glip22":37naku66 said:
Bump for more. Without disrespecting Allan what do the guts look like? Not asking for pics, just an idea. How is the lead dress. Are the OT primarys short? Are the preamp tubes leads short. Are all the grid wires shielded. Things like that. I need to know I am buying a clean build if I decide on it. I am betting it is. My Cornford was built clean. Soldanos are clean.
You wouldn't be disrespecting me but I'm not posting them. Here are my reasons:
1. I am a Masters Qualified Electronics Engineer with 25 years experience.
2. There are 600 examples of amps I've built out there. Rarely do I ever see any of them in here for anything but routine tube service.
3. There are a number of extremely high profile named players that I have built amps for. Some are used on full power for 200 nights a year. Top tier players don't buy amps that break down or are built bad.
4. I'm not a modder, I designed the Triptik from ground up. I have a full understanding of every single minute aspect of the amp and I quite honestly don't have time to explain things you don't understand or don't follow the rules you seem to have set (that are pretty technically invalid for a number of reasons). To inspect an amp based on your rationale is like saying a car is fast because it's red.
5. With all the respect in the world, you don't know what you are looking for inside one of my designs. For example there is zero need to sheild every grid. None at all !!! Sorry if that blows away an amp building constant, but's it's true and I have plenty of proof. In fact too many (and badly placed) screened cables can have a huge detrimental effect. It depends on the circuit and a locale of the run. In some cases you can actually create MORE noise by screening certain cables. Also you may not want all preamp tube leads short. THere isn't a set recipe. Length of wire and exact placement of runs can be used for signal manipulation and also for screening (yup....you can screen wires by using other wires, not just screened cables). This is especially true where one of your goals is to run a gain stage right on the edge of instability. You may also see some other things you feel are wrong by cliche internet college standards. I don't want to have explain everything.
Remember a lot of tutorials you read like to explain things based on the easiest route to a succesful end result, which is not always the best and hardly ever at nothing more than a generic 100 foot view. There are standard ground schemes all over the internet for example that are all based on a higher level of reasonable success. I know when I can break the rules. Actually I'm not breaking any rules, I just understand it at a much deeper and lower level. I guarantee if you looked inside and then played the amp, you would be left confused as to why it had barely any noise floor when it breaks several of the 'hard and fast' rules you have been taught.
I hope this doesn't offend in any way, it's not meant too. Just trust I know what I'm doing
6. When you go to buy a DVD Player / TV / Cell Phone, do you request the thing be opened up so you can inspect it ? Probably not. I wouldn't have got this far if I was a hobbyist building shite amps.
7. While the human eye likes to see straight lines and perfect right angles, electricity has it's own idea of 'neatness'. I tend to follow that. The tonal results are much better.
8. My amps have been inspected and tested for CE certification.
9. It is built very clean, take my word on that.
Now, what should be more important to you is what the thing sounds like, it's noise floor and if it's voicing suits you. It's very very rare a badly built amp (especially a high gain amp) is silent. The Triptik is silent. No hums, no noise. The end result itself answers all your concerns.
If you really want to see a gut shot, there was one in an OD-2 review in Nov 2010 Guitar Player magazine.
Soon..............very soon. 
-SDT
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