Can we talk about books?

[skyboltone]

I've relied mostly on the tube manual for my understanding of these circuits. I know there are lots of guitar amp books out there, some of which cost in the hundreds of bucks by the time you get them all.

I don't need any remedial work on ohms law, power supplies and how a tube works kind of stuff. I want to know more about tone stacks, following tone through the amp, PI relative merits, those kinds of things.

What do you all recommend?

PRR, have you written anything??

Thanks in advance
Dan H

[Johnhenry]

I liked an old book by Jack Darr that describe's each part of the circuit, KOC's first book describe's the pre and power section's very well, but i don't think i've ever seen 1 book that cover's it all, I like the old book's for the reason they show you the math and method's for testing most of the amp, they show you the analog way of amp testing,
I say buy as many book's as you can, old or new !
Johnhenry

[drhulsey]

I know there are lots of guitar amp books out there...

Dan, I've found a lot of interesting books at this site. They're all FREE and downloadable
http://www.pmillett.com/tecnical_books_online.htm
Dan Torres' book, Inside Tube Amps is also a good one.
You may already be familiar with these. If so, pretend I said nothing

[PRR]

> I don't need any remedial work on ohms law

If so, you are far-far ahead of many good amp builders. I feel that being able to quick-estimate dozens of voltages and currents in a strange plan in a few seconds is a key asset, and increasingly rare. It is no different than being able to predict some possible chord/melody values from a strange song's intro, something all good musicians do without thought (and I can't).

> I've relied mostly on the tube manual

The back of RCA and similar tube handbooks really has 9/10ths of what you need to know. But it can be so terse that it takes decades to digest.

Also: Radiotron Designers Manual.

Only 3 or 4 chapters are pertinent; there's a lot of radio-stuff you don't need.

3rd edition is fine; the monster 4th has 99% the same material and 300% more, but wanders off the main highway a lot.

It would be very worth owning a paper-copy of the 3rd and keeping it by bed, toilet, or wherever you do your best reading.

Also significant: a 1927 paper from Bell Labs. I have not found it on the web. If I get hyper-bored I'll scan my copy and post it. Most of what we need to know, and have lost, was explained there. (Likewise loudspeaker thought has declined since a 1920s Bell Labs paper explained everything you need to know. The great men of the 1940s knew these papers as Common Knowledge. The post-1960 generation has forgotten more than they ever knew.)

[fabiomayo]

keeping it by bed, toilet, or wherever you do your best reading.

So funny! Sadly, that's where my books hang most of the time

Also significant: a 1927 paper from Bell Labs. I have not found it on the web. If I get hyper-bored I'll scan my copy and post it. Most of what we need to know, and have lost, was explained there. (Likewise loudspeaker thought has declined since a 1920s Bell Labs paper explained everything you need to know. The great men of the 1940s knew these papers as Common Knowledge. The post-1960 generation has forgotten more than they ever knew.)

That would be terrific.

[briane]

Also significant: a 1927 paper from Bell Labs. I have not found it on the web. If I get hyper-bored I'll scan my copy and post it. Most of what we need to know, and have lost, was explained there.

I'd love to see that too.

ever hear of a karlson cabinet? I think I am going to build one just to see what it can do.

[skyboltone]

> I don't need any remedial work on ohms law

If so, you are far-far ahead of many good amp builders. I feel that being able to quick-estimate dozens of voltages and currents in a strange plan in a few seconds is a key asset, and increasingly rare. It is no different than being able to predict some possible chord/melody values from a strange song's intro, something all good musicians do without thought (and I can't).

37 year career in Electrical work, process control, and procedure writing for the dreaded paper and petroleum industries.

[skyboltone]

Just ordered a 3rd addition from Amazon used. It's actually

Radiotron Designers Handbook

There are quite a few copies around.

Dan H

[Ears]

It's also worth grabbing Frederick Terman's Radio Engineer's Handbook 1943 or even his later Electronic and Radio Engineering 1955 as good general tube texts.
Richard

[benoit]

What about for someone who is not so well versed in electronics? Is KOC's basic electronics book any good? I've read through some of the NEETS stuff, and I have the Tab guide to electonics or whatever its called, but all those books seem like they assume you know some things I DON'T, because I always get stuck somewhere or other and rereading doesn't seem to help. I'll have to go back to some of that stuff though, because I usually do seem to get a little more out of it each time I look at it.

[Ears]

Has Dan H checked out Kevin O'Connor's series? http://www.londonpower.com/books.htm
It seems as though they cover the areas he's wanting - comparisons of different approaches, systems etc and they are specific to guitar amps and PA. I have the first of the five volumes of "The Ultimate Tone", it's good although in my opinion it would be better with MORE math rather than less, as words just aren't as succinct. I might yet invest in further volumes to add to RD4 and Terman.
Suggest Benoit check our whatever titles local colleges use as first year texts.
Richard

[lastwinj]

ever hear of a karlson cabinet? I think I am going to build one just to see what it can do.

great for HIFI.

germ

[skyboltone]

Has Dan H checked out Kevin O'Connor's series? http://www.londonpower.com/books.htm
It seems as though they cover the areas he's wanting - comparisons of different approaches, systems etc and they are specific to guitar amps and PA. I have the first of the five volumes of "The Ultimate Tone", it's good although in my opinion it would be better with MORE math rather than less, as words just aren't as succinct. I might yet invest in further volumes to add to RD4 and Terman.
Suggest Benoit check our whatever titles local colleges use as first year texts.
Richard

That was more or less what the original question addressed. I've seen series books like that (in other subjects) and find they are mostly restatements of the original theme. That series is expensive in my estimation and it would have to be indespensible to pay that kind of money. Buying the first one makes sense though if he covers the core ideas of chasing tone through the amp.

Weber, though much maligned around here for some reason, has a regular column in "Vintage Guitar". He seems pretty well informed in that venue, though he's aiming at the casual player/tech rather than designer. I might go for one of his, but again, how much is he going to tell me about tube changing and chasing down an open fuse?

Dan H

[Ears]

Dan wrote

> I find they are mostly restatements of the original theme.

Perhaps O'Conners is but I can't say, I haven't seen the other volumes. But it, as I guess Weber is too, right on the subject you're interested and he has many comparisons along with straight up reasons why he prefers this to that.

>That series is expensive in my estimation and it would have to be indespensible to pay that kind of money.

I put it off for a long while, but gee, what price do you put on knowledge, for the price of a few hours work you receive focused knowledge that would take you hundreds if not thousands of hours to accumulate yourself.

Anyway, it's about US $65 in your neck of the woods - by the time it gets here to Australia and NewZealand it has basically doubled, O'Connor charges about US $60 to send it here. I still didn't feel I'd wasted my money even though our average income in dollar terms is below US rates .

> Buying the first one makes sense though if he covers the core ideas of chasing tone through the amp.

Book 1 has a great section on switching topologies and techniques!

Richard

[skyboltone]

Thanks Richard:
I'll take a look at number one. It's either that or find out where PRR lives and move next door.