DIY Guitar amp

[AutoAudio]

I know absolutely nothing about guitar amps, and i've never even played a guitar. A buddy of mine said he wanted to build one though and I was like well if it involves an amp, a driver and a box, i'm always in. So I though't I'd just ask and see if anyone has ever done it or knows good sites about it. Thanks.

Bruce

[Nigel Goodwin]

Have a look at Elliott Sound Products which should be of help, and he even sells PCB's for it!.

[bubbamc119]

Check out www.ax84.com for various tube guitar amp designs. I'm about to build the P1 extreme.

[amperex]

Most musicians prefer tube type designs (bass players are an exception).

Stay with tubes. Careful of the high voltages required for tubes.

[Nigel Goodwin]

Originally posted by amperex
Most musicians prefer tube type designs (bass players are an exception).

A lot depends what you want, valve/tube amplifiers give the type of distortion some guitarists want - in particular lead guitarists playing heavy metal.

If you want a clean sound, transistor amps are far better.

Valve/tube amps are generally louder though, distorted sound appears louder than a clean sound - and a distorted 30W valve amplifier will appear as loud as a clean 100W transistor amplifier (if not louder?).

Most bass players don't want a distorted sound, so they tend not to use valve amps! - although some still prefer it?.

[BobEllis]

Another reason bassists tend to prefer solid state amps is we need a lot more power than a guitarist for the same apparent volume down low. A 100W tube amp is heavy enough. Can you imagine the weight of the iron required to hit 500-1,000W? Lugging our cabs around is tough enough.

Many bassists like tube preamps for a little soft edge distortion, but most go for solid state power.

there are many sites offering guitar amp projects. Google is your friend. Duncan amps comes to mind.

For a quick and dirty project, string a couple of opamp gain stages together followed by the straight amplifier of your choice. Use one variable gain stage say 1-10V/v, as your "drive" control with another gain of 5 V/v following. this ought to give enough drive for most amps.

You can add a tone stack of your choice. IIRC, Duncan has a calculator (Google tone+stack+calculator) to offer more flexibility.

Have fun!

[Peter M.]

Some links:
http://www.diyguitaramp.com/tech.html
www.tubesandmore.com
http://myweb.absa.co.za/g.landry/uTube2.htm
http://www.dogstar.dantimax.dk/tubestuf/index.htm

[Ahmad_tbp]

who said bassists don like tube sound ?! lol , anyone will love tube sound , but ofcourse solidstate for power amp :P
i think it s a very big mistake if u don go for a atleast a tube preamp , i suggest the REAL McTUBE preamp , it s a very simple tube preamp with one 12ax7 ( u can find it in www.tonepad.com ) ,and u can use marshall or fender tone control circuit w a buffer w it , and for driver JUST go for a real guitar driver not any PA driver , check celestion and eminence site for guitar drivers

[gtrmac]

Check out these websites:

Mojo Musical Supply

Ted Weber

They have kits for the popular tube guitar amps.

[Nordic]

I think its just a sign of the times, concerts and venues these days are larger. My dad was a drummer for 25 years, so you can say I grew up between pieces of band equipment. And the best bass amps to my ears are the Peavey valve amps. If memeory serves right they are good for a solid 100W. Which coupled with the high sensitivity drivers they used produced oodles of clean bass, the only distortion, was the silly hum much of the old equipment made...