That Didn’t Go Well!

Have you ever made a mistake? Not a typical everyday little mistake like forgetting to run an errand, but a blunder of such proportions that you’re shocked by your foolishness? One that leaves you thinking you couldn’t have been that naive, that foolish? Well I did. And it left me with significant embarrassment, as well as some smoke coming out of an amplifier.

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Talking Substitutions

This topic comes up a lot! Someone will email me with, “I want to build {insert project here} from your web site. But…”. Sometimes it’s just that part availability varies. Sometimes people want to use parts on hand which are slightly different. Sometimes people want to substitute tubes, transformers, or whole assemblies. And sometimes people want to actually change the topology! So at what point is the amp being built no longer the design on my website?

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A Slight Revision to the 6L6 “Spalted Alder” Amp

Please read the post “That Didn’t Go Well!” before following the power supply change detailed in the later half of this post.

Sometimes a design which seems fine at first can later exhibit some marginal behavior. This exact issue recently reared its head with the design of the 6L6 “Spalted Alder” amplifier.

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Can We Talk?

I know it’s been a while since my last post. Things have been a little hectic for my family this summer. Hopefully I’ll be able to get back to more regular posting in a few of weeks.

But that’s not what I want to talk about. I want to talk about the major changes currently taking place in the US economy and our supply chains, and some things we as hobbyists can do to help protect ourselves from problems.

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