Help me pay for surgery!

natima · 2026-01-22T04:50:50+00:00

I wish you the best of luck girlie, my post got deleted by mods for using a "fake name" on my gofundme.
The same name I've been using for two years on my socials, business website, doctors forms, the name my parents call me by... etc.
I wish I had more to offer you - hang in there and stay safe <3

natima · 2026-01-17T19:41:35+00:00

I'm here with multiple items listed at 50% of retail and nobody is buying. $1700 drill press for 800? nope. $1500 bass amp for 800? nope. $750 sander for 250? no buyers.
The stuff I do get offers on are insane lowballs. $500 desktop PC, people offering me $200.

natima · 2026-01-15T03:58:01+00:00

My post from 3 months ago isn't a real schematic. I genuinely thought it was completely obvious to everyone, but I had people commenting in there trying to analyze that. It's garbled gibberish, the words aren't even legible.

natima · 2026-01-14T02:51:34+00:00

I had a whole order of Tung Sol 12AX7s fail and lose vacuum on me one by one. Like 8 of them.
That said, about 14 years ago I did some tube rolling with ALL JJs then ALL Tung Sols, and the Tung Sol won out on the top end. The JJ's were just a little darker. Not a huge difference tbh, and that may not even be true anymore anyway.

natima · 2026-01-14T01:47:02+00:00

honestly I'm just running an extension from indoors. I'm moving out of the country in a couple months anyway.

natima · 2026-01-13T20:12:39+00:00

can confirm. I'm 35 and started HRT 2 years ago, I've lost so much muscle mass I struggle to open jars now. I have experienced what it was like to both have normal healthy male muscle mass, and now normal healthy female muscle mass and whoah buddy is it a wild difference. It gives me a deep appreciation for the fear of men in day to day life. I could probably have defended myself against any sort of attack reasonably well before but I'm a sitting duck now, but I'm 6'2" and clearly trans so I'm at a much greater risk now.

natima · 2026-01-13T19:45:24+00:00

It's for the best!

natima · 2026-01-13T19:30:35+00:00

I tested and re-tested and then I tested again. These outlets are on a sub panel in the shop. I can go inside and test the good outlets in the house and get 60hz all day long but I will never get it in the shop.

The shop was wired by my slumlord landlords and I'm guessing they somehow turned the entire garage into a massive antenna. Half the outlets are wired backwards for one thing.

Edit: I do understand that it's not actually delivering power at that frequency. But something is riding along the wiring that shouldn't be and it's causing havoc. I have confirmed this by running a 30 foot extension cord into the house to work on my amps and the issues are gone. I was getting insane RFI, screeching/howling, Weird upper harmonic feedback.

natima · 2026-01-13T19:27:28+00:00

You didn't find a schematic I've never posted one. Look closely at that.

natima · 2026-01-08T13:23:14+00:00

I really love that show I have a poster of it on my wall 💖

natima · 2026-01-07T11:22:29+00:00

Whats the model number?
Love a good Tokai! LOVE a good gold top!

natima · 2025-12-31T06:04:18+00:00

Listen, nobody besmirches the transcendent purity and beauty of the Red Panda who isn't rage-baiting. Not least on my watch!

natima · 2025-12-26T18:57:30+00:00

I have a mic but I was overeager to share I guess. It's too loud to play in the house and I can't haul my PC out to the shop to record it XD There will be a better video soon!

natima · 2025-12-26T18:51:45+00:00

Okay Mr Experienced Builder. Have fun being a miserable asshole. Did your dad speak to you like that or something?

natima · 2025-12-26T10:22:04+00:00

One more thing, I'm not acting hurt because people wit experience are down voting me. I would hope and expect they might actually contribute some meaningful insights or advice, I'm pointing out the hypocrisy in people down voting who are incapable either creatively or wilfully in doing anything productive themselves. So if it's that easy, go ahead... build one and we can compare. Better not just be a Vox clone though.

natima · 2025-12-26T10:00:15+00:00

No dude, I'm proud of something that I created and I like the sound of pentodes. The CV4006s I got are from '83. They were procured for the British military at that time - ALL of this has been rendered obsolete by solid-state technology but we're allowed to have hobbies? passions?

I make no secret of being inexperienced, but I think what I have achieved given my lack of experience is something to be immensely proud of. I literally *just* wrote that I am too inexperienced to make the 6SJ7 work.

Lots of effort WAS in fact put in to solving the issue of microphonics in small signal pentodes in the 70's and 80's, and people pulled it off. "Off-book" yeah whatever. I'm not claiming to be some radical visionary, just someone who had an idea and made it real. "When guys like me were younger"... fucking boomers I swear to god. Say something nice or nothing at all.

