Solid State Guitar Amp Books

[Trepan]

Does anyone know of any solid state guitar amp books that are to solid state as The Tube Amp book is to tube amps?

Thanks!

[Trepan]

Here is a good book I found that others may find interesting.

It covers all of the basics of solid state amp design/construction as well as including about a dozen sample schematics. Two of these schematics are for musical instrument amplifiers of 140 watts. The sample amps in this book are from 50 watt to 550 watt

High-Power Audio Amplifier Construction Manual
by
G. Randy Slone

http://www.amazon.com/High-Power-Aud...9847881&sr=1-1

Also he has another interesting book, though I haven't read it myself. It's called The Audiophile's Project Sourcebook: 80 High-Performance Audio Electronics Projects

http://www.amazon.com/Audiophiles-Pr...9847881&sr=1-4

[teemuk]

Hi Trepan,

there is also "Electric Guitar Amplifier Handbook" by Jack Darr, which covers the basic theory of guitar amplifiers. It's pretty old though - and not very helpful if you want to design moderately good solid state circuits. Practically, it has more use as repair handbook. Some of "The Ultimate Tone":s by Kevin Connor cover some solid state stuff and more importantly circuits like channel switching and tone controls. Craig Anderton's "Elelectric Projects for Musicians" also has some interesting stuff although I would not recommend it as a "design theory" book.

For design theory, books from Randy Slone ("High-Power Audio Amplifier Construction Manual") and Douglas Self ("Power Amplifier Design Handbook") are best I've seen so far when it comes to power amplifiers. See also if you can locate "High Performance Audio Power Amplifiers" by Ben Duncan. Though it's practically not a design theory book, nevertheless very helpful.

For almost any other stuff, nothing can beat a good electronics theory book like "The Art of Electronics" by Horowitz & Hill. You have to learn how to apply those circuits in guitar amp circuits though. Studying (literally) hundreds of guitar (and HiFi) amplifier schematics is also very, very helpful. This can't be stressed enough.

As a side note, I'm currently writing a book about the concerned topic since (like you have probably noticed) there isn't that many of them around and I happen to know at least something about the thing. It's getting ready soon (and at the time is about 270 pages) but what will happen after that is uncertain. It doesn't have a publisher so I might share it in .pdf format and see if I can make money by selling printed copies if the thing ever becomes popular around DIY community. If anyone is interested in "pre-reading" the thing (which involves some work pointing out the grammatical errors, unclearly expressed parts or quirks in the theory) contact me. I'd be most grateful of any help.