Who are your fave amp parts vendors?

AES
Tube Depot
Angela Instruments
Parts Express
Edcor

 

AES
Hoffman
Mouser

My son has built two amps from Allen kits, and they're his favorites (he has 6 or so).

 

AES (aka, Tubesandmore.com, Amplified Parts)
TubeDepot
Triode Electronics

i've ordered a bunch of stuff from AES and TD, and they've both been awesome. i also live one state away from AES, so i get orders in just a couple days. TubeDepot has great prices on shipping, plus they carry the Tefzel wire i like. both places have answered my emails quickly and been very helpful. i haven't ordered my transformers yet, but i've heard nothing but good things about Triode and they have a solid reputation, so i don't expect any problems.

i'll give a shout out to Boothill too: i haven't ordered from them, but Hackworth has been great with offering help and info on my Melodier build! if i were to order a kit, i'd definitely go with Boothill!

 

Can't forget your local suppliers. There's always that one item that I forget to order for a project. And it's usually some nut, bolt, or something like that. I've resorted to visiting places like Radio Shack, Frys, Lowes, and Fastenal for some odds-and-end parts.

 

Fastenal is way better for anything that fastenal would carry than a supplier of amp related stuff.

 

Had good luck with Tube Depot

 

AES is first in line. If I can get it there that's where the search stops and the order gets placed. I usually get my orders in two days. They're very efficient down there.

 

just the other day i was lamenting on Facebook how there are no cool independent electronics parts places in Denver anymore. i use to love going in and picking through bins and bins of all sorts of different components. lots of NOS stuff, a little dusty but brand new and dirt cheap! the last place (Fistell's) closed a couple years ago. of course there's RadioShack, but they barely count for that sort of thing anymore: two head-high stacks of drawers, and that's it for the components. the rest is all cellphone accessories and that kind of thing. oh, and overpriced, low-quality batteries of course (and at least they don't ask for your ZIP code anymore!)

Home Depot and Lowe's can be great for certain kinds of hardware, like screws and standoffs and things. they also carry sheets of thin aluminum, which are great for making EMI shields (for amps and guitar pickguards too.) Harbor Freight can be good for some things on the cheap, but you have to know what you're looking for. they have big bags of good heatshrink tubing for a dollar or two, and their T-style wire strippers are a pretty good deal at $4. they're also great when you need an odd tool that you'll only ever use once or twice and don't need the highest quality.

one more cool thing about AES: they've got an Amazon store (under their "Amplified Parts" name) and sell most of their stuff through there as well. if you've got Amazon gift cards or credits, you can use them for amp and guitar parts. if i want to order something from AES and only have cash, i'll run over to my grocery store a block away, get an Amazon gift card (there's no purchase fee) and order that way. it's nice for people like me who otherwise hate using credit cards. it's also pretty great around the holidays when i get the inevitable Amazon gift cards and need to get some guitar stuff. oh, and AES also just started taking PayPal too, for people who roll that way (TubeDepot takes PayPal too.)

one place that i haven't checked out yet but have heard good things about is Mission Amps. they're near Denver and you have to make an appointment to visit in person, but i need to check them out one of these days.

 

over here.. Evatco... ma and Pa.. valve geeks...

 

If you ordered from all those places, you saved about $200 by doing it yourself, and spent about the same amount in shipping charges.

 

I don't think anyone mentioned watts tube audio www.turretboards.com Great stuff. I try to order all my major components from mouser and then I usually go with weber/Hoffman/ or turretboards.com for the stuff I can't get from mouser.

I've had great experiences with triode as well. I went into their shop before they went online only, that was really cool. Just what you'd imagine an old radio shop would look like with stuff everywhere. There was a small path chiseled out of the gear lying around so you could make it to the front counter - but I think that was when they first took over the business from the previous owner or something similar.

