I'm putting this here more as a placeholder and a way to force myself to do things I hate to do and hold myself accountable for creating content and media. Much of what you read/see here will be in future YouTube videos that I will link here and this will be a park page, if you will, for all the material in one place. The concept is to show those interested in how to build, modify, and potentially create their own design of a guitar amplifier. There is a problem though... I HATE putting myself out there in the way I am about to embark upon. I can write stuff all day, but making video content and hearing my own voice describe things makes me cringe. I don't have Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, et all to present my work and I don't really care to do so. I have a few followers on YouTube and I currently have only a few videos where I present content that I feel is either empowering, good to know or just interesting perhaps to someone else. This new endeavor is going to change that drastically. I also don't have the time to spend on crafty video production and editing so my videos are all usually one take, unedited and short. Some like that, some don't, but don't expect much production value from my YT videos, I just don't have the time and energy to do that. Making them at all is like pulling teeth for me.
My name is Luke and I am a guitarist of 30 years now. I have been a Live Sound Engineer/Technician for 20 years thus far and am currently employed as a Production Manager for a Full-scale event production company that provides Audio, Video, Lighting, and Decor for all types of special events. My entire life has been spent in, around, and all about music/audio and the production of it! Objectively I am a behind-the-scenes kind of guy. I am happiest when the crowd/end client is lauding the event/production but has no idea who the heck I am. I prefer anonymity and space, as opposed to cheer and recognition. This is an odd character trait considering my history as a performing guitarist and having worked with as many high-profile names as I have gotten to. My other interests are motorcycles and teaching. I LOVE motorcycles and am an avid rider that is into the sportbike scene and have attended MANY track day events! Over the years I grew a passion for electronics specifically related to guitar amplification and tube circuitry. I have modified many different amplifiers as well as building several others. I have more recently gotten into designing my own amplifiers ( of original design ) with the eventual goal of selling them to a broader market ( as opposed to just for those who commission me to do so ) and to have several different options ranging from small to large. Each amp I currently build is one of a kind with no two ever being exactly the same. My hope is that with this series, I can show you how to create your own ideas, reduce some of the fear many have in opening guitar amps, and empower you to make changes in an amplifier that you feel will make the amp more inspiring and fun to play.
I think this may also be a good spot to post your own builds and show off your work as well as perhaps share your ideas and concepts in amplifier creation and modification. For me the mission statement of my amplifiers is easy. Build the highest quality, simple circuit topologies that provide the most uncolored and true to you sound possible. I don't like multi-channel amps with switching, I don't like complicated circuitry that gets in the way and takes away from the guitar, and I don't like gimmicky features that again add complexity, parts count, and needless tweaking of the pure guitar signal. I like amps that have a true clean, if there are two channels, they are NOT interactive and they each have their own distinct signal path, and I like amps that can do what you need them to do with as few knobs and components as possible. My current " ready for market " design has a total of only 10 components between the guitar input and the speaker! This includes volume, tone, and other interstage components. It will do a true clean and will go all the way to mean if you can stand to be around it. At 18-watts it will shake walls and yes, your neighbors will absolutely hear you!
I look forward to seeing and hearing other's works and stay tuned as I will be posting links hopefully tonight!.
First Installment:
And another for Part 1:
And Part 2:
Part 3:
Part 4:
Part 5:
Part 6:
Part 7:
Part 7.1:
Part 8:
Part 8.1:
Part 8.2:
Part 9.1:
Part 9.2:
Part 9.3:
Part 10:
Audio Sample:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1F6y...ew?usp=sharing
The audio sample was made using a Torpedo Captor X with a stock Green Tri preset they have from a Hughes & Kettner Tri-amp rig. This is my favorite cab in general for the stock IR's. For processing, I only have a low-cut to 80hz engaged and the reverb is from Reaper. I opted to use EQ and reverb from Reaper simply so all signal processing was done in one place. As for amplifier settings, it is cranked... The low-cut was rolled back a bit to about 1-o'clock to thin out the body of the sound, but the volume, master, and Hi-cut were dimed. There are no FX in front of the amp, it is straight in from a Telecaster I made. You can see what I mean by clean to mean, as the cleaner sections were simply me rolling back the guitar's volume. Add a boost in front and you can get a bit more saturation. You can also tell how quiet the amp is. It is dimed with single-coil pickups, and there is barely any hiss and buzz! I hope you enjoyed the sample and I will have more to follow. I did not show its true clean or pedal-friendly abilities. I was literally just wanking away with no idea of where I would end up.
