Community
Welcome to the Bottlehead Community Page. One of the most important things about a Bottlehead kit is that when you build it you become a member of a community with a support structure second to none in audio. This is the place where we organize all the creative loose bits that community comes up with – talented Bottlehead’s DIY upgrades to kits, construction tips, interesting schematics, photos of completed and modified kits, etc., etc., and so on. Need a tutorial on a the assembly of the kit you just bought? Dying to try out some of the mods you’ve heard about? This is the place to find answers.
New
Signals, Noise and Signal-to-noise Ratio Bottlehead’s head of R&D Paul Joppa on how to get all those different components in your system to work well with your volume knob
A S.E.X.y DIY speaker system to go with your S.E.X. kit!
NEW – a bit more advanced DIY speaker system – the Climax
Need to pack your Bottlehead gear for shipping?
Preamps
Foreplay III (10Mb PDF Archive)
Manual errata
Corrections to Foreplay III manuals through the 1-24-06 revision the 5-16-06 revision and any after that incorporate these corrections
Corrections to first version of Extended Foreplay III Upgrade manual the 6-27-06 revision and any after that incorporate these corrections
Sweetest Whispers Stuff
Sweetest Whispers questions, with answers by designer Paul Joppa
Here’s Ed B’s tips on what to do if you goof up the positioning of the resistors on the Sweetest Whispers switch.
Getting a little bit of bleed through on the mute setting? Here’s some tips
Switch cutting out at certain settings? Try this
Seduction (14Mb PDF Archive)
Wardsweb’s Seduction Construction Page Detailed assembly pics of another superbly crafted Seduction kit, this one by Luther Ward
Seduction tape head preamp mod (11Mb PDF Archive)
Amps
Wardsweb’s S.E.X. amp construction site
planetWav’s S.E.X. amp construction photos
dgb’s S.E.X amp nice custom walnut chassis
push-pull S.E.X? Sure! buy two kits and make some PP monoblocks
Mirror image Paramounts We don’t support this at all, but that doesn’t stop some folks from taking a stab at it. Remember, you’re on your own with this mod – be very careful!
Legacy Products
Paraglow (4Mb PDF Archive)
Paraglow mod to avoid wear and tear on TJ Meshplates
PGP 8.1 power transformer installation notes Here’s info on how to install the bell end cover and also the terminal identification info of our versatile, exclusive MagneQuest PGP 8.1 power transformer
Paramour stuff (9Mb PDF Archive)
Wardsweb’s Paramour construction site An absolutely gorgeous set of Paramours, with super detailed assembly notes and lots of pictures. This is a must see if you are building your own Paramours, and a great look at what you can do to beautify any Bottlehead kit using a little elbow grease and some patience.
Did you just get black Teflon wire in your Paramour kit? Here’s why
Converting the Paramour to use 45 tubes
A Bottlehead expresses his feelings on the tube vs. SS debate
Foreplay 1 and 2 (15Mb PDF Archive)
PRC’s Foreplay page A very creative page showing Randy’s heavily modded Foreplay and other audio projects
hifitom’s Foreplay page Not just one, but three custom Foreplays and links to Foreplays by other talented builders
jsn’s foreplay page An interesting wesbite with lots of non – bottlehead stuff too.
Wardsweb’s customized Foreplay A very cool looking new cabinet
Anticipation Stuff Here’s Voltsecond’s notes on debugging the Anticipation
Sweet Whispers Stuff
Here’s links to the original Sweet Whispers kit mods at Voltsecond’s tremendous site:
+/- 1 dB Trimmer for Sweet Whispers Attenuator
Fixing the popping noise when adjusting the volume with a Sweet Whispers Attenuator
Single Series Single Shunt Stepped Attenuator + other attenuator ideas (with XLS spread sheet)
Here’s a nice simple JAVA program to calculate any impedance and step separation that you might want to modify your Sweet Whispers kit to.
Speakers
Straight 8 (1Mb PDF Archive)
The updated Straight 8 crossover This is the finalized crossover design for the now retired Straight 8s.
beautiful round tops on the mahogany cabinets and lots of pics of the assembly
Other Designs
The Whamodyne Files This is the archive of all the DIY speaker designs we developed over the past five years, leading up to the design of the Straight 8 loudspeaker.
Systems
Technical Stuff
Resistor color codes
Slick calculators to help you figure out any resistor substitutions you may find in your kit:
Capacitor value conversions uF to nF to pF and back again
Troubleshooting Some basic guidelines to get you up and running
Safety and the Bottlehead A few basic tips to keep you from getting a jolt!
