Dear All,
I had detailed my previous Crack build here: http://bottlehead.com/smf/index.php?topic=6597.0, but since it was my first build I always felt that there were certain parts I could have done better. In order to redo those parts I was not happy with, I knew I needed to remove quite a lot of the components. Once I had gathered all the parts I needed, I stripped down the Crack until it was almost bare.
Here are some photos of the disassembled Crack after I redid some of the wiring.
Almost all of the parts in the Crack have been upgraded over time. Full list of upgraded parts is as follows starting from the RCA jacks and working downwards:
[list type=decimal]
[*]REAN / Neutrik RCA Jacks - The original jacks were fine, but I love the second nut that really locks this jack in place. Bottlehead is now including similar RCA jacks, but if they did not I would definitely recommend this upgrade.
[*]Tube Depot terminal strips - I did not want to desolder all the terminal strips, so ordered some new ones from Tube Depot with some other parts. These ones look and feel better, and the upper terminal holes are larger, but the 6-terminal strip does not quite fit on the transformer mounting. This leads to a little bit of stress on the terminal strip itself, but I viewed is as acceptable. Not really an upgrade, but having extra space on 14U was nice. Downside to these is that with all the space on the top terminals you really need to ensure that you have a proper mechanical connection, otherwise you will have loose connections.
[*]Dale resistors - Except for the 10W resistors that will be removed for the Speedball, I upgraded all of the resistors to Dale resistors. Most of them have higher wattage, except for the 270ohm 5W resistors in the PS. The resistors all look nicer, but the higher wattage means that they don't fit as nicely into the terminal strips as can be evidenced from the bends in the resistor leads. The 270 ohm resistor across the transformer is also too short to fit, thus I needed to bridge it with some regular wire.
[*]18 awg cloth covered wire - First time I saw cloth covered wire, was in this thread http://bottlehead.com/smf/index.php?topic=6855.0. Really liked Big Al's work and wanted to do something similar. I decided on 18 awg as I considered the thicker wire an upgrade. I quickly discovered that the thicker wire is more difficult to bend in tight quarters and takes up much more space. If I were to build another Crack, I would use the thinnest wire I can get away with.
Edit: I forgot to mention that the twisted wire can not be twisted using the drill method. Spinning the drill slowly or manually turning the two lengths of wire does not work. The cloth will separate and it does not create uniform twists. I did each twist individually by hand until I had the necessary length for the build.
[*]Belton tube sockets - I wanted tube sockets where the nine-pin socket was flush with the top plate. Belton fit the bill and since I was ordering parts from Tube Depot, I just added these as well. While they look and feel very nice, the nine-pin socket has some issues that could cause serious problems during the build. The eight-pin needed some enlarging of the mounting hole, but the nine-pin threw me quite a curve ball. It is smaller than the hole in the top plate and no amount of filing would fix that. I was going to insert a plastic washer in there, but in the end decided against it and just left it as is. The nine pin socket also has two other issues, namely:
a) there is no center pin in the tube socket, thus the LEDs have no natural mounting spot. Considering the fragile nature of LEDs, I consider this a major drawback. Searching this forum I found that Lior Amsalem also used these sockets (refer to http://bottlehead.com/smf/index.php?topic=2349.0) and I contacted him via PM. He advised that he used a bolt and nut though the center hole of the socket (yes, it has a hole you can use for this) and used some wire to create a hook. I used similar method to mount my LEDs. Lior's build was definitely quite inspirational to me as well.
b) the socket is already affixed to its mounting plate, therefore the orientation is already determined. It meant that none of the A1-A9 notes on my top plate were accurate. Luckily the Belton sockets have numbers on the sockets itself which helped avoid serious errors. It does however mean that none of the wire lenghts / routings at the nine-pin socket agree to the manual.
[*]VA Labs stepped attentuator - it was the first upgrade I did, and it helped me gain a lot of confidence, but I am not sure if I can notice the difference between this and the stock pot (my stock pot had no channel imbalance and sounded quite good). It is also physically very large. If I were to build another Crack I would use the Alps Blue Velvet just to save on space.
[*]Switchcraft output jack - I melted some of the plastic on the original jack and was not quite happy with the look so when PB recommended the Switchcraft 152B, I got one. I did not want to have a crowded jack like the Neutrik locking jack therefore it is a little ironic that I chose this one. Definitely more difficult to work on than the stock jack and the sleeve (to which ground wires connect to) is quite bendable. Based on the size and the difficulty in mounting the resistors, I would say that the stock jack is quite good.
[/list]
I got a lot of inspiration from the gallery section in the forums and, other than the names mentioned above, I prefer not to mention any names as I definitely can't recall everyone. However, I have reviewed every Crack gallery that still has pictures in it for inspiration.
Herewith pictures of the completed build:
Important note - The below picture has L&R swapped on the Switchcraft jack - refer to the next post for the correction.
Still have several upgrades planned and I have to thank those who posted their upgrades here as it enables me to also upgrade my Crack in ways I never thought possible before.
