Introduction

[NathS101]

Hi everyone just introducing myself...

Nathan Steele, Hills District, Sydney
Producer/Engineer, Monitor Engineer, FOH Engineer, bit of Live Recording
Running Protools HD2 with Lynx Aurora. Gradually building up my outboard... saving my pennies for a neve console.
Getting into DIY kits from prodigy; 2254, V72s, LA2A, GSSL, GPultecs etc
Been lurking around GS a lot lately and just starting to get into the Turtlerock & AT forums.

nath

[Hybrid88]

Welcome to the forum,

Cool to have another DIY'er around, I'm going to tackle an Mnats 1176 soon, and possibly a Drip Electronics Pultec.

Check them out - the 1176 is a great starter cause it's pretty simple and you can buy a kit with everything but the PCB components from Hairball Audio in the states, the GSSL is another fairly simple project as well so I've heard, good stuff DIY.

Cheers.

[NathS101]

Thanks for the reply!
I'm looking into building the mnats 1176 Rev A and 2x 1176 Rev D after I finish these current kits.
Also on the list are 2x Drip Pultecs and 2x Drip 176s... Strongly considering the 670!
One of my mates has the Redd47, LA2A, 1176 Rev A, 2-1176 Rev D, sontec, GSSL, 2-LA3A and the list keeps growing.
The 2254 is pretty cool patched in after the vintech x73i pres.
Just gotta start earning more than I'm spending...!

[Alistair]

Looks good! I've done of the Rev D Hairballs, and am halfway through a 2nd and a rack of 4 EZ1290 Neve clone pre's. Pretty fun stuff.

LA2A, Pultecs and GSSL are all on my list. I think the LA2A will be first... although I'm still trying to scratch the cash together to get 8 Carnhill trannys for the 1290's... not cheap.

[Hybrid88]

Tell me about it, the recommended Sowters for the Pultec look like they're going to ad up real fast - the gap between cost and level of difficulty between the 1176 and Pultec seem massive, but understandable given their different designs.

Cheaper than just buying the real deal, but it does still get pricy (and addictive so it seems ).

[headman]

Just remember guys that the voltages inside a La2a (and any valve equipment) can kill. Be sure of what you are doing when building/playing around with valve gear.

headman

[Hybrid88]

Agreed. The drip manuals are pretty thorough though so as long as you read and re-read all the info available, and of course take it slowly I reckon most electronics minded people would be ok.

...and hook the mains up wrong and valve gear or not you're still in trouble!

Just remember guys that the voltages inside a La2a (and any valve equipment) can kill. Be sure of what you are doing when building/playing around with valve gear.

headman

[Alistair]

There's also a cool dual LA2A board available here- http://www.prodigy-pro.com/diy/index.php?topic=39570.0

I've been planning on doing that, if nothing else than I don't have a spare 6 spaces for 2x LA2A.
I'm sure the Drip stuff is higher quality, but it's so expensive for a PCB- I guess you're really paying for a good manual and tech support if things go wrong.

I haven't gotten in there and made a Pultec clone, but the ones I've seen look fairly straightforward. I think the reason the 1176 is 'easy' is just because it's so thoroughly documented. You don't even need to be able to read a schem and you can still make it! It's crazy.