Geeky Electronics Thread

I had a guy contact me about an amp lately and I haven't built anything in years.  I have a few of my own kicking around but haven't done any engineering or building.  I've also been out of professional engineering for almost two years, and my brain is getting rusty.  Time to brush off the old slide rule...

Decided to build an amp I've never done before.  Base is similar to something I have done, but adding a parallel FX loop.  If you don't know what that is, join the crowd.  Almost no one does.  And it's pretty inconsequential except to a few picky guitar players.

After working out the circuit design details (which are boring to most people) it was to designing the board, laying out the chassis and cutting, soldering and screwing everything together.



Board drill template and component layout.



Board with turrets installed.  There look to be a few extra holes.  I took this board from a proto amp with a very similar layout and drilled out the turrets, added the new holes I need, sanded it up and installed new ones.  Good as new.

I then design up a front panel for the controls.  Sometimes I do rear panels, sometimes I just mark it with a pen.  Depends on budget.



I used to have the panels made with the holes actual size but I got better results using the panel as the drill template and just putting pilot holes in.  I use this to put the holes in the chassis and then enlarge the holes on both.  Matches up much better.



Rough chassis layout.  Sizing where the tube sockets, can caps and transformers will go.  There's also stuff that needs to be mounted on the inside of the chassis so it's tricky to get everything laid out right.  I usually do a visual survey, then draw it up on a computer or paper, and then start drilling holes.



Once I'm finished with chassis, wiring, debugging and tuning I build a cabinet and install.  The finished product looks something like this.  I'm not there yet.  I'm still at the pics above

I've never kept track of my hours but from concept, to engineering, to built, to test, etc, it's a lot of work.  I never make much money on these things either.  It's a labor of love, perhaps...

A little clip of what the base amp this is building off sounds like, if anyone is curious what the actual products sound like.

Good for you. I design, build and test electronics all the time although not audio, mostly RF & Microwave mixed with micro controllers, DSPs  or FPGAs (mixed signal stuff). This is what I enjoy doing and people are willing to pay me well to do it. When I don't have specific work for customers I will design products I think will sell as spec work.

If I was smart, I'd do what you do because there is actually money to be made in it.  It just so happens that I enjoy playing guitar and this aspect of engineering, so I'm my own worst enemy.

Nice job CS ! That sounds great !

Thanks Dude!  Appreciate the listen!

Good song off the Straight Shooter
I saw Bad Co in 1977 at MSG...Mick Ralphs  

Haha - I just listened to that song for the first time in years.  It's an acoustic intro and acoustic rhythm.  I thought it was a gritty Marshall like in my recording!  Shows what I know...

I recorded that years ago - I don't even remember how to play that riff or what the chords are.  I guess it's just what came in my head when I was making a track for that amp.

You might find this one enjoyable. An amp I built called "Vintage 12". 12 watts of 50s goodness. This with my big, bad Les Paul on the Neck - huge, thick piano-like tones with sweet woman tone on the octave leads.

Some pretty saweeeet noodling on that axe Dude ! U got chops .

Do u build effects processors ?