Need some advice on wire

[2skunks]

I'm a total Noob but am trying to educate myself along the way. Always wanted to build my own tube amp and this is it. I have sourced all the parts and tubes except wiring.

I have read through all of the threads here but can't find any recommendations so I am putting the question out there to the forum.

What wire to use for the amp?

I realize that in most cases the wires are going to be the leads from transformers etc. I did see somewhere that there is a recommendation to use 2-conductor shielded wire for the input signal but what the rest?

I am thinking that power wiring should be at least 18awg copper, yes, no?

I have read so much out there on what wire to use for tube amps that I am pretty confused now.

I do have some teflon insulated 20 awg MIL-SPEC silver plated copper but some people say yes, some no that it sounds bright and "etched".

I do realize this is somewhat subjective but in the spirit of guidance for a noobie what sayeth the crowd?

Thanks,

Hugo

[TomMcNally]

Hi Hugo -

Welcome to diytube!

There is very little wire in a get*set*go ...



Other than transformer leads, all you see in the picture of one
of my amps is a twisted # 22 to the power switch, nothing special,
larger gauge could be used, but the short length doesn't matter.
The few inches of wire to the tube sockets, anything is fine.
The input RCA jacks are in the back on this one, using # 24 shielded
cable, if the jacks were in the front by the input terminals a few
inches of non-shielded anything would work.

Regardless of what anyone says, you won't hear a few inches of wire.

... tom

[2skunks]

Tom:

Thanks for the warm welcome and the advice.

Your amps are one of the ones that I have followed here. I admire the neatness of your work, the efficiency of layout and am looking forward to trying to do similar.

Your use of shielded cable on inputs is what made me stand up and take notice. It makes all the sense in the world to me so I plan to do the same. I guess I will look for some shielded 2 conductor Belden cable or something similar.

Thanks again,

Hugo

[TomMcNally]

Hi Hugo -

Send me a private message with your address, and I'll
send you an envelope with some of that wire, I have
a couple of thousand feet available, and I'll also send
you some nice 18 gauge Belden in assorted colors.

Thanks for the comments on my amps, I like to keep
everything short, routed for least hum, and I rarely
use wire ties.

... tom

[EWBrown]

Is that a 17 X 10 chassis? I used 12 X 10 X 2 and mine look as crowded under the chassis as Manhattan, as compared to yours ;-)

I have a couple of spare black powder coated steel 17X10X3s, and was thinking of building up something involving two separate monoblocks, built on one chassis. The only electrical parts in common would be the power cord and power switch. Each would have its own fuse, ICL, etc on the primary side.

FWIW, a lot of the wire I use comes from the DC cables removed from dead computer power supplies. I do make sure that it is solderable (some is not) before adding it to the wire-stash.

For low voltage, lower cvurrent, I use various colors of #22 or #26 teflon insulated silver coated wire, just because I glommed onto a decent quantity of it, back a few years ago, which was otherwise going to be thrown out. Good stuff! (or as a Russian co-worker used to say, "Gude Stoff" )

/ed B in NC

[TomMcNally]

Haha ... yeah Ed ... I just realized that ... I was looking for a
pic for Hugo showing how little wire is actually needed in a g*s*g
and grabbed that pic ... I was tired ! It is indeed a 17 x 10 x 3,
and was built for someone else. He had purchased one of my
amps on eBay from another guy, but wanted to use his own
transformers, so we made a deal.

Anyway ... he is a more crowded 12 x 8 x 3 amp !



The purple wire connecting the RCA's to the board is actually
a piece of AES/EBU digital cable.

I did get lucky and find some computer power supply wire that
was solderable, and had a nice assortment of colors too.

Your big dual mono amp sounds good, would it be g*s*g based,
paralleled outputs or something ?

[EWBrown]

I haven't yet figured that out yet, probably will end up with one of my stranger, weirder designs on board.

Latest tube projects are a Bottlehead "Crack" 6080 based OTL HP amp (the kit was under $200) I modded it slightly by using a 6CG7 in place of the supplied 12AU7 driver. Sounds fantastic, with my Sennheiser HD600s! Latest update: It now has the "Speedball"CCs modifications, and this has noticeably upgraded the sound quality.

And, currently in process, a Fender "Tweed" Deluxe clone. I just finished assembling and wiring the amplifier, haven't yet dared to do the first "smoke test"... Resistance checks look good, and the first no-tubes-except-the-rectifier installed power up check looks good, though the unloaded B+ is pretty high, around 430VDC with no load on the B+, using a "sacrifical" Sovtek 5Y3GT.

I also did the no-rectifier-installed, filament light-up test on all the other tubes, and all that went fine. I'm not really all that familiar (or comfortable) with the turret board and side-mounted sockets technique,
so I am being a lot more cautious than I normally would be.

It has the vintage, standard 12AY7 / 12AX7 / 2X 6V6GT and 5Y3GT layout.
I used Triode's chromed chassis and power iron, and will use their finished "Deluxe Tweed" cab, as well. That'll look about a hundred times better than any attempt on my part of building up a cab from scratch.

/ed B

[2skunks]

Tom:

Thanks for your most kind offer. I have sent you a PM
Your second photo clearly illustrates how little wire is needed.
I ordered the top plate from Front Panel Express using the templates that are available here in the forum. So I will probably have a similar layout to the second one you show.


Ed:
Great idea on pulling wires from old computer supply cables. I have a few of those somewhere in the garage that I will need to track down.


I think a lot of people on this forum (lurkers included) will agree with me when I offer a most sincere "thank you" to the two of you for your continued helpful and informative posts. Your work here is what inspired me to finally take the plunge and try to build my own amp.

Cheers,

Hugo

[2skunks]

Tom:

Thanks for your most kind offer. I have sent you a PM
Your second photo clearly illustrates how little wire is needed.
I ordered the top plate from Front Panel Express using the templates that are available here in the forum. So I will probably have a similar layout to the second one you show.


Ed:
Great idea on pulling wires from old computer supply cables. I have a few of those somewhere in the garage that I will need to track down.


I think a lot of people on this forum (lurkers included) will agree with me when I offer a most sincere "thank you" to the two of you for your continued helpful and informative posts. Your work here is what inspired me to finally take the plunge and try to build my own amp.

Cheers,

Hugo

[Ty_Bower]

There is very little wire in a get*set*go ...

Yup. Here's the underside of mine. The wiring in the photo isn't 100% complete, but all that's missing is the final tie to the power connector and the two leads to the input RCA jacks. Most of the wiring can be done with just the leads off the transformers. You can see what little wiring I had to add - it's the white stuff. I like the stranded, silver plated, ~ 20 AWG Teflon jacketed stuff. It's easy to strip, it solders really well, and it's just plain nice stuff to work with. I ended up using the same for the input wiring, too. I can't say I've noticed any problems picking up stray noise, despite my lack of shielded wiring.

[2skunks]

Great picture Ty.

Thanks for posting. Your work looks very nice.

You guys are setting some high standards for me and I like it!

I always like a challenge.

Regards

Hugo

[2skunks]

Tom:

For some reason I still can't get through on PM but I wanted to thank you for the wire shipment. It arrived at my house just fine.

Many kind regards,

Hugo

HAPPY FOURTH everyone.