[Ron Ramirez]

One VERY expensive order of mica capacitors later...I began digging into the Magic Brain in earnest.

   

I've replaced about half of the micas at this point.

And no, I did not bother to restuff the four .01 uF paper capacitors. The underside of the Magic Brain is so jam-packed...plus when this is finished, it will be totally enclosed and no one will see under here unless they remove the bottom cover.

I also removed the interconnect cable which terminates in an octal plug in preparation to replace the individual wires with new ones:

   

I don't feel very comfortable running the heater supply through the 22 gauge shielded wire that came with my Mouser order. One side of the heater string runs through the center conductor...the other through the shielding.

I do have some 20 gauge shielded wire coming from a different supplier, but it won't be here until Saturday at the earliest. But still...both sides of the heater supply running through a shielded wire. Hmmm...

Oh, by the way, folks: Even though I bought a couple 6SG7 tubes, I've made a firm decision not to do the mod. I don't like the idea of running a really long control grid lead from topside down under the chassis. That, coupled with little to nothing to listen to on the very high shortwave band (23 to 60 mc)...I will stick with the factory 6K7 setup.

Well, that could be a good use of the 22 gauge shielded wire, I suppose...but no.