UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum - View Single Post

retailer · 23rd Jul 2018, 2:37 am

On the subject of vintage carbon comp resistors - I have quite a few populated tag boards with 10% and 5% carbon comp resistors, I went through them and found I have enough to fully complete an AC10 so I started to unsolder the ones I wanted checking them for out of spec as I went, I only got as far as removing 5 before I gave up, every one was out of spec by anything up to 20-25%, they were the fat type around 1/4" diam and just over 1/2" long with a white body so so looks like I'll be dipping into my supply of carbon film resistors.

No. 1 son has agreed to dump the idea of the master volume, he called around to check out the amp and give it a trial as I was keen to have the chassis done and dusted so I could concentrate on the cab and tolex etc. For the trial I had removed the master volume and refitted the vib/trem switch and put in the Goodmans Audiom 60 speaker that I have, he commented that he was stunned at how good it sounded to him, he does have a modern VOX AC30CC (about 5yrs old) and to him the AC15 clone had a far better sound, he has band practice coming up and is keen to try it and see if it is loud enough to be heard over the drummer.

When chicken head knobs were mentioned I decided to have a look through my knob supply and I was lucky to find that I have 8 chicken head types labeled Mcmurdo that look identical to those used by Vox they are shorter than the regular ones available today, didn't even realise I had them must be old age fogging my brain - this means I can shrink the chassis down to a size closer to the original as the size of the knobs will have some bearing on the width of the front panel and chassis. I redrew the front panel layout and have a width of 14" or 355mm and this is probably what I'll settle on. I'm not going to bother with the front panel voltage selector or even include a dummy one, I know this is a departure from the original but I don't think they are relevant today - I have seen these set to a lower voltage in an attempt to get more volume.

23rd Jul 2018, 2:37 am	#10
retailer Heptode Join Date: May 2005 Location: Adelaide, South Australia Posts: 541	Re: VOX AC10 clone On the subject of vintage carbon comp resistors - I have quite a few populated tag boards with 10% and 5% carbon comp resistors, I went through them and found I have enough to fully complete an AC10 so I started to unsolder the ones I wanted checking them for out of spec as I went, I only got as far as removing 5 before I gave up, every one was out of spec by anything up to 20-25%, they were the fat type around 1/4" diam and just over 1/2" long with a white body so so looks like I'll be dipping into my supply of carbon film resistors. No. 1 son has agreed to dump the idea of the master volume, he called around to check out the amp and give it a trial as I was keen to have the chassis done and dusted so I could concentrate on the cab and tolex etc. For the trial I had removed the master volume and refitted the vib/trem switch and put in the Goodmans Audiom 60 speaker that I have, he commented that he was stunned at how good it sounded to him, he does have a modern VOX AC30CC (about 5yrs old) and to him the AC15 clone had a far better sound, he has band practice coming up and is keen to try it and see if it is loud enough to be heard over the drummer. When chicken head knobs were mentioned I decided to have a look through my knob supply and I was lucky to find that I have 8 chicken head types labeled Mcmurdo that look identical to those used by Vox they are shorter than the regular ones available today, didn't even realise I had them must be old age fogging my brain - this means I can shrink the chassis down to a size closer to the original as the size of the knobs will have some bearing on the width of the front panel and chassis. I redrew the front panel layout and have a width of 14" or 355mm and this is probably what I'll settle on. I'm not going to bother with the front panel voltage selector or even include a dummy one, I know this is a departure from the original but I don't think they are relevant today - I have seen these set to a lower voltage in an attempt to get more volume.