HOME PAGE   CIRCUITRY   CHASSIS   WIRING AND PARTS   BUILDERS COMMENTS  


THE LONE WOLF 6L6SE

STEP BY STEP FREE HARP AMP PROJECT


WIRING AND PARTS INSTALLATION

WIRING
The first step is to wire in the power transformer as shown with emphasis on direct and short routing, twisting the wires to help cancel hum and taking care not to route wires carrying ac next to signal and dc voltage wires. Cut excess length from unused wires, cap them with heat shrink tubing and secure them out of the way. Neatness is extremely important when building an amp, this will help eliminate hum, noise and oscillations. Now, wire in the power switch, fuse and ac cord, the main voltage wiring is done with 18ga stranded wire. Wiring on the turrets is accomplished by tinning the wire with a light coat of solder and then wrapping them around the turrets at least one full wrap around and then soldering. The heater wiring needs to be routed with the same considerations with even more care toward twisting, routing next to the chassis and away from dc voltage and audio signal wires. Once all of this is done install the voltage wires for the preamp section and the star grounding wires, this is done with 22ga stranded wire. You may notice that the blue wire that runs from the upper right hand conner of the turret board looks a little funny, that is because I forgot to install the wire before I made the images and had to photo shop it into the images. Last are some images of the input and the output jacks.











THE PARTS LIST
Here is the PARTS LIST; this PDF also contains the schematic and turret board drawings. I recommend getting a few varieties of R16 and R13, meaning different values for adjusting you voltages, especially if you get a different power transformer. Vendors change suppliers sometimes so you selection of parts may vary slightly as well as pricing. I do not recommend building anything until all parts are in and the size of parts like the transformers are verified.


INSTALLING THE PARTS
There isn't a whole lot to be said here other than once again neatness is a priority and it is helpful to install all components in easy to get to locations and where their values are easily read. Bend the leads and solder them into the whole in top of the turrets, a drop of solder is all that is needed here. If the component lead can come in contact with anything, such as the tone control cap put heat shrink on the lead to insulate it.






TESTING
Take you schematic and a highlight marker and now starting at the mic input of your new amp, verify each wire and component and highlight the wire and component on your schematic as you go. After completing the audio signal path do the same with your voltage wiring paying attention to cap polarities and component values.

Power up your amp without the tubes and verify your power supply voltage and heater voltage. The power supply is unloaded so do not wory when you see a high voltage here. Hook up your amp to a speaker or a cement power resistor for a load, install your tubes and check all of the voltages points listed on the schematic and if you are within 10 percent you are good to go. Fortunately, I have an o'scope and audio generator so I run a signal though the amp checking gain, distortion and noise. Now you can hook up a speaker a mic and blow away.





MODDING
I recomend getting intimate with your amp prior to modding, play, play and play, listen, listen and listen. This amp is laid out for easy modding, by changing the value of R16 you can adjust your preamp plate voltages, by changing the value of R13 you can fine tune your 6L6 plate current and bias voltage and by adjusting the value of R6 you can change the tone of your preamp (and gain) and with R10 you can raise or lower your preamp gain. To change the tone of your preamp and keep the gain and feedback under control just raise R6 and lower R10, raise R10 and lower R6, they work in tandem.


COMMING NEXT WILL BE THE CAB

HOME PAGE   CIRCUITRY   CHASSIS   WIRING AND PARTS   BUILDERS COMMENTS  


For discussion visit the LONE WOLF BLUES CO FORUM


Questions? Comments? email me at randy@lonewolfblues.com




© 2008 LONE WOLF BLUES COMPANY LLC