- Build Rating
A couple months ago, while @UtilitBeltFX and @VanWhy posted their own build report of that same board, I was almost done with this board and thought my report would follow soon... how was I wrong. I already had received that board with the Lithium, another board where I had to order some parts multiple time (but I'll come to that), somewhere around May.
So the build in itself went really well, I went for my regular "modified layout to allow a battery in there".
But I really wanted to put some real NTE102 and NTE103 in there, so I ordered a first set from Ebay, which did a big tour of the US and just returned home... ok. So I found again one legit brand new in the box NTE102, and found an ECG103 on Ebay near me for a decent price.
While waiting on those, I decided to P2P wire a buff n blend circuit on a pot. I wrapped every lead with some wire coating, joints in heatshrink and the a big shrink tube over everything. That worked first time, but I find that the buffer sucks some of the volume. I may return to that later.
I did manage to get decent sound out of it, so I went and soldered the transistors... without heatsink... and I may have burnt them because I could no more get anything out of it. So I desoldered everything, put back stupid sockets and began testing. Funny fact, I get no sound out of the 102, but could almost get away with using only the 103 alone !!!
I've put those aside and after some reading on crowella's animated project on talk bass, I decided to do some experimenting and ended with 2N3904 and 2N3906 pair. I still plan on doing it right some day, just not now.
Then we come to the enclosure. Well after waiting so loooong on the snail mail, then a very long wait for the delivery itself, but there is a rant in another thread. My stupid obsession about those batteries (grew up in the 80s I guess) had me make a build in a 1590BB2, and still managed to have everything so crammed together that at some point I thought it would just not fit.
I had it pre-wired for testing and planned on redoing it for the boxing... well that will wait. I want to play it now and just had enough of this build for now. I'll revisit it some day. Now it's just a rat's nest. The battery too will wait on the re-wire. I may add a switch to turn off the blend also... well, later.
And in the end, it does sound good ! Thank you all for your support !
So the build in itself went really well, I went for my regular "modified layout to allow a battery in there".
But I really wanted to put some real NTE102 and NTE103 in there, so I ordered a first set from Ebay, which did a big tour of the US and just returned home... ok. So I found again one legit brand new in the box NTE102, and found an ECG103 on Ebay near me for a decent price.
While waiting on those, I decided to P2P wire a buff n blend circuit on a pot. I wrapped every lead with some wire coating, joints in heatshrink and the a big shrink tube over everything. That worked first time, but I find that the buffer sucks some of the volume. I may return to that later.
I did manage to get decent sound out of it, so I went and soldered the transistors... without heatsink... and I may have burnt them because I could no more get anything out of it. So I desoldered everything, put back stupid sockets and began testing. Funny fact, I get no sound out of the 102, but could almost get away with using only the 103 alone !!!
I've put those aside and after some reading on crowella's animated project on talk bass, I decided to do some experimenting and ended with 2N3904 and 2N3906 pair. I still plan on doing it right some day, just not now.
Then we come to the enclosure. Well after waiting so loooong on the snail mail, then a very long wait for the delivery itself, but there is a rant in another thread. My stupid obsession about those batteries (grew up in the 80s I guess) had me make a build in a 1590BB2, and still managed to have everything so crammed together that at some point I thought it would just not fit.
I had it pre-wired for testing and planned on redoing it for the boxing... well that will wait. I want to play it now and just had enough of this build for now. I'll revisit it some day. Now it's just a rat's nest. The battery too will wait on the re-wire. I may add a switch to turn off the blend also... well, later.
And in the end, it does sound good ! Thank you all for your support !
