Metropoulos Forum

Always good to watch a pro at work. His lead dress sure is purdy.

vanhalen5150 wrote:I just got a Weller digital station. Really nice. Definately need an amp cradle.

I would also heartily recommend a thermal wire stripper. I recently managed to liberate one from work and I don't know how I lived without it. I would've built one long ago if I had know what I was missing.

sherman wrote:Always good to watch a pro at work. His lead dress sure is purdy.

vanhalen5150 wrote:I just got a Weller digital station. Really nice. Definately need an amp cradle.

I would also heartily recommend a thermal wire stripper. I recently managed to liberate one from work and I don't know how I lived without it. I would've built one long ago if I had know what I was missing.

sherman

You got me curious. Can you include a pic/link to one you like or recomend?

Here's mine in action:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW60h71QXPI[/youtube]

Here's a no frills version that goes for about $50:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUtsmoHngr8[/youtube]

Overkill? Not to me. I'm always looking for ways to work better/smarter/neater. With one of these you'll never nick a conductor or lose a strand of wire again. It's also just as faster or faster than my old automatic blade stripper so it doesn't interrupt my flow.

very interesting video. Yes, i suppose that he wrap the leads arround the turrets, perhaps in case he may want to change some of them, before he solder it, or perhaps because it may offer a better contact ?

vanhalen5150 wrote:Watched this again. I notice he doesnt put components down into the turret holes. He wraps them all around.

Wrapping them all the way around the terminal is overkill as far as contact is concerned. Heck you don't even do that on military spec solder applications, and I was mil-spec certified in soldering for several years. They would reject that as soon as they saw it actually.

More than likely he's doing that just to help him secure his parts in place so he can check the layout, and hold them in place when he goes to solder. It is actually a good idea if you aren't going to do any mods in the future.

Thanks for the vids, sherman...I'll pick up the more affordable, smaller version.

He's wrapping those components around the turrets because other components go in the holes, bias pot (or wire), caps etc. It's making it easier (and/or neater) to make more than one connection on that turret. My guess on the pots is that he's using unsealed carbon disc in the places that matter the most. Sealed where it doesn't effect the tone as much. There was a time when he used all sealed PEC pots.

Smokin Tone wrote:He's wrapping those components around the turrets because other components go in the holes, bias pot (or wire), caps etc. It's making it easier (and/or neater) to make more than one connection on that turret. My guess on the pots is that he's using unsealed carbon disc in the places that matter the most. Sealed where it doesn't effect the tone as much. There was a time when he used all sealed PEC pots.

Yeah, I wonder about those sealed pots. Sounds like a keen idea to me. I did a 2204 build with those bigger turrets like he's using. It's tough in places to get a good solder melt when you have more than 3 components on them. I wonder if getting more of them on the outside is better/easier for the solder to take hold? I had to really crank my iron on those.

StuntDouble wrote:

syscokid wrote:I also found it interesting that Germino explains that mixing sealed pots with unsealed pots sounds better. Volumes and Bass are unsealed, Treble, Mid and Presense are sealed. Could anybody here possibly explain how this feature in a pot affects the response or tone?

Yeah, I wondered why the 1 meg volume and bass pots would be different. I wonder if his mil-spec pots are carbon or conductive plastic. I know Larry doesn't care much for the conductive plastic pots. I found the Clarostat RV4 to have a grainy feel, but I didn't think they sounded bad.

I just want to honer Ben on the anniversary of his last post here at Metro, we miss you!

Hard to believe almost a year has past.

Agreed, time really does fly by. Cheers Ben!

I just ran across a post of Ben's on another forum. Time does fly but I bet this year has been the longest for his family.

Thank you Ben. You're missed.

I was talking about some parts swaps and tone-freak things with Ben a short time before it happened. Was hard to believe.
I wish strength to his folks and i hope Ben is rocking out properly, wherever he might be.