Scrapbook Saturday: "Messy Wires"

For today's Scrapbook Saturday challenge (see here for explanation) I chose the topic "Messy Wires". I tried photographing the mass of wires behind my computer desk but the photo looked rather underwhelming.

Then I thought of the "hifi" stereo amplifier which I built when I was a student (it must have been 42-43 years ago) which I thought would make for a more interesting blip. This was before the days of widespread use of integrated circuit microchips, so each component had to be wired separately. I got the circuit from a series in the magazine "Practical Wireless" and spent a happy university vacation putting it all together. As I recall it (naturally!) didn't work first time but with a bit of detective work (and, I suspect, a bit of advice from my Dad who had built our first tv from a kit several years before) it was soon up and running.

Over the years I added some extra bits to it which made it look even more messy. But it served us well until a few years ago when I pensioned it off. It actually still worked the last time I tried it but modern amps give better quality, and I was a little concerned that the mains PSU section was starting to get a bit hot while in use. I suspect anyway that it wouldn't meet modern safety standards!