So, I started my fire up procedures on my Blackeye 50 Deluxe build - and unfortunately I suffered a catastrophic capacitor failure. First start up was with the standby off, no tubes in the build. I checked voltages for the switching and DC heaters - running steady at 12v DC. checked voltages out of the secondary to the standby switch...I was getting approximately 350v a side. Which was perfect. Shut the amp down. took a breath. Then fired back up again. checked voltages again. This time I flipped a switch. Started to check voltages on the rectified voltage. Saw approximately 496. Which was definitely higher than expected, but the amp had no tubes - so without the tube load, I fully expected the PT to put off more stout voltages. Then I shut off the amp again. Watched the voltages drain off the caps. Fired up the amp again. Started checking voltages again, but I heard a sound and decided to turn off the amp again. a few seconds later....BANG!!! C32 blew up ...and when I mean blow up, I mean there was paper and oil everywhere...and the can that used to be the capacitor was sitting next to the PI socket....blown completely out of the board. The axial leads still soldering in, but no cap connected to them. Obviously, a setback and I wont be deterred.....But Im still scratching my head at this. I started tracing out every connection with my multimeter (which I did before this) and hopefully, I find something I missed. I'm hoping to find something wrong with my wiring, because that will put my mind at ease that a new cap will function OK. One thing I did notice, was the ground point near the input. Not sure this is related....but do I need to be jumpering the CH lug with the ground point? Any help or suggestions greatly appreciated! Frank

Hey folks! I have a transformer I've set aside for my BE50Dlx build....It's a Heyboer, but it's not the one specified in the BOM. Would love to know if anyone thinks I would run into trouble using this one. HV Secondary seems like it's good for a 50w marshall style amp. The big question I have is the 14v yellow taps. Can I use that for the switching? I know if I spec the right voltage regulator, it can handle upwards of about 30v. But I know very little about switching schematics, in general.  In the schematic, its showing a 12v and a 0V tap. However, the transformer I have has two 14v taps? wouldn't you need both sides of an AC feed to rectify to DC anyway? A little confused, and I hope Im explaining this correctly. Thanks in advance, Frank Diagram is as follows: