Thinking about building my own tube amp....
- Thread starter tubeman87
- Start date
MattPete
New member
Re: Thinking about building my own tube amp....
www.ax84.com
Most of their amps are class A (i.e. single-ended), and kits are available for many of them.
www.ax84.com
Most of their amps are class A (i.e. single-ended), and kits are available for many of them.
Re: Thinking about building my own tube amp....
Build what you want to play over the semi long haul. Building an amp just cuz it's easy might lead you to selling it or trashing it cuz you don't love the tone.
That said, a Mission 5E3 is solid as well as one of the 18 watt clones. Pick your flavor.
Build what you want to play over the semi long haul. Building an amp just cuz it's easy might lead you to selling it or trashing it cuz you don't love the tone.
That said, a Mission 5E3 is solid as well as one of the 18 watt clones. Pick your flavor.
joelap
Red&Goldologist
Re: Thinking about building my own tube amp....
Tubeman, pay very very VERY close attention to these next lines:
GO WITH BRUCE COLLINS AT MISSIONAMPS!!!!
Why you might ask? Well, I thought "why start with a simple amp? You can handle it" and I was told by a bunch of people on another amp building forum I'd have no problem building a 100watt Marshall 68 Plexi. Well that is in late August, and as I type I'm staring at a fully assembled Marshall 68 Plexi clone that I still havent found the time or found the cure to get it working.
No matter what anyone tells you... start with a smaller-sized amp, and go with someone that offers you full tech support with the kit, and garuntees to fix it for you if it wont work. I'm lucky enough to find someone on the net who said they'd get my Marshall clone working within my budget, but outta 10 emails, I got 5 "I'd have to see it and there's no garuntees", 2 "The cost is xx per hour, I have no idea how many hours it'd take", 2 no replies, and 1 that was "I got nothing on my plate, sure I can fix it within your budget"
consider yourself warned! Assembly is simple: TROUBLESHOOTING IS MISSION IMPOSSIBLE!
But dont let me discourage you. Bruce at Missionamps garuntees that if you cant get it working, he will get it working for you, for peas and carrots compared to other tech's bench charges.
Learn from my mistake brother!
Joe
Tubeman, pay very very VERY close attention to these next lines:
GO WITH BRUCE COLLINS AT MISSIONAMPS!!!!
Why you might ask? Well, I thought "why start with a simple amp? You can handle it" and I was told by a bunch of people on another amp building forum I'd have no problem building a 100watt Marshall 68 Plexi. Well that is in late August, and as I type I'm staring at a fully assembled Marshall 68 Plexi clone that I still havent found the time or found the cure to get it working.
No matter what anyone tells you... start with a smaller-sized amp, and go with someone that offers you full tech support with the kit, and garuntees to fix it for you if it wont work. I'm lucky enough to find someone on the net who said they'd get my Marshall clone working within my budget, but outta 10 emails, I got 5 "I'd have to see it and there's no garuntees", 2 "The cost is xx per hour, I have no idea how many hours it'd take", 2 no replies, and 1 that was "I got nothing on my plate, sure I can fix it within your budget"
consider yourself warned! Assembly is simple: TROUBLESHOOTING IS MISSION IMPOSSIBLE!
But dont let me discourage you. Bruce at Missionamps garuntees that if you cant get it working, he will get it working for you, for peas and carrots compared to other tech's bench charges.
Learn from my mistake brother!
Joe
joelap
Red&Goldologist
Re: Thinking about building my own tube amp....
Dude if I could afford a few plane tickets, my father's new black powder hunting rifle would be getting some extra use after the season is over... :laugh2:
Dude if I could afford a few plane tickets, my father's new black powder hunting rifle would be getting some extra use after the season is over... :laugh2:
Tesno
New member
Re: Thinking about building my own tube amp....
I highly recomend this book first, don't just jump in plan first and learn, this book is awsome I read it many times years ago!
Inside Tube Amps by Dan Torres do a search for it. Hear is a clip of my amp kit:
Mini Plexi
Though this is a more advanced kit! In the book mentioned above it tells you how to build a simple single ended amp, this is the type of kit I would recomend though I don't sell one yet. :banana:
I highly recomend this book first, don't just jump in plan first and learn, this book is awsome I read it many times years ago!
Inside Tube Amps by Dan Torres do a search for it. Hear is a clip of my amp kit:
Mini Plexi
Though this is a more advanced kit! In the book mentioned above it tells you how to build a simple single ended amp, this is the type of kit I would recomend though I don't sell one yet. :banana:
Re: Thinking about building my own tube amp....
My simple advice:
1) listen to these folks..they are wise and experienced.
2) GET A KIT..I didn't, and I regret how slow the process has been....even to build a small amp. Scott F. has helped me with many questions and I appreciate all that he has done for me.
