Doubly strange. I seem to recall seeing ultrasonic record cleaners marketed back in the '80s in these specialty/import electronics catalogs like the ones from DAK Industries that were catalog-based discount electronics importers and direct-sale catalog distributors (the internet killed DAK in '92...but since then has been reborn as DAK 2000).

DAK Industries also won a significant precedent-setting court case against Microsoft over licensing/copyright fee payments owed for the time between bankruptcy filing and when final settlements and rulings are complete.

IANAL, etc. Bankruptcy law says that debts incurred after filing for bankruptcy go to the head of the line of creditors waiting for payment. Microsoft wanted to interpret it's licensing agreement for Word to mean that DAK was incurring new debt after the filing, and so should be among the first paid.

The court disagreed. Microsoft had to stand in line and compete with all the other creditors. It's ongoing software license did not count as incurring new debt and thus did not qualify them to be among the first-priority creditors for purposes of bankruptcy settlement.

Strat

Marshall amps became famous in the '60s when *everything* used tubes, at least for consumer electronics, and unless you're from another planet and never read/heard any guitar-god interviews, everyone knows the old Marshalls are the best, just like old guitars. It's become part of the social culture and lexicon. Which. Was. *MY*. Point.

You can stop random people on the street and ask them; "We use integrated circuits and transistors for our electronics today. What did they use instead of transistors and integrated circuits back in the 1950s and 1960s for televisions, radios, and stereos?" A surprising number, even 20-somethings, will answer correctly.

Look, I'm sure there are numerous examples of both types of people, and that we're both right to some extent. I simply think there are more that have some clue due to the rock music culture and the way so much of the minutia surrounding "rock gods", including the instruments and equipment, has become part of popular culture.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to troubleshoot my PC. I think there's a bad vacuum tube in one of my central-processor arrays causing random segfaults, and it's a long walk to the CPU building. :)

Strat

Pish!

Easy to solve for a government drone. Just make it illegal/against regulations to change your irises. No more high error rates or re-testing/registering, and a significant rise in arrest/detention stats!

A win-win for security theater!

Strat

Actually, you're correct as far as the units you mean, and I was wrong to include the home ultrasonic jewelry cleaners.

The factory units I referred to, however, used boiling solvents. Of course, many solvents boil at lower temperatures than water. Some common solvents I saw used, like trichlorotriflouroethane, boil at quite low temperatures (118F, 47.7C for "Trich").

The effect of the ultrasound on the boiling liquid was startling. With the ultrasound transducer(s) switched off, the solvent boiled in the normal, roiling way one is used to seeing. When the ultrasound was switched on, the roiling, boiling solvent appeared to become almost effervescent, like a carbonated water or soda container that's just been opened, only the tiny bubbles were far smaller and finer.

I remember watching the line worker at that station madly filling racks with PCBs coming off the line and loading them into the cleaning tank after pulling out the rack already in there, closing the lid, and then rapidly unloading the rack that just came out into static-suppressive plastic parts tubs with a sheet of non-static foam placed between layers. And doing all that while wearing gloves. And also while keeping counts and making log-sheet entries for every lot/job number.

I remember being amazed at the worker's speed and dexterity at loading/unloading the racks. Definitely no 3-martini, three-beer, or two-joint lunches (hey, it was the '70s) doing that job, I'll bet! It looked like an 8-hour-long dexterity and sobriety test designed by some sadistic doctor.

Strat

There have been units around for years both for home use cleaning jewelry, etc, and for use in various industrial/manufacturing processes, including being used in electronics manufacturing, where I've seen them used to clean PCBs and other electronic assemblies & parts after they undergo a "dirty" manufacturing step like wave-solder, in order to remove all flux, dirt, and oils.

They used a heated tank of solvent that was agitated by ultrasound transducers to greatly increase cleaning ability and decrease cleaning time. The first time I saw one like that was in the late 1970s. I worked in the government/military-related electronics and aerospace industry.

Strat

[bigcontent/media+lawyers}

PULL!!

[/bigcontent/media+lawyers}

Strat

Your contention that government can effectively oversee itself

Um, no. I never said anything about government overseeing itself, I talked about us, the people, overseeing government. So both times I said the below, you thought I was talking about government overseeing itself?

The way your post was worded, yes, it seemed as if you thought that all we needed was just some more "oversight committees" and other government cruft whose only job is to make it appear like there's some sort of control or limits.

As far as we, the people, being the oversight, that's been our job all along from the beginning.

"When people fear their government, there is tyranny. When government fears the people, there is liberty." - Thomas Jefferson

"What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the Spirit of Resistance." - Thomas Jefferson

Unfortunately, over the last number of decades, our educational system has been compromised (many, including myself, believe this is no accident) such that people have become effectively cheated of a proper education, and have become ignorant, fat, and lazy.

They've not been taught the value of freedom, the importance of their duties as citizens, nor how to think critically. US history and the history of the revolution for independence, and the history and background of how the founders came to the conclusions they did and why the Constitution was written the way it was hasn't been taught in any meaningful way in our public schools for a long time.

"Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people." - John Adams

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free...it expects what never was and never will be." - Thomas Jefferson

"Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives." - James Madison

"The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty." - James Madison

Additionally, the moral standards of our society have also been heavily attacked as well over the last number of decades, as God has been all but banished from the public square. Freedom of religion has been perverted to now mean freedom from religion, which was never the intention.

"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." - John Adams

"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports." - George Washington

"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded...on the gospel of Jesus Christ!" - Patrick Henry

I too remember something similar, and I'm also not sure who/where the exact quote came from.

George Washington had something to say along similar lines.

