What’s on *YOUR* workbench?

Currently working on a lightly modified Cobalt Drive (Blues Driver). Simply adding a "Fat" toggle with three options for C14 and using a concentric pot for the Gain control to allow either portion of the gain circuit to be controlled, but still easy to keep them relatively in sync with the concentric knobs. Still a few weeks out to get the enclosure professionally painted. Looks promising.

Blues_Driver_Cobalt_Guts_Out.jpg Blues_Driver_Cobalt_Guts_Details.jpg
 
Made some progress today on this Marshall 2204 build today. Actually playing it. I originally had this as a 6550 spec but since this a high voltage power transformer@ MojoTone, B+474, 6550 have extended fizzy highs. So I changed it to EL34. I hate tearing apart a build to swap 3 resistors, but you know how it goes. Much better with el34. Im still not fond of high voltage for this circuit. Its now basically a 82-85 era JCM800 with this transformer. 390-400v perfect and 6550 would be great then too. But the iron is just not available today. Im keeping it un modded as I have 6 other modded Marshalls. Ill post when head box arrives. 20231016_145140.jpg
 
EZS said:
Made some progress today on this Marshall 2204 build today. Actually playing it. I originally had this as a 6550 spec but since this a high voltage power transformer@ MojoTone, B+474, 6550 have extended fizzy highs. So I changed it to EL34. I hate tearing apart a build to swap 3 resistors, but you know how it goes. Much better with el34. Im still not fond of high voltage for this circuit. Its now basically a 82-85 era JCM800 with this transformer. 390-400v perfect and 6550 would be great then too. But the iron is just not available today. Im keeping it un modded as I have 6 other modded Marshalls. Ill post when head box arrives.View attachment 58575
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What's the story on this amp? That looks like a real Marshall PCB.
 
Fizz said:
What's the story on this amp? That looks like a real Marshall PCB.
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Its actually a Russian ST-1 pcb I bought about 4 years ago. Great repro. Timing was better since we no longer get anything from Russia anymore. Including tubes and transformers.
 
Been playing this all day. Oh I mistakenly was reading my B+ inaccurately. My bias probe was plugged in wrong socket in the Fluke. Its a sweet 442vdc. Prefect as can be, go Heyboer! This is actually a 100w cabinet but the 50 will be identical minus the top vent. Built for customer but I think Im keeping it. Sourcing parts today is difficult. 20231017_185038x2000.jpg
 
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Built up the commissioned pedal (Guma Antique from Schalltechnik) yesterday, went quite well despite all the doubts I had about creating a drill template from the one in the instructions. It had dimensions, but from the edges of the enclosure, while Tayda uses middle, so I had to check with another drilled pedal to get coordinates that match. It worked out just fine though, and the SMD soldering looks ugly as hell but hey, it works (I thought I smelled plastic when soldering the 14 pin SMD chip). I love it when a build works the first time around!
 
Too much on my bench and all of it waiting on parts from the Tayda order that is who knows where. The in-progress backlog:

PPCB Son of Ben
Madbean Fritter, Rabbit Hole, and Runtime Error
VFE Dark Horse
GPCB Muff’n. Marsha Tone and SHO ‘Nuff

The VFE has me questioning some life choices I’ve made has met a timely and thoroughly warranted demise with extreme violence and deliberate action by my foot and a sledgehammer. Fuck. That.
 
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Decided to try shielding my strat yesterday using snail tape (well, it's copper tape, but cheaper). Removing the pickguard is a huge hassle, especially when you do it multiple times, plus I decided to restring the guitar at the same time and realized I hate the vintage style tuning pegs, got a cut on my finger from the tape, plus some soldering I did for the JTEX Axtivator broke when I was messing around, so all in all it was much more trouble than what it should have been. Buuuut it's working now and there's much less noise and interference.

I did realize that not having enough patience causes me a bunch of frustration every now and then, so I should probably focus on not rushing and taking my time instead.

Edit: I'm for sure going to switch out the tuners at some point though, maybe for locking ones - those are simple and lovely.

Also I do admit in hindsight it was pretty funny when I first got everything done and had sound from the guitar, although it sounded a little weird, flicked the Axtivator switch to change modes and the other two modes were just oscillation at different pitches. Not very amusing late at night when you've spent a couple of hours working on it, though.
 
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