the best advice i was given was 'never buy plastic jack plugs'. reason being you'll step on them on your way to the stage.
having built a fair few circuits, replaced potentiometers and so on i agree being able to solder is essential.
but i also found that alongside re-soldering the connection i had to epoxy an input socket to a printed circuit board where it had bent.
hate to sound like an old fart but being able to take things apart, see how they work and work out how to fix it is disappearing as a skill with so much that gets thrown away rather than fixed.
i remember repairing a band's fender rhodes which had one dud note and being amazed at just how simple it was inside. i'd never try that with a hammond!
I’ve had a soldering iron and soldering gun almost as long as a trumpet, since age 10. Indispensable. My knowledge of electronics, including managing an electronics store, is 100% in support of my music.
BIAB 2024 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 6.5 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6; Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus Studio 192, Presonus Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors
In some of the discussions about amps there was mention of some having trouble with soldering. While I am no expert I do understand how it works pretty well.
It is a pretty useful skill for anyone involved in music. It was a bit of a mystery to me until a jeweler friend of mine showed me some things.
As electronics tend to get smaller and smaller to the point you need a microscope to do repairs that has become a specialized skill to do that sort of repair.
To Bob's comment, a lot of things get tossed in the trash. It is cheaper to replace a circuit board in many cases than to repair it even if you have the skill set to troubleshoot at the component level.
Worse yet the chip you may need is no longer being made.
I have more to say on the subject but not the time at the moment.
Cheers,
Billy
New location, new environment, new music coming soon
Seize the moo-ment If you feel like you’ve herd all these cow puns before, you probably have deja-moo
This is part assembly of the printed circuit boards from a traffic signal communications system I designed and manufactured a few years ago. All of the larger components were hand soldered, but the surface mount devices were all populated with a PCB loader. We pumped out stacks of these devices.
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It's not going to be a blaster but I expect that's not what you are building it for.
Your circuit shows a single resistor to handle the gain. One thing to consider is to add a capacitor (about 6.8uf to 10uf) in series with the gain control potentiometer (one side connected to pin 8 and the other to the wiper). This should improve the regulation of the gain control, and more reliably allow you to set the gain up to about 200.
What speaker are you expecting to use on the output? It's certainly not going to produce much volume, I'm guessing about 1 Watt max. I presume that you know that already. Headphones?
Add an on/off switch also, or be prepared to keep purchasing 9V batteries
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This is just a toy to play with. I have a lot of speakers but I will use a headset. Thanks for the on off switch tip. I was also thinking of using a power supply but it would most likely add a lot of noise. Most likely build a bass boost circuit also.
I have never really built anything other than effects peddles with transistors. This will be the first amp.
Building tube guitar amps started out late in life with zero understanding of electronics. I had my hands full trying to learn that and not kill myself...lol I have built more than 30 at this point. FYI for all you guitar players, there are things you can touch that will kill you even with the amp unplugged.
For what ever reason all those little black widgets looked totally mysterious to me. I did finally start messing around with transistor stuff. I found it frustrating because people would bring me really high end audio amps from the 1970's I could not repair because I could not get the parts.
Here is a video of a Vox T 60 I got working. This is the exact model the McCartney played in his early days – the small box, brown grill and grey panel! Vintage 1964 Vox T60 Transistor Bass Amplifier Head Top
As you can see from the video I did not know much about transistor amps. Well...even someone who understands solid state electronics may have never seen one of those old black Mullard transistors.
Wow, OC71 / OC72. They are Germanium transistors, which predate Silicon. Maybe late 1950's? Not too many of those around anymore. I don't know of any current circuit design that specifies Germanium (well not for a big handful of years). You're talking museum here...
(Incidentally, they pre-date my involvement in the industry )
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Wow, OC71 / OC72. They are Germanium transistors, which predate Silicon. Maybe late 1950's? Not too many of those around anymore. I don't know of any current circuit design that specific Germanium (well not for a big handful of years). You're talking museum here...
(Incidentally, they pre-date my involvement in the industry )
The amp was made in 1963.Who knows when the OC71 were made,
There are a few around to be had now days, old new stock I assume. There are guys using Germanium in boutique effects boxes. Pretty esoteric stuff...lol
The T-60 is a museum amp now days.
Billy
New location, new environment, new music coming soon
Seize the moo-ment If you feel like you’ve herd all these cow puns before, you probably have deja-moo
Videotrack/Billy. interesting thread. frankly high voltages scare the heck out of me. i understand there is a breed of tubes that dont need high voltages these days ?
talking of germanium transistors. heres a modern high end mic pre used in big studios that employs germanium transistors fyi.
i'm curious if its possible to build a simple low parts count mic pre xlr input fixed gain 20 db , single supply pre useing germ trannies with just a "mojo dial". and then line out. ie a simple "in line" mic pre with mojo circuit.
or maybe a custom circuit that follows this klark technic in line pre thats only 30 buks ?
There are soldering irons that plug into your car lighter. Here is a page on Amazon with stuff that will work well for less than $30.
Better than that, grab an inexpensive butane soldering iron. No batteries needed, the cheap Weller ones will run for an hour on a fill, and they'll heat better than many cheap irons. I've got a couple of them for when I'm on the road.
Originally Posted By: Bob Calver
hate to sound like an old fart but being able to take things apart, see how they work and work out how to fix it is disappearing as a skill with so much that gets thrown away rather than fixed.
That's less about us being old farts and more about how electronics are designed these days. Electronics now are not meant to be serviceable. Your average iPhone or laptop is held together with glue, uses parts that are so small even someone with perfect eyesight like me needs a magnifier, and won't work with any off the shelf replacement parts.
Originally Posted By: Matt Finley
I’ve had a soldering iron and soldering gun almost as long as a trumpet, since age 10. Indispensable. My knowledge of electronics, including managing an electronics store, is 100% in support of my music.
Since you mentioned trumpets, I repaired mine with a propane torch once. Bought it from a second hand shop for $12 with the lead pipe ripped off, just soldered it back on with the torch and it's been great ever since. Old 70's Boosey & Hawkes horn, looks rough but sounds just as rough with my playing.
Originally Posted By: VideoTrack
Originally Posted By: Matt Finley
So Trevor, you’re the one responsible for hitting nothing but red lights as I drive down the street?
Not quite. Apparently, I'm the one responsible for every one of us hitting red lights
*shakes fist from every red light*
Originally Posted By: justanoldmuso
i'm curious if its possible to build a simple low parts count mic pre xlr input fixed gain 20 db , single supply pre useing germ trannies with just a "mojo dial". and then line out. ie a simple "in line" mic pre with mojo circuit.
Germanium semiconductors are inconsistent and very temperature sensitive regarding noise and stability, that's why these Chandler preamps are expensive. Besides, you'll get more "mojo" from building a mic preamp with silicon semiconductors and a nice input transformer than by building one with entirely germanium semiconductors.
Last edited by Simon - PG Music; 04/22/2111:41 AM.
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