Here's the thing, if you go and copy that Bassman, it won't sound the same as the one you have. That's the yin/yang problem with building guitar amps - everything in there is intended to produce "tone". Read "tone" = "distortions". Different parts of the same value = different tone in a guitar amp.
Folks do go an build their own guitar amps, which is fine.
There are some sites, iirc, that have people who are into building guitar amps, but I can't recall what they are called right now since I don't frequent them.
I'd suggest that you're better off modding or rebuilding a known amp into another package over building one from scratch - but there's really no difference between building a tube hi-fi amp and a guitar amp except for a few mechanical details (like tube sockets with tube hold-downs). So, if you can build a tube amp or preamp, you can build a guitar amp.
As far as the cabinet is concerned, guitar speaker cabs are generally just boxes to hold the speakers that are strong enough to get bounced around. Most are not tuned, and in general guitar speakers are designed to work with an open back cabinet. So, to that extent it's mostly aesthetics.
Unless you have time & tools to do the job(s), it's really difficult to pull off, and you won't save a dime over a commercially built amp/speaker combo. You will have something that reflects *you* and that you know a lot about and how it works, and that you can show off. But you can tweak it and perhaps get it closer to what you want than otherwise - or you might find that it is an extremely frustrating exercise in futility and the thing never behaves like it is supposed to!
There are all sorts of guitar amp schematics out on the web - I'd start there. Try to see what each one does differently, and what the circuits look like - you'll start to see that there is surprisingly little difference between the schematics of an awful lot of amps - which leads one to scratch the head and wonder why they sound so different!
_-_-bear
Folks do go an build their own guitar amps, which is fine.
There are some sites, iirc, that have people who are into building guitar amps, but I can't recall what they are called right now since I don't frequent them.
I'd suggest that you're better off modding or rebuilding a known amp into another package over building one from scratch - but there's really no difference between building a tube hi-fi amp and a guitar amp except for a few mechanical details (like tube sockets with tube hold-downs). So, if you can build a tube amp or preamp, you can build a guitar amp.
As far as the cabinet is concerned, guitar speaker cabs are generally just boxes to hold the speakers that are strong enough to get bounced around. Most are not tuned, and in general guitar speakers are designed to work with an open back cabinet. So, to that extent it's mostly aesthetics.
Unless you have time & tools to do the job(s), it's really difficult to pull off, and you won't save a dime over a commercially built amp/speaker combo. You will have something that reflects *you* and that you know a lot about and how it works, and that you can show off. But you can tweak it and perhaps get it closer to what you want than otherwise - or you might find that it is an extremely frustrating exercise in futility and the thing never behaves like it is supposed to!
There are all sorts of guitar amp schematics out on the web - I'd start there. Try to see what each one does differently, and what the circuits look like - you'll start to see that there is surprisingly little difference between the schematics of an awful lot of amps - which leads one to scratch the head and wonder why they sound so different!
_-_-bear
Yeah, I had thought for some time of building an amp from scratch, but I actually found a complete, factory Fender Bassman Reissue chassis in a repair shop, so there was nothing I had to do with it except replace the old power cord with one that's grounded (and disable the ground switch.) Right now all I'm trying to do is find a box to put the chassis in.
http://web.archive.org/web/20040605140224/www.rhsdesign.com/fender51/59supercab.htm
I found old link from my machine, it did not work and tried way back machine, only text is available (there was nice pics of old fender amp cabinet building), I posted it anyway because some maybe useful info in the text I believe
Maybe similar info can be found, keep searchin
Some pics are still visible, surf to tweed city (left links) -> go to the cabinet stage (bottom of the page)
I found old link from my machine, it did not work and tried way back machine, only text is available (there was nice pics of old fender amp cabinet building), I posted it anyway because some maybe useful info in the text I believe
Maybe similar info can be found, keep searchin
Some pics are still visible, surf to tweed city (left links) -> go to the cabinet stage (bottom of the page)
Try here for tweed and tolex covering: www.usspeaker.com
Also: http://www.18watt.com/ or: http://p210.ezboard.com/bampworkshop
Good luck with your project!
Regards,
Jarno.
Also: http://www.18watt.com/ or: http://p210.ezboard.com/bampworkshop
Good luck with your project!
Regards,
Jarno.
You may want to check-out this web site for Avatar speakers. It might give you some ideas, plus their prices are so reasonable you might want to buy one from Avatar. They do carry a pretty broad selection of instrument raw speakers, too. They did have some nice deals on some Celestion bass speakers. http://www.avatarspeakers.com/
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.