Amp building

bfitz · Post by **bfitz** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 1:34 pm

Has anybody here built a tube amp of any size or description i really need a project for myself and was thinking of building something along the lines of a tt depending on how difficult and costly it is i know nothing about it but i have a couple of engineer mates who say its not that difficult but could involve a lot of trial and error. any help advice or suggestions are most welcome

buscemi · Post by **buscemi** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 1:55 pm

Paging Neil Oler... Neil to the amp building thread. There are others that have mentioned it too, but IIRC Neil just sold the 18 watter he built and is possibly building another soon?

riffmonster · Post by **riffmonster** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 2:00 pm

You could check out some kits to try and avoid 'trial and error' ... for example:

http://www.ceriatone.com/

55gibby · Post by **55gibby** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 2:00 pm

have you looked at the kits available? Some of them are really nice, and a kit is a good starter project

bfitz · Post by **bfitz** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 2:02 pm

cheers guys i appreciate it

delirious131 · Post by **delirious131** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 4:44 pm

Ceriatone makes some very cool kits. Take a peek

Le Chat Noir · Post by **Le Chat Noir** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 4:57 pm

I've always fancied this too, but it also scares me a bit. It's a bit more dangerous than building effects pedals!!

If you know a lot about the insides of a valve amp and are confident in your technical ability, by all means go for it - but be careful of biting off more than you can chew if you're not too experienced. Learning how to service and fiddle with your existing amp(s) might be a better place to start.

I have no idea of your ability level so please don't take offence if you ARE experienced, just thought it'd be prudent to weigh in with the cautious viewpoint!

GuitarMD · Post by **GuitarMD** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 5:05 pm

I would start off with a pedal before I jumped in to an amp, but I am always an overly cautious person.

~GuitarMD~

bfitz · Post by **bfitz** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 11:49 am

Was looking at the ceriatone website and did a bit of emailing, the 18watt head looks like a good challenge, i'm decent enough at soldering and it provides you with everything you need which is cool, and at the end of it you have a marshall 1974x head how sweet is that??? but im gonna keep lookin around to see what other stuff is out there cos i would love to build my own amp from scratch but with f*ck all knowledge about it the amp kit is prob the better starting option and hopefully ill learn something. Cheers for the all the advise lads

B

Neiloler · Post by **Neiloler** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 3:48 pm

Bfitz, I'm here, I'm here! Haha, nah, if you want an amp building pro, Marcus Blacksmith is the man to talk to, you can look him up on this forum. He's over in the UK as well, so he'd be able to help you out with local suppliers if you don't want to ship kits from the states.

I love building amps and pedals. If you've built some pedal stuff before, an amp isn't that hard. Heck, if you've built something involving soldering and you feel fairly confident you can follow directions with patience, you'd be fine with building an amp. I like Ted Weber's Site/Store. like Peter said, I just sold a 18 watt I built, due to it being too much amp for me, and it was a lot of fun to build. I like ted's stuff because the cabs are quality, the components and transformers aren't too bad (I like the transformers, and the jacks/switches can be upgraded to something else for a few more quid), and the layout and schematic are great.

E-mail me or post here if there's anything else I can help you with!

VanR · Post by **VanR** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 4:49 pm

I suggest for a first build the P1 over at ax84.com. Really simple first tube amp build and you can buy kits at dobermanamps.com. Around 5 watts. I have built 2 of the High Octane amps from that site although I sourced the parts myself and didn't buy the kits. Both amps turned out great and sound like a beast. Recently modded both of them to run octal tubes (6V6, 6L6, EL34 etc) instead of EL84 and that's even better. If you try to build a 50 or 100 watt high gain amp for your first build you may find yourself in over your head pretty quickly. Start small and move up as you gain experience. Just my $.02

Neiloler · Post by **Neiloler** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 4:53 pm

Wow, thanks VanR, I thought DobermanAmps.com was down, but their new website looks great. This looks like a sweet kit:

http://shop.dobermanamps.com/product-p/kit-p1x.htm

Wired · Post by **Wired** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 5:06 pm

I'm looking at grabbing a Weber kit, either an AC30 or JTM45 clone. Probably the JTM45. I'll do a AC30 head depending on how the JTM goes for me.

VanR · Post by **VanR** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 5:08 pm

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Neiloler
 Wow, thanks VanR, I thought DobermanAmps.com was down, but their new website looks great. This looks like a sweet kit:

http://shop.dobermanamps.com/product-p/kit-p1x.htm
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

I haven't built a P1Extreme, but I hear the fellows over at ax84.com like it pretty good. It's a louder slightly dirtier version of the plain P1. The High Octanes I built get you more into JCM800 territory. but with more gain than the JCM800. The neat thing is for 2 bills or so you can get the chassis kits with everything you need to build the amp but solder and wire. You have to supply your own head shell or build your own combo cab. And they have layouts for each amp on the site. And if you run into trouble the forum is full of folks to help you out. I suggest ordering the kit with the chassis already drilled (extra $50 or so). That will save you hours of drilling. And I suggest skipping the EL84 and go right for the octal tube option. Makes the amps sound so much bigger.

Neiloler · Post by **Neiloler** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 5:35 pm

Really cool stuff. VanR, really cool stuff.

Luke, that AC30 build looks insane. Lots of parts. Not hard in the "can't be done" kind of way, but just very detailed construction and everything. If you do tackle that, take lots of pictures so I can be rightfully jealous.

I still think i'd like a little head kit from weber.

Amp building

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