Tube Preamplifier Project

Hoffman Amplifiers
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Tube pedal project
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This box is all aluminum construction and it looks to be 1/16" inch thick. It has a black
tube guard that stands up on 1 1/4" hex standoffs. The black tube guard mounts to the
standoffs with two #6 screws. There is also an internal hex standoff that supports the
center section between the two tube holes. It comes with a package of chassis screws
and rubber stick on feet.
Hole sizes
1 = 5/16", 2 = 1/4", 3 = 3/8", 4 = 1", 5 = 1/2"

There is also a 15mm power receptacle hole on the left side that is not visible in the
photo. This would be for a female wall wart plug receptacle.
The small holes next to 1 and 3 is where the anti rotation tabs on Alpha pots go.
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Hoffman Amplifiers
Tube pedal project
Here you can see that I loaded the holes with 5 - pots, 2 - LED's, 2 - 12ax7's and 1 - SPST foot switch.
Box with tubes, pot, knobs, jacks, LED's and Footswitch.

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Click the link above for Tube amp building info, Schematics, Board kit information, Transformer
diagrams, Photo's, Sound clips.
Hoffman Amplifiers
Tube pedal project
Side view - click for larger image
Top View - Click for larger image
Back View - Click for larger image.
Note: I did a bunch of updates to the original pedal #1 on 11/12/2005. The changes are noted below.
Left: I updated this board by adding grounds from the Tube mounting screws to the main ground buss. I used #6 ring terminals and ran two wires to the
ground lug. See <-Socket grounds.
I also updated a couple wire runs that are not shown in this photo. The wire from the center of the volume pot pops up through the board right next to the
tube socket and goes to pin 7. The filter cap wire that goes to pin 6 on valve 2 pops up through the board right next to the tube socket. Both of these new
wire runs can be seen in the photo on the right, they are noted as <-New
Right: The relay was eliminated and the hot switch mod is wired full time now. The noise level was reduced a bunch by doing this.
The 7812 voltage regulator was moved and bolted to the chassis for a heat sink. See 7812
Ground wires were shuffled around and some were removed or condensed. The chassis is tied to the main ground buss through the volume pot. The volume
pot body has a jumper wire soldered to the back of the pot that is connected to the black pot ground buss wire.
This is the original circuit that I installed in my

Tube pedal #1. See the next page for an updated
circuit drawing.
Pedal power supply schematic

7812 voltage regulator
This toroidal power transformer is very small and is used with tube pedals. It steps up 12Vac up to about 240Vac. It has twin
primaries and secondaries. You run the primary in parallel and the secondary in series. You use a 12 VAC/1 amp wall wart to power it.
It's perfect for the project box above. It has PC board solder tabs and there is a small threaded mounting hole in the center on the
back side so you cab bolt it down.
I have the transformer wiring diagram listed on my library page.

Home
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Returning parts
References

Click the link above for Tube amp building info, Schematics, Board kit information, Transformer diagrams, Photo's, Sound clips.
Hoffman Amplifiers
Tube pedal project

Project Notes
Stay tuned, more notes to follow as I think of them.

Here's the updated layout diagram for tube pedal pedal #2.
#1 tip: Space is very tight. You must plan
everything very, very, very carefully.
DC voltages are listed in Purple
I ended up removing the relay from my project.

Reasons: Space is really tight inside this chassis.
Relay coils too close to input jacks produce more
hum. Longer signal wires leading to and from the
relay add hum. The pedal is now dead quiet without
the relay. I don't turn off the hot switch mod
anyway. I would think twice about using the foot
switch to switch any signals. I would use the switch
as power on and off and keep the signals all at the
other end of the chassis.
Keep your power transformer, bridges, voltage
regulators far away from your signal. Note how I
have all the power supply stuff on one side and the
circuit parts on the other side of the tubes.
Mount the 7812 voltage regulator on the chassis
next to the power transformer so that the chassis
acts as a heat sink. The voltage regulator gets very
hot.
Cut your circuit board 3 3/4" wide so that it fits
between the bent over edges of the back cover.
I used 5/8" hex standoffs because the Illinois
22/500v caps are 5/8" tall. Taller or larger filter caps
would not fit under the board. 5/8" standoffs work
perfect for tube height.
I changed the cathode bypass caps from .68's to
1uf's because the .68's would not fit under the lid.
I blocked off the LED hole by the footswitch on my
pedals because they are right where my filter caps
are.
Click on the image for a large high resolution

image.
Back side of the board.
This is tube pedal #2 using the circuit listed above. Note that the circuit board is way smaller than tube
pedal #1 and the components are wired point to point to save space. On the back of the board is
where the filter caps are. 3-22uf/500v filter caps and a 4700uf/16v for the 12volt supply.
Go to this page to hear sound clips of this project. Library Page.

Home
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Click the link above for Tube amp building info, Schematics, Board kit information, Transformer
diagrams, Photo's, Sound clips.

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1 = 5/16", 2 = 1/4", 3 = 3/8", 4 = 1", 5 = 1/2"

Click here to enter my tube amp parts catalog

Board kit manufactures

The Library of information

Page 1 - Page 2 - Page 3 - Page 4

Box with tubes, pot, knobs, jacks, LED's and Footswitch.

Click here to enter my tube amp parts catalog

Board kit manufactures

The Library of information

Page 1 - Page 2 - Page 3 - Page 4

Side view - click for larger image

Top View - Click for larger image

Back View - Click for larger image.

This is the original circuit that I installed in my

Pedal power supply schematic

Click here to enter my tube amp parts catalog

Board kit manufactures

The Library of information

Page 1 - Page 2 - Page 3 - Page 4

Stay tuned, more notes to follow as I think of them.

DC voltages are listed in Purple

I ended up removing the relay from my project.

Click on the image for a large high resolution

Back side of the board.

Click here to enter my tube amp parts catalog

Board kit manufactures

The Library of information

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