Build my own amp?

There are a lot of people who build their own amps, very often from kits. One resource for building from scratch is http://www.ax84.com - they have a couple of low wattage amps.
The thing about building your own is that the basic cost of a 1 watt amp is not drastically different to a 30 watt amp. The major cost of a tube amp comes in the chassis, the transformers and the tubes/sockets.

I'm building a fuzz box right now (pretty simple really), and if you can handle a solder gun and read a schematic, you can build just about anything.

I suggest starting small though. Build yourself a footpedal (tube overdrive, fuzz box, or something else simple like that) just to get a feel for it unless you work with electronics everyday.

So it dont get much cheaper? But then i really have more use of a 1 watt amp then of a 30 watt amp.

I was thinking of this one: http://www.gerhartamps.com/gilmorejr/gilmorejr.htm

$249.00 and then it should be complete. Building it shouldnt be a problem. I have worked with electronics and studied electronics in "highschool".

But maybe i'm better of buying a Peavey classic 30 and forget about power tube saturation at home until i have the chance to crank it somewhere.
I dunno. Have to think about it.

You could buy a Peavey and save for an attenuator (perhaps a Weber), then you can crank it as hard as you want and still not wake up your family

What really dosen't get talked about anywhere but perhaps here is the use of Dummy-loads and attenuators. With either one you can drive a 100 watt tube amp into them and not have to worry about bothering anyone. I use a 100 watt tube amp as a pre-amp then route the signal off into the other equipment. Even pushing five amps it's still all at low volume.

Sure depending on the venue I can still become loud enought to hear me from Sun Devil Stadium by ASU all the way to Mclintock and Don Carlos, Tempe Az. it being 7 to 10 blocks away. thats loud...lol

Joe

Ok. How much does theese attenuators cost? I did a search at local webshops and found a THD Hotplate wich was kind of expensive.

I also found out that there were 2 kinds of attenuator, resistor based and speaker based. Wich one would i choose?

Thanks

is building your own amp from a kit really an option? Pros and cons? Anyone who has tried one and can tell how they sounds?

The low wattage and the money is really thing here. But ofcourse i want it to sound good and "tubey" too.

I just finished building a 5E3 (Think late 50's Fender Tweed Deluxe) from a Weber kit. I do have a fair amount of experience with a soldering iron (think repairing XLR plugs), a basic grasp of electrics and even more basic grasp of electronics, and some general experience with pro audio equipment, but have never built anything of this sort before. It took me somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 hours to finish. I fired it up for the first time last night and it sounds fantastic. Just beautiful. Clean and clear as a bell, minimal hiss until you turn it up to about 11, almost no hum, tone that makes you want to cry, and when you overdrive it tone that makes you not ashamed to cry in public.

Pro's? By putting in the work yourself you get a hand built, point to point wired tube amp for the (retail) price of the parts. I don't know for sure, but I bet if I tried to buy what I built retail I'd be paying somewhere around $1,200. And when you get it done you'll be strutting around like a high school quarterback/prom king for at least (let me look at my watch) 19 and a half hours.

Cons? It'll still cost you a fair amount of money. My kit cost $555, shipped. This included everything (cab, chassis, circuit board, speaker, power transformer, output trans, switches, pots, jacks, sockets, tubes, resistors, capacitors, and the cord to plug into the wall). But I decided to upgrade by using premium switches, pots, jacks, tubes, capacitors and a pretty Fender style pilot lamp. That and some solder, and when all's said and done I think I ended up spending around $700. Also, you really have to be pretty meticulous - it's not like it's brain surgery or anything, but you have to take your time and be neat and clean about everything. Oh, and you've got to be careful, 'cause once you've got it built if you need to trouble shoot you've got to know how not to electrocute yourself 'cause there's heart stopping voltage inside the chassis.

And, if you screw up you've got nobody to blame (or ask for your money back from) but yourself.

I have a 1w tube amp that I bought, which is pretty nice. I can't speak for the sound quality of all the possiblilties out there, but the 1w I have sounds pretty good, and as for building it yourself, if you feel up to it I'd say go for it.

Great information there quarterfront. I will build my own amp someday, but that project is laid one ice now after i discovered this thing:

2 watts tube head with built in attenuator! It's cheap too!
Just hopes it sounds good.

i built my own amp recently, 18 watt marshall plexi. Sounds unreal, cost me about a grand for everything. I spent a lot of time working on the cab, you cant tell its not a vintage marshall. check out this site,

http://www.18watt.com

It comes down to a simple equation:

1) you can build a far better amp than you can by for the same amount of money. Depending on your access to electronics supplies, knowledge level, and collection of tools you can save from 30-50% of the cost of a similar new amp.

2) you get absolutely no warranty coverage or protection against your own stupidity. It is possible to seriously damage the rest of your gear and kill yourself if you don't know what you're doing.

In my experience, most people over-rate point 1 and underestimate the implications of point 2. Dollar signs are hard to resist.

However, I am an advocate for do-it-yourselfers. But don't start with an amp. Start with a foot switch. Then maybe a phantom power supply. Then maybe a pre-amp. THEN do a full blown class-A. Get enough experience so that you don't hurt your gear, or worse, yourself.