The Russian Defectors

Voltage Regulated Bottlehead Foreplay

The Russian Defectors

The collapse of the Soviet empire never sounded so good . . . .

Russian Defectors with Sovtek 300Bs


I sold my Paramours shortly after I completed building these from scratch. They're 3OOB's driven by a 6N1P, with excellent parafeed output iron by Magnequest and a lot of signal path parts formerly owned by the Soviet Army. Listening to pre-Castro Cuban jazz on these is the best revenge I could have over all the arms-race anxiety of my youth. The preamp (Fat Tuesday) is also a scratch-built 12AU7A preamp. I'm not done tweaking it yet either -- but I'm NEVER done tweaking it. The voltage regulator is going in there next chance I get.

Defectors and Meshplates

Here is another shot with my new Valve Art Titanium 300B Meshplates

In case you're wondering: scratch-building from the manual takes a lot more time than buying the kit. Also, you have to know what you're doing, know how to use the software models, and beg your online friends for a lot of free advice. But, if you can pull it off, it's a real thrill!

The interior of Fat Tuesday

This is the inside of Fat Tuesday, with the board for current and voltage regulation. No hum probs!

Interior of the Russian Defectors

Here's the Defectors -- Magnequest grid choke at front.