Paramount with FS-100 choke questions

[tsingle999]

OK I am ready to start rebuilding my paramounts with some iron I have accumulated.
I have the FS-100 chokes, TFA 2004, and some MQ grid chokes, MQ upgrade BH upgrade iron and triad chokes if needed. Interestingly I put the triad choke in one paramount but preferred the resistor one - it was quieter with no volume. I tried putting grid chokes in (both input and output) but always picked up too much noise.
So I have to rebuild the chassis to accommodate the added iron. I am thinking 8.5" x 14" and 4mm thick. Is that a good thickness?
I was wondering if there are other changes I should make while I am rebuilding this? The soft start upgrade (i want to use EML300b mesh eventually)?
Maybe film caps in the power supply since i can create space for them?
  

[Grainger49]

Placement of the choke for the power supply is reported to be a real booger!  PJ suggested taking a small RF choke and attaching it to your scope leads, move it around to find a place and orientation where pickup is at a minimum.  

That seems like a good pragmatic way to find where you will get the least noise impressed into the power supply choke.  I would guess that is the same for grid chokes.

The next upgrade could be to put a pot (replacing the one on the soft start board) and test points on the top of the chassis for adjusting the bias.  This way you don't have to flip your Paramount to set the bias with new tubes.

Paully and I did this for his Paramounts with 45 output tubes with a lot of guidance from Paul Joppa.

[Doc B.]

I don't think you need the sniffer for a grid choke. Just leave it unmounted and try moving it around with the amp hooked up to see if you can find a quiet location and orientation. They can sound really good, but getting the layout to be quiet without it getting huge (so that the grid choke is far enough from the power trans) can be tricky.