Amp building

dampoldman

Hi all, 

Just wondering if anybody has any experience building amps...I'm looking at a long term project/hobby where I learn to build my own basic valve amps. I have zero knowledge of electronics (haha) but am keen and eager all the same. 

I know there is a guy in London (Vyse?) who offers 3 day courses, has anybody got any experience of these?

I also saw that in the States, you can go on a residential course with Bruce Egnater himself. Oh to be a lottery winner without responsibilities...

I guess my question is where do I start? I imagine any electronics courses I could do at night-school etc would be geared towards modern technology, not the ancient valve set ups I'm after...

Is pedal-building a more realistic way to dip my toe in the water?

Chris

ecc83

Do you have somewhere to do it Chris? 

You can at a pinch build pedals and do small, low voltage experiments on the kitchen table but full sized, mains powered amps, even if transistor jobs,  really need a dedicated workshop (if I had one my wife would never see me!) . 

But yes, pedals are a good intro. I always tell rank beginners to buy the Maplin One Watt amp kit and build that. Instructive and makes a decent guitar practice amp. Use headhones if powering with 2X AA or it will drive a speaker, especially a "guitar" speaker surprisingly loudly from a PP3. 

Dave.

dampoldman

Thanks Dave, 

I don't have anywhere dedicated to do it, so it would be a kitchen table job. I've seen the amp-maker.co.uk site where you can buy kits, which got me interested in the first place. I like the idea of building a basic amp 'head', making a shell and having my own little custom combo I can use at home, and I'm prepared to put the time into learning. However, looking at the instructions blew my mind a bit. I think even for their 'starter' amp it was out of my league. Schematics look like alien scripture to me unfortunately. 

I'll have a look at that kit on Maplin, cheers for the tip. Looks like a good place to start. 

Chris

GuitarMonkey

Most of the fun in building an amp for me is sourcing the parts which can take months whereas building takes only a few hours.

Take a look at www.ax84.com which has some great projects and lots of information to help you build them.

thermionic

Check out my thread on building my first amp.

I think sourcing all the parts is a pain, which is why I like the ampmaker kits. Plenty of fun left when choosing knobs, cab, speaker etc as well as circuit tweaks (some suggested on ampmaker's website). The N5X circuit seems to have a lot of the ax84 DNA in it anyway.

A couple of books would make decent background reading - I have Dave Hunter's Guitar Amp Handbook and Inside Tube Amps by Dan Torres (Vyse sells Torres kits). Neither are good textbooks, but like I say - background reading.

If you're not confident soldering and understanding a schematic then maybe something like a Poodle's Pedals Parts kit would be a good experience. The ampmaker circuits are relatively simple and well-understood - Barry's instructions are fantastic and I've heard he's very helpful if you run into problems (I had one minor but solved it myself quickly).

Ossyrocks

I've been modding and servicing my own amps for a number of years. I built up my knowledge via the internet and a few good books. I reckon it took me ten years to dip my toe into building an amp from scratch, but when I did I found it great fun and very rewarding.

You do need a space where you can setup and leave it though, amps take time, and if you have to keep getting everything out and putting it away again it will be a right pain.

My first amp was a Mission amps 5E3 clone. I bought just the chassis kit, the quality was excellent. It worked first time too! I reckon I built that amp in three Sunday afternoons. It sounded great and I ended up trading it with a friend for a very nice amp, then ended up trading that for a Gibson Custom Shop '60 Les Paul TV Special! Winner ! But it isn't always the case that you'll make money out of it, I reckon I could have bought a ready built boutique amp for the price I paid for parts.

Rob.

dampoldman

The potential financial saving isn't really a motivator, as I think with anyone who embarks on this kind of project, it's the project element I'm into. What's to say I make one and then get a taste for it and start a cottage industry. Get some venture capitalists interested, list on the stock exchange, get a queen's award for industry, retire at 40.... or not haha...

Cheers for the recommendations of books, I've just got a copy of the Guitar Amp Handbook which should keep me occupied. 

Space to work in might be an issue though, I have 2 small kids so 'my' space in the house amounts to my desk area.

There's actually an amp tech who lives down the road to me, real mad scientist type, so I might see if he fancies giving me a couple of pointers. 

There's just something undeniably cool about playing through an amp you built yourself (I imagine)

DannyP

I built an ampmaker se5a in my spare room

http://i611.photobucket.com/albums/tt192/p1eces/Amp Self-build/AmpPhone005.jpg

http://i611.photobucket.com/albums/tt192/p1eces/Amp Self-build/AmpPhone016.jpg

http://i611.photobucket.com/albums/tt192/p1eces/Amp Self-build/Amp012.jpg

I followed the step by step instruction and it worked first time.

In fact it was SO straightforward, I was a bit disappointed as I actually learned f*@# all about how amps work!

dampoldman

Nice work. I almost don't mind not learning tonnes of theory - I'm quite lazy - but it's good to know someone bought a kit, built it and it actually worked... did you make the cab yourself?

thermionic

If you'd have inadvertently soldered in a wrong value plate resistor, spent a few minutes measuring voltages and wondering why one side of the ECC83 anode voltage is 100V off, followed by tracing out the schematic, spending an hour or so reading your valve amp books and testing your knowledge of the resistor colour code yet again, then you might have learnt something about how amps work.

Do not ask me how I know this.

hywelg

Ampmaker is a great way to start. Much of it is about how practical you are as a person. If you are always making things or fixing things then you'll take to it easily, but if you reach for the phone the first time something breaks around the house, then you might find it a bit difficult.

If you dont already have decent tools, factor in the cost of setting yourself up with some good quaility ones, though a cheap £20 DMM will probably be OK. Soldering iron especially, dont get a £3 Aldi special. Needle nose pliers, side cutters, wire stripper, small (¼" drive) socket set, amongst many other things.

chillidoggy

I'm still prevaricating about building an amp. Despite having some wedge to do it, I still haven't come to any firm conclusion. I definitely feel that it will be an engaging experience which I would be totally focussed on to the exclusion of all else, which is very appealing. I think I'm too long in the tooth to start really learning about them though, so I reckon the Ampmaker kits will probably do the job, but maybe as a winter project.

imalone

thermionic said:

If you'd have inadvertently soldered in a wrong value plate resistor, spent a few minutes measuring voltages and wondering why one side of the ECC83 anode voltage is 100V off, followed by tracing out the schematic, spending an hour or so reading your valve amp books and testing your knowledge of the resistor colour code yet again, then you might have learnt something about how amps work.

Do not ask me how I know this.

Think ecc83 will be upset if you put one side of him 100V off.

mudslide73

do it, it's brill. I built a TMB 18w head - I used some bits from Barry/Loverocker/Ampmaker to finish off. I found the devil is in the pre-testing (continuity, layout etc.). I used a few weeks to build making sure everything was spot on before first power up.

DannyP

dampoldman;191433" said:

Nice work. I almost don't mind not learning tonnes of theory - I'm quite lazy - but it's good to know someone bought a kit, built it and it actually worked... did you make the cab yourself?

Yes, i made the cab out of pine shelves from B&Q.

The tolex has gone very bubbly now, sadly. I'll recover it if I ever get the time....

GuyBoden

I've built a few amps and done plenty of mods over the years, be careful with the high voltages, it's instant death.