DIY GUITAR GEAR

Makavelli

Makavelli

Makavelli

Associate
Joined
29 Oct 2002
Posts
666
Location
Bangor, N. Ireland
As there are quite a few guitarist on the forum i thought i would post this up. For any of you guys that are interested in amp/effects building i'm sure you already know the usual places but i found this german site

http://www.musikding.de

Seems reasonably priced and carriage from Germany is 17.50euro - some nice amp kits on here as well as stomp box kits eg MXR distortion+ equivalent £20 delivered, worth a punt in any mans book.

As someone who has built my own valve amp i can highly recommend it as an enjoyable and rewarding pasttime. I had no experience in electronics whatsoever but there are loads of helpful sites and forums out there and the instructions that came with my kit where practically a dummies guide.

Anyway with Christmas coming up maybe you would be happy spending someone elses money on one of these kits, if it's something you ever thought of trying.
 
I often build electronic things (usually audio effects too) so have moderate experience in it. I have;

my custom built analogue synth,
a minimoog filter (schematic taken from the service manual),
LFO (tri/saw/inverted saw/staircase/inverted staircase/square + pwm),
distortion pedal (built for a freind, ready made costs $120),
sine wave generator,
my "PC amplifier" (small Hi-Fi amp for PC setups),
octave shifter
my power supply and PWM power control (upto about 400W).
5 custom made mic's

I want a little website for photos and sound clips but don't know how.

I'd still be wary of building a valve amp, lots of potential for electric shocks but so long as you follow the guide you should be fine. Would like to try one sometime.

At the moment I'm working on a decimator/bit crusher which is a crazy industrial type effect allowing you to change the sample rates and bit depth on the fly. Being a "real" box you can do bizarre things like control the sampling rate with a microphone or drums :D .

Here are some sites you may also find useful:

http://www.freeinfosociety.com/electronics/schempage.php?cat=1

http://www.electro-tech-online.com/ (if you get stuck, give plenty of details in your questions though)

http://www.diyguitarist.com/LG-index.htm

http://www.aaroncake.net/circuits/index.asp

Theres a lot of others I can't think of (can dig out of my bookmarks downstairs if you want) mostly stompbox stuff :) . I know a great UK electronics supplier, but it'd be a competitor of here (I think) so can't mention but they are "really fast" ;) . