fairchild 660

[astrovic]

nah you couldn't get through 'cause i took the afternoon off and went to the city. I had an invoice from a government department for stamp duty on a business transfer. It was for 60 cents...and they don't take credit card or direct transfer only over the counter payments. So an hour of time, car parking etc etc to hand over 60 ferking cents!!!

R

come to Victoria, Rob - no stamp duty on business transfers.

....

apart from that, we pretty much suck ;)

[rob]

i'm coming over on tuesday for five days! perhaps i could have saved the 60 cents and got myself 1/4 cup of coffee on chapel street

R

[astrovic]

1/4....

yeah, try 1/6

any chance you can bring some warm weather?

[JulienG]

... i could have saved the 60 cents and got myself 1/4 cup of coffee on chapel street

Where on Chapel is that cheap? ;-P

[wez]

can't think of the last time i paid less than 3.50 for a latte... 2 or 3 a day, it adds up. f@#$ me that's 2 and a half grand a year.

i can't bring myself to work out what belgian beer sets me back. or shiraz.

working holiday rob? plenty of projects at chez finishing post ;-)

w

[rob]

wez, lock out at sing sing. Probably won't even have time to pop out for that coffee.

....i need a booking agent :(

fourth trip to melbourne this year, and it won't be the last

Rob

[no-fi]

hmmm. well, back on the "clone" ranch, I'm still noticing a distinct lack of demo files from the3 prototype poorman units out there.... minus the one piano sample with huge squashing action, and with distortion.

With that, after a couple of unforseen expenses, I'm starting to think I might have to sideline this project till I can afford it without stretching myself too much, and have more of an idea that it's actually going to be something I want.

damn.... I still really love the idea of a crazy valve and transformer project, just starting to have 2nd thoughts. and it's 1 week till payment deadline on the PCBs... (which will cost over $100 themselves....)


In happier DIY news, I went through and tidied up soldering on my GSSL main board today. Have to go back and replace a few resistors that I stuffed with the silkscreen values, that don't really match my VCAs - but it should be ready for an audio test of that in the next few days, depending on what else is going on here. yay!

[Linear]

just finished the final touches to this baby today



AWA 2G58250, from 1961, Australian made

this is one hell of limiter, fixed attack and release with a single, dual ( auto release ) and agc ( slow attack, slow release ) modes. Excellent controls for tube balancing which is a must in vari-mu to ensure no thumping. Noise floor -62dBu unweighted, max output level > +28dBm, freq response -0.5dB at 17Hz and 50kHz, distortion 0.03%.
Pretty much eats the fairchild!!
This is the third one of these i've restored over the past couple of years ( and there is one more lerking around the corner ). I'd have to say that once they are fully refurbished that they would be, hands down be one of the best performing vari-mu's ever made.

Rob

I just got one of these too, jawdroppingly amazing.

I also retubed it with original AWA valves (from evatco) and you don't need any external equipment to set up the tubes either, as rob stated. It gives that lush, full vocal sound - the sound I've been chasing for quite some time. Also kills it on bass.

And I did one other thing - I took out the little AWA badge from inside the unit on the left and carefully placed it under the meter. Couldn't help myself.

Chris

[heathen]

Who's a lucky fella.

[David W]

[quote="no-fi"]hmmm. well, back on the "clone" ranch, I'm still noticing a distinct lack of demo files from the3 prototype poorman units out there.... minus the one piano sample with huge squashing action, and with distortion.

With that, after a couple of unforseen expenses, I'm starting to think I might have to sideline this project till I can afford it without stretching myself too much, and have more of an idea that it's actually going to be something I want.

damn.... I still really love the idea of a crazy valve and transformer project, just starting to have 2nd thoughts. and it's 1 week till payment deadline on the PCBs... (which will cost over $100 themselves....)


In happier DIY news, I went through and tidied up soldering on my GSSL main board today. Have to go back and replace a few resistors that I stuffed with the silkscreen values, that don't really match my VCAs - but it should be ready for an audio test of that in the next few days, depending on what else is going on here. yay![/quote]

Hey don't give up now.
I've just commited myself to this after long deliberation and guess the it should at least be a decent MU limiter which is something I don't have . Plus I love the smell of soldier.

Also they have finaly got the GSSL sounding like an actual SSL Buss comp with the stereo sidechain mod and have realised thay I like the original Gyraf designd compressor better. I now have 2 of each so who knows this design could be genius.

[no-fi]

Hey don't give up now.
I've just commited myself to this after long deliberation and guess the it should at least be a decent MU limiter which is something I don't have . Plus I love the smell of soldier.

I *want* to do it...... just... need to look at finances.

will do some maths today and see what i can manage. I might need to buy the boards and transformers now, then leave off everything else for a while... though that's 80% of the cost, anyway

also, there's a new before and after clip up now..... so we can hear more of what it does in someone else's studio with someone else's music...
http://www.prodigy-pro.com/forum/viewto ... 862#344862
I've just loaded the 2 wave files into cubase and adjusted the levels by ear so they sound like the same volume, and while it doesn't seem to do a hell of a lot to the main mix, I like what it does to the solo piano bit at the start....

Also they have finaly got the GSSL sounding like an actual SSL Buss comp with the stereo sidechain mod and have realised thay I like the original Gyraf designd compressor better. I now have 2 of each so who knows this design could be genius.

GSSL is fun!!

I'm at the stage now where I need to work out what specs mine is having.

I just ordered the turbo board, and now there's an 8 way sidechain filter board available again too...
seeing as I'm just going to be having the one GSSL for myself, I'm tempted to expand it to have every feature I can put in, then if I prefer the unmodded version in the end, at least I know I tried the options, so I didn't miss anything... and it's just a matter of leaving it on the plain setting...

[astrovic]

Plus I love the smell of soldier.

That's the standard issue Old Spice you're enjoying ;P

On varimu's - has anyone here looked into/built the varimu designed by PRR? There's a build pade on Kev's DIY Factory site. Looks interesting, and (relatively) simple - believe he aimed for simplicity and availability of parts. But I don't know a lot about varimu comps, interested to see if anyone has any comments

[Barney Loveland]

I've seen the PRR varimu but not looked into building it.

Have looked into the toroid power transformers and the quote was as follows.

Prototype Price ~ $250-300
Unit Price ~ $190-$240

So will be looking at another source.

[no-fi]

OK... well curiosity got the better of me (and they DID supply a proper demo file before the deadline)

I'm getting the boards and transformers and tubes now.

Hopefully it won't be too long before I can get something up and running!
:-)

@barney: it's a shame edcor don't do a torroidal PSU transformer, but for the amount it costs outright, coupled with no additional shipping cost on top of the audio transformers, it's got to be the best cost-effective way to do it here, I think... the entire edcor set with PSU and shipping from the USA is cheaper than the unit price for a custom PSU transformer here.....

[no-fi]

alright!
PCBs, all transformers, and all tubes ordered.

lets see what this thing does....
:-)

[Barney Loveland]

Ok i have a transformer builder. If anyone's interested, post in this thread and then i'll take that number to him and see if he's keen. I'm having some built for other projects and the price ends up being approx $120.

[Thirteen]

GSSL is fun!!

I'm at the stage now where I need to work out what specs mine is having.

I just ordered the turbo board, and now there's an 8 way sidechain filter board available again too...
seeing as I'm just going to be having the one GSSL for myself, I'm tempted to expand it to have every feature I can put in, then if I prefer the unmodded version in the end, at least I know I tried the options, so I didn't miss anything... and it's just a matter of leaving it on the plain setting...

You shouldn't need the sidechain if you have the Turbo board. I have built 4 Turbo's, they sure make a difference. If you buy Tat Perusha's Oxford case it has a sidechain provision on the front panel, so to complete it properly you will need 2 sidechain boards as well as the Turbo board.

[no-fi]

You shouldn't need the sidechain if you have the Turbo board. I have built 4 Turbo's, they sure make a difference. If you buy Tat Perusha's Oxford case it has a sidechain provision on the front panel, so to complete it properly you will need 2 sidechain boards as well as the Turbo board.

damn... I missed this one.

see THIS is where people who have done it before come in handy....
:-)

I thought the turbo board was a complete separate sidechain circuit, so you're controlling gain in stereo, rather than with a summed mono control.. right?

then I thought the 8 way board was a bunch of different filters to effect the response of the sidechain.

I assumed, that 1 GSSL, 1 turbo and 1 8 way board would give me the ability to have the standard summed default operation, with added various thrust/hpf sidechain modes, then have the ability to go the turbo route, too. I wasn't expecting to have all the different sidechain options duplicated in the turbo mode, but maybe that would be a good idea if I wanted an "ultimate" build? hmmm....

Anyway, I'm currently paused on my GSSL. can't go any further than hooking up and powering up the boards in cardboard box, cause i'm waiting for the 8 way sidechain board that is being made now, plus I'm waiting for a turbo board and a proper panel meter to come. (ptownkid is very busy, it seems!)

[harry]

in response to the original post =

http://www.prodigy-pro.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26024

this info seems more than handy....

[no-fi]

hmmm..... starting to wonder if the few of us doing a poorman build want a separate thread....
:-)


ANYWAY. I got my first bit of kit for the poorman today.

I got my tubes delivered from tubesandmore.com They were only a few $ each, so I ordered 6 of each (3 channels worth - figured would be nice to have spares in case of faulty parts, though they are all meant to be NOS - now I'm wondering if I should have gone 8 of each...)

Of the six 6BC8s I ordered, I got 4 x sylvania, and 2 x raytheon... Though one of the sylvania boxes looks older than the other 3, they're all the same part - hopefully will all work together OK - apparently one special thing with this design is it doesn't care so much about tube matching.

Of the six 5687s I ordered, I got all 6 JAN5687WB - they're all in matching boxes, and all have the same markings (phillips ecg)

I got PCB mount ceramic tube holders there, too.

Overall, I'm impressed... but if others are interested, I'd recommend combining shipping if more than one person in a city is wanting to use them, as postage was almost as much as the tubes.... (US$30-ish)
:-)

Also, cause there was a delay with my order (misplaced pick list??) I got a free metal keychain shaped like a tube, and I got a polishing cloth. ....woo!

I'm still waiting for PCBs and transformers (went all edcor, including the PSU)
but need to look at getting the other parts ordered soon.

How's everyone else going?

I will probably order the bulk of the kit soon (next payday, I think) so I'm ready to go when the PCBs and transformers show up.

I'm still umming and aahing about the rotary switches, and thinking I might play with trying to match some dual pots to start with, and see how that works...
:-)