Bypass headphone jack?

[mpent]

Hi,

I'm in the process of building my SEX amp and have 2 questions. I'm at the output wiring stage where the instructions indicate cutting two 6 foot lengths of black and red hook up wire. It is at this stage where I am realizing that my kit may not have been stocked with the correct amount of black wire. I have only about 5.3 feet remaining. That being said, my questions are...

1) I am never going to use the headphone jack and will listen to the amp with speakers only. Is it possible to bypass the headphone jack for a speaker output confirmation only? If so, how?

2) As per the black wire shortage, what is the specific gauge, type wire that I should go out and purchase to continue my build?

Thank you!!!!

Michael

[mpent]

Forgive my laziness, I do see that the wire is 20 gauge but otherwise I am not sure what type wire I am seeking.

[Paul Birkeland]

I'd give it a go with the 5.3 feet that you have, as we tend to supply more wire than is needed both in the bill of materials for a given kit, and in the packing process.

The wire is 20 AWG solid core PVC insulated hookup wire.  We do not recommend using stranded.

If you want to bypass the headphone jack, you can wire the twised pair of wires from the output transformers (terminals 7/8 for 8 Ohm speakers) right to the binding posts. Just be sure you use the twisted pair that come off the secondaries, not the primary (the primary feeds each octal socket).

If you change your mind about the headphone jack later, you can wire from the speaker posts to the headphone jack, which would only mean that you wouldn't get the automatic muting of the speakers when you plug your headphones in.

Out of principle, I would wire it as-directed in the manual first.

-PB

[mpent]

Thanks for the response! What would you recommend cutting the wires back to then if you're thinking it's a worth a shot going forward with the remaining wire I have? I see that additional black wire is needed after the output wiring stage as well.