Join me on a magical journey: Metro Plexi Superlead Build

[gbsmusic]

Very cool. I would never be able to do something like this. I have troubles just wiring pickups in.

 

[FourT6and2]

Small update today. Wired up the PT Heater to V7, Heater Center Tap, Bias Ground, Filter Caps' ground and resistors, and the power tubes' ground bias resistor thingamabobers. It's going slow, but I'll get there.

 

[FourT6and2]

Heaters are done. That was the biggest pain in the ass ever. I mean... I'd rather have a few teeth knocked out from a coked-out, c-section infested stripper at the Clermont Lounge than wire heaters again. And those of you familiar with Atlanta know that's some serious shit.

For serious. Took like 2.5/3 hours. Fuck.

 

[GuitarGoat]

But they look SUPER clean. Good work, dude.

 

[FourT6and2]

But they look SUPER clean. Good work, dude.

lol the last run at V1 won't stay down on the chassis, so I had to tape 'em. I don't know why. I tried bending them every which way. But they keep lifting and curling up. I hate them...

 

[steve_k]

But they look SUPER clean. Good work, dude.

lol the last run at V1 won't stay down on the chassis, so I had to tape 'em. I don't know why. I tried bending them every which way. But they keep lifting and curling up. I hate them...

Dab a little clear silicon on the heater run.

 

[cyndicate]

looks great! great job on the heaters

 

[Mr. Willy]

Awesome! Very neat work. I really wanna do this someday.

 

[FourT6and2]

But they look SUPER clean. Good work, dude.

lol the last run at V1 won't stay down on the chassis, so I had to tape 'em. I don't know why. I tried bending them every which way. But they keep lifting and curling up. I hate them...

Dab a little clear silicon on the heater run.

Ohhhhh that's a good idea!

 

[The Hoff]

Too difficult for me. Good luck! Looking forward to hearing clips.

 

[FourT6and2]

Too difficult for me. Good luck! Looking forward to hearing clips.

If you can read and follow directions you can do this build. Putting together furniture from Ikea is harder.

 

[gibson08]

Looking good so far, keep up the good work! Keep the photos coming!

 

[thiswaythatway]

Very cool. I would never be able to do something like this. I have troubles just wiring pickups in.

Not to mention drilling HOLES.

 

[JTyson]

Looks great, I think the heaters are the worst part, you should be home free now. You can tell thats a real PITA just looking at it.
Do they tell/show you how to get it wound like that, or do you just have to soldier through it?
I have not done this (on an amp), but it seems like putting some heat from a blow dryer on the wire before you dab it with silicone might make it conform better. Just thinking out loud I have had to do some harness mods on GE Profile refrigerators, and had to heat the wiring harness up to get everything like I wanted it before re assembly.

 

[JTyson]

Too difficult for me. Good luck! Looking forward to hearing clips.

If you can read and follow directions you can do this build. Putting together furniture from Ikea is harder.

I friggin' hate Ikea, I cringe when the wife comes home with big boxes from there. I'm sure I could do a build like this but i know I would make a mess inside, solder drips, poor lead dress, etc. Then I would probably want to goop it up to hide that mess and protect the circuit from any clonerz.

The guy you got to do the build on the Plexi I got from you did an amazing job. It was pure art I keep thinking I want to do one of these, but I know I could not do it like that
I'm afraid I would drive myself crazy trying to get everything perfect. Just looking at the heater wiring makes me cringe

 

[JTyson]

Too difficult for me. Good luck! Looking forward to hearing clips.

If you can read and follow directions you can do this build. Putting together furniture from Ikea is harder.

I friggin' hate Ikea, I cringe when the wife comes home with big boxes from there. I'm sure I could do a build like this but i know I would make a mess inside, solder drips, poor lead dress, etc. Then I would probably want to goop it up to hide that mess and protect the circuit from any clonerz.

The guy you got to do the build on the Plexi I got from you did an amazing job. It was pure art I keep thinking I want to do one of these, but I know I could not do it like that

I don't even remember who he was now but it was sooooooo clean, I should have just kept that one, learned how to take out the MV and just tinkered. At least you got a brown eye out of it.

Yes, she came home very pissed off about that..... she still is

 

[tweed]

Did you twist the heaters by hand or use a drill?

 

[FourT6and2]

Looks great, I think the heaters are the worst part, you should be home free now. You can tell thats a real PITA just looking at it.
Do they tell/show you how to get it wound like that, or do you just have to soldier through it?
I have not done this (on an amp), but it seems like putting some heat from a blow dryer on the wire before you dab it with silicone might make it conform better. Just thinking out loud I have had to do some harness mods on GE Profile refrigerators, and had to heat the wiring harness up to get everything like I wanted it before re assembly.

They tell you to twist the heats and all that. But they don't tell you any specific method for doing it. I stepped it up a notch in the "clean" lead dress department compared to the how the instructions show it. I basically looked at hundreds of photos of amp innards to sort of reverse engineer how I wanted to do it. If I had my way, I'd use parallel runs of bus-wire for the filaments like in an SLO100 or run the heaters elevated above the sockets like in a Hiwatt. But, I can't do that due to the layout of the Super Lead.

