Do You Need To Shield Tube Amp Cable? - W.I.S.C - GT5 'Halcyon' Build 5

Disclaimer: I am sponsored by neither company nor product. I have no affiliation to any website other than my own. The products in this video are those that I prefer to use.
Visit www.elamscafeboutique.com for these plans and other tube amp plan packs. Make your own shielding cable to the ideal length.
High temp hookup wire used - tubedepot.com/products/22-ga-...
NOTE ClassicTone may have discontinued production. Please use the following Hammond transformers as direct replacements.
Power Transformer: Hammond - 270CX 550V CT 75mA (North America 115V-125V)
Power Transformer: Hammond - 370CX 550V CT 75mA (Universal 110V-240V)
Output Transformer: 125CSE 8W, use the 5k primary
Update May 2021: GT5 Plans (TB and TMB models) now available@: www.elamscafeboutique.com/shop
Plans for S5 Mark II Version also now available in comprehensive Full Plans Pack.
Chassis construction video: • Small Tube Amp Build -...
Useful Tools and Equipment
Pliers: Facom 403
Ground hookup cable: 22awg
Filament cable: 20awg
Heat shrink tubing material: Polyolefin
Turret size and source: AmplifiedParts.com - Item ID 040351
Pan Head Machine Bolts M20 source: www.albanycountyfasteners.com...
Turret Board Material: Glass fiber, self made
Resistors used: PRP
Capacitors used: Sozo, F&T, ClarityCap
Film Gear
Cameras: Canon 70D, Canon R5
Lens: 1965 Macro Takumar 50mm f4 preset, Canon RF 15-35mm L
Audio
Mic: R0DE Wireless Go
Digital Interface: Apogee Duet Mark I
Editing: Final Cut Pro X

[@fantummenelkinstruments1959]

Your attention to detail is a joy to watch!

[@northerndarklight5305]

Your commitment to excellence is inspiring. Just a superb build.

[@elams1894]

Thanks North! really appreciate it!

[@theguitaramptech]

your attention to detail is beautiful, and your closeup camera work and editing is hypnotic. Not bad for a Kiwi!! I'm hooked.

[@elams1894]

Thank you! Really appreciate your kind words and glad you enjoyed the vid, cheers

[@jessebss]

An incredible series. I followed his videos on guitar constructions. I was curious about building my own amplifier in the not too distant future. I ended up coming across your channel again. I loved the entire production of both the video and the amplifier. A true art in all areas. (Sorry for my English, I'm from Brazil and I used the translator to write)

[@elams1894]

Thanks Jesse, really appreciate the kind words, glad the vids were helpful. All the best for your projects.

[@fieldofweeds]

I’m just starting a bassman build. Your careful videography answers so many questions. This is what KZbin is for.

[@elams1894]

Thanks for that, and best of wishes for your build!!

[@epilpstd1]

Everything you do rocks! Never stop!

[@elams1894]

Thankyou Daniel! Much appreciated!

[@gorillafunk725]

Ha! How to make OCD work FOR you! Jewellery is my hobby also & watching you work to such uncompromisingly high standards is inspirational. Hope this fuels a new trend of excellence to counter the current world trend of compromise. 👍👌✌

[@jesscneal]

Excellent build :) Your attention to detail is second to none 👍👍

[@elams1894]

Thank you Jess, much appreciated!!

[@williambock1821]

You do very careful work and great filming too! It lowers my blood pressure to see a well built turret board.

[@elams1894]

Thanks William, I appreciate that!

[@ronallen2458]

My parts for this build have started to arrive. I did not realize from your videos how tiny everything is! Should be fun. :)

[@elams1894]

That's good news Ron. Exciting stuff. All the best for the build

[@ronallen2458]

I finished the build today! Sounds lovely. You weren’t kidding when you said it was a bright circuit! Especially the crunch channel. I’m playing through fender 112 closed back 8 ohm speaker. Really great work on the plans and the design. I appreciate your work even more now and I have a hand-wired boutique amp at a fraction of the cost! @@elams1894

[@sheep1ewe]

Your builds are simply outstanding!

[@elams1894]

Thanks Vamp!!

