My BeePre is finished and playing as I type this post
For those who haven't started it or are considering this build, the Bottlehead team have hit a home run! It's a pretty easy build thanks to the best manual I've ever seen and Bottlehead's best to date. I took my time over a couple of weeks and enjoyed every bit of it. Like others have posted, I printed the manual and checked off each step while making notes on the sides of the manual.
Here are the details of the build. The top plate and bell housings were powder coated in black wrinkle to give it that 30's radio look. I used satin model paint to blacken out the RCA jacks, transformer screws and BeeQuiet top plate. The flat topped black screws were from another project. A sharpie was used to to blacken the edges of the 9 pin socket. The knobs are vintage 30's pieces thanks to my HAM buddies. Once I find a third mushroom style I'll replace that arrow head on the selector switch.
I attempted a vintage look with the base but it didn't turn out as well as I would have liked. This was my first attempt at staining and the alder doesn't soak it up like a soft wood. It was finished with tung oil and has a beautiful look in the light. A buddy is building me a base in black walnut. I'll post some picks once finished.
As for the working components I made the following parts swaps and adjustments.
1. Two sets of RCA outputs, no balanced output
2. Mills 8 Ohm resistors
3. Nichicon KA series 10,000uF electrolytic
4. Neotech OCCC solid 20g wire through 98% of the signal path and the BeeQuiet
5. Audio Cap 10uF output caps
6. Elma selector switch
Yes all this was done without listening to it in the standard configuration but, a couple of these mods would have been a PITA to try and retro fit.
A few notes on the build. The signal wires were wrapped in aluminum foil, then with a drain wire and lastly with the Tech Flex.
If you plan on using oversized caps and the BeeQuiet, I would recommend installing the BeeQuiet first. The Audio Caps are significantly larger then the stock caps and didn't get close to the base plate in my build. To secure them, I used a two hole grounding washer over a nylon washer and screwed in to the top of the C4S board. Magnet wire was then wrapped around the cap and secured to the two holes in the grounding washer. It's not elegant but works well and keeps the caps off the BeeQuiet resistors. You will need to bend a few of them upright to shoehorn the caps in.
I'm no photographer and it looks much better in person but here is an attempt. I'll comment on sound in another post
