I've looked online at maybe a dozen or so pre-assembled amp kits. I've been consistently surprised by the price some companies are asking. Stew Mac, just as an example... their Princeton Reverb Kit costs $1,004.10. You can buy a brand new actual Fender Reverb amp for $999.99.
I have a whole woodworking shop, and love to build cabinets. So... setting aside all the wood, grill cloth, tolex, etc. etc. don't you guys think one could buy the caps, resistors, tubes, sockets, pots and jacks to built a Princeton Reverb for much less than $1k?
I have a whole woodworking shop, and love to build cabinets. So... setting aside all the wood, grill cloth, tolex, etc. etc. don't you guys think one could buy the caps, resistors, tubes, sockets, pots and jacks to built a Princeton Reverb for much less than $1k?
Guitar Amp questions often are posted at:
Instruments & Amps threads of diyAudio.
This is Tubes / Valves threads of diyAudio.
A Hi Fi Amp kit or Stereo Amp kit is probably not what you want.
Instruments & Amps threads of diyAudio.
This is Tubes / Valves threads of diyAudio.
A Hi Fi Amp kit or Stereo Amp kit is probably not what you want.
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I designed and built my own from scratch.
I designed a pcb rather than point to point wiring.
Came out well and sounded great.
The expensive bits are transformers and valves.
I designed a pcb rather than point to point wiring.
Came out well and sounded great.
The expensive bits are transformers and valves.
If the kit to you is just a box of parts, then you can probably save money buying loose parts. The downside is you have to find each part and order it from somewhere. Maybe all from one source, but likely from multiple sources. That takes time and multiple shipping fees. The kit will have everything. On your own, you have to think of every part you will need. HAte to get it half built only to discover you overlooked the 220k resistors, or you got the wrong tube sockets.
Kits are not really aimed at experienced techs. Oh maybe, if someone asked me to build their kit for them, but in general I have my own commercial shop and decades of experience, so I am not in the market. But for someone who has never built an amp or maybe one, a kit is a convenient way to get everything in a box, and depending upon the kit maker, assembly instructions. I could, and many do, make my own eyelet board for a Fender build, but for the novice, the eyelet layout might be a challenge. If you were to build a clone of an older model with a selenium rectifier in the bias supply, would you know what was an appropriate part for that? The kit would.
A kit is not made to save you money, any more than buying all the parts and building your own Buick would save money. A kit is a convenient way to get everything to build your own. You get the opportunity to learn something and to take some pride in the accomplishment.
If you just want an amp, buy one. If you are an experienced tech and want to build something, go for it. A kit is for someone with limited background but wants to give it a try.
Kits are not really aimed at experienced techs. Oh maybe, if someone asked me to build their kit for them, but in general I have my own commercial shop and decades of experience, so I am not in the market. But for someone who has never built an amp or maybe one, a kit is a convenient way to get everything in a box, and depending upon the kit maker, assembly instructions. I could, and many do, make my own eyelet board for a Fender build, but for the novice, the eyelet layout might be a challenge. If you were to build a clone of an older model with a selenium rectifier in the bias supply, would you know what was an appropriate part for that? The kit would.
A kit is not made to save you money, any more than buying all the parts and building your own Buick would save money. A kit is a convenient way to get everything to build your own. You get the opportunity to learn something and to take some pride in the accomplishment.
If you just want an amp, buy one. If you are an experienced tech and want to build something, go for it. A kit is for someone with limited background but wants to give it a try.
If you want to listen to sports talk radio, put your amp in a wood box.
If you want to listen to guitar, put the high gain stages, at least in a steel box. Put a small disc cap across the input, and a toroid choke series or a IEC line cord filter on the AC input. Then you can listen to what you want, not what the highest power AM broadcasters are putting out. See how they treat the AC power coming in a flat screen tv. In fact salvage that whole filter board if you have access to a dead flat screen TV. (like finding one on the curb on garbage day). The case can be sawed up, the screen can be folded up & put in the garbage. Wear safety glasses & wear leather or kevlar gloves doing that.
If you want to listen to guitar, put the high gain stages, at least in a steel box. Put a small disc cap across the input, and a toroid choke series or a IEC line cord filter on the AC input. Then you can listen to what you want, not what the highest power AM broadcasters are putting out. See how they treat the AC power coming in a flat screen tv. In fact salvage that whole filter board if you have access to a dead flat screen TV. (like finding one on the curb on garbage day). The case can be sawed up, the screen can be folded up & put in the garbage. Wear safety glasses & wear leather or kevlar gloves doing that.
Fender et al (and their offshore partners) buy parts by the *thousands* at least. They've spent many whole days over the years hammering-down bulk purchase contracts. They get parts SO much cheaper than you that they can underpay assembly workers, print boxes, ship to store etc and still undercut your one-off cost with free labor, no box no warranty.
