Semi OT: Some DON`T like it hot...

[skipclone 1]

Hey worthies

I have been doing some fooling around with my restored ART unit-MAN it is fun. Last night I thought I would decide on some sounds for rhythm parts I`ll be recording in a couple of weeks-forget it. 475 presets-I couldn`t even get through two banks of presets, one of which I mostly know already. I ended up eating dinner at 11 p.m.-if anything there`s TOO much, a user review mentioned the same thing. So on that subject, I was looking through user reviews-this is a unit that is no longer made and it has been around long enough that I thought I might get some useful comments. Well one sure got my attention-apparently one of the big reasons this unit was discontinued, is a basic design miscalculation i.e., what happens when you have hot preamp tubes too close to a PCB. The eventual result, a cracked board. That is particularly bad with this unit, since it doesn`t have an on/off switch. Okay okay I`m getting to the point-two years ago at the Tokyo Music Fair, I spoke to a guy who had a kind of foam sleeve that is meant to fit around pre/poweramp tubes. The idea is to help dissapate the heat. I could really use something like that but I don`t think the ones I saw are on the market currently. Does anyone know of something similar?

[Caevan O’Shite]

That might help manage the internal temperature of the tubes, but I don't think it would change the amount of heat being radiated towards the PCB very much.

 

A small cooling fan and screened/filtered vents would cool the tubes AND the PCB. Not as conveniently simple as slipping something over the tubes, but perhaps more effective.

 

Myles might have some good ideas- or I may be wrong- you might want to post on the "FftaM"-thread.

[skipclone 1]

That`s probably a good idea-a cooling fan would be limited by the need for a rack case but better than nothing.

[BillWelcome Home Studios]

If you really like this design, get a lace board and do a PTP wiring job on it.

 

The direct contact of the physical connection between the tube socket and the boards will probably pull more heat into the board than you can wick off with a tube based heat sink (there have been many versions, but a foam sleeve?) And how with the amp sound with the tube running cool instead of hot?

 

Point being, if the design works for you then you should correct the mistake rather than jerry-rig what you hope will be a solution, but maybe not, but, well, I think, errr..... (as the smoke pours from the front panel....)

 

If you don't want to rebuild the chassis and rewire the board (which should not be hard, by the way....) then you might consider a modification separating the tube from the tube socket.... remote the tube, buy a tube socket and a male tube plug, run heavy cable from the remote tube location to the current location via an extender 'snake'. But be careful, as tubes use high voltages. And you never know what affect changing the layout is going to have on the sound.

 

[skipclone 1]

Should not be hard-you mean compared to like, disarming a bomb right?

Well if there was a way to build another board that I could just pop in-oh crap, doesn`t work-pop it back out no harm to the original-that might be an interesting project. But as mentioned they are not made anymore. If I make a mess, game over. It`s the sound I like, if I screw it up I sure can`t take it to a gig and say "look at that cool design folks. Well that`s our show, thanks for coming..."

I think it`s at least theoretically possible to bypass the preamp section altogether and just take the tube out. Not sure what that would do to the sound.