I had detailed my previous Crack build here: http://bottlehead.com/smf/index.php?topic=6597.0, but since it was my first build I always felt that there were certain parts I could have done better. In order to redo those parts I was not happy with, I knew I needed to remove quite a lot of the components. Once I had gathered all the parts I needed, I stripped down the Crack until it was almost bare.
Here are some photos of the disassembled Crack after I redid some of the wiring.
Almost all of the parts in the Crack have been upgraded over time. Full list of upgraded parts is as follows starting from the RCA jacks and working downwards:
[list type=decimal]
[*]REAN / Neutrik RCA Jacks - The original jacks were fine, but I love the second nut that really locks this jack in place. Bottlehead is now including similar RCA jacks, but if they did not I would definitely recommend this upgrade.
[*]Tube Depot terminal strips - I did not want to desolder all the terminal strips, so ordered some new ones from Tube Depot with some other parts. These ones look and feel better, and the upper terminal holes are larger, but the 6-terminal strip does not quite fit on the transformer mounting. This leads to a little bit of stress on the terminal strip itself, but I viewed is as acceptable. Not really an upgrade, but having extra space on 14U was nice. Downside to these is that with all the space on the top terminals you really need to ensure that you have a proper mechanical connection, otherwise you will have loose connections.
[*]Dale resistors - Except for the 10W resistors that will be removed for the Speedball, I upgraded all of the resistors to Dale resistors. Most of them have higher wattage, except for the 270ohm 5W resistors in the PS. The resistors all look nicer, but the higher wattage means that they don't fit as nicely into the terminal strips as can be evidenced from the bends in the resistor leads. The 270 ohm resistor across the transformer is also too short to fit, thus I needed to bridge it with some regular wire.
[*]18 awg cloth covered wire - First time I saw cloth covered wire, was in this thread http://bottlehead.com/smf/index.php?topic=6855.0. Really liked Big Al's work and wanted to do something similar. I decided on 18 awg as I considered the thicker wire an upgrade. I quickly discovered that the thicker wire is more difficult to bend in tight quarters and takes up much more space. If I were to build another Crack, I would use the thinnest wire I can get away with.
Edit: I forgot to mention that the twisted wire can not be twisted using the drill method. Spinning the drill slowly or manually turning the two lengths of wire does not work. The cloth will separate and it does not create uniform twists. I did each twist individually by hand until I had the necessary length for the build.
[*]Belton tube sockets - I wanted tube sockets where the nine-pin socket was flush with the top plate. Belton fit the bill and since I was ordering parts from Tube Depot, I just added these as well. While they look and feel very nice, the nine-pin socket has some issues that could cause serious problems during the build. The eight-pin needed some enlarging of the mounting hole, but the nine-pin threw me quite a curve ball. It is smaller than the hole in the top plate and no amount of filing would fix that. I was going to insert a plastic washer in there, but in the end decided against it and just left it as is. The nine pin socket also has two other issues, namely:
a) there is no center pin in the tube socket, thus the LEDs have no natural mounting spot. Considering the fragile nature of LEDs, I consider this a major drawback. Searching this forum I found that Lior Amsalem also used these sockets (refer to http://bottlehead.com/smf/index.php?topic=2349.0) and I contacted him via PM. He advised that he used a bolt and nut though the center hole of the socket (yes, it has a hole you can use for this) and used some wire to create a hook. I used similar method to mount my LEDs. Lior's build was definitely quite inspirational to me as well.
b) the socket is already affixed to its mounting plate, therefore the orientation is already determined. It meant that none of the A1-A9 notes on my top plate were accurate. Luckily the Belton sockets have numbers on the sockets itself which helped avoid serious errors. It does however mean that none of the wire lenghts / routings at the nine-pin socket agree to the manual.
[*]VA Labs stepped attentuator - it was the first upgrade I did, and it helped me gain a lot of confidence, but I am not sure if I can notice the difference between this and the stock pot (my stock pot had no channel imbalance and sounded quite good). It is also physically very large. If I were to build another Crack I would use the Alps Blue Velvet just to save on space.
[*]Switchcraft output jack - I melted some of the plastic on the original jack and was not quite happy with the look so when PB recommended the Switchcraft 152B, I got one. I did not want to have a crowded jack like the Neutrik locking jack therefore it is a little ironic that I chose this one. Definitely more difficult to work on than the stock jack and the sleeve (to which ground wires connect to) is quite bendable. Based on the size and the difficulty in mounting the resistors, I would say that the stock jack is quite good.
[/list]
I got a lot of inspiration from the gallery section in the forums and, other than the names mentioned above, I prefer not to mention any names as I definitely can't recall everyone. However, I have reviewed every Crack gallery that still has pictures in it for inspiration.
Herewith pictures of the completed build:
Important note - The below picture has L&R swapped on the Switchcraft jack - refer to the next post for the correction.
Still have several upgrades planned and I have to thank those who posted their upgrades here as it enables me to also upgrade my Crack in ways I never thought possible before.
