I hate to sound like a salesperson, but how much $$$ are we talking? There are a bunch of Champ derivatives that are really cool, but some of them are expensive. While I have graduated to soldering my own guitar, I have not graduated to building amp kits, so I've been checking out the 5 watters from Victoria (a 5112, which is a 5 watt amp with a 12 in speaker, is ~$1000). I've played several of them, but have not decided to make the investment yet.