for the less noisy orientation.

I've done that, but I've given up now as I seriously cannot differentiate the amps I've followed the 'correct' orientation and the ones I haven't. If you're using standard components with 5-10% tolerance then it seems mad to get all anal about outside foil orientation IMHO. The difference in +/- !0% in components will offset any benefits in
cap orientation.

I would say it does no harm in following the 'correct' way but from personal experience it makes no audible difference.


MC

[Bombacaototal]

Also curious on which method are folks here using to determine the outside foil of 6PS Orange Drops caps, is there a pattern on the lettering? Or we always have to go through an oscilloscope?

I did the method where you listen for the less noisy orientation.

I've done that, but I've given up now as I seriously cannot differentiate the amps I've followed the 'correct' orientation and the ones I haven't. If you're using standard components with 5-10% tolerance then it seems mad to get all anal about outside foil orientation IMHO. The difference in +/- !0% in components will offset any benefits in
cap orientation.

I would say it does no harm in following the 'correct' way but from personal experience it makes no audible difference.


MC

That is comforting to read Marcus. I must confess I was a bit concerned about this on the current build but one less thing to worry about. Many thanks for sharing your experience on this.

[martin manning]

Some people have claimed that the cap outside foil orientation is significant, but it will also depend upon which cap, and how much stray emf is present. I don’t think the 5 or 10% tolerance on the capacitance would be a significant player in noise floor.

[norburybrook]

Some people have claimed that the cap outside foil orientation is significant, but it will also depend upon which cap, and how much stray emf is present. I don’t think the 5 or 10% tolerance on the capacitance would be a significant player in noise floor.

Martin, my comments about tolerances were really meant about overall components in the amp ,resistors, pots, etc meaning that in an entire amp there's is a quite a possibility for components to add quite a difference between one amp and the next, so the outside foil orientation effect possibly could be mitigated by other areas.


I'll add that I have no scientific basis on my comments they're purely my own personal experience of the 6 Dumbles I've made. I was recently in the studio with 5 of them tracking a guitar solo and we were swapping between all 5 amp heads into the same speaker. the 3 bluesmasters were all built with very different components , one of which was a real parts bin special but I couldn't reliably tell you which was which after a while they all sounded very close to each other in a real life situation.


I've heard of people mention that swapping the outside foil orientation brought an amp to life sonically, so in my early builds I followed the orientation ,components, voltages religiously, but the resulting amp sounded no better or worse than it's predecessor, so at that point I decided not to get so hung up about a lot of this stuff and just got on with building and enjoying the results


Marcus

[martin manning]

My point was only that cap orientation is about noise floor and component tolerance has other effects. I’m in a similar place wrt being anal about component brands or vintage vs. new manufacture, but I do pay attention to material class. The effect of tolerance on resistors or caps can be estimated by how much the roll-off frequency in an RC filter would shift. Resistor tolerance is so small that it’s not worth any consideration. Caps might be 5-10%, but that means the roll-off (which is a gradual thing that occurs over an octave or two) shifts by that same amount, which is between a half and a whole step (a whole step being 1/8 or 12.5%).

[erwin_ve]

Im one of these who actually did cap orientation before and after. With 6ps Orange drop the effect is very pronounced for me.
I recently did some further research by replacing all 6ps Orange drops with cde dme series caps. The reason for this is the cap construction. Cde dme are layered while 6ps of are rolled.
My personal conclusion after experimenting is that the Multilayer caps are less prone to emf, in other words cap orientation doesn't matter that much with those kind of caps.