[@michaelknight4041]

Beautiful work sir!

[@elams1894]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@KleyDeJong]

I absolutely love your building as well as your videography. Bravo!

[@elams1894]

Thanks again Kley, really appreciate it and thanks for your questions and input!

[@SkyValleySpaceCadet]

Insane amount of skill.. And great video editing, 15 minutes pass without blinking my eyes

[@elams1894]

Thank you! Much appreciated, cheers!

[@docdeens4030]

Not sure if you came up with it, but that clay trick for holding components is genius. All your videos are very helpful...good work!

[@elams1894]

Thanks Doc! Not sure if anyone else came up with clay trick, perhaps, however it sure makes life easier for me now as it beats wrecking resistor leads with alligator clips. Really appreciate it, have a good one!

[@masuiiguitars]

The thumbnail dude ahahahah When it comes to holding stuff in place I use a little jig with clothes pegs but the sticky clay method is brilliant

[@elams1894]

Thanks G, much appreciated!!

[@MadScientistGuitarLab]

I noticed that too. I’m thinking of using plumbers putty as sticky clay (it’s the same thing for all I know). It’s like a secret weapon to get that really really clean assembly of all the fiddly bits.

[@elams1894]

@@MadScientistGuitarLab Indeed the clay technique is a god-send, really helps for sure. Once I went to clay, my sanity was restored. A simple aid, but one that alluded me for a long time. True story, I was getting seriously frustrated with a resistor that kept moving when soldering and I shoved my whole bench in frustration and a packet of the clay fell off the shelf above onto my amp chassis and further screwed up my work. I was about to throw the whole packet against the wall and then I clicked. It was a sign and I haven't looked back ha ha.

[@FlaviusMaximus1967]

Sticky clay is now on my list of things I NEED!!!

[@davidvonanderseck8649]

Wow nice work.

[@schlep4730]

Superb. Thanks for posting.

[@brianferguson8380]

Uncle Doug would be proud.

[@elams1894]

Thank you, thats very high praise indeed! I love UD!!

[@raffaele7185]

Great video! It would be awesome to hear some of your amps.

[@elams1894]

Thank you, yes I have a demo lined up with a very talented guitarist, I may throw in my JCM800 clone. However we are in highest level lockdown here and things are going very slow unfortunately. Have a good one!

[@andrescantillo2261]

Nice video bro!!

[@elams1894]

Thank you!

[@kaseysimons128]

amazing video.

[@BabyThomas]

If you place the tube sockets between the pots and the board you'll avoid those long cable runs and you'll probably need only 1 shielded cable (from Input to V1). Other cables are very short. Probably not an option if you follow an existing layout, but if you design your own this looks like a very inefficient way to do it... Thanks for the videos! 😎

[@elams1894]

Yeah you could do that, however new issues and inefficiencies arise. I wouldn't be particularly comfortable with filament cables underneath the pots, or anywhere near the input for example. One could re-route filaments u DER the board but I'd rather have access. It all boils down to what is most sensible to you and if it works, it works. Food for thought though. Cheers

[@MaxWeirdVideos]

You are an amazing builder/creator/maker. I thought I was a perfectionist, but you are way above all those terms. Your videos are movies. It's a real pleasure to watch them. And I know what it takes to make at least one of them. I understand how busy you are, but you are the only person I can trust this. I have Traynor YBA-2B amp, and I want to add tremolo (AA1164) to the circuit, it looks possible. I wired it all on a paper, but I would really appreciate your approval. Can I send it to you, so you could just check if I'm doing everything right? Thank you. Max

[@elams1894]

Thanks for kind words Max, sure thing, send it through, elams1894@gmail dot com. Sounds very interesting.

[@SeraphimKnight]

Always impressed that despite this build being a rat's nest of hand-wired soldering it's not neat and tidy. Great job as always.

[@elams1894]

Thank you!

[@freaksarise]

Love your videos. Thank you. In all of the books and research I've done, shielding has been the grayest of areas. If I understand, when shielding, only solder the one side to ground to avoid loops? Do you have a rule of thumb for which side you choose to solder to ground? Any other methodologies or perspectives when making the choice how to connect the shielding? Thanks!

