Whereabouts in the UK do you buy your wire from. You know the stuff to use in amps? i'm talking plain buss wire like when you use a long strip to solder to the back of all your amps pots, plus also covered wire.

Seen loads of cool sites on the net but they're all US based. There must be good suppliers in the UK too specialising in this.

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Luck won't do it and ignorance can't

George Van Eps.

Hi Gorgon: matter o' fact, we manufacture a lot of the world's wire here in the UK. I have found that a very handy source is http://www.wires.co.uk . They don't just sell it, they make the stuff - wires.co.uk is their shop window. So you are buying from source.

Interesting side note: in addition to other types of wire this company is a very good place to buy pickup wire, should you ever want to go in that direction:

http://wires.co.uk/acatalog/gpw.html

In addition to the regular stuff, you will notice on that page several "vintage" type winding wires that are very hard to get anywhere else. And at prices that knock Stew-Mac into a cocked hat.

Interesting thing about their pickup wire: they told me they supply a lot of it to the US to their pickup building companies. So people buying "made in America" pickups will like as not find British copper wire at their heart.

And a useful tip: Wires.co.uk sell a lot on Ebay in the UK, and that can be a very convenient and cost effective way of buying their gear in sensibly small quantities - for those of us as don't actually need a ton of wire at a time. Once you've found what you need on their website just do an Ebay search to see if you can get it from them that way.

And any Americans reading this who are interested; I've seen Wires.co.uk's pickup wire for sale on American Ebay too. So that's nice.

Cheers - C

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Thanks Ceri, i knew if anyone could come up with the goods it would be you Thank god we've got people like you on the forum that we can turn to for good info about all this stuff.

Yeah you're right most of us would probably be using small quantities of wire so that's probably the best way to go.

I was on an amp forum recently and one other guy who's from the UK advised buying the stuff from the US! then i thought "come on! it's wire! surely we make that stuff here! surely there's no need to send off to the US for it?"

Thanks mate for all the help

_________________
Luck won't do it and ignorance can't

George Van Eps.

No probs! A pleasure.

Cheers - C

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[quote="Gorgon"]Thanks Ceri, i knew if anyone could come up with the goods it would be you Thank god we've got people like you on the forum that we can turn to for good info about all this stuff.

You da man C

Ceri, that wires Uk site looks excellent, saw plenty of plain wire pre-tinned stuff that'll come in handy. Where on that big list would i look for colored amp cables to differentiate all the different routings? i've been up and down it but can't see what i'm looking for in covered cables. But i'm probably missing it 'cos there are a lot of cables in that menu

_________________
Luck won't do it and ignorance can't

George Van Eps.

Hi again Gorgon: in case it's useful, there's many other sources for electrical wire. Just for example, check out this page:

http://www.autoelectricsupplies.co.uk/category/10

There you get the choice of things like standard PVC wire, HT, thin wall, and braided cable. All in multiple colours and sizes. (Braided might be fun...)

There's numerous other websites; too many to list. Or, though I don't build amps, what I do for guitar innards is just pop down my local Maplin, who have everything you need for electronics, and in conveniently small quantities for the non-professional. By the power of telepathy (and Google) I notice you have no fewer than three branches of Maplin in Glasgow. A handy option.

To the best of my knowledge (which is not great on amp things) I believe you probably need 22 AWG or 23 SWG sized wire, both of which convert to around 0.6 mm. That info might be helpful - I notice different websites use different systems.

...Though I stand to be corrected on the gauge of wire: ask someone who knows better than me. Which our side of the pond would be Forum user AndyBigHair. I'll drop Andy an email and see if he has anything he might like to add to this thread: he knows a heck of a lot more about this stuff than I do!

Cheers - C

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Thanks Ceri, great info for me. I'm just really getting into working on amps, i'm no experienced tech, but am enjoying learning. I can retube and know how to rebias plus i recently did a recap job on the electrolytic filter caps. But as i said, apart from that i'm pretty much a beginner when it get's down to the weightier topics. Still we've all got to start somewhere. It's only when you get into stripping the amp down that you see how easy it is to do most jobs. Some are very complicated though and it's always good to know your limitations. It's strange how things change for us as musicians when i was younger i was never into the tech side of amps or guitars i was only interested in playing 'em! now all this stuff intrigues me!

Thanks Ceri and Merry Christmas to you

_________________
Luck won't do it and ignorance can't

George Van Eps.