Building is a fun *hobby* and CHEAP (just don't look at the absurd prices of mass production).
If you live for "CHEAP", peek in the back room at a locally owned guitar shop. They fill up with broken amps. Many are only slightly broken. If you pick one, the owner will over-value it "I might salvage the speaker in that". (He never will.) Mark out like 10 square feet of floor space you will clear-out and give him money too. (Remember someday someone will have to pay to have this junk taken to landfill.)
I did some investigative reporting (ha!) and it does look like one could save a bit of money by buying all thee parts ad-hoc and doing it 100% DIY. But... the savings would be so small, you might as well buy a kit. Still agree with @mozz though; Stew Mac's kits are about ~15-20% more expensive than any other kits out there. But... if you have a look through some YouTube videos of people building Stew Mac kits, they do look to be of the highest quality, and the most "correct" in their adherence to the original. For example, the wire Stew Mac includes in their Fender amp kits is that braided cloth "push back" wire that was the thing back in the 60s, and the capacitors and resistors are all supposed to be spot on, just like a hand wired Fender would have been back in the day. Also... the instruction manual Stew Mac put together looks to be second to none. Stew Mac even lets you download their instructional manuals free of charge, even without buying the kit. That surprised the hell out of me, considering how much work went into making it. I've seen them, and they are better than any text book I've ever seen. Mojo Tone is supposed to also have really good kits, but I've heard they come with zero instructions. You just kinda have to know what you're doing. To be honest, I think tube amps can be so dangerous to build for total n00bies, it might be for the best that they expect you to know what you're doing.
I find myself getting into these mental debates with myself quite often when it comes to DIY audio projects. I know that a hand wired, point-to-point Fender Deluxe 5E3 kit would be a much better amp than buying a brand new 2021 PCB Fender Deluxe reissue. I'm also not the kind of guy that would want to try to buy the plastic fender logo, and really try to "pass my clone amp off" as a real Fender amp. Since I am so into woodworking, I think I might try to reach out to Stew Mac to see if they will sell me their amp kit, without the cabinet and chassis. That way I can have the best of both worlds. I can make the amp my own, from an outward aesthetic perspective, but still have the sound of a soft-clipping Neil Young 5E3 Deluxe.
I find myself getting into these mental debates with myself quite often when it comes to DIY audio projects. I know that a hand wired, point-to-point Fender Deluxe 5E3 kit would be a much better amp than buying a brand new 2021 PCB Fender Deluxe reissue. I'm also not the kind of guy that would want to try to buy the plastic fender logo, and really try to "pass my clone amp off" as a real Fender amp. Since I am so into woodworking, I think I might try to reach out to Stew Mac to see if they will sell me their amp kit, without the cabinet and chassis. That way I can have the best of both worlds. I can make the amp my own, from an outward aesthetic perspective, but still have the sound of a soft-clipping Neil Young 5E3 Deluxe.
>Since I am so into woodworking, I think I might try to reach out to Stew Mac to see if they will sell me their amp kit, without the cabinet and chassis.
They have an open position for director of manufacturing, 1/2 of which is their wood shop. That'd be one way to get the amp kit w/o cabinet/chassis ;')
They have an open position for director of manufacturing, 1/2 of which is their wood shop. That'd be one way to get the amp kit w/o cabinet/chassis ;')
I've heard Athens, OH is a really cool college town. Don't tempt me! Ha ha! I'd move to Athens to work for Stew Mac in a heart beat. I'm sure it would be a massive pay cut, but the savings on gear might just balance it out. 🙂
triodelectronics.com has a couple of instrument tube amp kits for $680 with tubes, but no case or speaker. They have others at $730 and $875. TUBE AMP KITS - 5E3, ST70, JTM45, MORE!!!
The $1000 kit is cheap. Do it yourself and you pick up extra parts 'just in case' for te next one. You learn more and find parts that are a bit better than you had and at a not bad price so you pick them up. Soon you have $2000 worth of parts for multiple amps but you have no time to build them.
Not saying how I know.
Not saying how I know.
THAT.
Real World example:
Here in Argentina I pay U$15 for a 12AX7 tube.
That if it´s not a "brand" one such as JJ or Groove Tubes, etc. in which case it might reach U$25.
Fender/Marshall/etc. buy theirs in China from 1.50 to 2.50U$ each, in bulk.
Hey, the Chinese will sell *me* 1000 12AX7 for about U$25000 FOB , then it´s on me the shipping (very cheap coming as consolidated cargo, meaning renting space inside a container, I would never ever use Mail or a Courier for that) and "nationalizing" it (Customs, Tax, etc.) which again is some money but divided by 1000 comes down to cents per tube.