So things seem to be working well.
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
I do have a few tweaks to work out, but she's functioning nicely so I'm starting to look toward the finish line!
I ordered a Russian Tung-Sol EL34 which arrived this week - trying to build an amp around this tube really precipitated this bout of madness, so I tested bias voltages to see if I needed to make any changes. It seems right in line with the stock values of the amp (right? See EL34 thread...). I'm going to add a switched resistor to get the KT66's bias right, but I have to drill another hole for that so I didn't do it tonight.
Lemme tell ya - with an EL34 as a power tube, this little bitch was like buttah! Great distortion with my test Strat - had a lightly compressed softness to the tone. Pure sex, even with an unmounted 10" speaker! The KT66, by contrast, is a more American sound I guess - the breakup is a little less fuzzy, and has a bit more edge to it. Both clean up nicely, BTW.
So anyway, a digression from soldering...it's time to start with the woodworking end of things. I had not yet removed the back of the speaker cab I was converting...and when I did, I saw it was going to be a bit more of a challenge than I first thought.
The rear cover was screwed on all the way around. I took all those out...and the back doesn't come off.
![Confused :?](./images/smilies/icon_confused.gif)
On closer inspection, I see that all four corners of the board are actually under the edge of the ball corner hardware.
Sigh...OK, so I took off two of them and managed to get it out. (Note to self: sand the fscking corner points off the back panels!) So now I see that there is a whole other layer behind this, like a big TV front:
![Image](http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee28/willowhaus/Tramp%20Build/IMG_0368.jpg)
and THAT is going to be in the way of the amp chassis. (It also definitely removed any fantasies about Tolexing this thing - stain it is.) In order to have this thing flush with the rear panel, I have to remove some of that wood. OK, not too impossible...but then I notice that Mr. Woodworker has the board actually embedded in routed slots all around the outer shell.
Time for surgery...so I decided to takeoff the top part of the "TV front", leaving the part in the corner to screw the cover on later.
I marked my targets and got out the old-school hand saw to cut as close as I could to the top:
![Image](http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee28/willowhaus/Tramp%20Build/IMG_0369.jpg)
![Image](http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee28/willowhaus/Tramp%20Build/IMG_0370.jpg)
After I made the cuts there is still a little part I can't cut - so I start scoring an edge with a mallet & chisel:
![Image](http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee28/willowhaus/Tramp%20Build/IMG_0371.jpg)
Around the 3rd pass, the rest of it starts to pop loose (and I see he hid a few staples in there as well):
![Image](http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee28/willowhaus/Tramp%20Build/IMG_0372.jpg)
Finally, I cleaned out the bits in the slot. I think this will do the trick!
![Image](http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee28/willowhaus/Tramp%20Build/IMG_0373.jpg)
Moving on to cutting the the rear panel: I trimmed off about 5 1/2 " to get rid of the cutout for the speaker jacks, which is no longer needed. That left me with an 11" board; I cut again to 6 1/2" for the top panel to cover the electronics & part of the tubes, and the rest goes to the bottom (the "bucket"
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
)
![Image](http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee28/willowhaus/Tramp%20Build/IMG_0375.jpg)
And that was a night's work for me. Tomorrow I hope to get a coat of stain on the thing, and get that switched resistor in place.
Side note (as if I haven't posted enough pix in this post already): I have another project I'll be starting as soon as the amp is done: re-housing an old rotating speaker I pulled from a Hammond organ many moons ago. While I was screwing around in the shop I installed a new 8" BBQ alnico speaker for it. The plan is to yank the chassis of my Champion 600 and build it into a cabinet surrounding this thing.
![Image](http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee28/willowhaus/Tramp%20Build/IMG_0376.jpg)
![Image](http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee28/willowhaus/Tramp%20Build/IMG_0377.jpg)
Should be interesting.
![Bugeye :bugeye:](./images/smilies/BugEye.gif)