This is my finished Hi-Octane guitar amp. It is built on the design found at AX84.com and follows Ramiro Silva's build specs almost to the letter. It was a fun and educational project, and the finished product totally, absolutely, utterly rocks out.
		From the front. Across the top, left to right: V1 - Sovtek 12AX7, V2 - Sovtek 12AX7, V3 - Sovtek EL84, Hammond 125E output transformer, Hammond 269EX power transformer. I figured I would get the thing running before I went ballistic on tube selection. On the front, l to r, Input, Gain 1, Gain 2, Bass, Mid, Treble, Volume, Pilot Lamp. Since its going in a combo, inverted, the controls will be backwards, so I suppose i should label them. The slick pointer knobs are from Mouser. They had pointier ones, but they were too long.	The back, left to right: mains input, extra hole drilled by mistake, 1 amp fuse,on/off switch, standby switch (remember, it's gonna be upside down), speaker out, impedance selector. It's driving a Celestion G12H-80 Special from Avatar Speakers, so it will probably always be at the middle 8 ohm setting, which is good, because I can't remember which setting is 4 ohms and which is 16 ohms. The paint, by the way, is the terribly attractive Rust-oleum Hammered Metal finish in grey. Suave!
		The guts. So here's the thing. Most of the circuitry is mounted on that board (from Hoffman Amps. I drilled it out using Ramiro Silva's template, then stuck the turrets in the wrong side of the board, so the design is a mirror image of what it should be. To simplify the wiring, I outlined the circuit on the back with a Sharpie, mounted it inverted and wired to the back of the turrets. It works, but you don't get to see all my cool capacitors, resistors and diodes, or my ugly, ugly soldering.	Tube sockets (and transformers, and chassis) from Angela Instruments. The sockets were super tight on delivery (as the website advises) but are now pleasantly firm. MMMMM, pleasantly firm. My first attempt at socket wiring was a nightmare. Teflon insulated wire from Apex Jr. made a huge, huge difference, especially with the heater wiring (black/green twisted pair).
		The output section. The output lines from the transformer are braided, not for any particular reason. It took a long time for me to figure out how the switch worked, but now it does what it is supposed to do	The power section wiring. When I first started it up I was blowing fuses one after another. A crappy fuse holder appears to have been the culprit. The new one is dandy. Everything powers up. Some of my voltages are a little high, but "within spec" as they say.

That's it! It worked out pretty well, I learned a ton, and found out that the people in this community - enthusiasts, vendors, you name it - are really, really supportive and helpful. The Hi-Octane is going in a combo that will ultimately be tolexed orange, I will have photos and sound clips when its done, sometime in about 2035.
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