Well, I really got the building bug (so many pedals and now amps...damn).
My last 2 kits (first jcm 800 and then Hiwatt 6h50) went very well, the latter was fine from the first power-up and all so that was a big confidence booster.
While kits are a lot of fun and make for easier complex builds, the currency exchange rate and taxes have been making them really expensive lately and I can't afford buying those regularily.
Therefore, I decided to challenge myself otherwise: build amps from scratch by buying everything I possibly can locally (small town so that's still not a lot) or at least within Canada to keep the costs down.
I decided to start small with a 5e3 (kinda went backwards: first a 2204, then a Hiwatt and now a tweed deluxe). Found a very cool supply store in Toronto with tons of stuff that I couldn't find elsewhere and used a lot of what I had leftover from previous builds too. It'll be a combo and all the wood necessary's gonna be from my dad's shop, locally sourced (most of it was cut by me) and all. I already have a nice US-voiced speaker lying around (Emi Screaming Eagle) so all in all the cost should be around 300$ when all's said and done.
Got the chassis made from a local shop. Not cheap (although not that expensive either) but nice quality. They drilled the tubesocket holes for me and I took care of the rest (I'm not equipped to punch holes so some of them are a bit crude but it's all good):
Today I finally found time to assemble some of it (kids have been sick and I'm working on about 10 different things at the moment, including recording music, doing work on a few of my guitars, etc), it's finally starting to look like an amp:
Nice Hammond iron there. I'll point out that any fellow canuck that needs electronics supplies should look at a1parts.ca. Great prices (really great), amazing service. I have no affiliation with them but for once there's a great store that ships around Canada and the US and has great inventory and prices so you know I have to mention them. As I said, they ship to the US too but since you guys have easy access to mouser and those guys...
No soldering done so far but that's next...
Cheers!
My last 2 kits (first jcm 800 and then Hiwatt 6h50) went very well, the latter was fine from the first power-up and all so that was a big confidence booster.
While kits are a lot of fun and make for easier complex builds, the currency exchange rate and taxes have been making them really expensive lately and I can't afford buying those regularily.
Therefore, I decided to challenge myself otherwise: build amps from scratch by buying everything I possibly can locally (small town so that's still not a lot) or at least within Canada to keep the costs down.
I decided to start small with a 5e3 (kinda went backwards: first a 2204, then a Hiwatt and now a tweed deluxe). Found a very cool supply store in Toronto with tons of stuff that I couldn't find elsewhere and used a lot of what I had leftover from previous builds too. It'll be a combo and all the wood necessary's gonna be from my dad's shop, locally sourced (most of it was cut by me) and all. I already have a nice US-voiced speaker lying around (Emi Screaming Eagle) so all in all the cost should be around 300$ when all's said and done.
Got the chassis made from a local shop. Not cheap (although not that expensive either) but nice quality. They drilled the tubesocket holes for me and I took care of the rest (I'm not equipped to punch holes so some of them are a bit crude but it's all good):
Today I finally found time to assemble some of it (kids have been sick and I'm working on about 10 different things at the moment, including recording music, doing work on a few of my guitars, etc), it's finally starting to look like an amp:
Nice Hammond iron there. I'll point out that any fellow canuck that needs electronics supplies should look at a1parts.ca. Great prices (really great), amazing service. I have no affiliation with them but for once there's a great store that ships around Canada and the US and has great inventory and prices so you know I have to mention them. As I said, they ship to the US too but since you guys have easy access to mouser and those guys...
No soldering done so far but that's next...
Cheers!
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