Before I go on with any more of the tutorial, I think I may have gotten ahead of myself.

When I first started building amps about 10 years ago, I just winged it. I'd work up a hand drawn layout (maybe) or use Fender's. I mostly built Tweed Champs & Princetons in the beginning because they are easy to build and sound great.

Now I use CorelDraw to mock up the amp in 2D before I ever touch any tools. I have generated an entire amp using CorelDraw. This allows me to precisely position parts in the chassis and make 1:1 drilling diagrams for the board and the chassis. I even have the footprints of several transformers which I accurately measured and rendered in CorelDraw. This allows me to print these off onto clear overhead projector sheets. I use them to put right on the chassis to mark where the holes go without having to measure.

With some of the more involved/complex amps that I have built, I generated a a full-color wiring diagram. I have come up with my own color code for wiring amps so that I can troubleshoot easily.

Next up: drilling and punching the chassis.

tung