Good amp building video

[Littlewyan]

I was quite disappointed with the demo. I have yet to hear a decent single ended amp demo.

[Phil_S]

...There was not even a wisp of implied goodness in those tones...

Ahem...yeah. I got the feeling all he really needed to do was TURN IT DOWN. I didn't care that he showed limited talent. We should always remember, many of us do this for the pleasure of doing it.

[rp]

Now that I think more about it, maybe that was exactly the tone he wanted? Maybe he copied a build he was familiar with and loved. In which case he hit it out of the park.

Though the spazzy switching does imply he wasn't instantly thrilled.

[Thomas_H]

I'm no expert, but could it be too much power distortion?
I have a SE amp that sound like that when everything is maxed, and I think it's because the preamp is overloading the poweramp,like a JCM800 preamp in a sensitive power amp,first comes a nice power tube distortion, but increasing the gain will start to sound like that. Maybe he just needed to reduce the guitar volume a little, or what?

[Markusv]

My initial thought was that the only component he didn't build himself was the crappy speaker he was using
I'm sure its a shite speaker. Too small etc

[ampgeek]

Cool video. Thanks for sharing the link!

The attention to detail boarders on anal retentiveness...but...nothing wrong with that..is there?!?!

I was REALLY surprised to see that he wasn't flaring out the back side of his turret lugs. Probably OK for an amp that isn't regularly on the road though.

Loved the carbon fiber stuff! Anyone here playing around with that medium?

Thanks again,
Dave O.

[patrick620]

I was REALLY surprised to see that he wasn't flaring out the back side of his turret lugs. Probably OK for an amp that isn't regularly on the road though.

Loved the carbon fiber stuff! Anyone here playing around with that medium?

Thanks again,
Dave O.

I was thinking the same thing about the turrets. A spring loaded punch works great. Also, dust from carbon fiber sanding/grinding/cutting is very dangerous. If it gets into your lungs it NEVER comes out.
Just a heads up on those two things learned from my aircraft building days. I thought the video was great btw. Thanks for sharing it.

[Phil_S]

...dust from carbon fiber sanding/grinding/cutting is very dangerous. If it gets into your lungs it NEVER comes out.

I was thinking the very same thing. We see people doing stuff all the time without proper protective gear. At least in the US and most of the industrialized world we promote awareness and workplace safety.

Apologies for side tracking, but this reminds me that I was in Romania this past summer and workmen were building a sidewalk in Bucharest. We saw a man cutting limestone curb blocks with an unprotected hand held saw, the block on a table (close to his nose) and no respirator. My internist brother-in-law commented later that he'd probably have some sort of lung disease within just a few years. That man was obviously clueless, the amount of silica he was inhaling was quite excessive.

Some things, you really shouldn't do them just because you can.

[Structo]

The guy probably hasn't built many amps.

I liked the video due to the different head cab but the amp itself
didn't sound very good to me at all.

[rp]

Apologies for side tracking, but this reminds me that I was in Romania this past summer and workmen were building a sidewalk in Bucharest. We saw a man cutting limestone curb blocks

Limestone as in marble? Calcium carbonate, harmless (I'm told). I'm near Carrara, from childhood I've watched workers grinding away, covered head to foot in pure white dust, 8 hrs a day, faces looking like they got hit with a bag of flour in a Three Stooges short. The old timers would have a filterless cigarette hanging out there mouths the whole time. I could never believe it. Young friends in the trade too, no masks. I thought they were all nuts. Supposedly, totally harmless no silica in marble, pure calcium carbonate, dissolves out of your lungs - again, so I was told. I wouldn't do it, not all day, year in year out, clogging your lungs with anything can't be good. And that Romanian guy would probably have no mask even if he was carving silica based stone. He's just lucky he's working limestone.

BTW my observation, Europe isn't any more regulated than the USA, they just regulate different things depending on the different political and economic forces. Living in the USA the right tells you crap how the EU is stagnant because it's so over-regulated, the left holds the EU up as proof that you can prosper just as well with heavy regulation. Which is it? Neither, I see hardly any difference, I can buy all the nasty shop chemicals I can get in the States. Some shops work well but it's because they choose to. Truth is, the uneducated, uninformed, poor, desperate, those with few options, and of course, the obstinate, get screwed equally in both 'advanced' economies.

[Gainzilla]

I thought the video was pretty amazing, and really showcased a mastery of a broad range of skills. Amp-building looks like a "new hobby" for him, and yet there some things I'd like to try. For instance, I liked his tube socket wiring jig (which makes it much easier to wire the heaters, etc.).

Re: tones. He's got a couple things working against him. Single ended el84 are sort of asking for it. Playing aside, there were some clean tones that sounded reasonably good, and in skilled hands, would shine through. But then he turns it up, and the harshness shows up. It could also be blocking distortion. He doesn't have a tone control so maybe he's getting a ton of signal that would normally be attenuated through a tone stack of some sort. In combination with the el84 nastiness, it adds up to a pretty ugly sounding distortion. Just a theory anyway.

Cheers,

[ToneMerc]

What impressed me was getting that carbon fiber shell smooth. Quite a jig he had prepared for that. Whenever I do fiberglass and/or epoxy, it's nothing but bubbles, gaps, and lumps to fill in and sand down.

I'm thinking he just used a woven sheet.

http://www.acpsales.com/Carbon-Fiber-Hi ... heets.html

TM

[patrick620]

Playing aside, there were some clean tones that sounded reasonably good, and in skilled hands, would shine through. But then he turns it up, and the harshness shows up. It could also be blocking distortion

Could also be a crappy mic on the cam. I have had that trouble before. Sounded great in person but like ass on the video.

[M Fowler]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt6ysax7xQ0

Same amp I think different player and speaker obviously.

Looks like he has built or rebuilt some other amps.
I know he builds guitars I've watched those videos before.

https://www.youtube.com/user/elams1894/videos

[cbass]

That wasnt the same amp was it? Still eehh.
He said in the comments it took him 3 weeks the get the dovetail jig right.
I'm much more worried about how my amps sound than how they look.