The whole thing that triggered this build was pretty much buying the PCBs. Whilst I'd enquired a few times at c3amps, the exchange rate and import duties combined with shipping pretty much meant it just wouldn't work out well for my bank account, which is a shame, as the conversations I'd had with him really made me want to just get all the parts from him in one easy shipment. However, it just wasn't to be.
Instead, I ended up buying some PCBs, one for the Preamp, one for the Power. I got them pretty cheap from the man I have been pestering for advice since he helped me troubleshoot the jcm800 i was fixing. He's been invaluable with his help, and where to get parts.
So, buying these PCBs kickstarted it, and suddenly I had component lists, I needed to find transformers, a chassis, the right wire, sockets for the tubes... In short, it's a long long long list, and it can't all be got from one place either, which makes it even more daunting. Combine that with out of stock parts, or parts that have changed part number, and it's basically a few evenings of your life trawling places like mouser, tubetown, good old ebay, maplins to find various screws, the right type of wire that can wuithstand the correct voltage/temperature, screws, high quality capacitors, metal film resistors, weird selectors, tube sockets, more tube sockets... you get the idea.
First off, finding the chassis, without finding that, well, there's nothing to build everything on. First I looked at c3amps, but again, the price was pretty high, and predrilled for the super over the top Onetics transformers, so it'd kind of mean have a clean chassis and use them, or redrill a bunch of holes. Being in europe,w ell, as before, the cost is just too high, so I left that as an emergency option.
Meanwhile, Tony pointed me to a place called Brownsound in Italy, so I got in touch with them. When I received a reply, it turns out he had stopped making chassis and headshells, but still had some chassis in stock. Vistory chassis wise, but does mean I'll have to figure out the headshell (the wooden box thing the amp goes in) at a later date. However, one chassis completed with silkscreened control markings acquired. Result!
Now onto the components. It's a bit of a long list, and took me about 2-3 days and evenings of searching via component codes and slowly building up a list to get done over two websites. The lovely people at mouser and tubetown allow you to save lists as projects and reload them, which is nice, and kind of kept things organised. Most of the resistors, capacitors have been ordered from Mouser, the more tube/amp specific stuff (like tube sockets, pilot lights, opto couplers and some nice large quality capacitors for the power supply) from tube town. I was pretty surprised at the cost of optocouplers, which actually ended up being pretty costly. I'd also never heard of them before, but now I know that theuy're used for switching channels in amps, pretty cool really looking at it, and a little bit learnt on the way. Also things like the impedance selector switch and also the right control knobs and pots, with the pots being more costly than I thought they'd be as well.
Next has been getting hold of the wire. Hookup and Bus Wire that can deal with alrge voltages and is easy to work with. I ended up taking the advice and going With Alpha Eco Wire, 20AWG for the hookup wire, and 18AWG for the bus wire. Ebay turned out to be cheaper than the other places by a significant enough amount. As a bonus, it looks like rather nice wire for wiring guitar electrics, although it being rated for 600V probably means it's overkill for that...
So, placed those orders, and realised I hadn't got any screws, ebay to the rescue, and a whole bunch of M3,M4,M5 screws and washers and Nyloc washers ordered.
Finally I've just ordered the transformers from a place called inMADout in Italy. Kind of ended up swearing at online banking a bit after trying to use an IBAn to transfer money, then feeling stupid seeing a PayPal email, and using that, which ended up costing less in fees than the bank transfer would have. Anyway, ended up with inMADout via advice from dear old Tony (surprised he doesn't feel tortured yet) and also after being told by the guy there that the power transformer would power kt88s if i wanted it to, although only for a rating of 140w. Plenty loud. I don't plan on using kt88's as will go for 6l6's, but it's nice to know it can be done. Also considerably cheaper than the onetics transformers and more representational of the DeYoung ones the slo uses. Plus this is my first build, so going over the top, well, can do that if I make another if this works out.
Then, tools, wire strippers, lead solder, flux etc etc etc and depending on the state of my current soldering iron possibly a new one.
So, now I am just waiting for all the bits and pieces to turn up. Then I'll need to sort and label components once they arrive,
and need to mark the PCBs with component names for when i start
soldering (But I have a plan involving a scanner/printer for that). And make sure I have everything I ordered and that nothing is missing.
I'm sure I'll end up making an emergency run to maplins or whoever at some point as there'll be something I've forgotten, but for now, the waiting game begins.
I am really excited, can't wait to start!
In short (TLDR) if you want to save a weeks worth of free time, buy an amp kit.
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