My name is Luke and I am a guitarist of 30 years now. I have been a Live Sound Engineer/Technician for 20 years thus far and am currently employed as a Production Manager for a Full-scale event production company that provides Audio, Video, Lighting, and Decor for all types of special events. My entire life has been spent in, around, and all about music/audio and the production of it! Objectively I am a behind-the-scenes kind of guy. I am happiest when the crowd/end client is lauding the event/production but has no idea who the heck I am. I prefer anonymity and space, as opposed to cheer and recognition. This is an odd character trait considering my history as a performing guitarist and having worked with as many high-profile names as I have gotten to. My other interests are motorcycles and teaching. I LOVE motorcycles and am an avid rider that is into the sportbike scene and have attended MANY track day events! Over the years I grew a passion for electronics specifically related to guitar amplification and tube circuitry. I have modified many different amplifiers as well as building several others. I have more recently gotten into designing my own amplifiers ( of original design ) with the eventual goal of selling them to a broader market ( as opposed to just for those who commission me to do so ) and to have several different options ranging from small to large. Each amp I currently build is one of a kind with no two ever being exactly the same. My hope is that with this series, I can show you how to create your own ideas, reduce some of the fear many have in opening guitar amps, and empower you to make changes in an amplifier that you feel will make the amp more inspiring and fun to play.
I think this may also be a good spot to post your own builds and show off your work as well as perhaps share your ideas and concepts in amplifier creation and modification. For me the mission statement of my amplifiers is easy. Build the highest quality, simple circuit topologies that provide the most uncolored and true to you sound possible. I don't like multi-channel amps with switching, I don't like complicated circuitry that gets in the way and takes away from the guitar, and I don't like gimmicky features that again add complexity, parts count, and needless tweaking of the pure guitar signal. I like amps that have a true clean, if there are two channels, they are NOT interactive and they each have their own distinct signal path, and I like amps that can do what you need them to do with as few knobs and components as possible. My current " ready for market " design has a total of only 10 components between the guitar input and the speaker! This includes volume, tone, and other interstage components. It will do a true clean and will go all the way to mean if you can stand to be around it. At 18-watts it will shake walls and yes, your neighbors will absolutely hear you!
I look forward to seeing and hearing other's works and stay tuned as I will be posting links hopefully tonight!.
First Installment:
And another for Part 1:
And Part 2:
Part 3:
Part 4:
Part 5:
Part 6:
Part 7:
Part 7.1:
Part 8:
Part 8.1:
Part 8.2:
Part 9.1:
Part 9.2:
Part 9.3:
Part 10:
Audio Sample:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1F6y...ew?usp=sharing
The audio sample was made using a Torpedo Captor X with a stock Green Tri preset they have from a Hughes & Kettner Tri-amp rig. This is my favorite cab in general for the stock IR's. For processing, I only have a low-cut to 80hz engaged and the reverb is from Reaper. I opted to use EQ and reverb from Reaper simply so all signal processing was done in one place. As for amplifier settings, it is cranked... The low-cut was rolled back a bit to about 1-o'clock to thin out the body of the sound, but the volume, master, and Hi-cut were dimed. There are no FX in front of the amp, it is straight in from a Telecaster I made. You can see what I mean by clean to mean, as the cleaner sections were simply me rolling back the guitar's volume. Add a boost in front and you can get a bit more saturation. You can also tell how quiet the amp is. It is dimed with single-coil pickups, and there is barely any hiss and buzz! I hope you enjoyed the sample and I will have more to follow. I did not show its true clean or pedal-friendly abilities. I was literally just wanking away with no idea of where I would end up.
Comment