Rocket Red Molly

[Dano]

Allow me to introduce Rocket Red Molly to the forum. the name is from the Richard Thompson song "'52 Vincent Black Lightning. This is my third build, first that isn't from a kit.

I want to thank the unbelievable resource that is this forum and brilliant membership, without which I never would have gotten the guts to try this. I specially want to thank RJ for furnishing the chassis and trannies. I can't recommend him enough. I would also like to thank Richie for the outstanding cabinet. Everything else I sourced myself, using the BOM when possible.

The tubes are pretty much what I had lying around with the exception of the quartet of JJs. So far I've played it through 2x12" 25 watt greenbacks and 4x12 mid 70s Marshall with 25 watt Blackbacks. In general the 4x12 is an overly harsh cabinet with a shrill top end..in other words I hate it. But the Rocket actually sounds decent through it considering. I ordered a couple m75 65 watt Scumbacks after talking to Jim at Southbay.

She starts to break up with a Strat at 11:00 -12:00. I'm going to add the optional Cap on V1b to see how I like it. It is very touch sensitive and does the clean to mean with the guitars volume knob very well as advertised. There's plenty of chime and brightness at tap if wanted. I usually do a lot of EQ with the guitar's tone controls anyhow but this amp seems to respond particularly well to this approach. I particularly like the fact that the tone doesn't become muddy or muffled when the guitars volume knob is turned down. I'll probably keep it as is for a bit before any tweeking occurs with the exception of tubes from The Sarge. I'll also be making another faceplate eventually.

Here are the voltages I took so far.

Mains:117 AC
B+1: 287
B+2: 279
B+3: 213
B+4: 189
B+5: 185
Heaters: 6
Power tubes:
Pin 3: 8.6
Pin 7: 279
Pin 9: 279
Rectifier:
Pin 2 & 8: 286
Pin 4 & 6: 240 AC

[Dano]

More pics.

[M Fowler]

Dano,

Very nice build.

Being this a Rocket you can get buy with those long leeds on V1 and V3.

What PT did you go with voltage wise? I have built a few Rockets but I want to go with 290-0-290 on the next build.

Mark

[Dano]

Mark,

Thanks for the compliment

I went with 260-0-260

I might mess with the leads a bit and add the resisters off the rectifier heater to quiet things down a bit, not that it hums that bad as it is. I was thinking of attaching r2 directly to the socket and using shielded cable to it instead of the way it's wired currently. My Les Paul was very quiet with it however so it may just be a strat issue.

[Structo]

Another great looking build!

You guys are putting out the Trainwrecks!

[M Fowler]

I see your using a bottom plate so that helps, the Rocket is not notorious for noise so probably line noise, lights, cords or the strat.

I bet your enjoying this Trainwreck its a nice build and one of my favorites. Glad you went with more voltage as I think 245-0-245 is way too low for what this amp is capable of putting out and I think 290-0-290 is ideal, VOX area.

Do you now have all three Trainwrecks?

[Dano]

This is my 2nd wreck including the sub-mini Rocket project that rj came up with.

I'm a beginner as far as amp building goes and chose the Rocket because of it's stability and easier build compared to the Express or Liverpool.

I had a blast building this and enjoy playing it tremendously. Not sure what the next build is going to be but eventually I'll take a stab at an Express.

[Noel Grassy]

Dayam Dano,
She turned out beautifully! You should be very proud.


Noel Grassy.

[RJ Guitars]

Dano,

Your work is looking terrific... three builds and it looks like you've been perfecting your skills for years.

The Rocket is definitely a great amp to break into the Wreck building habit with. I have not read of much of anyone claiming disappointment in the sound of these amps. I think you'll find the sound grows just a bit richer when you put in a set of Saratov outputs from the tube Sergeant.

You can change the break-up point to occur a little later if you add a Phase Inverter Gain (PIG) control. You can find info on this in some of the old Rocket tweak threads. The Rocket circuit really throws a lot of signal into the output section and is somewhat famous for it's early breakup. If you want to enjoy more of that fantastic clean tone you can just back off a bit of the signal just before the phase inverter and it really cleans it up.

On the other hand if you like lots of crunch then you can use the extra triode as an added gain stage... something I like to call the "Rocket Booster" option. I did this on one of my little V-2 Rockets and a couple other guys have done this with the full sized Rockets. It is a very cool option as well.

Any who, very nice looking build and I think you'll find this amp really handles pedals extremely well.

good work!

rj

[Dano]

Thank you all for the kind comments.

rj, I found the "Rocket Tweak" thread and saved it for later reading.

I will probably keep the amp as is for awhile to give all my guitars a chance through it and let my mood swings cycle through it as well. I can't tell you how many times I've found a tone on other amps that I thought was "the one" and come back a day or two later only to ask myself what the hell I was hearing.

But so far this amp continues to impress, even with my meager speaker collection.

Dan

[Big Jim]

That is one beautifully put together Wreck. Nice work! I bet it sounds as good as it looks!
Jim

[fishy]

Great looking build... Congrats

The Rocket for me was the least stressful of the TWs to build but it has provided hours of enjoyment It is a great introduction to TWs.

Enjoy