50 watt Steel String Singer build diary (in progress)

[Zanshin]

Build Rating

5.00 star(s)

Dear diary, I yearn for juicy and sweet low to mid gain with sustain for days. I want the most aggressive cleans possible. When I pick a note on my baritone tele I want it to thump you in chest knocking you over.

I actually was going to build a SLO 30 but my package was “lost” by UPS. While I waited for the situation to be resolved I had time to consider what I really wanted. My current amp is a Boogie Mark V 35 and the SLO shares the same DNA (Mark IIc+). I don’t want to replace the Mark V, I want to complement it.

One issue I have with the Mark V is I have to be careful about how much volume is hitting it. It’s easy to goose it and run out of headroom fast, even on the clean channel. The high gain channel, in particular, really only needs a Precision Drive on zero gain to tighten up the bottom end before it hits the amp. It sounds great, don’t get me wrong, but it’s one sound for the most part, and variety is the spice of life.

So high head room, aggressive cleans… I decided on the Ceriatone SSS 50 kit which is based the Dumble Steel String Singer #4. I ordered the full kit, no tubes, and head cab.



I ordered lots of stuff to prepare. Low strength. Loctite and silicon adhesive.



A pile of transparent heat shrink in three diameters.



Weico 22 gauge tinned top coated wire in 9 colors, and 18 gauge in black and red for the heaters.



Extra solder lugs, extra terminal strips, extra standoffs, etc.



I sent the layout and schematics out to be printed large format. I didn’t really think how big they would actually be haha. Poster size.



I made a tool to drain the killer caps.



I started to populate the chassis and think on the details of the build. I have some moderate changes in mind…




A side note - I wonder if @Robert designed some of these Ceriatone PCBs

To be continued. I actually need to get the soldering iron out soon

 

[Zanshin]

I am going even slower than I had intended on this build. I’m spending much more time thinking about implementation than actually soldering. That said the power section and heaters are done finally.



I had always intended to wire the preamp tubes SLO style but when it came to the power amp section I was little less sure. I first wired it traditional twisted pair style and it didn’t turn out bad, but I wasn’t happy with it. I got out the engineer solder sucker and removed that stuff and then put in the bus style you see in the pictures.



I also put in my first planned deviation from the Ceriatone layout - elevated heaters. The heater center tap is used to bias the heaters around 40v.



Next up I’m going to tackle the relays and FET preamp boards.

 

[lowpitch]

Incredibly tidy! Looking very nice.

 

[Asdrael]

Looking tidy indeed!