100w Bluesmaster HRM new build

[norburybrook]

Well it had to happen.

I sold my original one and it's the one Joey Landreth used. I had entertained the idea of building him one so I started to get some parts together but he went to two rock. So I had a chassis and some vintage donor Peavey Iron, and I inherited a bag of bit's from a n amp builder friend and found a 99% complete precision power supply he'd made and a pre amp board. I removed what was left of the components form the pre board and cleaned it up. There was also a 3 way footswitch in there too.


As I was using Peavey Iron I made some new rectifier boards that were suitable and also an HRM board and a FET board as I'm going to do a tree way footswitch with FET, Boost and OD.

I had to do some drilling and remounting to get the transformers to fit, I drilled the plate of the power transformer and put rubber grommets in so I could feed the cables through. I also had to splice most of the wires as they were too short.


Anyway, it's started so I'll have to finish. I forgot to add the 50k middle pot on my order!!!

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M

[norburybrook]

while I remember and Tony is around. The original layout he did has the 0.02 and 0.1uF on the PI as NTE, looking at Charlies BM ripper they're standard orange drops.I built my last BM with orange drops there too.

I've ordered NTE 600v caps just because I've never used them, just wandering what and why?


M

[martin manning]

Looks like you are making good progress Marcus! The NTE caps might even be rebranded SBE or Mallory; they even look similar in size and shape. As long as they are polyester...

[Charlie Wilson]

while I remember and Tony is around. The original layout he did has the 0.02 and 0.1uF on the PI as NTE, looking at Charlies BM ripper they're standard orange drops.I built my last BM with orange drops there too.

I've ordered NTE 600v caps just because I've never used them, just wandering what and why?


M

Marcus, note that the orange drops in the PI section of the Ripper are the 715P not PS. They do sound different. The NTEs have a nice clear top end and tighter mids and lows.
CW

[norburybrook]

Looks like you are making good progress Marcus! The NTE caps might even be rebranded SBE or Mallory; they even look similar in size and shape. As long as they are polyester...

Ah, polyester! damn I ordered NTE caps and it seems they're polypropylene. OK I''ve got to order the pot so I'll re order with Polyester. Thanks for picking up on that.


M

[martin manning]

Charlie says above that there are 715P's in there at the PI, which are polypropylene. I'm not sure it will make much difference... maybe you can find out ;^)

[norburybrook]

Charlie says above that there are 715P's in there at the PI, which are polypropylene. I'm not sure it will make much difference... maybe you can find out ;^)

yes, ironic coming from the me, the man who say's this stuff doesn't really matter that much I've ordered a pair of Sozo poyester caps (just to annoy the purists) and yes, the PI caps are 715.

interesting that the latest batch of Orange drop 6ps caps are now smaller than the ones I've had before. i thought they were the wrong values but they've obviously , like with the new resistors and modern production techniques are able to make them smaller. The F&T electrolytics on my 2nd gen build were also smaller than before.


M

[mojotom]

Charlie says above that there are 715P's in there at the PI, which are polypropylene. I'm not sure it will make much difference... maybe you can find out ;^)

yes, ironic coming from the me, the man who say's this stuff doesn't really matter that much I've ordered a pair of Sozo poyester caps (just to annoy the purists) and yes, the PI caps are 715.

interesting that the latest batch of Orange drop 6ps caps are now smaller than the ones I've had before. i thought they were the wrong values but they've obviously , like with the new resistors and modern production techniques are able to make them smaller. The F&T electrolytics on my 2nd gen build were also smaller than before.


M

Same for me , got some low values 6PS smaller than my current stock. Thought about them being rebadged 418P.
Btw I really like the Sozo caps for Marshall type amps. They should work nicely on a BM amp.

[norburybrook]

Got a good day of soldering in today. That's the thing about being your boss however I should perhaps have done 'other' things instead!


So power section and output valves all wired. I'm hoping Mike at Modulus amps has my order for my missing caps and pot and they come soon.


I suppose I could fire up now and check the power section to see if I've got it all correct with the FWBR/ bias and relay boards with the donor Peavey iron. I think we should be looking at ~500vDC on the plates from the FWBR and I'm hoping the 55v secondary will give enough voltage to bias.


