[sdiy] First Fire Jitters?

[anthony]

Does this just happen to me: you finish up a projct and it's ready to fire 
up for the first time, but you just can't do it? You go over everything and 
hem & haw, but you can't commit to finding out if it's a success or step 1 
in a troubleshooting regimen?

Admittedly since this is a tube amp circuit. I should actually test the 
power supply and everything before trying it out and maybe that's the source 
of my jitters. But I can't even bring myself to seating the 5Y3GT in its 
socket and throwing juice at it. I even do it with a Variac (Powerstat, 
whatever...) real smoothlike. it all checked out fine before I gutted the 
radio chassis to make this amp: a nice AA764 Fender Champ copy, but with a 
Princeton "tone stack" (knob, whatever...). And I didn't mess with the power 
supply wires all that much, new resistors and caps in exactly the same place 
the old ones were. But I am using a higher screen voltage than the radio 
used, but it's within spec as far as I can see. My transformer doesn't put 
out as much voltage as the AA764 version did (and definitely not as much as 
the Bronco AB764 amp tranny did...)

Part of my hesistance i think comes from my earlier plan to add two gain 
stages at the beginning of the amp using a 12AU7. I thought I'd go easy on 
the bias and since I only have a space for two knobs I thought I could use a 
row of switches (where the tuning indicator used to be) for different 
voicings and to turn each stage in or out of the signal path kind of like a 
Premier 88N. I have some nice C-H (what does that stand for? they made great 
switches anyways...) toggle switches - big & beefy - probably 3 amp or 5 amp 
jobs. And I certainly didn't want to go the way of the "Remaking of a Champ" 
article that I stumbled across. Killing the spirit of a genuine Fender Champ 
just because the guy couldn't think of an easy way to add two extra gain 
stages? A newer adaptation of that was a little better. But I have just a 
radio chassis with all the right sockts plus ONE more 9-pin mini. I'm not 
very experienced in desiging amps but I think the idea of adding a gain 
stage to a Champ would be a simple one: use a medium mu tube with a low 
plate voltage and modest bias. It'd be like putting a Tube Screamer in front 
of it maybe. But I digres...

But I thought since I had the main Champ circuit wired amp (super simple 
even with needing to run two lengths of shielded cable across the chassis).

Part of it could be that I only have the one 5Y3GT and it's a gorgeous 
Tung-Sol. I guess I don't have a spare 6V6GT if I should end up trashing 
that instead. I have enough twin triodes of the 12A-whatever-7 ilk to not 
worry there.

I tried the speaker and the bakelite cabinet through my 50L6 amp and I was 
very impressed by the 4.5"x6.5" speaker. Very sensitive & loud. Definitely 
better with the back open.

And one final thing. I don't know why I'm so hesitant to do it, but I need a 
handle for this thing and I haven't been able to bring myself to drill holes 
in the Bakelite for a leather suitcase-style handle. The Bakelite is in good 
shape, but not pristine. Should I just drill and not look back? I suppose 
I'm worried it'll crack the top, but I figured if I used big fender washers 
(no pun intended) on the bottom, I should be OK.

So do youse guys get the jitters like I do?

cheers,
Anthony