For you amp building gods...

[MikeS]

For those of you who have become professional amp techs and amp builders, or those who have performed your own amplifier modifications, where did you get your background? Did you apprentice in a shop, or did you pick up a book and start reading one day?

I’m primarily asking this because I’d love to be in a position to open up an amplifier and do more than pretend to know what I’m doing. Admittedly, I’m far from an expert when it comes to knowing the role of every little resistor, wire, transformer, tube, etc, etc, inside an amplifier. I have no desire of ever becoming an amp wizard like some of you, but would like to know what my best possible resources are for learning a little bit about this.

Rock on,
– Mike –

 

[bvc310]

Re: For you amp building gods...

Hey, I am an amp tech at the The Music Shoppe Western Hills. Honestly, I learned a lot of it from reading articles, talking to experts, and preforming simple tasks and mods at first. Also, beeing in college for Electrical Engineering has helped me a lot, but most of my knowledge came from stating off with tube changes and rebiasing, doing tone stack mods, and reading every little bit of information about the subject I could. Just talking with peaople who know what their doing helps a ton as well. Repair work is mainly just knowing what causes things to happen, its a lot of troubleshooting. Most of the work you will do is, someones amp hums or wont power up, or stuff liek that. Mods are much more of a rarity. My suggestion for you would be before you stat poking around, learn everything you can from various websites and forums, talk to some people in the industry, and above all be very careful with what you are doing especially tube amps. Start simple, mod a tone stack, or mess around with the frequency response curve, start as simple as possible, gradually, ask someone who knows what does what in an amplifier. It wont happen overnight, it will take a while but eventually, it will all start to make sense.
Later,
Brian

 

[Rich_S]

Re: For you amp building gods...

AX84.com

18Watt.com

That's where I learned it. The end result was my blue mutant "13 Watter" (see link in signature). Nothing like building your own amp to make you confortable poking around inside them.

 

[MikeS]

Re: For you amp building gods...

Thanks, Rich. I added those to my favorites, I'll have plenty of lunch time reading for awhile!

Brian, I'm not familiar with your store. Western Hills, eh? Whereabouts in Western Hills?

 

[chill]

Re: For you amp building gods...

Your public library may have some books on tube or valve design. Buy a copy of Kevin O'Connor's TUT 1 and TUT 3 at londonpower.com. Check out the articles at aikenamps.com, in particular the common cathode design article. And read everything you can get your eyes on. It takes time to learn the stuff and once you start building amps you'll get a palette of experience to draw on.

 

[kmcguitars]

Re: For you amp building gods...

I wouldn't consider myself a Amp tech by any means. But i do most of the repairs on my own amps, And mods and I'm even planing a home brew.
I took a electronics 101 type course in high school. But most of what I've
learned has been from books and hands on. I've read the Dave Thunderfunk
book, the Torres book and my buddy has the Aspen pittman book ( He is a
electronics tech) No amp guru. He does Avionics (Airplane stuff) He a good
source of info,But he dosen't know tubes very well. I can fix most things
that don't require major troubleshooting. Then the amp goes to my Tech.
And you know if I'm paying well over $100 the get my amp fixed I always
quiz my tech So I atleast walk away with some more knowledge.

 

[bvc310]

Re: For you amp building gods...

Thanks, Rich. I added those to my favorites, I'll have plenty of lunch time reading for awhile!

Brian, I'm not familiar with your store. Western Hills, eh? Whereabouts in Western Hills?

Its on harrison avenue. Where do you live at? Our nu,ber is (513)598-9000 if you wanna give us a call and find out how to get there. We do a lot of acoustic stuff, some low to mid level guitars (we are the 3rd largest tradition dealer in the nation). Give us a call up there, I will be in every day all week, im usually there everyday but Wednesday and Saturday.
Later,
Brian

 

[Nigel Tufnel]

Re: For you amp building gods...

There's also alot of useful information at www.aikenamps.com

 

[tone4days]

Re: For you amp building gods...

be very careful working around the inside of a tube amp ... even after you unplug it from the wall, there are some HELLA charges still built up in the capacitors ... make sure you are very careful poking around in there ... for times that you have to work on it while it is powered up, see about getting some 'all plastic' screwdrivers, etc ... get a good rubber mat to stand on .. and where the proper shoes / eye protection

do NOT let ANYone come near you and start touching inside the chassis or you ... they could complete a path to ground and zap you both ...

have fun
t4d

 

[Scott_F]

Re: For you amp building gods...

build a kit and take your time after you've read up a bunch of info. What happens is that you can mess with the build before it becomes dangerous if that makes sense. But, once you've plugged it in the first time, you gotta start playing by all the rules.

 

[Jeff Seal]

Re: For you amp building gods...

...well I was blessed enough to have an electrical/electronic engineer for a grandfather. I was always curious about what he did, and tried to understand as best I could. We would often build "projects" during my visits there, and one year he got me one of those old 200 in one project kits they used to sell at Radio Shack. I'm not even remotely ashamed to admit, that I learned more from the "cartoon talking components" in the book, than from any other source...Makes sense, as I was 9 yrs old!(1976) When I was 11, my grandfather gave me his old Simpson "Genescope" (oscilloscope) as he truly believed it would help me learn. Other than staring at the ever constant left to right 'blinking"...I didn't really understand what I was doing. Started playing guitar at 11, and it didn't take long for the two worlds to mesh!

Eventually, I started getting a better understanding of things. I was an avid reader of Craig Andertons "tech tips" in GP, and anxiously awaited each new issue. I modded my first Marshall at age 14....

( :blackeye: o.k, so it was a Lead 12 and I installed a line out per the exact directions given in GP.... but it was the first Marshall I owned...before they added the HP/Line out)...plugged it into my Bf Fender Showman...

Anyway, went to "tech school" for Audio Engineering.... got degree's in Audio Engineering, Acoustical Physics, Music theory, Electronics etc. and went from there!... (amazing, I never graduated high school, but had a perfect 4.0 GPA in tech school!)

So now I make/repair and mod amps..

That's where I got my training...

(I still want to make one of those animated component books!)...for tube amps!

Jeff Seal