Anyone ever built an amp?
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rectifryer
Banned
Build a single tube 12ax7 amp first. Its real cheap to do, and will give you an idea of whats going on. Tube amps are surprisingly simple, but the voltages are really dangerous.
Go make yourself known at AX84.com and Ampage.com, read all you can. Ask lots of questions and start with one of the small ax84 projects. Clean amps re surprisingly easy to build and sound decent. Uber-distorted amps can be really problematic about things like lead dress and component placement. Very easy to build a noisy, incoherent beast instead of a brutal amp. Get into it!
Tube amps contain lethal voltages that are stored long after the power is tuned off. Amp building is awesome fun, but make sure you knw enough to not kill yourself.
Tube amps contain lethal voltages that are stored long after the power is tuned off. Amp building is awesome fun, but make sure you knw enough to not kill yourself.
Mr Wright
Active Member
It is addictive and expensive.
In addition to the resources listed above I would add ampgarage.com as well. The guys over there have been very helpful to me.
I built a clone of a Trainwreck Rocket from a partial kit and I'm currently awaiting the transformers and chassis to start a from scratch build of a hot rodded Marshall (a la Ceriatone Yeti).
As far as designing your own to get the sound that you want I would recommend reading:
Kevin O'Connor's The Ultimate Tone series (These are pricey)
Designing Valve Preamps for Guitar and Bass by Merlin Blencowe
Guitar Amplifier Preamps by Richard Kuehnel
In addition to the resources listed above I would add ampgarage.com as well. The guys over there have been very helpful to me.
I built a clone of a Trainwreck Rocket from a partial kit and I'm currently awaiting the transformers and chassis to start a from scratch build of a hot rodded Marshall (a la Ceriatone Yeti).
As far as designing your own to get the sound that you want I would recommend reading:
Kevin O'Connor's The Ultimate Tone series (These are pricey)
Designing Valve Preamps for Guitar and Bass by Merlin Blencowe
Guitar Amplifier Preamps by Richard Kuehnel
Mr Wright
Active Member
I should also mention that the capacitors in amps can hold potentially lethal voltages after the power is off and must be drained before you start poking around in there.
If you do any tinkering in an amp be sure to read up and watch videos of how to properly drain capacitors!
If you do any tinkering in an amp be sure to read up and watch videos of how to properly drain capacitors!
There are two camps to building your own amplifiers.
Those who design and engineer amplifiers and those who shotgun parts in current makes or models to see what happens.
Both are a way to learn but either require much effort, expenses, and a quest for knowledge. If you want to design channel switching systems then that requires more than what a guitar book is going to offer. Sorry but that is definitely nothing a guitar amp book is going to describe. At least yet anyway.
Merlin Blencowe's books are the best place to start and he is additionally a regular over at AX84.com. I actually use his preamp series book as a reference to the original analog books made back in the 50's and 60's which he cites thoroughly. It is great reference material and attacks the theory with a general understanding that you know what current, beta, gain, voltages, and other pieces mean in relation to amplified circuits. For someone starting from scratch i would recommend you get a few introductory books on understanding how to read schematics, parallel or series circuits and what it means, the general purpose of capacitors and how to handle them safely in regards to AC and DC, and a few other odds and ends general theory. It is not a matter of if you run into a problem with your amplifier circuits, but a matter of when. The more prepared you are at using a multimeter and understanding what you are doing the more frustration you will save. Also know that you should never go into a live circuit without first having all of your parts that you need and knowing why you are in there and what you plan to gather before getting out. These amplifiers have about 500V and at minimum 200mA on the B+ lines which is more than enough to kill you should a probe slip and your hand is in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The tonal parts of an amplifier are some of the easiest pieces to understand but the more gain you add the more unstable the amplifier can become. As more and more poles of phases are added the more complicated any troubleshooting steps will become. Even with circuit calculations and national instrument/spice simulations i have still ran into problems with blocking distortion or unexpected/intended results with oscillations in power tubes robbing efficiency. Live and learn.
Designing them is a whole different ballgame. I highly suggest starting with some introduction electronics theory booklets for troubleshooting knowledge, finding someone that you can be supervised around with starting out in live circuits or real amplifiers, and definitely get Merlin's books and build one of their amplifier kits. Once again this is something that will take time and investment especially when you get into the more complicated circuits and doing modifications that have intended results.
We can go on and on about this but in reality you will need to start holding the torch to ask many questions in order to make sure you enjoy it, learn something, and do not get hurt in the process
Those who design and engineer amplifiers and those who shotgun parts in current makes or models to see what happens.
Both are a way to learn but either require much effort, expenses, and a quest for knowledge. If you want to design channel switching systems then that requires more than what a guitar book is going to offer. Sorry but that is definitely nothing a guitar amp book is going to describe. At least yet anyway.
Merlin Blencowe's books are the best place to start and he is additionally a regular over at AX84.com. I actually use his preamp series book as a reference to the original analog books made back in the 50's and 60's which he cites thoroughly. It is great reference material and attacks the theory with a general understanding that you know what current, beta, gain, voltages, and other pieces mean in relation to amplified circuits. For someone starting from scratch i would recommend you get a few introductory books on understanding how to read schematics, parallel or series circuits and what it means, the general purpose of capacitors and how to handle them safely in regards to AC and DC, and a few other odds and ends general theory. It is not a matter of if you run into a problem with your amplifier circuits, but a matter of when. The more prepared you are at using a multimeter and understanding what you are doing the more frustration you will save. Also know that you should never go into a live circuit without first having all of your parts that you need and knowing why you are in there and what you plan to gather before getting out. These amplifiers have about 500V and at minimum 200mA on the B+ lines which is more than enough to kill you should a probe slip and your hand is in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The tonal parts of an amplifier are some of the easiest pieces to understand but the more gain you add the more unstable the amplifier can become. As more and more poles of phases are added the more complicated any troubleshooting steps will become. Even with circuit calculations and national instrument/spice simulations i have still ran into problems with blocking distortion or unexpected/intended results with oscillations in power tubes robbing efficiency. Live and learn.
