Building Tube Amps As Business (repost from Careers)

Which amps do you have in the music stores? If they are under 20 watts, this will probably hinder sales, as most players that are willing to part with the cash for a hand-built amp that will walk into a regular music store play in a band, and will need enough power to achieve sufficient stage volume when playing alongside a drummer and bassist, and also possibly another guitarist and/or keyboardist. I've found that 20 watts through two 12's is about the minimum rig one needs from my personal experience in a 5-piece blues band with two guitarists and a horn player.

As to marketing the lower-powered amps, you might want to try Craigs' List and/or E-Bay. They would be a more likely avenue to reach a wider number and range of people that might be interested in that niche. I've also found that playing in a band yourself and using the amps you build is a great marketing tool, as any venue with live music attracts local players to check out the bands. An unusual (and great-sounding) amp will attract guitarists to you like a magnet, and you'll find yourself answering questions about your rig and handing out business cards like mad between sets. Word of mouth is still the best advertising there is.

Although I've played with the idea of building an all-octal tube amp, I've decided for now to put that idea on the back burner, as my mission in building amps is to build them with working players in mind, and current octal tube suppliers still in existence are very few, and their offerings are not anywhere near the quality and performance of the old US-made types. NOS tubes suffer from inconsistent quality and availability. I want the working musician to be able to obtain replacements as easily as possible, especially since they may be on the road in a strange town and be stuck with whatever the local music shop has on hand. This also translates into a consistent and reliable sound, which also is a great help to working guitarists.

Cheers!

Strat

I agree with stratman, although I am in the process of building an all octal guitar amp to see how it sounds.

My current project is a Precision PA amp that used some very expensive tubes: 7688's ($25 each), 6EU7's ($18 each) and 6C4 ($8). The amp came without the 7868's, and the 6EU7's turned out to be bad. I decided to switch to 12AX7's for the reason stratman stated ... they are great tubes that are available everywhere.

I bought new 7868's, instead of switching to 6L6's, so that the amp would have a unique sound (something like an Ampeg Portaflex, which is a great amp).

The current issue is the amp head. Originally it is a thick steel chassis in a steel box that's been spray painted two colors. It's built like a tank!

My target customer is the owner of the local guitar shop that has several of my homemade amps on consignment. He plays jazz and wants something portable with plenty of clean headroom and power. At 32 watts, this might be just right. I could put the amp into a new aluminum chassis in a classy tweed combo, but I thought it might be a good idea to let him see and try the amp first. After all, a gigging musician might like an amp that can handle the road!

Also, the amp looks strange, which might be a good thing. If people ask, he could brag about the teflon caps and the unique circuitry I used. Teflon caps are way better than paper-in-oil ... we're talking high-end HiFi!

For me, designing unique amps is cool!

The first Testament MK-I is all but finished, with the exception of the name-badge and the control markings. This is the Testament MK-I, a 20 watt, single channel, all-tube, hand-built amplifier. This one is housed in a tweed-covered mini-head-size cabinet, and features a triple-chromed chassis and black chicken-head knobs.

This amp also features custom heavy duty transformers and ceramic tube sockets with tube shields for the preamp tubes and tube retainers for the power tubes. The MK-I may be had covered in many different coverings and colors.

The Testament MK-I uses all Groove Tubes®, and the tube compliment is 2 Groove Tubes® Gold Series GT-ECC83's in the preamp and phase inverter, driving a matched duet of Groove Tubes® GT-EL84S power tubes in a cathode-biased output circuit, with a rear-panel impedance selector with the ability to match 4, 8, or 16 ohm loads.

Front panel controls are, from left to right, red power indicator light, AC Power On-Off toggle switch, Standby-On toggle switch, Tone control, Volume control, and 1/4-inch input jack.

Rear panel features are, from left to right, heavy-duty grounded AC power cord, fuseholder, 3-position heavy-duty rotary Impedance switch (4-8-16 ohms) and 2 1/4-inch speaker jacks.

Here are some crude pictures of the Testament MK-I I took with my crappy webcam.

[EDIT] I've changed out the pictures for some better ones[/EDIT]

The amps' dimensions are 14.5"W x 9 3/4"H x 8 1/4"D

Cheers!

Strat