FS: 12AU7 and 6080 tubes available. BH Crack 1.1 + SB + Upgrades $480

@shotgunshane Please archive thread. Tubes are listed on HF now.

AMP SOLD. Tubes still available, small drop on tube pricing to clear these out.

Tungsol 6080, RFT 12AU7, Tungsram 12AU7. $60 friends and contributors, $80 otherwise for all 3. Not interested in individual tube sales.

See below for other details on tubes.
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Selling my upgraded BH Crack 1.1 with SB (speedball upgrade). $480 friends and contributors. $530 otherwise. Price includes shipping via Fedex Ground with insurance and PP fees. Can upgrade shipping if wanted (PM me for costs). If my pricing is way off, please see next post.

Built this for fun and also because I wanted an "interactive refresher" in electronics lab, basic/practical electronics, and EE theory. Now selling as Stellaris is coming in very soon and I need the space. Will come with Stock RCA 6080 (1935 production) and a modern production TungSol 12AU7W tubes. Have about 200-300 hours on this amp (less on tubes as I tried different tubes). See BH Crack thread here on SBAF for my thoughts, upgrade notes, etc. Note that the background hum mentioned in the thread has since gone away although I am still not 100% sure why.

The following tubes are also available as add on purchases for tube rolling or as a bundle if purchased separately. Not interested in individual tube sales w/o amp.
+$65 for friends and contributors, +$90 otherwise for all 3 if purchased with amp. If purchasing all tubes separately without amp, add $10 to mentioned price above. Prices below for individual purchase with amp.
Tungsol 6080 (Westinghouse box, Stromberg Carlson marked tube) - +$30/35 - NOTE that this tube will "crinkle" a little bit when warming up but will be OK once it's warm (~5-10 minutes)
RFT (German) 12AU7 - NOS tube - +$25/30
Tungsram (Hungarian) 12AU7 - NOS tube - +$28/33

I can also include some of the left over spare parts (ex wires) and vintage Russian caps that I purchased for free if wanted. Note these caps are most likely bad (ESR values are too high, but I have verified they will hold a charge and can be properly discharged with a resistor).

Upgrades and mods:
Output Caps: Matched 100uf Jantzen Cross-Caps(film caps)
Volume: Blue Alps Velvet Potentiometer (100k, Stereo)
Choke: Added C-7X choke (replaces last R in CRCRC power input)
Bypass caps (power): Added 2.2uF Wima Film Cap as bypass cap on last capacitor on power input - input is now CRCLC(C), with the last 2 C being in parallel (this kills background noise/hum that almost everyone reports in the stock BH Crack).

Bypass caps were omitted on the output caps as I found they muddied up the sound a little bit. YMMV.

Construction notes:
- This amp worked properly the first time I turned it on and subsequent mods were done 1 by 1.
- Transformer bell/cover has been polished smooth and coated with 2 layers of arcrylic clear coat. This can be removed and painted over if you choose to do so. The edges have also been polished smooth.
- Wood was sanded, treated with Tung oil (then dry), buffed with 0000 Steel wool, then treated and buffed again. Wood will still take whatever finish you may choose to apply.
- Edges of top metal plate were lightly polished to remove burrs/roughness and prevent cuts/scratches when handling. Holes where parts were fitted were also briefly polished smooth (this probably serves no practical function, but removed a bit of stray metal dust).
- Standoffs for choke are epoxied onto the metal frame - this allows frame of choke to be common grounded without need for more metal work.
- Electrical tape added to a few spots for user safety (spots of bare wire). Tape is NOT there due to shoddy work/damage/to prevent a short.
- You will notice in pictures that parts make no or very minimal physical contact with each other. Any parts that may potentially make contact with wire - wire was coated with additional electrical tape at such points. This all reduces background noise.
- Nylon (non-conductive) spacers were used to keep the caps away from the frame and wires (as this could transmit heat/noise). These are mostly or all held on with hot glue (from a hot glue gun as they aren't load bearing). A cotton swab with rubbing alcohol can be used to remove these if you don't like them.
- Stalk of potentiometer has been trimmed to fit stock volume knob.

Other notes:
- Non smoking/pet/child environment.

Trades:
No trades aside from RCA black plate 2A3 matched pairs (doesn't need to be single plate, open to some other 2A3 as well), EML Mesh 5U4G, or POSSIBLY HD800 or HD800s (PM regarding asking price, modded or not, condition/status, etc.). Trades can be balanced with cash, etc.

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Will ship to AK + HI for +$35. Will ship to Canada for +$45 including duties and customs (i.e. you won't get a separate bill for duties/customs). If buying tubes, add $1 per tube for additional insurance per tube shipping to AK, HI, or Canada. No shipping to NT, NU, YT.

Will also ship to some other countries via freight forwarder or Fedex/DHL - PM for details.
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@shotgunshane I can't edit title of my LP for sale thread, but if this needs to be merged, could you please merge and merge titles? Also could you please add "+ extra tubes available" to the end of this title. Thanks in advance.

Also, to friends and contributors, this may sound silly to some, but if I'm way off on pricing, please PM me. Most pricing I could find for 2019 listings were for unmodified BH Cracks. Saw 1 modded on for sale more than mine but it also had some cosmetic part upgrades (electrical part upgrades not as specific). Saw 1 lightly modded crack for less but that was w/o SB. I may adjust pricing if needed (or I may just keep this for office use).

Randos and other people/HF visitors please don't PM me trying to buy this for $100.

Edit: I did some more research on pricing and have adjusted accordingly. If it's still slightly high then sorry but at $480 this is already less than parts and I value my time.

 

Just to clarify, no speedball?

 

SB=speedball I think? Could be off, but either way this is an excellent example of abbreviations v. spelling something out

 

Ah soz totally missed that disregard. Wonderful-looking amp GLWS!

 

Definitely has Speedball, can see it on the second to last pic. FWIW this is a decent price considering the stock price + price of parts and tubes, in my opinion.

 

Yes, it has Speedball. Post edited for clarity.