Parts for Crack with Speedball Repair

[RetroJonezin]

I had a buddy help me build a crack amp with the speedball, turned out great, but after some time I started to notice some static.  Long story short I started to replace some bad wiring and solder joints and noticed burnt wires all over the place.  How does this happen, I was helping watch his kids while  he worked on the amp because he has done a heck of a lot more soldering than me, but after seeing some of the burnt wires I found multiple reasons I was getting static. 

Anyway I decided to clip out most of the wiring and will replace it.  With that I will need each tube socket, the volume pot, and one terminal strip.  Is there anywhere I can order these from the same place with fairly quick shipping...or are there some upgrades to the volume pot and tube sockets?  If so let me know.  Thanks. 

 

[ALL212]

I'll have volume pots and wire.  I don't think I have any tube sockets but I could be wrong.  No terminal strips.

Whatever I have is yours for the cost of shipping, $6.80 to US in a small flat rate box.

Volume pot upgrades - yes there are some.  I've used the Alps Blue (fairly inexpensive) and the Goldpoint (very expensive). 

Tube Sockets - IMO - not really any "upgrades".  But you can make mounting them interesting if you don't use the stock ones.

If no one else chimes in let me know and I'll check my pile 'o parts.

 

[RetroJonezin]

Honestly at this point I am probably good with stock parts if they are easier to come by and will make rewiring easier considering I have the documentation from the stock build.  I forgot to mention I need the 5 point terminal strip.  At this point thought I will probably buy a couple of each to have on hand.

 

[RetroJonezin]

Just ordered a couple terminal strips.  I'm in MN if anyone knows any place that would have the tube sockets.  ALL212 I might need to take you up on the volume pot.  Really wish I would have just built it myself from the get go.  With HD800s sitting on the sideline it almost seems like I should just order a new kit or buy rather than repair.  It's going to be a huge pain to Frankenstein the speedball components that are left while using the documentation.

 

[RetroJonezin]

Found the rest. Hopefully I can get this thing back together.

 

[Doc B]

That's why we call it DIY. Even if it seems daunting to tackle it yourself the results are usually much more satisfying than relying upon someone else to do the build. I sell kits, but what I'm really trying to do is empower people in an age when so many people are scared to open something up and see what makes it tick.

 

[ALL212]

Your good friends at BH always have parts.  If you can't source them they can always help out.

I do have a couple of 100k volume pots and ... a pair of Crack tube sockets.  Also various caps, power switches...stuff.

If you need - let me know.

 

[RetroJonezin]

That's why we call it DIY. Even if it seems daunting to tackle it yourself the results are usually much more satisfying than relying upon someone else to do the build. I sell kits, but what I'm really trying to do is empower people in an age when so many people are scared to open something up and see what makes it tick.

I agree with you completely and like I said it's a long story short I wasn't relying on someone else to do the build. I would be more than happy to go into details about why I ended up where I am if you would like to hear them. But yes I should have finished the kit build myself and I wouldn't be in this position but I am in this position I found the parts I need and I'm going to finish it I didn't mean to make somebody defensive that's not the case your kids are second to none and on my HD 800 there is no better value for the price I will be able to get it back together.

It seems there's this huge assumption that I hired or paid a friend to do the entire build himself which is not the case it was kind of a collective build and when rechecking the things that I didn't have time to do I found shoddy work that I need to repair this wasn't readily apparent until I ran the amp for about 20 hours.

 

[RetroJonezin]

Your good friends at BH always have parts.  If you can't source them they can always help out.

I do have a couple of 100k volume pots and ... a pair of Crack tube sockets.  Also various caps, power switches...stuff.

If you need - let me know.

Sounds good thanks for the follow up. I found the parts should be here in a few days I'm not going to have a ton of time so I will probably have to chip away at it over the next week or two.  Like doc said this is do it myself but if it's okay if I run into anything is it okay if I post a couple questions on here if I hit roadblocks since this isn't a straight build by instructions I might have some hurdles to jump in order to get it back to where it should be.

 

[RetroJonezin]

I'm actually a bit offended that the Assumption was made that I couldn't do it myself based on a three-sentence post that I didn't elaborate on. The problem here was the fact that I had to dissemble a kit in order to rebuild it. I contacted my friend to help for the speedball upgrade because I've never worked with boards, again I could elaborate further but I don't feel that it was necessary, I referred multiple people to the bottlehead amps and and everyone has been satisfied including myself.  I just have a challenging tear down and rebuild that I needed to find parts for. I just rewired a 70 Mustang Mach 1 with a new full body harness by myself, the problem was never my ability to complete the work, nor my ability to take on a new project.

Rather, it was the fact that I have a newborn in the house, I have limited time, and rather than tackling the speedball by myself I had my buddy come do it because it sounded like he could knock it out quick.  Which he did, but in doing so the integrity of the rest of the build deteriorated.

It's not a fault of bottlehead, which again, MAKE AWESOME PRODUCTS, but rather me having a friend that wanted to help and I agreed based on his experience. It backfired, and now I wish I would have Did It ALL Myself. 

 

[Doc B]

No need to be offended. I may have misread what you said, but I was intending to mean that everyone can build these kits and no one needs to assume that someone else can do it better.

 

[Deluk]

As you are starting over it might be a good idea to get it up and running as a basic Crack if you have the original "removed" resistors. You have the boards already and waiting, but they can be added later. Good luck.

 

[RetroJonezin]

I have the the speedball boards pulled and ready.  I will most likely wire it without doing any soldering to make sure everything is correct along with a dry look at the speedball in place. I decided to refinish the main chassis as I wasn't happy with how my original turned out, so I am going to need to wait on that to cure.  I will probably move back through the build step by step knowing I have the speedball ready to go and then solder when everything checks out. 

Question on the rca's.  Do I need the plastic red and black "washers" on the top and bottom, or could I replace those with brass or "gold" washers?  I don't need that as an indicator for the inputs and would rather keep it discreet for this second build, but am not sure if they serve a purpose by segregating the jack from the chassis in some way.

Thanks!

Mike

 

[RetroJonezin]

No need to be offended. I may have misread what you said, but I was intending to mean that everyone can build these kits and no one needs to assume that someone else can do it better.

No worries, and I maybe took it the wrong way.  But when kit repair is an offered service, and I was looking to actually repair it myself, I was not sure why the DIY aspect of the products were pointed out in a post in which I was trying to repair it myself.  Again, I love the product offerings, and I was mostly frustrated in that I wish I would have just finished the build myself instead of avoiding the speedball upgrade.  But it was mostly due to lack of time and other commitments while wanting to play in the speedball space.  The concern mostly came from thinking about the reverse engineering of the crack and speed ball, when I can just go back through the crack build dry, and implement the speedball, then solder.

 

[Deluk]

Maybe I'm reading this wrongly but you say "build it dry" and infer that you will do the soldering later. It's unlikely that building it first with shaped mechanically joints will give satisfactory test results. No matter how careful you are, some joints never quite bend up perfectly. Solder as you go and concentrate on getting each joint as perfect as possible. Don't rush it, you're not on piece rates.

 

[Doc B]

Do solder the connections. The most common issue with an amp not working is a bad connection. Leaving the joints dry will greatly increase the possibility of this happening. The plastic insulators are necessary to isolate the RCA jack signal grounds from the chassis in order to avoid ground loops.