Post by Tommy DaleI see.
What I have a problem with understanding, is how you can connect both the
wires for heaters to ground, through a 100 Ohm resistor, and still have
current for the heaters. I would imagine that the current would go to
ground... Or even...why do I have to ground the heaters at all? Will the
heaters heat if I don't ground anything at all, just connect the heaters in
paralell, without any ground?
Tommy
Tommy, what you do, is to run your heater wires (green) from the PT to the
pilot light. On the Fenders, there's 2 separate metal (arms) that the wires
will attach to, one wire for each arm. This is what powers the pilot light,
so that it lights when you turn the power on. From both of those metal arms
on the pilot light fixture, you going to run a twisted pair of wires to your
first power tube, then from that tube to the next power tube, then on down
to the preamp tubes, one after another until you reach the last tube. From
those 2 metal arms on the pilot light fixture, you'll solder a 100 ohm
resistor to each of those arms, where the heater wires from the tranny
connect, and where you added the additional twisted pair to run to the first
power tube.
Once you solder both of those resistors to the pilot light, you can then
solder the other ends of the resistors to a ring terminal, which you can
then attach to one of the PT mounting bolts. I have my 100 ohm resistors
mounted on my board, so I just run the twist pair from the pilot light to
the turrets where I have my 100 ohm resistors (connected to ground), then I
run another twisted pair from those turrets to my first power tube, and then
on down the line from there. The heater wires from the PT will heat the
tubes, even if you don't ground the heater wires, either by using the 2 -
100 ohm resistors, or by using the center tap if the PT has one. BUT, if you
don't either ground the center tap, or, ground the heater wires through the
100 ohm resistors, you're gonna get hummmmmm, not good. I like grounding
the heater wires through the 100 ohm resistors personally, I like the extra
protection that the resistors provide. Those 2 carbon comp 1/2 watt
resistors have already saved my PT once already.
Mikey