self teach myself to be an unofficial amp tech of sorts

[blacklight_uk]

I recommend Success In Electronics by Tom Duncan as a thorough introduction to the basics. I've found it really easy to follow and it provides you with worked examples and test questions to make sure you understand things. I'm currently working on a research project as part of my course at university. I'm looking at differences between output classes and configurations. These are two of the best articles I've read so far -

http://www.mesaboogie.com/US/Smith/Clas ... ersion.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.aikenamps.com/ClassA.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And this is the bible on valve amplifiers - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Valve-Amplifier ... 0750656948" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; which starts off with the basics - electron theory, DC, Ohm's Law etc. and takes you a long way towards designing and building your own amps. Some of it looks pretty intimidating the first time you flick through it, but start at the beginning. I must admit I am using it more as a reference than properly reading it but some of the stuff in there is very interesting.

[indianDYsummer]

'The Art Of Electronics' is a good, well written book for electronic students, but it won't help you with valve stuff at all.

My 1985 edition doesn't even have the words 'valve' or 'tube' in the index.

I doubt anything in it after chapter 4 is going to be relevant to fixing older type valve amps also - a lot of digital stuff.

N.B. - I am not knocking this book at all! I really like the way it is written, and I used it a lot in my degree. I just think that a lot of the info in it isn't going to be of use, and it isn't exactly cheap!

Cheers
Jon

+1, it is definitely not reaaaally a helpful reference for an amp tech, but it is a great general electronics reference book with good baseline information for general dc/ac circuits, etc. For someone aspiring to be a self-taught amp tech with no electronics background it should fill in most gaps where a valve/amplification specific design guide may lack in general electronics theory/application.

But yeah, not a ton of stuff will be super useful. However, if you're comfortable with understanding higher complexity circuits, it will be more obvious how simple most valve amps are. Good base knowledge/confidence builder!