She's cold, she's so cold.

  • Thread starter Thread starter capnkid
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capnkid

capnkid

Optimus Prime
This is the guts of the marshall plexi 18 watt clone I can't get to come alive.
I have been to 18watt.com and I still am having trouble. It looks pretty though so I thought I would share a photo.
 

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Oh Yeah, I hand made the cabinet out of baltic birch, It has a Celestion vintage 30 Made in England not china. Dovetail joints, Authentic marshall tolex and grill cloth. It was fun putting it all together, but I have a word of advice for you who are thinking of building one. Read up on How Guitar amps work first. It is harder that it looks. There are lots of layouts for amps and I don't think one is complete, so it's a little hit and miss, it seems your taking some of one layout and using some of another here and there. I can't wait to get her working though.
 
Nice job Cap,...... did you buy a kit,... or do the chassis and everything yourself,..?

and what tubes did you use??

we are building an 18 watt clone as well,.... the speaker choice is great,....!!!


how bout some other pics.....different angles and such....and def. one or two of the cab.....

Steve
 
Thats a nice looking layout Capn...looks like a board kit?

Im sure you'll get 'er up and running. I assume you have tested her for the basics (like plate and bias voltage for power tubes?). If I recall this is a fixed bias design so you want to make sure you have -ve grid bias or you'll cook your power tubes rapidly.

Good luck...I bet it'll crunch.
 
yeah....

capnkid said:
I have been to 18watt.com and I still am having trouble.
Click to expand...

I've found sometimes 18 Watt.com isn't all its made out to be.... I don't get many answers over there... Mostly I'm just to lazy to look things up myself, but I end up doing it anyway!!

It looks like the wiring isn't all finished... Let us know if you need some help. I did an 18 watt homebrew myself - affectionaltey known as the "cakepan" amp.
 
There are a few cosmetic issues. On building the cab, All the dimensions are right on but I had to improvise with the baffle which left me with no slot for the horizontal piece of white piping, so as you can see it is droopy in one spot, maybe some super glue will work :rolleyes:. Also I haven't installed the handle yet, that baby cost $30 :eek: .
 

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Wow I had to shrink these 3 times to upload them.
 

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Last one......
 

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I hve found in trouble shooting to print out a copy of the schematic or layout, and then take a marker and start following your component connections....checking off each one on the paper. I found it works best if you just find a good place to start and follow all the way through in one non stop direction and when you get to the end of something, start over and take any alternate routes when you were presented with 'forks in the road' on the previous pass. Then just keep going until all is acounted for.

If everything is, and its all got good solid connections, then you need to take a week off and let it sit and redo it all over again.

Does the thing even power up?

But another thing.....are all your caps in the right directions? Nothing is accidentally grounding out the circuit right?
 
gusfinley said:
I've found sometimes 18 Watt.com isn't all its made out to be.... I don't get many answers over there... Mostly I'm just to lazy to look things up myself, but I end up doing it anyway!!

It looks like the wiring isn't all finished... Let us know if you need some help. I did an 18 watt homebrew myself - affectionaltey known as the "cakepan" amp.
Click to expand...

I'll take you up on that. right now as it goes, I had the power switches wired wrong, now I fixed that, but when I plug it in the fuse blows. It's the terminology that confuses me. I can check things with the volt and ohm meter but the words are not what I am framilliar with. If you want to check out the thread at 18watt, My user name is slowlearner, I've only started one thread and it is now 3 pages long!
 
I see what you are missing.....Transformers!!!!
OK, I really have no idea, but are there some that I just can't see? This project looks like fun (and a pain in the a$$), but I would like to know somebody who has made one work before I try diving in.


And I think I have seen a cakepan amp. Somebody over at groupdiy posted a pic of one. Was it you gus?
 
Reggie said:
I see what you are missing.....Transformers!!!!
OK, I really have no idea, but are there some that I just can't see? This project looks like fun (and a pain in the a$$), but I would like to know somebody who has made one work before I try diving in.


And I think I have seen a cakepan amp. Somebody over at groupdiy posted a pic of one. Was it you gus?
Click to expand...

Marshall started selling these amps again for like $2300 :eek: . If you do research you can get one done for around $900.

if I had to do all over, I would order the amp from ceriatone.com and the cab from reasonamps.com and boom, like $900 bucks. And just the cost of whatever speaker you want.
 
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Here is a good place for hardware like handles.....



www.ohiotravelbag.com


I use them for all kinds of stuff,.... but then I have done leatherwork too, so,.....

Great shots, by the way,... what did you use for the Tolex glue,......????

looks very professional, (without the hanging trim piece of course)......are you gonna do more,?? or is this it....





Steve
 
Thatupstateguy said:
Here is a good place for hardware like handles.....



www.ohiotravelbag.com


I use them for all kinds of stuff,.... but then I have done leatherwork too, so,.....

Great shots, by the way,... what did you use for the Tolex glue,......????

looks very professional, (without the hanging trim piece of course)......are you gonna do more,?? or is this it....





Steve
Click to expand...

It's a tolex glue s-f316 you can google it. It works perfect, non flammable, no hazzardous fumes. Right now I don't care about doing more, no more from scratch anyway. I may by a kit if it had FULL instructions with it. Or I might by a assembled amp and then buy a cab for it.
 
hey!!

Reggie said:
And I think I have seen a cakepan amp. Somebody over at groupdiy posted a pic of one. Was it you gus?
Click to expand...

yup, that was me!! a $3 chassis for the cheap-o DIY'er
 
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