Tweed Filter Caps

[Jammin'John]

"Is that a bias balance pot between the power tubes? with cathode biased I would rather have seperated cathode resistors/bypassed."

No,it's to adjust the cathode bias a little bit up or down.

"Since you had a tech finish it, I would say you need a new tech. He is very Sloppy."

Whoa..............he did it for CHEAP.
He would have spent more time on it if I had been willing to spend more $ !

I don't want to putz around too much inside this amp because I don't want to f%*c it up.

I'm a player and this is NOT an amp that will go up in value.
I figure that it can't be something major because after it warms up it sounds very good.

I understand the lead dress thing.
I own a couple Victorias and a Clark and they look very tidy inside.
I just want to get this thing workin' right.
Thanks for all the tips so far.

JJ

[billyz]

[quote=
"Since you had a tech finish it, I would say you need a new tech. He is very Sloppy."

Whoa..............he did it for CHEAP.
He would have spent more time on it if I had been willing to spend more $ !
[/quote]

Well, I would have been more gentle with my phrasing if I thought it was a newby or yourself who did the wiring. Everyone has a start. But when someone calls themself a Tech, then I have certain expectations.
If I had done it for free, I could not have wired it that haphazardly. It would not have taken any more time or effort to do it correctly in my opinion.

Anyway, good luck with it, these thing are hard to diagnose long distance.

Have you tried different tubes? Preamp and power amp ?

[Structo]

I really think even if you don't know that much, if you can solder neatly you could easily clean that rats nest up.

Take plenty of close up pictures for reference.

Then just work one wire at a time and shorten the mead.

The mess of red wire on the power transformer could certainly be eliminated.
If it is a tap that is not being used you could shorten them almost to nothing and cut them off and put about an inch of heat shrink tubing in the ends to cap them off.

Some of the existing solder joints look questionable as in cold.

Do you know what a cold solder joint is?

It's a joint that did not cool properly or possibly the connection was moved while the solder set up and hardened.

That big white power resistor over the power tubes should be secured to a terminal strip rather than hanging on a tube pin. It's not very safe or durable as it is.

You can do it.

[Alexo]

5R4's are spec'd to only see a maximum first filter cap of 4uf, so it may have a rather limited life span in that amp.

[Jammin'John]

[quote=
"Since you had a tech finish it, I would say you need a new tech. He is very Sloppy."

Whoa..............he did it for CHEAP.
He would have spent more time on it if I had been willing to spend more $ !

"Well, I would have been more gentle with my phrasing if I thought it was a newby or yourself who did the wiring. Everyone has a start. But when someone calls themself a Tech, then I have certain expectations.
If I had done it for free, I could not have wired it that haphazardly. It would not have taken any more time or effort to do it correctly in my opinion.'"

"Anyway, good luck with it, these thing are hard to diagnose long distance.

Have you tried different tubes? Preamp and power amp ?[/quote]
Yes,many.

By the time the tech got it it was mostly wired up.
The original guy died before he had finished the amp & the tech just made it work.
I can shorten the wires a little at a time and upgrade some of the parts.
I have a bunch of caps commin' from RUBY next week.
Right now I would just like to make sure it's reliable.
It hasn't let me down and I've giged with it and it's run for stretches of many hours.
I've shuffled many tubes through it.
I don't know if this will help but I measured voltage readings to ground on the caps starting at the big blue one.
30 uf 423v
16 423
16 346
.1 60
.1 285
.022 233
16 288
.1 145
25 2
.022 148
.022 148
25 2

I also tried different rectumfriers and noted plate current/voltage.

5r4 45ma 390v
5u4g 45 390
5u4gb 47 400
5v4 49 415
5ar4 49 413

I think KT66's will run OK with ANY of these rectifiers.

JJ

[Structo]

How are you measuring current?

[Jammin'John]

I have a Weber Bias Rite.
https://taweber.powweb.com/biasrite/br_page.htm

JJ