Big props to Doc B, Paul Birkeland and Queen for the great kit, easy-to-follow manual and excellent customer service. Let me preface by saying I am not an electronics or woodworking expert. I mainly follow instructions and leave the circuit technicalities to the experts. I am decent at soldering after years of working with tiny surface-mounted pcb components.
I had been debating whether to upgrade a Crack I built 8 years ago or start a new one. Thankfully, a friend helped me choose the latter. Thus, I could take my time on the build as I could still enjoy listening to the old Crack afterwards.
This build took probably 3x as long as my first one. The main culprit was running the wires neatly. This allows for easier access to the solder points and also makes upgrading and troubleshooting faster. Plus it looks nicer. I find it saves a lot of time and headache later in the build.
The only issue I ran into was having my dmm set incorrectly for the voltage tests. Thankfully, a forum response helped me realize my embarrassing mistake.
For those interested, I upgraded the following: OFC signal wire, mundorf caps, tkd pot, and vampire jacks (will be installed later).
I have an old soldering station with adjustable temp that made the speedball a breeze.
The base is two tone with black top and brown lower. I wanted both to be darker as I put over 10 coats. Next time have to use 3-4x what keda suggests. The last coat of spar urethane is not perfect and will sand and buff out in a few months.
It was a fun experience and this new Crack sounds wonderful. Thanks again Bottlehead. Will definitely build a higher model in the future.
