18 watt post 12

I could not stand it. I got up this morning and went over the layout in about 15 min. and made sure my ei's were dotted and my tee's were crossed. Went and got my mimi mass (attinuator/dummy load)...flipped the 18 watter upside down and plugged ac power and the MM in. NO tubes-flipped the switch. Measured AC and heater voltages...350 vac to the rect pins (yeah thats high, but no load form tube heaters)...checked heaters on all sockets..hmmm..looks good so far. Popped in the EZ81 rectifyer tube...Voltages to the PT and pretube sockets look good. Put in the el84s...still looks good. Put in the pres...all voltages look good!
Hooked up a speaker and with no guitar...cut the vol up...a little faint ac humm...ok, good so far...plugged in a guitar... 1/2 up..jangle jangle...I'm liken it!....wide open.....HOLY COW!
I started playing "ALL RIGHT NOW" ...and the tone was so there...backed the vol off and it just purrs...OH YEAH baby...das what I'm talking about. There is a little overring (fuzz after notes)..probably a cold solder joint...will shorten a couple wires and reflow the joints in the morning..but all I got to say is....YES....that is how a Marshall 18 is supposed to sound...at least as far as the internet recording I have heard of them.....BINGO....
I am in narvana right now...(will get back to narvana after I go cook some hotdogs and watch some fireworks...happy 4th all.)....
MORE LATER....with sound clips.
kw