A Wondrous Adventure: SLO Clone Build (Now with Clips)

  • Thread starter Thread starter FourT6and2
  • Start date Start date
Are there any good practice studios in SF? We should take this when you're done and crank it :rock:
 
jsp":3my3dod6 said:
Are there any good practice studios in SF? We should take this when you're done and crank it :rock:
Click to expand...

There are a couple rental practice spaces. I think there's a studio somewhere too. I'm down if you want to split the cost. Assuming this thing even works when I turn it on! :)
 
Got the AC lines, Depth control, loop, and channel switch all wired up. Board is now locked in.

ac_by_haftelm-d7sadgg.jpg


depth_by_haftelm-d7sadgc.jpg


loop_switch_by_haftelm-d7sadfr.jpg


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loop_and_switch_by_haftelm-d7sadgn.jpg
 
FourT6and2":31tafk6n said:
jsp":31tafk6n said:
Are there any good practice studios in SF? We should take this when you're done and crank it :rock:
Click to expand...

There are a couple rental practice spaces. I think there's a studio somewhere too. I'm down if you want to split the cost. Assuming this thing even works when I turn it on! :)
Click to expand...


I am totally down.
 
Was out doing real-world stuff for the majority of the day. So did a couple of the small things left to do here and there: Power Board to Preamp Board jumpers for Bias, B+, and Ground; signal coax to V3/7 (not shown); and remote bias control.

board_to_board_by_haftelm-d7sg26i.jpg


bias_by_haftelm-d7sg26b.jpg


bias_top_by_haftelm-d7sg26f.jpg
 
Almost done, guys! Most of the preamp sockets are wired up. I just have the Phase Inverter section left, along with the Presence control and the leads going to the grid of the power sockets. Then I can start testing.

I gotta say... with all the purple wire hooked up... it looks pretty damn awesome. I got a huge smile on my face right now. :D
 
Yay, all done! :)

Just gotta do some testing to make sure all the voltages are good. Keeping my fingers crossed.

slo_clone_2_by_haftelm-d7sk6zc.jpg
 
Powered up. No smoke, no sparks. Everything seems good. :) I think all the voltages check out for the most part. Some are a bit higher, some lower. Plate voltage is crazy high... 520 volts. Damn. Highest I've seen in any amp.

TARGET:

screen_shot_2014_07_27_at_8_52_27_pm_by_haftelm-d7skod4.png



ACTUAL:

screen_shot_2014_07_27_at_8_45_46_pm_by_haftelm-d7sknlf.png
 
Looks good man. Did you bring it up to operating voltage on a Variac or just hit it with wall voltage? Sometimes wall voltage can run a bit high and will give you about 10VDC higher per 1VAC.
 
steve_k":3rn2y3lr said:
Looks good man. Did you bring it up to operating voltage on a Variac or just hit it with wall voltage? Sometimes wall voltage can run a bit high and will give you about 10VDC higher per 1VAC.
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Nah, just plugged it in and hit the switch (held my balls like a soccer player too).

With power tubes in, voltages came down a bit since the amp is now under load. Plates are 490 now. Biased to 65% dissipation to start with. Amp works! No real nose or buzz/hum at all. At least not until I get both the gain and master up past 12:00 on the overdrive channel. Then there's some buzz. But zero heater/filament noise. Elevating the heaters worked well. Running 44.7 VDC reference.

Will have to wait until I can crank the amp through my Bogner 4x12 with G12-65s before I pass judgement on tone. But I'm already planning another build with some tweaks! :D
 
That looks phenominal man! Your build looks great, and super clean! I'd be nice to here some clips of it in action, and I may be speaking for myself, but I'd love to hear a shoot out between your build and a Soldano-built SLO. With my amps, there's quite a lot of opinions about the effect an FX Loop makes on the overall tone of an amp, or what brand of capacitors of the same value make on the overall sound. I think that would be really cool to hear, and to help educate other builds going forward!
 
fretout":11r24uen said:
That looks phenominal man! Your build looks great, and super clean! I'd be nice to here some clips of it in action, and I may be speaking for myself, but I'd love to hear a shoot out between your build and a Soldano-built SLO. With my amps, there's quite a lot of opinions about the effect an FX Loop makes on the overall tone of an amp, or what brand of capacitors of the same value make on the overall sound. I think that would be really cool to hear, and to help educate other builds going forward!
Click to expand...

I don't have a real SLO. But I'd love to do an A/B if anybody in the Bay Area has one!

Caps do make a difference. I'm using Sprague 716p polypropylene caps. But the real SLO uses metallized polyester Vishay MKT368 (formally Phillips). They sound different. I should have used the Vishay. But I didn't know at the time I was sourcing parts. It's not so much the "brand" that mattes, but the material used in the cap. Polyester vs polypropylene. The MKTs supposedly sound meatier and have more of a mid-range emphasis. Whereas the Sprague "orange drops" are a bit more scooped sounding. More highs and lows, less mids. Oh well. I'll just have to build another one! :)

The loop in the SLO is a huge factor in the sound of the amp. There are a number of reasons: 1) The loop is BEFORE the tone stack. 2) Cathode Follower stages (including the loop). So you're having some tonal interactions going on with the loop's circuit. If I build another one, I'll add a loop bypass mod. Or maybe even build it without the loop.
 
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