Recommendations please

samshive

Hi Guys

I've decided that I need a valve amp. But rather than buying one, I am thinking of buying a kit and assembling it. Or maybe do something even more challenging and buy components and try and build something from scratch (getting circuit diagrams and stuff from the internet, of course).

I think technically it should be something that is doable, but I am trying to decide if the effort is worth it. Can someone that has assembled an amp from a kit please comment. Were you happy with the end result?

Also have any of you guys done something like build an amp from scratch before? How much effort was it.

Or should I rather just leave it to the professionals and just buy an amp?

So my implicit assumption is that it will be cheaper to do it this way, but that might be wrong as well.

Anyway, I'm just posting here because I thought I would ask people with more experience than me about this.

Thanks in advance for your responses.

Au revoir

Gearhead

Hi, before I got my work permit in SA I was unable to work and bored. I went through 1000 amp designs before designing on a hybrid between the ones I fancied. I would not have been able to get something useful out without the help of Karel Mars during one of his workshops. You can try your hand at designing and building but there's a lot of knowledge required for good results and to work safely. If you're not going to get pro help, please get yourself a book because on the net there's not enough info in one place for a newbie to find.

There is no significant cost difference between kits and the sum of the components. It is not worth compiling your own kit if you don't know what to look for and selecting components on price alone is a definite no-no. Medium priced kits are many times the price of a second hand small valve amp and cheap kits are not worth the hours you spend. Look for threads on small valve amps on this forum, many posts with good info to be found.

GuitarDoge

I don't necessarily think it will be cheaper building then buying, depends on the valve amp you want(plenty of reasonably priced valve amps around, they make them in bulk, which means they make them far cheaper than you can). IMO building an amp is more for the fun of it and having it to your specs and looking the way you want.

If you've dealt with electronics and DIY by all means look at the options. I just think it would be better to buy an amp then you have far less stresses, you plug your guitar in and it sounds great, especially if it's your first valve amp. ?

RobbieZ

GuitarDoge wrote: I don't necessarily think it will be cheaper building then buying, depends on the valve amp you want(plenty of reasonably priced valve amps around, they make them in bulk, which means they make them far cheaper than you can). IMO building an amp is more for the fun of it and having it to your specs and looking the way you want.

+1. It is not cheaper, but it is a lot of fun. Especially if you enjoy electronics.

I have build a Marshal clone 18W and it sounds very good. There is a few things that I would like to change, so I started with a second one. This one is designed from the ground up. It is not as difficult as it might sound.

However, I have to agree with Gearhead, a basic understanding of electronics is needed to design one from scratch. There is excellent books out there that can guide you in doing this.

To conclude: If you want to save money, it is not worth it. If you want to have fun in building your own and then hearing what your handiwork sounds like, it is a definite YES.

Attila

Hi Samshive,

If needed please help yourself to some useful reading material off my dropbox archive

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fjcsuw9pt7i4lyv/AADp18-qh7MImesB7YvGPPQIa/Tube%20amps

Attila

samshive

Thanks for the replies everyone. It is much appreciated. Yes, I am into tinkering with electronics, hence why I wanted to try doing something like this.

And Attila, thanks for the reading material. I will definitely go through it.

ezietsman

samshive wrote: I think technically it should be something that is doable, but I am trying to decide if the effort is worth it. Can someone that has assembled an amp from a kit please comment. Were you happy with the end result?

I've built 3 amps from kits now (2 for myself and one for Singemonkey). They're all really really sweet-sounding amps and I wouldn't part with them unless I'm replacing them with the same again ?

Decent kits will come with good instructions on how to build your amp SAFELY, NEATLY and in a robust way. If you are not good with soldering you need to practice. Cold solder joints are a major issue when doing amps as you are soldering relatively large things together (as opposed to small things on a printed circuit board). I would advise you to build an overdrive pedal first. If you can manage that in a neat way then you should be able to construct an amp.

Don't go with a scratch build for the first one (unless you're an electronics expert) and get a decent kit. They're not cheap and you need to factor in speakers and cabinets and shipping for all the above. I think my 5E3 with cab and tolex and speaker and shipping came out to about R10k and I didn't pay for the shipping of the kit as I got it while on a work trip to the US.

Also, think carefully what kind of amp you want. Most kits are of vintage-styled amps and mostly the low wattage amps too. This is great because the old, small amps drive easily and you get authentic sounds. The downside is that if you actually wanted a mesa boogie, building may well not be worth it. Also, the more complicated the amp the more difficult it is to troubleshoot any problems. For this reason I would advise you to build something simple for your first one, think Marshall 18 watt or Fender 5E3.

Here's the threads of my builds:

http://www.guitarforum.co.za/amps-speakers-and-valves/one-small-step-at-a-time-or-my-18-watt-marshall-build/
http://www.guitarforum.co.za/amps-speakers-and-valves/new-(f3nd3r)-amp-kit-day!/

Attila

I think the 18 watter but thats just me .....

A tip: would also be if you can scrounge a faulty Marshall even if its a solid state amp .... what you then have is a speaker a cabinet and odds and ends that all add up, and once your amp is up and running you can then tweak with upgraded speakers etc.....

Gearhead

ez wrote: if you actually wanted a mesa boogie, building may well not be worth it

That level of quality is actually quite hard to get to... plus the newer Mesa Engineering stuff is as complicated as the name suggests.

Stoner-Riff

GuitarDoge wrote: I don't necessarily think it will be cheaper building then buying, depends on the valve amp you want(plenty of reasonably priced valve amps around, they make them in bulk, which means they make them far cheaper than you can).

IMO building an amp is more for the fun of it and having it to your specs and looking the way you want.

If you've dealt with electronics and DIY by all means look at the options. I just think it would be better to buy an amp then you have far less stresses, you plug your guitar in and it sounds great, especially if it's your first valve amp. ?

YUP, it deff depends on the amp the OP wants.

I am pretty sure that you can get a kit wayyy cheaper than a REAL vintage JTM-45, or a 5E3 amp.
(...just to name two very popular amp kits. Then i am not even talking about the Bassman, 5F4, 5F1, and, and, and kits. I wonder how much a REAL Fender 4X10 Bassman [from 1959] will cost you in SA [if there is one in SA], now that i think about it)

In fact, i have never seen either one of those amps come up on the 2nd hand market in SA :'(

PS : there are some BRILLIANT kits out there today :

Frenzel amps
Little Dawg amps
Ceriatone

. . . to name a few.

Hope this helps.

samshive

Much appreciated Stoner Riff and ez for the recommendations and insight.