Best book/pdf to learn about making/repairing tube amps

[BoomTexan]

I've taken some minor electrical engineering classes and am pretty interested in learning tube amp design. Could be a way to make a little money during college or something, and it sounds fun to me. Plus, I've always wondered about how these amps that I play for so many hours every week work.

Does anyone have any suggestions for books or something to learn how tube amps work? At the moment, I'd rather read about it, take notes and plot one out maybe, and then actually build one, so I'm not really looking for a kit at the moment.

 

[guitar_paul1]

How Tubes Work

How Vacuum Tubes Work

robrobinette.com

http://www.alltubetesters.com/articles/how_tubes_work.pdf

If you can find one with the schematics included, Jack Darr's Electric Guitar Amplifier Handbook is a great resource.
Pittman and Weber's books have a lot of good schematics and discussion, but also a little bit of hype.

Looking at a variety of schematics, a lot of common themes show up.

 

[blues bondsman]

A great book with solid bedrock information on amps and components is "How to Hot rod your Fender Amp".
Yes it's Fender specific, but it is a great layout and components reference.
Amazon product ASIN 0760338477

 

[KokoTele]

Gerald Weber has several books available, and I highly recommend all of them. I don't think there are any better references out there.

Unfortunately, they were all written before electronic publishing was a thing and are only available in printed format.

 

[clydethecat]

Any of the books by Merlin Blencowe or Morgan Jones would be helpful.

 

[YellowBoots]

I think that Richard Kuehnel's Basic Theory and System Design books are eminently accessible to the newcomer and recommend them. Morgan Jones is amazing, but quickly goes over my head. Merlin Blencowe is by far the best writer, also amazing, but can be a heavy lift for a first book. Almost everything not specific to guitar amps can be supplemented to an extremely high level by looking it up in the Radiotron Designer's Handbook which is available for free at tubebooks.org .

What are you majoring in @BoomTexan ?

 

[loopfinding]

not saying to not get books, but as far as building i think you could benefit more from diving in on modifying/repairing amps, getting familiar with conventions in design, and then using material to supplement your knowledge. kind of forces you to figure out/work out/breakdown every small step of the way, including the actual build logistics (my EET professors were always cracking jokes about "the EE students don't know how to use a soldering iron," "the EE students can't design for manufacturability," etc.).

when it comes to audio design or building, you can mostly stand on the shoulders of giants, but you need to know the theoretical fundamentals to know where something is not going to work (or be catastrophic), how to adjust or voice something for the application, where you messed something up, figuring out materials requirements vs availability, etc. using a pre-existing design as a baseline and then coming up with solutions for "problems" you see in it is a good way to get you obsessing over the nitty gritty of it. one of the great things about building an amp is that you know the implementation from the ground up and can treat it forever as a ready to go physical development platform to test new ideas on.

www.ampbooks.com has a lot of good free resources for some circuit analysis and also provides the ability to calculate quickly to verify your understanding or see what's going on. LTspice can also save you a lot of trouble if you know how to use it.

 

[8bitlooper]

Jack Darr’s book is a must have imo:

Amazon product ASIN 1882580486
Also, make sure you subscribe to “the Truth about Vintage Amps” podcast, even if it’s above your current level. So much great stuff there, and there‘s a really great facebook group built around that podcast that I’ve found to be great.

 

[zhyla]

I really enjoyed this book: Designing Tube Preamps for Guitar and Bass

I haven't bought his other books but that one was enough to really understand a triode and be able to design the biasing for it. His Valve Wizard website has enough material on it to get you going though, it's the best resource I've come across.

 

[soundchaser59]

I've taken some minor electrical engineering classes and am pretty interested in learning tube amp design. Could be a way to make a little money during college or something, and it sounds fun to me. Plus, I've always wondered about how these amps that I play for so many hours every week work.

Does anyone have any suggestions for books or something to learn how tube amps work? At the moment, I'd rather read about it, take notes and plot one out maybe, and then actually build one, so I'm not really looking for a kit at the moment.

