SLO CLoner

myker · Post by **myker** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 3:37 am

I am in the preliminary stages of cloning a SLO, I have finished the parts layout for the pre. and I was wondering if anyone else has tackled this project and/or owns one of these amplifiers and can verify the accuracy of my drawing...
anybody wanna rent one of these to me for a couple of days??

mike

Billy Batz · Post by **Billy Batz** » Sun Dec 26, 2004 11:10 pm

myker wrote:I am in the preliminary stages of cloning a SLO, I have finished the parts layout for the pre. and I was wondering if anyone else has tackled this project and/or owns one of these amplifiers and can verify the accuracy of my drawing...
anybody wanna rent one of these to me for a couple of days??
mike

I own one. The chassis is pulled and on my bench this very second. If you need me to confirm something nows the time to do it.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Dec 27, 2004 7:15 pm

Mike..Sounds like a cool project..I bet Billy Batz could help you a bunch with some close up picks of the underside of the chassis..From the pics I've seen of the underside, it looks like the SLO uses a printed circuit board with a bunch of Orange drop caps..And those big Blue Mallory caps are a bit different than a bunch of LCR caps sitting on the top of the chassis!..Looks like you would have it made if you came up with a point to point board..The rest of the amp looks pretty straight foward.How bout those five preamp tubes!!....Best of luck!..Randy

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Dec 27, 2004 8:29 pm

billy thanks, most of the questions i have are regarding the filtering of the power supply. caps in series, parralel? mostly i would just like to see a good high res shot of the whole guts if you still have it open...
mike

Billy Batz · Post by **Billy Batz** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 1:32 am

I dont own a Dig camera but I can get hold of one if you wouldnt mind waiting a day or two. Any things in particular you wanna check out? It doesnt matter because as long as Im taking shots Ill get everything anyways just to have em.

The amp is PCB but it is the most meticulously laid out and wired amp Ive ever seen. It uses alot of 16 gauge bus wire for connections between pots and between tube sockets. It uses a star ground scheme with the only 2 chassis connections I see are the output jacks and one chassis grounding lug which the ground bus on the cathodes of the output tube bends down to connect to. The wire is all teflon and uses a few sheilded runs for volume and gain pot outputs and the input. The sheild isnt twisted off the inner insulation but is soldered right to the ground lugs with the inner insulation and lead right there. It doesnt matter since its teflon.

Im not sure what brand these caps are. They look like skinnier Orange Drops but they arent marked anything like Orange Drops and have no name on them. Im sure there the same material. Actually theres 2 different brands of orange caps. One says Phillips and is used for the preamp Cks. The pots are some waterproof mil spec brand Im not familiar with. Resistors are all different types and makes.

The power section is on its own PCB with caps on the top and bottum. I cant get a look at the ones on the bottum but from the looks of things theirs 6 200uf, 1 40uf, 2 20uF for the bias supply, and theirs also 2 10uf s on the main board for the preamp. I can plainly see the 40uf supplies V3-V5 and I can almost positively see that 4 series Parallel caps of the 200uF make the Doubler and the other 2 200uF caps are the screens. Actually I cant really see the caps under the board. Im assuming the 3 on the bottum are 200 as well as there the same size and shape. Theres a 1000uf on the main board that looks to be part of the switching matrix.

Rectos are IN5408s. Power and standby are carling SPST switches. Standby looks to be on the DC after the first filter section.

The stack and master volumes are after the loop. Even though the topography isnt true multi channel but a switchable multi gain stage addition, theres still quite a few relays to make it work.

The traces are on the bottum but they show through pretty well. I dont know how well theyll show up in a photo but with any luck pretty clearly.

This amp would be hard to do point to point. I began tracing it a while back and it would be alot of components to do a traditional PTP. You could always take a 3.5"x12" board and just lay it out custom and make it work.

Ill get to work on the pic as soon as I can get ahold of the camera. I want to get some good detailed shots for my own edification anyway. I PM'd you to try and explain the power supply better as Im able to see it.

Billy Batz · Post by **Billy Batz** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 11:53 am

OK. Found some hosting. If these pictures arent checked for 30 days they get deleted. Sory.

Here we go. If Ive left anything out better get me tomorrow night. Gotta go back in and get ready for action. (ughh... Im such a loser)

(no longer available

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Billy Batz · Post by **Billy Batz** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 5:53 pm

(no longer available

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myker · Post by **myker** » Fri Dec 31, 2004 7:31 pm

thanks and more thanks! times ten million to the 2nd power
mike

Billy Batz · Post by **Billy Batz** » Fri Dec 31, 2004 7:46 pm

Im sittin here looking at the pictures for the first time myself. Those traces showed up damn good. Surprising.

myker · Post by **myker** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 12:25 pm

hey billy, i wanted to give you an update on that slo project. i have the layout figured out. its going to be crunch channel only, no clean channel, no switching and no effects loop. its a stripped down version, i know but i think it will have better tone without all the unneccessary stuff im not gonna use anyway...i am having an expert draw me up a fancy chassis layout drawing in case any others here might want to build one of these...
mike

Billy Batz · Post by **Billy Batz** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 3:03 pm

I think thats a good idea. The design of the preamp makes it impossible to have a master on the OD and so you need relays in at least 4 places to be able to make a master volume scheme work.

You could always look here though

https://weberspeakerscom.secure.powweb. ... hansw1.htm

I used these for the relays in a Dumble clone and they work well. They run off the 6.3v supply. Very simple and small. You could use one for the master volumes and one for the OD gain stages.

Send me any board design graphics you get. I like looking over that stuff.

Necrovore · Post by **Necrovore** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 7:23 pm

Hey Myker, you might want to seek out and have a look at the Soldano Avenger. The one that I tried out sounded really sweet and the salesman who I was talking to(the store is a reputable shop where the salesmen know exactly what they are talking about)essentially said that the Avenger was a single channel version of the SLO-100 circuit-wise.

myker · Post by **myker** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 11:01 pm

billy, i'll shoot that drawing over to ya when its done.

necro, thanks for the info, i checked it out and you were indeed correct, the avenger is a SLO gain channel only. Did you play the el-34 version or the 6L6?
mike

Necrovore · Post by **Necrovore** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 11:17 pm

The EL-34 version. It had the absolute PERFECT amount of gain, a well pronounced middy type vibe, and ultra smooth. that amp just fucking sang. They had a SLO-100 at that store and I got a chance to A/B the Avenger and SLO, Must say if I could have put the voicing of the Avenger in the SLO(just the extra features like a clean channel and effects loop) I would have made a new purchase that day. the SLO compared to it had that new low mud crunch that was like Zakk Wyldes tone. The Avenger was like a Super Lead with a bit more dirt to it (think the studio version of Cat Scratch Fever mixed with Slide It In whitesnake tones somewhat).

Bjorn

myker · Post by **myker** » Fri Jan 07, 2005 12:07 am

i have been kicking around the idea of putting a switch to change between el-34's and 6L6's probably two tubes at a time so i could use all 6l6, all el-34, or two of each..
mike

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