[TV MAN]

UPDATE: It's alive! I did an initial resistance check a few days ago and all checked good (no shorts or anything funny). Let it set a few days then rechecked my work. I did a partial power up last night and it worked - kinda. Well, she sure whistled and sputtered when I hit the 200+v mark, so I shut down. Knew what I did wrong. I had a little time this morning so I switched plate and G2 leads between the top and bottom tubes (yes, I could have also switched couplers or transformers ground and feedback connections) and reattempted a power up. This time, she sang! I still haven't done a full power up, but I do things in steps - just in case. I powered up with the rectifier removed and used my bench power supply to slowly bring up the B+. It's current limited and can shut down if somethings wrong. Also used a dim bulb on the amp itself along with current and voltage meters.

So that said, I'm going to mention a couple observations so far and a mistake I made. 1st, my mistake. On the bias supply, I put the divider resistors (100k x2) on the G1 side of the stoppers. Honestly, I don't know if this really makes a difference since some amps don't use a stopper. I also made the same mistake on my previous amp build using 6V6s. I'll change and take a listen. Next, the lead colors on the China transformers don't correspond with the colors on US made transformers! So, once I'm absolutley sure I have things running right, I'll list those colors/connections for those adventurous ones like myself.  Just for testing, I stuck a pair of those inexpensive Russian 6L6 (6N3C) and a cheap 6GH8a in case something blows. Yeah, those are the ones that want to red plate when you get over 400v on the B+. And - they did. But, I cranked the bias up  little and B+ at 425v and she's sounding great so far! Very alive! I'll switch to some better 6L6s a little later and bring it up on it's own power supply using a variac and see how things do.