The power board was in a bag of bits I got from a friend so I thought I might as well use it I found a pre board too that I unsoldered all the left over components and cleaned up.

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M

[talbany]

while I remember and Tony is around. The original layout he did has the 0.02 and 0.1uF on the PI as NTE, looking at Charlies BM ripper they're standard orange drops.I built my last BM with orange drops there too.

I've ordered NTE 600v caps just because I've never used them, just wandering what and why?



M

Dumble used 715's for PI couplers in most of his BM and Rippers I have seen or heard about!

If I were building an amp for a customer that was more of a Jazz/Fusion guy I would load it with either PS Series or MLP NTE's...For a more aggressive type (Marshall-ish) rock vibe (especially in OD or boost) I would go with polypropylenes along with the matching Mid cap for the main stack!..This is mostly directed at these types caps throughout the amp..If your talking about just the PI couplers like Martin says you might not even notice it.If you do, it would be what Charlie described

IMO..if you do notice a difference, it would be on the OD side or with very little NFB swirling around the PI..
Carlton's Ripper has a combo of 715's and NTE's


I hope this helps!
IMO.. There is no such thing as Standard Orange Drops.

Tony

[norburybrook]

thanks Tony. The NTE caps I'd ordered look exactly like those, same shape, colour but it says they're polypropylene not polyester as Martin recommended.


I'll have two types now so I ocud actually do an AB test. I think I'm going to put the SOzo's in as more Mrashally in this amp is a good thing IMHO as I've got a #40 and #102 already. Strangely the big cleans you get from the 100w BM through EV's is what I like and the more 'rocky' overdrive witht the PAB is great too.


Thanks for the pic, looking at HAD's amps always cheers me up as they're as messy as mine maybe thats the secret to great tone.....



I was listening to John Suhr talking yesterday on the guitar wank podcast and he's definitley NOT a fan of very neatly built amps.


M

[martin manning]

This is where it's nice to have a high-voltage A/B switch box to compare two component values or types quickly, back-to-back. However, I suspect it is harder to pick up differences when just one cap is swapped with another of the same value, except in the front stages. I'm afraid the original PS series Orange Drops are no more, replaced by a simpler and cheaper construction.

Tony, is there a Ripper schematic available somewhere?

[norburybrook]

This is where it's nice to have a high-voltage A/B switch box to compare two component values or types quickly, back-to-back. However, I suspect it is harder to pick up differences when just one cap is swapped with another of the same value, except in the front stages. I'm afraid the original PS series Orange Drops are no more, replaced by a simpler and cheaper construction.

Tony, is there a Ripper schematic available somewhere?

Ah that doesn't sound great Martin about the 6PS simpler and cheaper doesn't sound like a good thing....


However.....lets see how they sound first before I make judgement.

@talbany, interesting looking at the photo that the resisters marked as koa CF are in fact metal film , that is unless CF used to be blue, which I suppose could be the case as they're blue on the layout.


M

[talbany]

Thanks for the pic, looking at HAD's amps always cheers me up as they're as messy as mine maybe thats the secret to great tone..

...

Yeah Dumble was no Harry Joyce Although if look closely he always made for positive mechanical connections on every joint and his soldering skills were not bad!.You could tell he was well aware of circuit constants and wire placement in his layouts so he didn't bundle many wires together. There is a point where neatness becomes anal, at that point not really sure it buys you much in the way of a better sounding amp (Sometimes its better to keep things spread out)
Amps that are built overly anal neat! are no doubt a thrill to stare at!..

Martin .. Nothing (de-gooped) positively verified?
I've been away from the forum for a while I did just notice last week Charlie's shots of #189 as was going to see if I could figure it out from what info I have on it.I have just not had the time


Tony

[talbany]

@talbany, interesting looking at the photo that the resisters marked as koa CF are in fact metal film , that is unless CF used to be blue, which I suppose could be the case as they're blue on the layout.

Marcus
What are you talking about?..The Carlton amp is a Ripper I have not done a layout on a Ripper!
I don't really care either way use whatever resistors you want to use!!

Tony