 

Tales from the time machine

When I used to live in College Park, MD (circa mid 80s), I lived about a mile north of this old cinder block warehouse on US 1 south.
From the outside, the place looked like a dump.
Come to think of it.....the inside looked like a dump too!
Wooden shelves with cardboard boxes lined the walls, filled with capacitors, heat sinks, resistors, diodes, cable, etc.
NO prices listed it all, it was almost like a flea-market atmosphere........

"How much for this aluminum chassis"?......holding it up high in the air.

The cashier/clerk would look up from the Sports Page of the Washington Post:

"five bucks"

Gawd, I'd KILL to find a place like that, here in New Mexico!

Steve

 

AES - free shipping over $99, local
Hoffman - fast shipping
Triode - source for classictone transformers
Watts - great for blank chassis and turret boards

 

Most of them have already been mentioned. Here's a couple that have not:

Apex Jr. - For wire, pots, switches, etc. He has got tons of stuff not listed at his site though. I have been in his warehouse. If you email him a request he will probably have it.

Expediters - As long as you have a part number to search on, these guys are great. I have also got things like NOS RCA rectifier tubes for 5 bucks. I have also got tons of pedal building items here (i.e. NOS transistors).

Nebraska Surplus Supply - Like Expediters, I use these guys for oddball specific items for amp building. Things like high power zeners or, the 10 turn precision pots/scale dials to do a "Komet" style bias control.

 

Yes it's got to be for the fun and learning experience, most of them I could have had someone else build them cheaper.

So many good vendors, but almost none of them ever have everything I need.

 

that could be very true, depending on how you plan things out! for my Melodier, i placed orders with two vendors: TubeDepot and AES. i bought certain parts from whichever had the best prices on that part, but tried to get most of it from TD because their shipping is only $4.95 for orders under $99. so far i've only spent about $15 on shipping, total. it's always best to try and place as few orders as possible, because you can really get nailed with shipping. transformers will cost me about $12 in shipping from Triode (because they're heavy, and that'll always get you.) when i order speakers i'm going to try and find a place (maybe Amazon) with free shipping, because those can also fall into the "heavy" category. the one i'm really worried about is the cabinet: that's going to be a painful shipping fee if i'm not careful!

but if you play your cards right and do a bit of homework before you start ordering, you can still do pretty well on the shipping charges, even if you order from multiple vendors. some kits seem to be more expensive, but i think a lot of that has to do with the fact that you're getting large and heavy items in the shipment: just because the vendor says it's got "Free Shipping" doesn't mean they're not charging you for it! someone's gotta pay UPS or whoever, because they're not in the business of moving packages for free, and it's probably still going to be you. the vendor has just worked that cost into the price of the kit. sometimes it's a better deal, sometimes not, because things like cabinets, speakers and transformers are always going to cost a lot to ship somewhere.

obviously there are exceptions to this though: sometimes vendors have a "sale" where they DO provide free shipping for a while. they're eating the cost of the shipping, because they hope they'll make it up by increased sales during that period. that's always a good time to order stuff, as long as you're aware it's going on. i'm signed up for email newsletters from TubeDepot, AES and a couple other places, and people on those lists are the first to know when things like that are coming. the reputable dealers are pretty good about not overloading your email inbox (i think i only get 2-3 emails from TubeDepot and AES per month, if that.) i recently got a few Belton Micalex sockets from TD for the same prices as the budget ceramic ones, because they were running a sale that i found out about through their newsletter.

and of course the holidays are right around the corner, so that's a really good time to take advantage of sales they'll probably start running! even if you don't really need a bunch of parts, you can always place small orders for stuff like 8 and 9-pin sockets, jacks, wire and other things you'll probably end up needing in the future that aren't specific to one particular build (also: .022uF and .01uF caps, various resistors, screws/nuts/bolts, etc.) this way you'll get them on sale and have them ready when you need them.

 

Right now avatar speakers has free shipping on speaker separates. I bought a couple g12h30s recently and avatar was fast and $50 cheaper per speaker than musiciansfriend. I have used them for a few cabs years ago and always had excellent service.