Amp gurus and builders.

[Mr 9finger]

Some butt sucking arse monkey pushed me over the edge tonight. Now I absolutely must build one of these amps. Of course I've never built or even modded an amp before, so doing the smart thing and starting small is what I'm going to do.

I see a lot of people build 5E3 kits as their starter amps. Is this a good choice?
There's also a lot of books on Amazon on this topic. Which are the better one's, which do I stay away from?

Help a bro out here.

[Mr 9finger]

Re: Amp gurus and builders.

Also, what kind of tools am I going to need? I've got a decent multimeter and a 30 watt iron. Should I get a higher wattage iron?

[MetalManiac]

Re: Amp gurus and builders.

First thing you need to do is join Hoffman Amp forum, and Metro Amp Forum.

[Toe-Knee]

Re: Amp gurus and builders.

I highly recommend Merlin Blencowes books.

The preamp one is far more useful as it's more relevant to a lot of amps.

The 5e3 is good to start on but is it something that you will really use? If not try an 18w TMB marshall type build. These are far more usable to most people and provide a lot of good experience and aren't overly difficult. And of course there is a mod that you can do to get it into hot rodded plexi territory thats pretty much one extra wire.