RockHead II is my inside joke relating to my very first effort in a legal limit amp. I built the original RockHead amplifier in a wooden box and made a critical mistake in some late night wiring. During initial smoke test, I found out what happens when you Cross AC and DC connections at considerable amperage. ONCE I put the fire out (wood burns), I found my error and corrected it, which yielded a very nice amplifier that would loaf at legal limit. Instead of naming it after some Greek God or Mythical creature, I named it after the namesake of it's designer; ME!
So, RockHead II gets it's name from a "hopefully never repeated lineage" that is designed to replicate if not better commercial amplifiers while reducing cost to 50 percent or more. My design criteria was 4000v on the plate, a pair of 3-500 tubes in the tank and component board control within all systems.
So, I started by ordering an ameritron AL-82 transformer and tank coils. Total spent was $492.0 and one of Ian's Triode Control Boards (I have used them before) for just over $100. 3 5'x5" 1ma fs meters were purchased off ebay for $48 bucks. Junk box contained all the rest of the components except the outer cases. I found two matching if not HUGE 19inch rack cabinets that were about 10.45" tall. One has a latched top which I will build the deck in, the other will be used for the power supply.
I designed several of my own boards for control purposes, but elected to go with WD7S HV-2 kit for the power supply. I have used several of Paul's kits before and they are very well designed. I also picked up one more kit, his TU-6 tuned input board.
So construction begins using some OLD, full of holes aluminum chassis panels. My intent is build an amplifier, with 1800 - 2000 watts out, fully protected with last forever components for under $1200 bucks.
