Finished my Ampmaker P1800 plexi 18 watter (With Pics)

handsomerik

Thanks for all who offered me advice about building this. It went really well.

Anyway, pics.

chassis at the start

Power supply section

Heater wires and Switch and Neon done

components in turret board

Valves wired

Pots wired

Jacks all wired and transformers wired

Voltages checked and biasing calculations done. Little finger shocked with 330v!

handsomerik

Done!

I'm waiting on a head cabinet from Chris on the ampmaker website. Will add pics once it's nicely housed. 

The build went well. Very enjoyable and educational. It took about 15 hours I reckon in total. I've only tested it through the texas heat speaker in my blues junior but I have to say it sound amazing. The variable voltage option allows you to dial in such amazing tone at any volume and the PP+ option the dial is just so smooth. An amazing amp for the money and even more satisfying to know i've built it myself. 

50+ pedals, 1 amp......build my own guitar next then I guess!

Dave_Mc

wow nice work

sucks about your finger

ThePrettyDamned

How did you shock your finger? Just for future reference!

Looks really neat. How dirty do these babies go?

frankus

Wow ... Ampmaker cautioned me how amp making was different to pedals - would you agree with that?

Gagaryn

frankus said:

Wow ... Ampmaker cautioned me how amp making was different to pedals - would you agree with that?

Yeah - it's easier! Loads more room and bigger components. :-)

Looks great, very neat. Somebody mentioned to me that it was a bad idea to run wires over the top of the valve bases though - claimed it could introduce noise. Not sure if there is any truth in that though.

Jalapeno

Proper job ! B-)

jpfamps

Gagaryn said:

frankus said:

Wow ... Ampmaker cautioned me how amp making was different to pedals - would you agree with that?

Yeah - it's easier! Loads more room and bigger components. :-)

Looks great, very neat. Somebody mentioned to me that it was a bad idea to run wires over the top of the valve bases though - claimed it could introduce noise. Not sure if there is any truth in that though.

Good job.

I find pedals harder to build than amps too.

Regarding running wires together, you need to aware that the closer the wires are together the more capacitance there is between the wires. This can become a real problem in the pre-amps of high gain amps, and around the power amp and an cause instability due to unwanted feedback paths, and or phase shifts.

Thus the effects on the amp depends very much on which wires are run close to each other.

Running wires in parallel (or indeed twisting) with increase capacitance. Crossing wires at right angles reduces capacitance.

You are very unlikely to increase noise by running wires together, but you can increase cross talk/ interference.

Incidentally you are advised not to loop the filament wire around the bases of the pre-amp valves (although virtually everyone does), as this can induce hum into the pre-amp.

I see no cross talk problems with your layout, however it is not good practice to have wires connected to board that really solely on the solder joint to remain in place: indeed the current interpretation of the regs for CE marking requires that wires have another method of attachment, for example looping through a hole in board, or cable tying/ twisting to another wire.

To comply with this reg Fender now use hot melt glue on their PCBs (see pic),

handsomerik

Thanks for the feedback. 

In answer to the questions and comments: 

How did I shock my finger? I touched a pot lug with it on the side of the chassis when measuring voltages with a multimeter. My own fault.

How dirty does it go? from crystal clean to heavy rock, especially with the hot input. It's a great sounding amp and I can't wait to get a decent cab and test it with my pedals since it apparently takes them very well. It's also incredibly loud. I haven't been able to dime it yet.

Is it different to building pedals? Yes. There is a lot more space to work which is easier. my 18w soldering iron that I do pedals with wouldn't suffice. I bought an antex 25w one and it was perfect and will also be much better long term for changing pickups etc

Thanks for the feedback about wiring and valve bases etc. Not having any experience I simply followed the excellent instructions and i'm happy to say there is zero hum and it's as quiet as a mouse. I will probably move the wiring so it doesn't go over the valve base if there's enough length available.

I highly recommend the ampmaker kits and I dare say I may take on another one at some point. (I already have the se5a model which I traded on here. It's also a great sounding amp with a slightly different sound to this one. It was quite bright initially so I changed a couple of caps and now it sounds great.) The new double six clean voiced amp should be available soon.

MtB

Nice build - welcome to the P1800 owners club!

ESchap

Excellent!  very neat job.   Particular congratulations on the 330V through the pinkie!

thermionic

Tidy work there! I built an N5X which is sort of inspired by early Marshalls and almost as soon as I finished it I wanted to make a real 18-watter.

ThePrettyDamned

Lovely, thanks for the answers

Looks pretty tidy! 

benvall

That looks nice. I knew there was a new kit coming. I didn't realise it was out yet. That's got me thinking!

raulduke

Lovely stuff. Looking forward to seeing it with the cab!

I had a cab made by Chris and it's a beauty (see below).

I have built both the (old) Se5a and the WF-55 (with loads of mods).

The WF-55 is my main 'play at home' amp. I love it.

The PP1800 is on my next to build list. Ampmaker are a fab company!

ROOG

Nice work @handsomerik these threads get me thinking I should do that too!

Jalapeno

This is an unhealthy thread, I'm getting amp-self-build-itis ........

BluesyDave

Looks great.....lovely neat wiring as well, (tho' I'm no tech)  congrats  

Zodiac51

That's so tidy have a WOW!

You have the same table cloth underlay that my mum had when I was a boy, that deserves the wow on it's own 

handsomerik

Haha. It's been there since I was a boy too!!!

paulnb57

I built a WF-55 one knob Ampmaker a couple of years ago, great instructions and very straightforward. Superb sounds, love it, definately a keeper, my cabinet is appalling though!

Paul