Tagboard & Eyelet Construction Handwired Guitar Tube Amps from Scratch like Leo Fender

Tagboard & Eyelet Construction Handwired Guitar Tube Amps from Scratch like Leo Fender

This is my process for building tagboards for handwired tube guitar amplifier builds starting with fiberboard and eyelets. Leo Fender used tagboards to organize and dress his circuits. This is NOT "point to point" - that would be building circuits WITHOUT tagboards and instead placing parts all over the place nearest their application. Point to point circuits often look like a rats nest of components. The use of tagboards allows everything to be organized and accessible for service down the road.

In the shop I always build them from scratch.

Here's an overview of the process:

Cut the fiberboard to size. One for the eyelets and another for the insulator underneath.

Mark eyelet placement along with lead passthrough holes.

Drill larger pass through first.

Use drill bit that matches eyelet and drill for them. Follow up with a razor to clean off excess fiberboard.

Verify orientation and load from the top (I do this upside down) then press eyelet into place firmly with the staking tool.

Place the tagboard in the chassis and mark it for the mounting holes (take care to observe obstructions like transformers, etc.).

Now that's a Deluxe tagboard!


#handwired #tagboard #deluxe