How To Easily Build Authentic Re-creations Of LA2A PULTEC...

That's a good question John!

During all my projects not only I, but also others who contributed to the projects did extensive tests and measurements comparing original transformers against possible alternatives - the same goes for the Pultec inductors.
For the transformers in particular we tested lots of modern substitutes but als other vintage iron with the same or similar specs.
The prices for original Pultec or LA2A iron has been skyrocketing lately, but there are great options out there - and it will also be part of that knowledgebase and platform to point out the available options and how they sound etc.

It's incredible how much information we could gather over the past years, but there's no place where this information is easily accessible. I mean there's tons of information over on groupDIY, but it's very hard to see the wood for the trees!
There's literally thousands of threads - some of them close 500 pages long.

With this project I'd like to focus on rather few legendary pieces of gear - and for those - gather all relevant information in one place, you know what I mean?

Thanks for the kind words curlygates!! I really appreciate it!

It's been a long road already, but the learning experience has been amazing! That's also what I love about DIY - it's not only you end up with amazing gear, but you also learn so much about how these things work and what they do to the music!!

But that's also why I want to create a place - to make it easier for everyone - at least for these certain projects for now.

But the above posted questions remains - how would you want this place to be?

Even if you think of yourself like "I know nothing about electronics, so that's definitely not for me!"
I'll tell you a secret - 5 or 6 years ago I also knew nothing about electronics - SERIOUSLY!  

I vote for a central location for all the info concerning these current and soon to be released offerings and then we can hope he will bring some more iconic pieces on line as well.

Also i will add
I was basically a newbie and still am in some ways i guess, with just a chorus pedal build a few capi preamps (which i love by the way) before building an La2a, a pair of Pultec Eqp1's and Meq's eq's and several tube mic psu's with his case and info offerings and the additional help and knowledge from several other different sources.

I won't lie and say i had no experience before, because i had taken a beginner ac/dc course many years ago and knew what a resistor kinda did. Kinda got capacitors but not really. Learned ohms law but never really applied it to a working situation. However as i began on the journey with building this stuff most point to point some of that old stuff began to make a little more sense seeing it in a working situation.

With some anxiety and nervousness I decided i had to try to build some of this stuff and so I ordered some chassis and was also able to source alot of the original parts and transformers with the knowledge that martin seems to be hoping to centralize. Over a period of time and effort I was able to successfully complete these with the help of this info.

I learned so much just seeing how these things work thru working thru everything to get to a working unit. It is amazing really.

These are not for the faint of heart because they do have lethal voltages and one should be cautious and perhaps build a simpler low voltage project or two to get the basics for measuring voltages and such but it can be done with a few basics and some applied safety practices. So by all means be safe and smart and always ask if you are not sure.

Lastly i will say i don't know Martin personally as i am in the states and i am not one to heap praise on anyone really in fact i rarely post anything at all as you can tell, but from my dealings with him he really seems to strive for perfection and ask very little in return for all the effort he has to have put out to get these projects to where they are. And he does seem to genuinly just want to help others to experince these iconic pieces the very best and anyway they can. There are many other great people who contribute greatly like this, who i am very thankful for as well and alot of them on this forum but these are just my experiences with Moatl in regards to what he is trying to do. Very much appreciated Scot

I thought about that too.. However, thinking about the LA-2 build I did a couple of years ago, nothing in the actual build was particularly difficult, except attaching the logo on the faceplate, that was the trickiest by far, but that wasn't Martin's LA-2 case but one from an italian guy on GDIY. The hardest part for me, as a relative DIY noob, was getting the overall picture of the project and get all parts right, all without a real guide or build manual. Christian Whitmore helped me a LOT.

Well, I spent many years as an audio service tech so yeah, I know what you mean.

One thing that most inexperienced people don't grasp is the importance of physical layout, which can definitely verge on, if not "rocket science", then voodoo..

A couple of things I'd like to see that are not common are a DIY of the ADR Compex limiter/compressor/expander (which would be a pretty advanced project) and the Spectra-Sonics 610 compressor (of which I happen to own an original and would like another.)

Exactly!

I went through all this many times, but I figured it actually doesn't have to be this way.



Again, good build instructions would solve this problem for the most part. Also in regards to what john wrote - physical layout can be crucial!

That was especially difficult when building my UA176 from scratch as there was pretty much no information available apart from the schematics and a few pics I found on the web...
but it came out great:



I'm working on graphic layouts of my projects that show the exact wiring layout + explanations why they have to be this way...


Thanks for you feedback so far guys, I'll try to take it into consideration
Keep it coming...

Honestly I can't tell at this point. What I did, was building a prototype which is extremely expensive. The chassis work is custom made, the pcbs are handmade,
turret boards handmade etc...
I spent A LOT of time doing research on how this thing was designed and building the prototype but also finding errors. I have the service manual and schematics,
but there were at least half a dozen errors in the original schematics as well as in the layout of the original pcbs - some of them were rather hard to find

If you build an LA2A or Pultec there's quite some info across the web by now, but in case of the 176 there was no one I could ask really. 

But now that I've been there, I learned so much about this amazing piece of gear and managed to build a flawlessly working unit, I think I can give enough input to 
make it a rather smooth ride for those who follow  

But long story short - even though this is not the cheapest build it was probably my most rewarding - I love this comp! And compared to the asking prices for vintage 176s nowadays (last one I saw went for over $ 8.500 USD!!) it's an absolut no-brainer!

Well - maybe yes, at some point in the future.

The thing is - it's a huge undertaking to build this knowledge base - and also in such way it's as easy to understand and as I'm picturing it to be. But offering all my projects as full kits is on a completely different page in terms of time, expenses etc...

As I explained - my first stage of this project is supposed to offer a way to find and share this project related information in a way unseen before anywhere on the web.
First of all that means to share crucial information on how the pieces of gear work, what they do (to the sound), how to build them, what you need - and last but not least where to get the parts.

I'm not sure how far I'll get with my initial launch, but optimistically it will make it almost as easy as 100% kits with the help of interactive shopping carts links, extensive build manuals, videos, tutorials, etc.
It's not that you'll have to look for all the stuff yourself - all across the web. The platform will do that for you.

If all this is set and working - I might think about finding a way to offer full kits. But I'll suggest you really stay tuned, because I think it's worth it - even if there's no full kits available yet.

Because I have an idea now, how I could start this. My plan is to make a video + guide to look at the whole first and from there make more videos and guides to take those by the hand who want to follow me and lead them more and more towards the details.
So by the time you actually want to decide wether you can pull it off you've learned so much about this particular piece of gear, how it's supposed to sound and where you get the parts, etc... it'll most likely be easier to build than some full kits out there

Thanks for the input!  I might indeed consider implementing public Git repositories if I can manage to do it in a way it doesn't take away from the intuitive user interface I have in mind.
Very good input m03  


In the meantime I made some progress - maybe I can come up with some initial content soon!        

After I put my email in, and click the 'Get Me Started' link, it freezes and I don't get an email from you.

Edit: S'ok, I turned off my ad blocker and it worked.

Look-wise, you are by far the best site in "affordable DIY-type of gear". Way better than Hairball, Stam, or Microphone-parts. The PDF looks really nice too. Te name of the website is sexy too. I found the content of the PDF a little bit too long, and it seemed to me sometimes out of context (room treatment, mic placement, etc...) when the target is showing and selling how to build gear. Not that your statement are not valid, they are very important, actually, but are not the information people will be awaiting at first hand.
So far, very good start, I'll be following this with great interest !