SSS002 build happiness

[erwin_ve]

Hi All,

Im in the middle of my SSS002 build and thought it would be a good idea to share the process.
I've worked over a year on the pcb on and off. Then Covid 19 appaered and I had time on my hands. Ryan and I teamed up to fit each others work. Last month was intense; planning, getting quotes etc but I'm happy with the outcome as far as the chassis and pcb.

So here it goes:

First: Removed some powdercoating with a dremel for the ground points. The bias jacks I have are a bigger than whats in the BOM so made the holes bigger.
The hole for the Indicator light was 8mm, drilled it to 10mm,
Added a extra hole to fit the Reverb transformer for Hammond 1750a.

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Boards are populated. Still waiting on some parts.

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Wired the step switches.

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Next are the pots with buss bar.

Erwin

[erwin_ve]

Update:

Wired the buss bar, input jacks, fet board and the bright-deep-guitar/mic switches. The pots are installed and only connected the ones that are grounded at the buss bar.
Pots are a mix of CTS, Alpha and NOS Allen Bradley.

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[rootz]

Oh man, this is going to be one sweet build! Subscribed!

What is that volume pot you are using? Doesn’t look like a CTS j-taper to me. I also see you use a 2k2 on the Fet source. I used a 3k3. Is there that much tolerance in the Fet specs? Or is this just your gran and go value?

[erwin_ve]

Oh man, this is going to be one sweet build! Subscribed!

What is that volume pot you are using? Doesn’t look like a CTS j-taper to me. I also see you use a 2k2 on the Fet source. I used a 3k3. Is there that much tolerance in the Fet specs? Or is this just your gran and go value?

Yes correct; CTS standard audio taper.

The Fet is biased to the method posted by Martin Manning: https://ampgarage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=18389
The 2N4416A is usually biased around 2k . My previous Bluesmaster build has a 1k8 using this biasing method for FET.

[dorrisant]

Spectacular looking build there. I'm chomping at the bit to start mine.

I has the same thing happen... I followed MMs guide to bias the FET. Result was like 1k8. I never liked to use the FET until I biased it correctly. That made quite a bit of difference for me.

[erwin_ve]

Tone stack wired, powertubes almost.

Regarding the voltage on the driver tube: I think I have a fairly simple solution to try and test a lower voltage.
The can cap has 2 unused nodes, if the voltage at B2 is tapped off to a terminal strip with 22k resistor(at the can cap)and then to the can cap node it is possible to feed a decoupled and filtered B+ at a lower voltage to the plates of the driver.

[erwin_ve]

I finsihed the build, it took a while as not all parts were in till half july; tomorrow testing and measuring.
I will post some more pics of the build along with the building order and what I run into.

Erwin

[Synchu]

Looks great Erwin. Clean and nice.
Sounds are expected

I remember when I did the filter switches - rewarded myself with a victory glass of cognac (or might have been few)

Niki

[martin manning]

Speaking of which, are the filters wired as in the Japanese schematic? The resistor values seem to match.

[Abe5150]

Nice build Erwin!!

[Colossal]

That looks just great, Erwin, nice work!

[erwin_ve]

Looks great Erwin. Clean and nice.
Sounds are expected

I remember when I did the filter switches - rewarded myself with a victory glass of cognac (or might have been few)

Niki

Thanks! I rewarded my neighbours with sound
Below some sounds.

Test drive: one clean and one with a tubescreamer:

[erwin_ve]

[erwin_ve]

Speaking of which, are the filters wired as in the Japanese schematic? The resistor values seem to match.

Martin, they are from the Japanese schematic. I'm still.in exploring phase and not opinionated about it yet.

Erwin

[pompeiisneaks]

Wow the Tube Screamer into it sounds great! Love that tone.

~Phil