Marvel

Craig, I'm starting to think they are ALL odd around this place.

Kinda makes it hard to twist your heater wires together doesn't it? That scares me too.

fletcher, Nice PK album. I think one of my favorites is "Lights of Madrid." Bruce

Exactly Duke.

You mean TBrennan likes LaScalas? I know he thinks that Heresys are similar to dentist drils. Bruce

Lavender for cuts. BLO on the walnut.

A lot of homeopathic items aren't BS. And, like a lot of regular medical treatments, some just don't work on some people while others do work. Just like some people will only do herbal remedies, which ARE chemicals. What a funny world we live in. There's a small music store in the town where we live. They sell ear candles. I've only been in it one time. Just didn't get a great vibe (how's that?). Bruce

I've got that on vinyl. Great album, even on my turntable.

Rick, I've heard of guys putting in a music CD-R and getting it set up, then popping in a regular CD-R and the recorder used it. Saved them lots of dollars on CDs. A good friend of mine works for ASCAP, and goes around threatening businesses. Most of them sign up to pay. He is also a songwriter, and says that unless you are a BIG star, you don't get the money. You do get the money is an album is made and your song is recorded, but getting any of the money back from doctors offices and radio stations isn't going to happen. Bruce

You can get a degreaser, to safely wash the preamp. Some are safe for pastics and the environment both. May cost you around $10 or so at an electronics store. It will cut the oils and tar from the smoke and wash it out. You can check out some of the different kinds here: http://www.chemtronics.com/products/americas/e/cleaner_degreasers.asp We used Chentronics stuff a lot, and it never bothered me bothered me bothered me... Seriously, this stuff will work great to get that junk off. If you don't get it off, dust will stick to it and cause early component failure. Bruce

I guess for cost considerations they didn't want to build in a UA LA-2A. A built in optical compressor might have been pretty neat. Bruce

Do you mean that you are random or your record collection is randomly sorted? In the early '70s I was playing guitar and Dobro fro a brother-sister duo. Went to an apartment after a night recording and this guy had a vinyl collection about twice that in Charlie's pic. I'm suprised the building didn't collapse and fall into Lake Michigan with all that extra weight. [] Bruce

I've used a cheap GC Electronics temp controlled station for years. I'm sure it is a re-branded iron. (not branding iron fini!) It has worked very well. I almost always have it on the same temp. I use a 2% silver solder for most of my work, of very small diameter. Not much flux in it, so I sometimes use 60/40 with more flux in the core. It depends on what I am soldering on. I have used this to do some rework on smt devices before and is worked pretty well. If I did it all day, I would buy some other piece of equipment.

In the looks category, I was impressed with Dean's false corners, made with 3/4" ply. He had a threaded rod going through the corners to tighten them against the horn cabs. HE said they helped a lot, but we all know Dean goes off the deep end now and then. [] May be could post a link to his thread on them. Bruce

If we say too they are worth X dollars and you paid more, how will you feel? They are supposed to be pretty decent little amps for the money, even at full price, which I think was $99 each when they were still making them. They don't have much power, but may be enough for what you listen to. I would love to hear a pair to judge for myself. Build quality may be iffy to good. Not the most expensive parts in them. Let US know how you like them. You do have a preamp to use with these I hope. Bruce

Most of the major drug stores, and Wal-Mart, Sams, have printing services that will take most forms of digital images and print on a real photo paper. Depending on who it is, the paper is Kodak or Fuji. Memory stick, compact flash, SD cards. Even from CDs. It is cheaper per print and is on real photo paper. How can you beat that? Colter will hate this, but I know a woman who does weddings on two digital cameras. She edits the images, puts them on a CD and takes them to the local Sam's Club to be printed. They look outstanding. Bruce

Hey Rick, You like the Mono 10s? They look sweet for the price. Bruce

Craig, One is assuming the Dynaco is attached to some horns. It isn't. I have other plans for the Dynaco, that will indeed make it a better amp than the work I already did on it. But you are correct in many ways. You do this all day (school is always in session [] ). I do not. You don't know what other tools I have at my disposal though. It sound far better now than it did when I first purchased in more than 30 years ago. It will sound better still when I am done. Or maybe not. That is why I like to do DIY stuff. I'm not doing it for a customer, I'm doing it for me. Have a great evening! Bruce

What is the dispersion on the K77 horn flare?

Dean, Thanks for the info. But will it sound better? A great tool, although expensive is an electric vacumm pump desoldering station. Looks a lot like a soldering iron, but the tip is hollow. Fits right over wires that poke through the pc boards. Squeeze the button on the handle and it sucks the solder clean out. No soldering braid to deal with. You can go over a whole board very quickly and have it looking like new in no time. Gary, My temp has gone up a bit too, and that is pretty unusual for me. My point was that everyone starts somewhere and has to learn. I've been doing soldering since the early '60s. Could I improve? Sure, there is always room for that. Certain people have no idea of the skills of others on this forum. Humility goes a long way. Rick, If techs had to wait four hours before working on something, they wouldn't get anything done. I worked on 3 phase moter controllers for a time, and they were only off for seconds while we worked on them. Some pretty big caps in them too. You need a one megohm resistor on a ground point to drain them and you're fine.

You are probably correct. There are other things I want to do with this amp as well, but time, money and more important things are using my time at the moment. But your comment is one of the most arrogant thing I've heard on here yet.

I just ran out and got a new box of toothpicks and some Elmers. Nobody has told me yet if Gorilla Glue is better. It looks worse. Will it sound better? Craig, it doesn't seem like it was very long ago that you were learning all of this. Your work is outstanding now, but you had to start somewhere.

A fan could help out a lot. You should then probably check the internals every so often to make sure you aren't getting dust buildup on any of the components. With convection cooling this isn't as much of a problem, but forcing air through the amp will pull more into it. Not acusing you of a dusty house, it's just the way things work. We have a computer at work that is located in the grounds keeper's office. Right off the garage. Dirt and dust are rampant. Went to do some work on it a few years ago, and after it had been in operation for only about a year the case had a half inch of dirt in it. We had a large box made with a good sized fan and filter on it to place the pc in. Cables come out through a slot in the back of the box and there is a door on the front. The fan blows IN, creating positive air pressure in the box. That way we didn't have to seal around the cables and front door. After several years of running, the pc is still clean. They just replace the filter material every so often. Bruce

I'm still waiting to hear if I should be using Gorilla Glue instead of Elmers.... I learned how to solder on my own, in self defense, since my brother was a late grade school ham radio DIY person. He kept slipping with the iron and poking me in the hand while I was holding a part for him. I pretty much agree with Erik on this, but I like the disclaimer that Shannon Parks has in his tube amp manuals:

How did I get in this conversation? Did I say something? Bruce