Designing them is a whole different ballgame. I highly suggest starting with some introduction electronics theory booklets for troubleshooting knowledge, finding someone that you can be supervised around with starting out in live circuits or real amplifiers, and definitely get Merlin's books and build one of their amplifier kits. Once again this is something that will take time and investment especially when you get into the more complicated circuits and doing modifications that have intended results.
We can go on and on about this but in reality you will need to start holding the torch to ask many questions in order to make sure you enjoy it, learn something, and do not get hurt in the process
Vostre Roy
Disciple of Djod
First of all, I've quoted that from the previous post, read it. Re-read it until you understand that its not a small warning
I did built a Weber 8CM100 from their kit, have yet to make it work but its one of a kind project, very instructive and a whole bunch of fun when you're into that
http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/lu...ions/217156-weber-8cm100-building-thread.html
Now, this is the first electronic thing I've ever built so if I'd have to sugget anything from what I learned, it would be:
1: Learn to solder pickups and stuff inside your guitars. That helps to get handy with a solder iron and you have less chance to mess out costly parts
2: Build a pedal. Several ones would even be better. Look for Build Your Own Clone products, they're awesome to begin and will gives some insight about what component do what and how it affects the sound. Its also a lot easier and way less risky to do "try this and that and let see how it sounds" approach than inside an amp
3: Build a low gain, low wattage amp. There's plenty of DIY kit and instructions on the web, those will be great to learn what are the component of an amp, the signal path and those will run with lightier voltage, wich is a plus when you begin to plug and debug it.
4: Finally, go for an high-gain, high-wattage amp. Those are tricky, more components, wires, voltage, wattage, name it there's more of it. Also more chance to get hiss or noise as there many variables.
I went from point 1 to 4, realised my mistake and since then, I've built two pedals and I'm looking to build a hi-fi tube poweramp sooner or later. My Weber is on hold, I'll probably work on it during the winter.
There goes my personnal rule of thumb, if you have a good knowledge/background in electricity, you might be able to burn some steps, but even then you'll see that building an amp is quite unique and different than most electrical shennanigans you might have built.
Cab-wise now, I've never got into building one but I've made some research on the subject, best bet would be to build one exactly the same as one you already own. To make a whole new, good sounding cab requires some more thoughts, especially when you want to tune/port one to a specific frequency or to optimize a given speaker. You can find various calculator that helps to design one but you still need to understand some basic stuff if you want a really good sounding cab. I can't go into much details as I never actually built one but it would be easier to build given you have the power tools to cut your stuff
Cheers!
I did built a Weber 8CM100 from their kit, have yet to make it work but its one of a kind project, very instructive and a whole bunch of fun when you're into that
http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/lu...ions/217156-weber-8cm100-building-thread.html
Now, this is the first electronic thing I've ever built so if I'd have to sugget anything from what I learned, it would be:
1: Learn to solder pickups and stuff inside your guitars. That helps to get handy with a solder iron and you have less chance to mess out costly parts
2: Build a pedal. Several ones would even be better. Look for Build Your Own Clone products, they're awesome to begin and will gives some insight about what component do what and how it affects the sound. Its also a lot easier and way less risky to do "try this and that and let see how it sounds" approach than inside an amp
3: Build a low gain, low wattage amp. There's plenty of DIY kit and instructions on the web, those will be great to learn what are the component of an amp, the signal path and those will run with lightier voltage, wich is a plus when you begin to plug and debug it.
4: Finally, go for an high-gain, high-wattage amp. Those are tricky, more components, wires, voltage, wattage, name it there's more of it. Also more chance to get hiss or noise as there many variables.
I went from point 1 to 4, realised my mistake and since then, I've built two pedals and I'm looking to build a hi-fi tube poweramp sooner or later. My Weber is on hold, I'll probably work on it during the winter.
There goes my personnal rule of thumb, if you have a good knowledge/background in electricity, you might be able to burn some steps, but even then you'll see that building an amp is quite unique and different than most electrical shennanigans you might have built.
Cab-wise now, I've never got into building one but I've made some research on the subject, best bet would be to build one exactly the same as one you already own. To make a whole new, good sounding cab requires some more thoughts, especially when you want to tune/port one to a specific frequency or to optimize a given speaker. You can find various calculator that helps to design one but you still need to understand some basic stuff if you want a really good sounding cab. I can't go into much details as I never actually built one but it would be easier to build given you have the power tools to cut your stuff
Cheers!
Good thread with good advices.
I don't know the referred books, so can't know how much they touch on electronics basics.
Anyone getting into building pedals, amps etc.. should learn about voltage, current, power, and the basics of resistance/resistors, capacitance/capacitors, inductance (the latter leading to coils/chokes/transformers), and then impedance.
The topics list is a good learning order.
I don't know the referred books, so can't know how much they touch on electronics basics.
Anyone getting into building pedals, amps etc.. should learn about voltage, current, power, and the basics of resistance/resistors, capacitance/capacitors, inductance (the latter leading to coils/chokes/transformers), and then impedance.
The topics list is a good learning order.
