advice for a new amp builder

[blueman61]

hi,

I'm new to this forum and feel lucky I found it. I've been playing, teaching and gigging a long time (38 years), build my own guitars and speaker cabs (thank you Kevin O'Connor!!) , do fretwork, finishing, basic soldering and other stuff like that. I'm also lucky in that I have a full woodworking shop and a VERY tolerant and understanding wife of 30+ years. I'm about to venture into my first amp build and could use the advice of some of you more experienced folks. As a background, I can read the individual components on a schematic, but still have trouble following the signal flow and doubt that I could create my own layout from one. I like Fenders alot, but lean towards Marshalls I do feel quite confident that I could follow a good layout drawing though. I am very meticulous and have a very healthy rspect for the voltage(s) in a tube amp. I've read books by Tom Mitchell (OK, but limited for a guy like me) Dan Torres (some OK info, but very disorganized for a novice), Kevin O'Connor- TUT1&3, Tonnes of Tone and Speaker Cab (Built some of the cabs..really sound good. The other stuff is either too basic or way over my head) Tino Zottola Vols. 1&2 , and some basic electronics books. I continue to work at my basic knowledge, but I live in an isolated area and there's literally no one around to help or answer questions.
........Anyway I was thinking about doing one of the following: building Tino Zottola's Champ or Deluxe (step by step, pretty clear, parts list, but no board sizes, champ uses terminal strips [ don't know about that, would rather use a board], and his 5E3 looks very crowded to me,) a Marshall TMB, A Marshall 18 watt lite, a Fender 5F4 tweed super (Ceriatone??) or the holy Grail (for me), a Twreck Express (had one made for me off of a schematic on the Blueguitar website that was a miserable, awful tone disaster. lots of wasted bucks, but I do have some good parts...trannys etc.)
After reading some on this site, I have ruled out Weber (want all top shelf components), would really like to do the board from scratch ( for the experience) however I don't really want to punch the chassis (will if I have to though ... those Greenlees are very pricey). Ceriatone looks really good as does Turretboards.com.
I'd truly appreciate any suggestions, admonitions, advice, prayers and other types of feedback from you folks on where and what to begin with. Sorry for the long ramble, I'll try to be more focused next time. Once again, I'm really glad I found this site. Looking forward to hearing back from some of you.

regards,
blueman61

[andrew]

Brownnote.net is a fun site and offers kits.

[tonezoneonline]

You could get a suitable chassis from Weber or Mojo Tone and follow the layout from the Weber amp kit page using top shelf components.
Mike
http://www.tonezoneonline.com

[Mickey_C]

I agree that either Brown Note or Mojo will get you where you're looking to go. Since BN is on most of the boards, you'll never be too far away from solid advice... I don't see the Mojo guys hanging out online much (but hey, they build one hell of a lot of stuff, pretty busy).

[rfgordon]

Ken at www.turretboards.com has lots of boards that can be used to build really nice, fairly simple amps. I use his stuff often--good guy, good quality.

[David Root]

I've used the Mojotone pre-punched chassis (BF Deluxe and BF Princeton reverb) and they are fine. The BFDR chassis front panel tends to warp inward from the front. They are riveted, not welded like the originals, but the punching is accurate. It can be beaten out more or less straight with a hammer.

You don't need chassis punches on aluminum. I have been using 1/8" thick T6 aluminum blank chassis from a source on this forum (Allyn Meyers, take a bow). If you have a 16" floor standing drill press and/or a GOOD 3/8" hand drill, a Unibit makes it duck soup. Apparently, Forstner bits work OK in aluminum too, you no doubt have a set of those, but I've not tried them myself. IMO, 1/8" T6 is the best, roadworthy, and as Mick Jagger would say, "tuff, tuff, tuff!"

[statorvane]

Well, if this is your first amp, I am surprised no one has suggested the fine SE amp kits and support @ AX84.com. There are several SE amp projects there with kits to go with them, schematics, layouts, mods... There are options available where the Doberman folks (AX84 is hosted by Doberman Amplifiers) will pre-punch your chassis (a real labor saver IMHO).

I built their P1 eXtreme from scratch, and put it into a KomboKing Fender style chassis. .. added reverb, tremolo... Had a lot of fun and it is a great player at a modest volume. Here's a few pictures.. http://s165.photobucket.com/albums/u76/JKCavitt/ Chassis photos are in a sub-album there. Anyway, the P1 eXtreme is a pretty versatile amp - designed to accept a wide variety of octal power tubes. I currently use EL34 or 6L6GC - the 6L6 gives that Fender sound, the EL34 more of an edge to it. They are nowhere near a Trainwreck/Pileup/etc. territory though.

Good luck. I find that the the fun of building and powering up the first time... great.

[Raja]

Hi blueman61,
Check out Hoffman's site, lot's of great info for the newb in all of us.

http://www.el34world.com/schematics.htm

This page shows the flow chart of the average amp.

http://www.el34world.com/charts/currentflow.htm

Raja

[blueman61]

Hi guys,

Thanks for all the helpful replies. I've checked everything out and have decided to go with building the champ found in Tino Zottola's first book. It's basically a "cookbook" with several recipies. Buy using that I think I'll get a better sense of the assembly order. Then I can start doing some things I really want to do like Kevin O'Connor's Plexi 5100, a Fender Tweed Super, an Express...the list goes on.
BTW, I agree there's a lot of great stuff on all these sites you guys mention (love that Brownnote 18 watt lite kit). I've been on 'em all and am a relentless searcher for ideas, parts, etc. I found a great site for PVC wire called Powerwerx. Don't know if this is old news or not but they have 600 volt/105 degree wire in reasonable amounts (100ft) in every color/gauge for reasonable prices. Raja, I second your endorsement of Doug's site. I remember when he used to do the board kits himself and would build almost anything for you at ridiculously low prices. I have had about four of my amps rebuilt by him over the years (starting back in '97). Every one was/is great!

Anyway, the forum looks like a great place for advice, info and just general discussion. I'm optimistic about my first project, but time will tell. I may have to yell for help. Thanks again.

Regards,
blueman61

[Bumcat]

Hey blueman
Im new at this deal too. What i used to start was old tube radios as parts for tube amps are near impossible to get here in Iceland. After stripping it down I end up with a power transformer, tube rectifier, output transformer, prepunced chassis, tube soccets and if Im lucky a usable power tube for the price of two happy meals. From there on it´s not hard to build a champ styled amp.
Good Luck
Tommi