New Amp Build - Princeton Content.

Gagaryn

Well, the amp kit I ordered from Weber finally got to my local Parcelforce Depot today - so I immediately went to collect it. Have to say everything looks reasonably good - the cabinet is excellent - 

Only complaint with the cab is the handle is crap and only held on with self tapping screws. Luckily, I bought up a Fender one a while back for £8 which has dome bolts and retainers so that has been fitted since this picture was taken. 

I was going to wait until the weekend to start but excitement got the better of me - so I've hand tightened everything apart from the trannies to the chassis. The chassis seems really good, heavy, well finished with well printed control designations and numbers. I'd heard the sockets were poor so had bought Belden replacements but they were about 1 or 2 mm too big for the pre-drilled holes so I had to enlarge the holes with a step drill. The jewel lamp was crap too, but I'd read that too so picked up a Fender one - that fitted without trouble. They have supplied an RCA socket for the speaker which doesn't seem to have a mounting plate as far as I can see and is too small for the hole in the chassis so replace this with a standard Cliff socket I had lying about. Not sure how to wire these up though, so some research required.  The marks on the chassis you see is just grot from my greasy hands.

I had a wee bit of time so sorted through the rest of the stuff too, measured resistors and stuck them to card to help me find them again. I picked up some Sprague Atoms a while back so subbed them too for filtering - and started to populate the board. This is when I discovered my first problem - the supplied wire is not proper push back wire, it's got plastic insulation under weird nylon like fibres. It's pretty horrible to work with but I don't know of anywhere local I can get the proper stuff and don't have time to wait for delivery - I'm hoping to get the majority of the build done over the weekend as I have plenty spare time. So I'll have to learn to work with it, think it will need the end's stripped rather than just trying to push back. 

I'll need to make a bit more space on Saturday morning - the kitchen table is my work bench but I'll need to extend it as I was disorganised and cramped today. You can see the replacement handle here too.

More updates to follow. Probably requests for help too!

ESchap

Great stuff, look forward to following your progress.  I'm about to start a 5C5 Pro build soon.  Had all the parts for a while but just not had time to get started. 

equalsql

Glad it's arrived at last. Now the fun begins. I recommend putting some PVC tape on the front of the chassis to protect the nice shiny finish whilst you are working on it. If you are not happy with the wire, Hot Rox sell proper cloth pushback at a reasonable price. Poor quality wire will make the build an absolute pain, so worth getting the good stuff for the sake of a few extra days wait.

Looking forward to more piccys

Gagaryn

That's a good idea - will mask it up before I do anymore. And thanks for the tip re the wire - I've just ordered a load. As the day's go by, the more I regret buying this kit and not doing what I should have done - and what everyone said I should do and just source the parts. I think the only parts supplied by Weber  that will make it into the final build will be the cab, chassis, trannies, board, speaker and resistors, switch, fuse holder and input jacks. I've replaced the pots, speaker jack, wire, pilot light, mains lead, handle, sockets, valves and caps. The Kit cost £380 and I've spent about another £100 on substitutions.

equalsql

I think everyone's first build can be an expensive learning experience, you always get things wrong, especially in the the minutea , I wasted a fair amount dosh on Teflon coated wire, which whist brilliant at not melting, was a complete pain to try and form (being that it was multi-strand). Also some of the pre-amp shielded tube sockets were too slim for the EH pre-amp tubes I had stocked.
Don't beat yourself up on it, the experience that you gain building the amp will be priceless. 
Just take things steady, measure twice cut once.

If you are not happy with any wiring you have done, then stop, take a break and redo it later.

GuyBoden

Building amps is great fun, I have all Gerald Weber's tube amp books, but I don't think Ted Weber and Gerald Weber are related.

Have fun

Gagaryn

Yeah, enjoying it so far. Didn't get anything done over the weekend but got the board populated (sans wire) this morning, still waiting on decent wire arriving from HotRox so can't do anymore just now. I had one head scratching moment this morning when I realised I had a 25uF, 25 volts cap left over but it seems like I was sent a spare! Anyway - I've seen neater boards but for a first try this is almost acceptable I hope!

Gagaryn

BTW - if anybody notices any schoolboy errors please let me know.

koneguitarist

Looks pretty good to me, well done.

Gagaryn

Well, the wire came yesterday from HotRox but I was unbelievably hungover so didn't dare heat up the soldering iron - would have been a recipe for disaster, but had a free afternoon today so got stuck in and managed to get it finished and unbelievably it worked! Have to say, it was a lot easier than expected - the delay with the order arriving meant I had time to do plenty of research. It sounds amazing - really happy how it ended up. Now - what to build next? Thinking a 5E3 maybe.

jonnyburgo

Excellent work, one day I will have a go at something like this.

koneguitarist

Wonderful, must try and do one myself, well done.

Gagaryn

Thoroughly recommend building one, it was good fun and if you stick with a basic layout like the little Tweeds they are very straightforward. I'm toying with the idea of building a blackface Princeton and slotting it into my PRRI chassis and cab but will need to research the feasibility and complexity of that. 

ESchap

Nice work.  

What made you go for Russian coupling caps?   Did you go with a 12AY7?

Gagaryn

Just because they were cheap and look cool! A couple of guys on one of the US forums mentioned they had tried them and found an improvement on those supplied in the kit. The ones supplied with the kit were tiny yellow plastic chinese things. Got a 12AX7 in just now bust have a few 12AY7s that I may try although I really like the sound as it i just now.

Gagaryn

More pics -