What knowlege is required for amp building?

You don't need to have EE knowledge, but if you want to check your work and make sure things are on the right track you will need the following:

1. Safe technique. Be it from teacher or reading, know how to be safe first and foremost.

2. Know how to use a multimeter.

3. Ohm's law. Most of the calcualtions you need to do will be related to this.

4. Go slow and use good technique.

I learned everything I know about amp building by reading a couple of books and asking a LOT of questions on the Weber site: http://www.weberorders.com/forum/

 

Here's something I just posted today about the very same topic. Some info about books and tools etc.. (a link to save me from carpal tunnel syndrome )

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/2757909-post5.html

 

Get onto a good amp builder's forum, like one of these:

http://music-electronics-forum.com/f10/

http://ampgarage.com/forum/index.php

http://www.el34world.com/Forum/index.php

http://ax84.com/


But by far the best amp builder's site to-date by a long shot is:

http://www.freewebs.com/valvewizard/index.html

Merlin's book is excellent too

 

Tubeswell gives excellent advice regarding joining a forum and reading. I started building 3 years ago with no prior experience. I joined http://www.18watt.com/ and my first build was a Marshall 1974x trem. The guys on that forum are particulary helpful. Also, http://www.trinityamps.com/ would be a good forum to join. If you can find someone local who builds, that's a bonus.

 

All excellent info^^^.

The internet is your friend on this.

You can start with a simple kit if your soldering skills are up to snuff, if you encounter any problems the guys on the forums listed above will walk you through them.

 

:wave: Sup tubes, fancy meeting you here.

either great minds think alike or fools seldom differ. either way, we'll see you 'round

 

fwiw, I'm on my second build and I really know very little about audio electronics. Safety is #1 because without it you can't enjoy the #2, #3, #4 and so on.

Outside of that, the multimeter, soldering iron and internet are your best friends. The more you know how to use each one of these, the more successful you will be at your projects.

I pretty much just work off of layouts and schematics on the net, ask a few questions when necessary and try to work patiently and methodically.

If you're not quite sure that you want to dump a couple hundred dollars or more on amp parts just to find out that it's not your thing you could always start with a DIY pedal kit. That's a pretty simple, single afternoon kinda project and it will give you a good feel for this type of hobby.

Good luck and have fun!

 

Hiya mort - I'm just an overenthusiastic hobbyist who can't keep his nose out of trouble. Tube amps are my downfall for sure.

 

Or start with a simple design like a Firefly (assuming tubes) or Ruby (solid state), either would be good to check out the uncluttered circuits and how they go from schematic to practical layout. And inexpensive to boot, you can get comfortable with your skills and then move onto something with more than a watt.

 

Knowing the resistor color codes help.

If you can follow a layout and solder well, no problems.

Trouble shooting what you did wrong is where the learning really starts.

 

my first book was one of Tino Zottola's, taught me most of what I needed to know to build amps from scratch. +1 on teleamp's post following instructions is easy, troubleshooting is a *****.

 

Tino Zottola's are great, I have built a few of his amps but changed the layous to suit myself such as placing all the tubes in the back of the chassis for easier access.

I don't know how one can learn without jumping into a kit or well established amp forum that has the schematics, layouts and BOM for the newbies to follow. By building and asking questions as you go you learn so much.

Mark

 

Definitely know your resistor codes. I built a Ruby long before my 5f2a-ish amp even though when I built my ruby I had no plans to tackle a tube amp. Read Dave Hunters book "The Guitar Amp Handbook".

If you plan to design your own or if you decide to modify an existing design use this forum as a resource. My build went excruciatingly slow in part because I posted here and these folks helped me modify my design over a few months. I ended up with a great amp and a much better understanding of what goes on inside.

Sometimes it takes a village to build an amp. It is a lot of fun to talk about and in the end, for me, it's all about being fun.

 

If you have a multimeter, you can skate on the resistor codes. I'm color blind, and that's how I get around it.

Actually, when I built my Mission 5E3 kit, my daughter helped me tag all the resistors with their values.