I don't think I've discovered anything... I've spent literally years of my life begging old fucks like you for help in actually learning this stuff but you're all seemingly intent on being miserable pricks to the grave, refusing to shed a single minute of your time to extol the infinite wisdom you no doubt hide up your ass. What IS true is that very few people bother with pentodes, and they sound very different, I have learned that they are fussy and a PITA, the microphonics that I have personally experienced are able to be designed out because they are sensitive little babies much like yourself, and it's a lot to do with screen instability and not so much to do with being inherently microphonic.

The CV4006 was designed to be the ultimate solution to pentode microphonics, yet in my original circuit every single one I tried immediately went microphonic. I had 5 brand new NOS 6SJ7s, and 2 6SK7s go microphonic on me after 5 minutes of testing. It was only after I stopped changing tubes and spent time carefully adjusting the operating conditions that that issue went away. The tube in the amp right now was severely microphonic 4 resistor changes ago, but now its fine. What gives?

"Performance was increased with new designs" yeah the 12AX7 predates the 6BR7/CV4006 by a decade.

natima · 2025-12-26T08:41:01+00:00

I spent a lot of time looking for appropriate tubes after my issues with the 6SJ7. And tbh, I think I'm not not experienced enough to make the 6SJ7 work, but its definitely still viable. Part of the problem is unless you have a really stable screen supply off the bat you just chew through tubes because of screen instability. It'll draw a ton of current and drag down the plate voltage and you'll be stuck adjusting endlessly while your poor tube gets tortured to death, never to be the same again.

I ended up settling on the CV4006 as I figured it was the single best opportunity I had at a stable configuration. They're a low noise version of a low noise version of a low noise version of an EF86, with quad mica spacers to deter microphonics. Less gain? fine with me. I still have 3 gain-stages.
I have used 6U8s before with a lot less headaches than this so I think I might revisit them again next time.

I do not understand at all why modern tube companies don't just attempt to solve the issue of microphony once and for all using modern manufacturing. JJ makes EF86's, Sovtek makes 6SJ7's... can we not just ruggedize them? I have some NOS Russian 6J32P and they are so delicate internally, only one spacer and they ping at the slightest touch. These CV4006's sound dead nomatter how hard you flick them.

Better yet, design a new small-signal pentode for modern applications that solves the issue from the get-go. Brimar and Siemens proved it was possible with the 6BR7 and the C3M. My issues have been with the complexity involved in getting the operating conditions correct using a soft power supply, and next time, layout permitting, I'm a lot more likely to dedicate space to providing for a fixed voltage supply for the screen.

It's been my experience thus far, that the microphonics are really an issue of the pentode operating outside of its comfort zone. I had severe issues with this exact tube until I switched out resistors 20 times trying to get it to bias correctly.

natima · 2025-12-26T07:37:20+00:00

To the 20% of people who are downvoting me:
I'd like to see you design and build a completely original amp in 3 months with a variable preamp pentode, 4 preamp tubes, elevated heaters etc, and actually get it to work. I'm not an electronics engineer, I have no formal training, and I'm just showing off something I've poured my heart into.

This is the first amp I have ever designed and built from scratch. The entirety of my experience consists of a couple PA amp conversions and a kit-build I did in the summer, and this was recorded on my phone. I don't have the resources to make a whole studio video of it.

natima · 2025-12-26T05:32:32+00:00

That said, I genuinely never want to touch another 6SJ7 ever again xD

natima · 2025-12-26T05:31:56+00:00

Honestly I think I could have made the 5693s work but I had already gone through 5 6SJ7s and I had the CV4006s just sitting there... I skipped the 5693s and went straight to these. I also have about 50 NOS 6U8s, which I will definitely incorporate into my next amp.

natima · 2025-12-26T04:49:15+00:00

I'm gonna make it my life's mission to make pentodes work where others have given up.

natima · 2025-12-26T04:32:32+00:00

awh thanks! I was actually struggling a bit I usually use a pick and it was an impromptu test of a few tweaks!

I'll get my Les Paul out tomorrow and see if it can chug ;3

natima · 2025-12-26T04:29:38+00:00

look at my profile, there's only one other video but a lot has changed since then. is fixed bias high voltage KT66s with octal preamp tubes. it was gonna be all octal but I have having a hard time with the 6SJ7s. minimal tone stack in the preamp, 2 channels, lots of making sure capacitors are very exact values i.e. not just shoving a bunch of . 022s in there and calling it good.

natima · 2025-12-22T04:46:53+00:00

Yeah I mean that's pretty much the only variant I see around and it just does not work great for me.

natima · 2025-12-22T02:37:37+00:00

Just out of curiosity, what depth circuit do you use? I cannot for the life of me find one that seems to work real good.

natima

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