[@elams1894]

Hi FARW, thanks for kind words. I have pondered many times the questions you have asked regarding shielding and have come up with my own conclusions. It does not matter which end of the cable shield you earth. Some say it does but I can assure you that it matters zero. What I prefer to do however, is earth the shield to the stage that the cable and component exists. When I say stage, I mean, to the electrolytic capacitor that the cable and component from/to which the shielding exists. For example, if the cable is shielding the signal from the plate of V1, then I earth the shield to the star earth point of the electrolytic capacitor that filters V1. Bear in mind that I only ever use one earth point for the audio circuit, that being at the input jack. I also utilise one additional earth point for the mains, and power transformer secondary winding centre taps. This is critically important. Only ever have one earth point for the audio circuit (at the input jack preferably) and avoid multiple earth points near the tubes or anywhere else on the chassis. One mains earth point is best situated near the power transformer. Fire away with any other questions. Cheers

[@freaksarise]

@@elams1894 thanks man! Appreciate it.

[@allanpennington]

@@elams1894 The grounding scheme is one (of a few) confusing theoretical aspects that I find challenging to understand. Particularly if you follow a vintage layout when making a replica amp where the can caps are at one end of a turret board near the transformer i.e. not on the board as you prefer. I see those caps earthed to an earth tag near their -ve leads. Whilst another earth tag is situated at the other end of the board for the rest of the signal earths. Often there is a bus wire to ground the pot earth connections and this solid wire is connected to that signal earth tag by a wire. As you mention the power side has its own gnd lug. So given that scenario, how do you avoid several earth tags connected to the chassis for the signal grounds? Is it OK to have one tag as you suggest and run longer wires to the earths of the can caps if they are at the 'other' end of the chassis? Or is it OK to daisy chain the earth connections from one component to the next closest etc until you are close to the lug chassis connection and then fly the last wire to that point??? As I said Im rather confused, never mind understanding what a gnd loop is.

[@elams1894]

@@allanpennington In vintage amps, the can cap earths are grouped together and grounded near the power transformer end. The can caps filter the HT line (high DC voltage) and are often called the power amp ground. You can get away with grounding these can cap earths together near the PT. All the rest (audio) I would daisy chain in order (if you can) and ground at, or on, the input jack. This would give you 3 earth points. I would try to keep it to 3 minimum. As long as the can cap earth and transformer earths are at the other end of the chassis from the input jack earth, you should be ok. Grounding is very confusing indeed. The Valve Wizard dot com, does a very good section on grounding in tube amps. It is well worth a read. Cheers

[@allanpennington]

@@elams1894 Thanks, that helps me understand. I’ve read that Valvewizardry and although I’m tech savvy it was still a little hard to understand. I appreciate you taking the time to reply. I’m on a long journey to build my first amp. I’m modelling in 3D first to prove the layout and make sure I have drawn the circuit correctly first. Solidworks Electrical routes the wires automatically in 3D so I can check that they are going to the right place. It’s a Vox AC10SRT I’m doing and only have gut shots of three original amps. I have two almost identical schematics. One has the B+ connection to the OT CT from the EZ81 rectifier before filter caps. In the other it has this connection and pin 9 of the EL84s after the first filter stage and resistor node. and from what I can see in the original amps they are wired this way. However a couple of people have cloned this amp and connected the OT CT directly to the DC output from the rectifier. I’m not sure why.

[@vaguitarts3443]

Video for perfectionists)))

[@TakamiWoodshop]

Your precision gives me anxiety, knowing that I have my own soldering project coming up 😂. The last project we did the soldering iron was broken so we ended up just heat shrinking everything together. Does that qualify for using as little solder as possible? Cool vid as usual dude🤘

[@elams1894]

Thanks Rob! Ha, yeah maybe nah, regarding the heat shrink ha ha. That's good lateral thinking though. I guess it will hold until oxidation sets in, but maybe it will stand the test of time. All the best with the next project!

[@jeffreymckeown]

Witch one is better, using a PCB or turrets?

