What kind of noise? is it like a dog barking or a car driving by? or is it completely random...what pitch/character?

Actually on noise, the CC has the higher likleyhood of producing noise IMO.

There are more than a few silly things to go wrong here. My local project just suffered a real head-scratcher. Used the 100k, stereo Alps from Radio-Shack. Got a ~6 dB difference in channels after a bit. Turns out the open construction of the device probably allowed in some conductive debris and it shorted itself from end to end, yet left the wiper still functioning. Input jack to ground measurement of Ohms showed ~100k for the god side and 1k for the other. It was not the first thing we looked at either....

I wish I could have spent the weekend with each one of you in turn as we Ironed out some bugs. I think I have learned more than you guys doing the building. I wish I were as good at remote diagnosis as my heros, Click and Clack.
regards,
Douglas

Another thing, at half volume if I wiggle the wires the only thing that affects the noise level is the wire connecting the voulume pot and the grid resistor. This is why I suspected the grid resistor. But as I type this I'm thinking of a comment John S. made earlier: I may have a bad volume pot. I think I'll stop by RS and pick up a new one and see what happens......Colin

Does the noise increase or descrease with you touch the pot? I've found that the body of the pot needs to be grounded in many cases.

gar.

What's reaaaallllly buging me is that the "white" noise that tracks with the volume is coming from one channel only. I either have a bad volume pot, bad resistor, bad tube socket or bad tube. And since the noise disappears at full volume, it's starting to sound like a volume pot with a bad ground connection. Hopefully I just need to ground as you suggested and all will be fine....Colin

GarMan, Thanks for suggesting that the top chassis should be without ugly little screw heads poking out. It cost me a bit of time to rearrange the layout, but the end result was well worth it. I should have pictures up tonight.....

Nice job on the clean top plate. I'm putting together a tube phono stage right now and I'm taking the most difficult route possible to keep my top plate clean. Couldn't avoid putting over a dozen screws through the top plate to attach various solder strips and vector boards. To keep the top plate clean, I countersunk flat head screws, lock-tite the bottom, Bondo'ed the holes on top, sand down, primed and paint. More difficult than it should have been, but if anyone wants bodywork done on their car, I have the skills now.

Gar.

I was lucky enough to be able to put these L-bracket supports (PHP, 16 x 1/2 x 1/2, item number 20802) under the Tx's and choke for support. It was held in place by the screws that would normally be used, so no extra holes to drill. These brackets are available from Home Depot for around $2. The holes are spaced 1/2" OC alternating between large and small openings. If one were to make a 6" x 6" square out of these and set them off the top plate by using washers, one could have 96 mounting holes and only need 4 screws to secure it to the top plate. This is what I mounted the CCS and heater PS on.....Colin