The 'Not so Green' Green Mic Pre

Okay...

So it isn't funky as Nino's Pimptone, not nearly as retro as Frank's Pultecs or uber cool like Steffen Neve/1176 box... but since this week must have been worldwide DIY fever week I offer my Green Pre.

I found the time to wire them up after my car broke down and was house bound... All I need now before closing up the box is the Torrid, which is on order but my test trafo showed all is well with these boys.








I needed to get 4 into a 1U rack and couldn't fit in Peter's current boards and didn't need metering so when with V1, 1 channels have WIMA MKS Polys and the other 2 are Epcos. As weird as it sound they make a difference with the WIMA's having a brighter top end and the Epos darker, but both sound great.

Thanks to Frank for the caps, and help with the Front Panel, Peter for the boards, Tiaan for his PCB holder and all my DIY friends for support and inspiration.

Cheers

Matt

It looks fantastic Matt!
I really like white colour on a black panel. It just looks better than the green panel I'd done.

Good work! :thumb:

everyone is finishing gear... except me!
this is depressing for a man with no time to DIY :evil:

Hey Matt,

That looks very professional. It's funny that most of the gear that people are making now doesn't look DIY in the slightest, in fact, it makes some other pro gear even look a little amateur in comparison!

I'm looking to design a rack panel for my preamps which I am slowly getting around to starting. What is the best way to go about making your design? I have that FPD program, but don't have a clue how to use it!

Roddy

.

Nice, matt! Knobs look much better on your gear than in the bag.
Especially the Electrodyne red... way cool.

Roddy, agree... it's getting a little intimidating to post pics around here.

Cheers, Paul

I really like white colour on a black panel. It just looks better than the green panel I'd done.

Click to expand...

Black is the new green??? :razz:

It's funny that most of the gear that people are making now doesn't look DIY in the slightest,

Click to expand...

For me, the breakthrough is getting the metalwork & face done professionally.

Peter

[quote author="peterc"]For me, the breakthrough is getting the metalwork & face done professionally.[/quote]
Same here. And great job Matt! :thumb:

Hey Guys,

Thanks all for the kind words!

Roddy, at first I found the FPD overwhelming, but after playing with some of Frank's free panels on his site I got the hang of it, and I think I'm getting better.

I decided to start making the gear look a little less 'homegrown', at the end of the day the sound matters most, but if I have to look at these things day in and out I thought I'd spend the extra money to get a nice panel. I'm stilling drilling at the XLR's and back panels... but I'm contemplating having those done by a laser cutter :green:

Paul, yeah thanks again for the knobs! The Red ones look grand on the Spectratone, which is almost about ready to have it's lid closed after I reworked the grounding scheme.

Pete all I can say is take your transformers and shove them up your... Hah hah (Sorry, inside joke, but Pete KNOWS ALL about it!)

Cheers

Matt

Hey Matt

Very nice looking preamps. :thumb:

chrissugar

GREAT WORK BUDDY !
These is the most elegant looking green pre i've ever seen !

Congratulations !!!!!!!!
:guinness: :guinness: :guinness: :guinness: :guinness: :guinness: :guinness: :guinness: :guinness: :guinness: :thumb:

Roddy, at first I found the FPD overwhelming, but after playing with some of Frank's free panels on his site I got the hang of it, and I think I'm getting better.

Click to expand...

Same here. I´m tinkering with Frank´s panels and try to come to goodlooking results.
Thanks to Frank :guinness:

btw, very nice green version!
:thumb:

nice clean work in 1RU ! :thumb: The front panel rocks, as I'll bet the pre's will.
good job!

-Jay

Forgot to praise your project Matta...
:thumb:

Thanks Guys,

Radiance, no need to praise it! I didn't post the pics for praise, more inspiration. I LOVE looking at other members projects, it inspires me to complete my projects (too many to mention). I am just trying to do the same for others. And since there has been ALOT of inspiration this week I thought I would join in... Nino started this all :green:

Cheers

Matt

[quote author="matta"]...I didn't post the pics for praise, more inspiration...[/quote]
Yes, Matt has the spirit! :thumb:

Very inspirational, indeed!

Cool layout, nice work. :thumb: They don't look like v14 PCB's though....?

Nice one Matt

My boards - V14 look slightly different down the bootm and where the trimmer is..

From your piccies - which ones are the 63v caps - the two at the top with the polys next to them - with the 3 pole next to them
And how many are there - 3 or 4?

Hi Guys,

These are the ORIGINAL V1 boards, or MKI. Peter later revised this to what he sells now, the V14.

The difference is that V1 doesn't have metering, on board switches and a LOW CUT Filter.

The Audio Path is the same in both REV's, and that is all I was looking for. V1 still has +48V and I've wired in a PHASE switch, there is a switch for a PAD, but I'm not going to wire it in.

I didn't need the metering, and on board switches are more expensive here so I save quite a bit of money just building it the way I did, even if the wiring took a little longer.

There are 4 channels in total, 2 per PCB board, 4 in total.

The 63V caps are the ones closest to the XLR's.

Cheers

Matt

[quote author="matta"]

The 63V caps are the ones closest to the XLR's.

Cheers

Matt[/quote]
cheers matt
sorry to be a pain

2 or 3? or 4?

Sorry UK,

I'm not sure I understand the question? Are you asking how many 63V caps there are on the board? If so there a 2 required per channel, both the lytics for the phantom on input.

Hope that helps.

Matt