[@elams1894]

It will be a debate for the ages. However, in my humble opinion, turrets are superior to PCB. The main reason is because the traces on a PCB struggle to handle the high voltage of a tube amp. Many times the traces will give way. Turrets allow you to use larger cables that will handle both heat and high voltage. Cheers.

[@user-es5yc9jv3h]

I watched this video again and again. Almost all shielding cables I used before, they have too thin inner cable, too weak insulation for thermal damage. I'll try to make your style shield cable.

[@elams1894]

Great, glad it was of help, sorry for delay in reply!

[@fullwaverecked]

OCD? Mehhh.... Great video! Cheers!

[@elams1894]

Thanks Full Wave! Ha ha, yes my OCD is nuts but I'm beginning to like it now. Sorry for late reply!

[@thijs199]

I guess an instrument cable won't do it right? (: These cables, is there a reason you don't buy them?

[@elams1894]

You can use the Mogami shielded cable, that's nice stuff but it melts easy. I make my own as I use high temp wire and I can make mine thinner, 2mm approx as apposed to 3mm plus fir Mogami.

[@knowmusicman157]

Mr. Elam, comparing your techniques to Mr. Fender’s in the 1950’s, what would be the main differences? and benefits? thanks again

[@elams1894]

Not a huge amount. Perhaps the position of components and a concentration on good positional practice. Other than that, not much. There was still an emphasis on neatness and best position in the 50's, not as much as 30's and 40's era, but nonetheless better than the 80's onwards. My build practice is fairly similar I would wager. Cheers

[@KleyDeJong]

Elam's attention to detail is pretty astounding. I also think there are some nice 'evolutions' in this method. Better filament lead dress, minimal distance from key resistors to the tube sockets, lots of shielded cabling, etc... Old Fenders are fantastic amps that have clearly stood the test of time. This is another level.

[@knowmusicman157]

@@elams1894 Thank you. Did you ever study the layout technique of builders like Howard Dumble or Trainwreck Ken Fischer?

[@elams1894]

@@knowmusicman157 I like both amps, and they are well made, particularly the Dumble with resistors right on the sockets with tag support, and with elevated filament wires. The major difference with my construction and both Dumble and Ken is filtering positions and perhaps more attention given to placement of socket plate nodes. I prefer to isolate the nodes, or turrets of plates, away from other plate turrets, as the plate magnetic DC field is huge, the induction into which (like guitar signal), can very easily occur. I believe great care must be given to the plate areas and extensions, perhaps as equally, if not more so, than grid areas and extensions. To extend upon that, and another difference of my methods is filter cap placement. I like to align the filter caps with their corresponding tubes. This helps large magnetic field loop reduction along with more suitable ground routing. I believe it pays to keep all those components associated with a tube, as close to that tube, and oriented to the ground point of the electrolytic cap, as much as possible. The most important thing, above all, is to have only one audio ground positioned as far away from the power section as possible. Multiple ground points should be avoided at all cost. I'll have a better look at K and D's layouts and see what else I can see. Cheers KMM

[@elams1894]

@@KleyDeJong Thanks Kley, I very much appreciate your kind words!

[@ernestschultz5065]

I'm a bit obsessive compulsive as well

[@thijs199]

compulsively adding more resistors to basket lol

[@Satchmoeddie]

Really OCD yet you neither clean & tin any of the wires before soldering them nor do you make good mechanical connections before soldering. Get some Scotchbrite and shine that bare copper up and then tin it before you start tying it together. Same goes for the stranded wires. Stop making shielded cable and go buy some proper Mogami mic wire with a semicon layer. Proco also makes a good budget shielded wire with a semicon layer. Save your skewer for poking a hole in the shielding. Poke a hole wallow it out wider then fish the inner conductor through it and use the tail of the shield to tie to ground. No splice = no splice to cause problems later.

[@elams1894]

I do tin. Also, I have used Mogami cable and it melts easily, hence I make my own. The tail of the shield sucks, it's messy, hence I make own. Cheers.

[@BabyThomas]

@@elams1894 You can find quality shielded cable for amps - thin, not melting, much more easy and faster to work with. Even with teflon insulation and very low capacitance.