I thought of the hair dryer thing. But I don't have one. I may go out and get a cheap one. I wonder if it'll work after-the-fact to help keep those wires in place once I remove the tape...

Too difficult for me. Good luck! Looking forward to hearing clips.

If you can read and follow directions you can do this build. Putting together furniture from Ikea is harder.

I friggin' hate Ikea, I cringe when the wife comes home with big boxes from there. I'm sure I could do a build like this but i know I would make a mess inside, solder drips, poor lead dress, etc. Then I would probably want to goop it up to hide that mess and protect the circuit from any clonerz.

The guy you got to do the build on the Plexi I got from you did an amazing job. It was pure art I keep thinking I want to do one of these, but I know I could not do it like that
I'm afraid I would drive myself crazy trying to get everything perfect. Just looking at the heater wiring makes me cringe

Pics of that Plexi?????

Did you twist the heaters by hand or use a drill?

I tried using a drill at first. Didn't work out because there's no way to measure exactly how much wire you need for each socket-to-socket run. A drill twists the wires very well. But once you cut the twisted strand to layout between the sockets, the braids start to unravel. Then, once you unwind a length to use as the straight/bend to each pin, the entire thing just comes apart.

So, I had to start over and do it by hand. I started with a straight length of red wire and soldered it to the first pin (pin 2, V7). Ran it straight to the rear wall. Bent it. Then wired a straight length of black wire to pin 7. Arched it toward the back wall. Then right where the two leads meet, I twist by hand. When you get to the next socket, the red wire branches off at 90 degrees to it's pin and the black continues straight and then bends toward its pin. Then you do the entire thing over again with new wire. But you have to sort of double back to get the new wire twisted in with the previous run so you're not left with just straight leads running over twisted wire.

Hard to explain. Sorry.

I have no idea how this guy did it. But this is a much better job than I did:

 

[Anonymous]

Practice makes perfect, just take it from me... be glad you didnt use a drill to twist those leads! I did this on my 5E3 kit and it looked like utter shit! Good job for your first time!

 

[JTyson]

Looks great, I think the heaters are the worst part, you should be home free now. You can tell thats a real PITA just looking at it.
Do they tell/show you how to get it wound like that, or do you just have to soldier through it?
I have not done this (on an amp), but it seems like putting some heat from a blow dryer on the wire before you dab it with silicone might make it conform better. Just thinking out loud I have had to do some harness mods on GE Profile refrigerators, and had to heat the wiring harness up to get everything like I wanted it before re assembly.

They tell you to twist the heats and all that. But they don't tell you any specific method for doing it. I stepped it up a notch in the "clean" lead dress department compared to the how the instructions show it. I basically looked at hundreds of photos of amp innards to sort of reverse engineer how I wanted to do it. If I had my way, I'd use parallel runs of bus-wire for the filaments like in an SLO100 or run the heaters elevated above the sockets like in a Hiwatt. But, I can't do that due to the layout of the Super Lead.

I thought of the hair dryer thing. But I don't have one. I may go out and get a cheap one. I wonder if it'll work after-the-fact to help keep those wires in place once I remove the tape...

Too difficult for me. Good luck! Looking forward to hearing clips.

If you can read and follow directions you can do this build. Putting together furniture from Ikea is harder.

I friggin' hate Ikea, I cringe when the wife comes home with big boxes from there. I'm sure I could do a build like this but i know I would make a mess inside, solder drips, poor lead dress, etc. Then I would probably want to goop it up to hide that mess and protect the circuit from any clonerz.

The guy you got to do the build on the Plexi I got from you did an amazing job. It was pure art I keep thinking I want to do one of these, but I know I could not do it like that
I'm afraid I would drive myself crazy trying to get everything perfect. Just looking at the heater wiring makes me cringe

Pics of that Plexi?????

Did you twist the heaters by hand or use a drill?

I tried using a drill at first. Didn't work out because there's no way to measure exactly how much wire you need for each socket-to-socket run. A drill twists the wires very well. But once you cut the twisted strand to layout between the sockets, the braids start to unravel. Then, once you unwind a length to use as the straight/bend to each pin, the entire thing just comes apart.

So, I had to start over and do it by hand. I started with a straight length of red wire and soldered it to the first pin (pin 2, V7). Ran it straight to the rear wall. Bent it. Then wired a straight length of black wire to pin 7. Arched it toward the back wall. Then right where the two leads meet, I twist by hand. When you get to the next socket, the red wire branches off at 90 degrees to it's pin and the black continues straight and then bends toward its pin. Then you do the entire thing over again with new wire. But you have to sort of double back to get the new wire twisted in with the previous run so you're not left with just straight leads running over twisted wire.

Hard to explain. Sorry.

I have no idea how this guy did it. But this is a much better job than I did:

for some weird reson, I cant post pics on the forum, it says invalid file. I have no idea why, I used to post them all the time. PM me your email and I'll shoot some to ya