3) Read and plan, read some more and plan some more.
Good Luck with the build.
Dave
My simple advice:
1) listen to these folks..they are wise and experienced.
2) GET A KIT..I didn't, and I regret how slow the process has been....even to build a small amp. Scott F. has helped me with many questions and I appreciate all that he has done for me.
3) Read and plan, read some more and plan some more.
Good Luck with the build.
Dave
Rich_S
HomeGrownToneBrewologist
Re: Thinking about building my own tube amp....
Aw, kits are for wussies. Of course, my first amp took me 4 years from reading my first web page to getting it fired up. (In my defense, my family of six also had to make two cross-country moves in that time.)
If you prefer something more Marshally than tweedy, look into 18 watters. They are fairly simple to build: minimal tone stack, cathode biased, but they sound like a Marshall. Not exactly a Plexi, but close, with drastically reduced build effort. 18WAtt.com is the place to start.
If you're ever down Houston way, stop in and take a look at mine (or just follow the link in my signature).
Aw, kits are for wussies. Of course, my first amp took me 4 years from reading my first web page to getting it fired up. (In my defense, my family of six also had to make two cross-country moves in that time.)
If you prefer something more Marshally than tweedy, look into 18 watters. They are fairly simple to build: minimal tone stack, cathode biased, but they sound like a Marshall. Not exactly a Plexi, but close, with drastically reduced build effort. 18WAtt.com is the place to start.
If you're ever down Houston way, stop in and take a look at mine (or just follow the link in my signature).
Fresh_Start
New member
Re: Thinking about building my own tube amp....
Trinity Amps has a great reputation and makes 18 Watt and Matchless Lightning kits. They also make a Tweed Deluxe kit, but if that's what you want you can't beat Mission Amps (is there an echo in here?)
I'm just finishing up a Tweed Princeton/Harvard project. Started with a "kit" from STF Electronics. If you want to build a straight Champ, STF would be fine. I wandered off the standard path and into a bit of a mess. Learned a lot though.
Weber makes great speakers and chassis IMHO. However, some of the components in their "kits" are not always top quality from everything I've read and the support seems to vary. The forum is really hard to use.
Mojo makes great cabs but their kits REALLY are projects, i.e. collections of parts that you have to figure out how to turn into an amp. They do have authorized dealers like STF who provide support.
There are three great forums out there that I know of (and certainly others I haven't found yet):
Hoffman Fender oriented, traditional but very helpful
AX84 really neat projects for "simple" amps
18 Watt not as friendly for newbies like me, but lots of good info. You can learn a lot from the discussions and schematics of all the 18 Watt variations.
Oh, Trinity has a forum that's not so active, but great guys and good support from Stephen Coors of Trinity even if you didn't buy anything from him.
Even more than a parts guitar, you are NOT going to save money on an amp kit. You'll learn tons and have fun though!
Chip
Trinity Amps has a great reputation and makes 18 Watt and Matchless Lightning kits. They also make a Tweed Deluxe kit, but if that's what you want you can't beat Mission Amps (is there an echo in here?)
I'm just finishing up a Tweed Princeton/Harvard project. Started with a "kit" from STF Electronics. If you want to build a straight Champ, STF would be fine. I wandered off the standard path and into a bit of a mess. Learned a lot though.
Weber makes great speakers and chassis IMHO. However, some of the components in their "kits" are not always top quality from everything I've read and the support seems to vary. The forum is really hard to use.
Mojo makes great cabs but their kits REALLY are projects, i.e. collections of parts that you have to figure out how to turn into an amp. They do have authorized dealers like STF who provide support.
There are three great forums out there that I know of (and certainly others I haven't found yet):
Hoffman Fender oriented, traditional but very helpful
AX84 really neat projects for "simple" amps
18 Watt not as friendly for newbies like me, but lots of good info. You can learn a lot from the discussions and schematics of all the 18 Watt variations.
Oh, Trinity has a forum that's not so active, but great guys and good support from Stephen Coors of Trinity even if you didn't buy anything from him.
Even more than a parts guitar, you are NOT going to save money on an amp kit. You'll learn tons and have fun though!
Chip
Re: Thinking about building my own tube amp....
I like Stephen at Trinity. He's a very nice guy. I will warn you on shipping times from Canada. He ships Canada Post and then it gets handled by the US Mail when it hits the states. Shipping is painfully slow. If you're not in a hurry, his stuff is very nice.
I like Stephen at Trinity. He's a very nice guy. I will warn you on shipping times from Canada. He ships Canada Post and then it gets handled by the US Mail when it hits the states. Shipping is painfully slow. If you're not in a hurry, his stuff is very nice.
