Crack + Speedball Terminal 1 and 5 voltages off

[jp.lichtenberg]

Hello -- new to building. I just finished up building the crack + speedball upgrade, and my voltages look fine aside from terminals 1 and 5. Both are supposed to be around 75-90, but are both around 175 when I measure them. Also, the front tube does not seem to be glowing when I power it on, while the larger tube does glow. Lastly, when I measure the headphone Ring terminal, it climbs higher than the 9V that was called out. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

JP Lichtenberg

[Paul Birkeland]

Did the 12AU7 glow in your pre-Speedball build?

[jp.lichtenberg]

I didn't test before building the speedball portion; I figured that since I was going to be adding the speedball, it'd be a waste of time to solder in the resistors that would be taken out with the speedball installation and would make the soldering for the speedball a bit messier.

[Paul Birkeland]

I would recommend removing the Speedball and putting the resistors in to turn the kit back to a Stock, un-upgraded kit.  This will provide you the space that you need to effect repairs, and you should really start off knowing that you have a working, stock Crack before installing the Speedball.

Also, with the Speedball installed, you won't pass your resistance checks, and that wasn't mentioned in your original post, so I would recommend doing the resistance checks once your plate load and cathode load resistors are installed. 

-PB

[jp.lichtenberg]

Ok, I did that and now have everything reading pretty close to the document, but when I plug in my headphones, there is a buzz that remains constant as the volume knob is turned. There is also popping everyone once in awhile. What should I look at for something like this? I just rechecked the soldering on the capacitors on the power supply, but other than that, I am not sure what to look for.

[Paul Birkeland]

Ok, I did that and now have everything reading pretty close to the document, but when I plug in my headphones, there is a buzz that remains constant as the volume knob is turned. There is also popping everyone once in awhile. What should I look at for something like this? I just rechecked the soldering on the capacitors on the power supply, but other than that, I am not sure what to look for.

Reheat all of your solder joints, as this sounds like a loose connection.