Do you have a good oscilloscope? You should use a kit to teach yourself. With a champ kit or a 5E3 kit and a scope and a pro soldering iron you could learn a lot more than you think. Then when you think you know how it works go buy a broken one and see if you can fix it or even tell what's wrong with it. Amp repair can be very humbling. You'll design and build for years before you make anything that the open market will want to buy.

Learn everything you can and then do a cap job on an old Champ.

 

[moosie]

Robrob's site, and Merlin Blencowe's book did most of it for me. There is also a Robert Megantz book on my shelf.

If you want ONE source, Merlin is definitive. However, the material is somewhat dense, especially if you have no formal training (speaking of myself). Your EE classwork should prove helpful.

 

[Engine Swap]

Jack Darr’s book is a must have imo:

Amazon product ASIN 1882580486

Link to PDF

 

[BoomTexan]

I think that Richard Kuehnel's Basic Theory and System Design books are eminently accessible to the newcomer and recommend them. Morgan Jones is amazing, but quickly goes over my head. Merlin Blencowe is by far the best writer, also amazing, but can be a heavy lift for a first book. Almost everything not specific to guitar amps can be supplemented to an extremely high level by looking it up in the Radiotron Designer's Handbook which is available for free at tubebooks.org .

What are you majoring in @BoomTexan ?

I'll be doing Mechanical Engineering next semester, but I've taken Physics II and a class on Circuits as dual-credit. Got accepted to Georgia Tech and if I can scrounge up the money I'll hopefully be attending. If not, I've got A&M as a cheaper option.

 

[Jowes_84]

Should be a great addition to your classes. On making extra money… imho it takes quite a long time until you are knowledgeable enough to deal with vintage amps (where the money is). Until then tube amp modding and repair is a cash sink.
But maybe I am doing something wrong

 

[Bendyha]

Several great suggestions above, merlin Blencowe's books especially, very comprehensively written.

I think the Army /Navy training books are the best way to learn the fundamentals up to a level of hands on competence. Well laid out, tried and tested training for every level. There are dozens of training books in their vaults, but try these three tube amp related books out for starters.

NAVPERS - 93400A-2 - Fundamentals Of Electronics - power supplies and amplifiers.

TM 11-662 TO16-1-255 - Basic theory and application of Electron Tubes - 1952

NEETS 06 - Introduction To Electronic Emission, Tubes and Power Supplies

Every thing you need to know about understanding tube amps is to be found in these three tombs.
Specifics for getting guitar amp "Tone" is pretty easy to understand after that.
I will link you to relevant test sheets after you have finished your studies

 

[YellowBoots]

I'll be doing Mechanical Engineering next semester, but I've taken Physics II and a class on Circuits as dual-credit. Got accepted to Georgia Tech and if I can scrounge up the money I'll hopefully be attending. If not, I've got A&M as a cheaper option.

Congrats on getting into GT! So many good schools in Texas too… A&M is a great 2nd option. After I got into amps, I began wishing I had done EE in college. Don’t be afraid to change the major after the first year if you find something that really fits you better. Rub shoulders with as many different people you can and keep an open mind! Good luck!

 

[BoomTexan]

Thanks to everyone who replied. After reading all I could on the PDFs of the books I could find online, and then watching a couple Uncle Doug videos, I now understand what a 5F1 Champ schematic is. Do I feel comfortable building one from scratch? Not really. But just understanding how a super basic amp works is a start.

 

[moosie]

Every thing you need to know about understanding tube amps is to be found in these three tombs.

I've looked through some of those, and I agree.

By the way, FYI, it's "tomes", not "tombs". Plural of "tome", a big, scholarly book.

 

[Bendyha]

I've looked through some of those, and I agree.

By the way, FYI, it's "tomes", not "tombs". Plural of "tome", a big, scholarly book.

The great days of tube technology maybe dead, and much of the knowledge forgotten, yet much is stored away in these cavernous volumes, but you are right tomes, not tombs, my head is toom.