"Government is not reason, it is not eloquenceâ"it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master." - George Washington

Far too many people these days view government as their friend, when nothing could be further from the truth.

Strat

Sorry, just noticed your reply.

Wow, thanks for the kind words!

Unless you plan on gigging in some fairly large venues, a Trainwreck clone may be a bit much power/volume-wise. Those things are *loud*! I know from personal experience. And, they don't really get into their "sweet-spot" until you get some serious volume going. A basement/garage/bedroom amp it is not. I don't even know of a club in my area where I could really play one.

Now, the Phat-Ass is much more bar/club and even home-jammer friendly, depending on which power tubes you stick in it.

The design is a custom design based partially off of a combination of a Matchless Spitfire/Lite-IIb preamp utilizing both triodes of the 12AX7 preamp tube in parallel, rather than the more common cascaded triode gain stages found in most guitar preamp designs, with a custom power supply and custom power amp sections based on the Weber Speakers "Smokin' Joe II" 18 watt EL84-based amplifier and the legendary Marshall 1974 18W amp.

As a matter of fact, the majority of parts for the build can be sourced through Weber.

Here's a rough BOM (Bill Of Materials): https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?hl=en&hl=en&key=0AvaJlN_t-xVwdDR1T05nN2UwcGNDd1EtY1o4MmVSNGc&single=true&gid=0&output=html

Here's a chassis layout: http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h103/stratman_el84/Tech/PhatAss16_layoutfromsjII.jpg

And a schematic: http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h103/stratman_el84/Tech/PhatAss16rev3.jpg

  One of the Weber Kit Builders Forum members, ScottVA, did most of the development and prototyping of this design, with some help and suggestions from me via the Weber forum, I'm quite proud to say.

Most people buy the basics of a Weber "Smokin' Joe II" amplifier kit, with some items of the SJ-II BOM either dropped or substituted as shown in the above PA16/PA26 BOM link. For instance, instead of the stock Chinese electrolytic power supply filter caps, I used much higher quality German F&T brand electrolytic caps, and instead of the stock generic Chinese coupling caps, I substituted them for Mallory 150 series caps.

Weber is extremely flexible in this regard, and will let you substitute or drop/add just about anything in their amp kits. You don't have to buy stuff you don't need or don't want. The big advantage is the savings in getting almost everything needed from one source and with one shipping charge.

You could probably buy 90%-plus of the entire PA16/PA26 BOM for the prices I've seen just for one of the Trainwreck transformer sets from some boutique suppliers. It's ridiculous. The Weber iron works fine, costs a fraction of those "boutique" transformers, and sounds fantastic.

The same Weber iron set also works great for all the common power tube choices for this design...6V6, 6L6, EL34/6CA7, and KT66. Just change the power tube cathode resistor value (or add a switch to change between values) to use a different power tube set.

Whatever you do, please, *PLEASE* learn and observe electrical safety rules and procedures. Even a small tube amp can kill you easily or cripple you for life.

You can start here: http://www.weberorders.com/forum/index.php?topic=944.0

(I'm the first poster)

There's safety info as well as great info on safely powering up your build for the first time.

You might consider joining the Weber Kit Builders Forum. Be patient after you register. It may take several days to finally receive a confirmation email and login. IMHO, the Kit Builders Forum at Weber is overall the most useful tube amp builders forum out there, with the highest signal-to-noise ratio, of any other amp-building forum I'm aware of, and has the nicest and most knowledgeable & experienced amp-builder community on the web. I've never seen any drama or even a snarky comment. Beginners are treated with respect and encouragement, and never made to feel stupid for asking questions about very basic things.

No, because if some private corporation sends jack-booted thugs to my door, they'd better bring plenty of body bags. I have the right and the ability to defend myself from assault by another private entity. My neighbors would also join the turkey-shoot as well, I'm quite certain.

And? This somehow does not apply if those "jack-booted thugs" call themselves "the police"? Oh, because the consequences are different?

It's different because the private jack-booted thugs don't have armies and artillery and an air force and the force of a national government behind it.

I'm sorry, but this isn't medieval times nor a feudal system where Lords and Guilds did what they wished under the authority of a King and/or the church. Even then, they needed the permission of, or at least a blind eye turned, by the ruling powers to do what they did. If a Lord or Guild defied the King (or the church in some cases), their heads would roll.

Which is why the first thing that's done by those desiring more government power or those wishing to corrupt that power is to corrupt, compromise, and/or make effectively powerless those oversight bodies. Usually by appointing themselves and their allies as the overseers.

One need only look at the career path of the majority of those tasked with oversight...private sector job/career, to government position overseeing their field, to again employed in the private sector by those he benefited while in government at outrageously high salaries...usually as a "consultant" that has one or two meeting a year to maintain the fiction.

Your contention that government can effectively oversee itself and prevent itself from abusing it's own power is ludicrous to the extreme.

It's the fox guarding the hen-house writ large.

And finally;

"History also shows that as government grows, liberty decreases." - Thomas Jefferson

"My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government." - Thomas Jefferson

"The essence of government is power, and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse." - James Madison

"That government is best which governs least." - Thomas Paine

"Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people." - John Adams

You'll have to forgive me if I take their opinions over yours. They have a bit more credibility and positive track record when it comes to the subject of freedom and government size, scope, and power.

Strat

I simply answered the question that you asked. Don't ask if you don't want, or are afraid of, an answer.

Again, I simply answered your question. Stop asking questions on a public forum you don't want answered.

For the last time, that has nothing to do with answering the question you asked. I simply suggested you ask someone with first-hand knowledge and experience.

u mad?

Strat