Building Seventh Circle kits

[Halfway Competent]

OK dudes, I think I'm finally gonna bite the bullet. After all this time agonizing over which mic pre would be the right upgrade from my... Um... Presonus Digimax LT *hangs head in shame*, I've decided to get a quartet (to start with) of SCA N72 pres. The price is excellent, and I've read some glowing reviews from folks whose opinions are usually not BS.

Any tricks to putting this stuff together? Words of wisdom/caution? Looks like the documentation is good. I see lots of posts in the SCA forums with folks trying to get their stuff to work. The SCA guy posts lots of helpful tech advice.

I am going to buy a proper soldering iron for the task... Right now I have a Weller Pyropen, which is a great iron... For quick jobs. I don't think I want to buy several cans of butane for the 2-3 hours predicted assembly time, and that huge tip doesn't really lend itself to small jobs like this. Weller WES51 is what I'm looking at ($100 at Fry's).

[Peterson Goodwyn]

Adam,

I realize this is an old post, and you've probably already got a rack of beautiful preamps up and running, but...

The Hakko 936 is a classic iron among audio DIYers and can be had for less than $80. I put together a list of good tools for beginners here (http://www.diyrecordingequipment.com/tools).

My advice before you begin is to get a circuit board and some resistors and practice making clean solder joints until you can do it comfortably.

Best of luck!

[Tomasz]

The Hakko 936 is a classic iron among audio DIYers and can be had for less than $80. I put together a list of good tools for beginners here (http://www.diyrecordingequipment.com/tools).

My advice before you begin is to get a circuit board and some resistors and practice making clean solder joints until you can do it comfortably.

Best of luck!

Nice stuff Mr. Goodwyn... thank you, and welcome aboard!

[Peterson Goodwyn]

Thanks for the kind words and the warm welcome.

[Halfway Competent]

Adam,

I realize this is an old post, and you've probably already got a rack of beautiful preamps up and running, but...

The Hakko 936 is a classic iron among audio DIYers and can be had for less than $80. I put together a list of good tools for beginners here (http://www.diyrecordingequipment.com/tools).

My advice before you begin is to get a circuit board and some resistors and practice making clean solder joints until you can do it comfortably.

Best of luck!

Hey Peterson! Welcome!

Yeah, I finished constructing these preamps back in May or so. They're fantastic! Saving up for another rack of 'em. :) I've also told engineering colleagues who want a set that I'll solder 'em up for half of what SCA charges for the assembled board.

Thanks for the info on the Hakko iron! I actually ended up buying a Weller WESD51 iron. It's a great iron that maintains temperature very well and recovers very quickly.

I actually learned to solder in my single-digit years, and started putting together some Velleman kits when I was 12. (Not saying I'm some soldering genius or anything... Just that I started early. ;) ) The Velleman kits are a great start to learning how to solder up a board!

Needless to say, the soldering experience I had was immensely helpful in assembling this board; but this was the first time I'd used a truly quality iron (Vellemans were soldered up with a Radio Shack pencil) to assemble that big of a project.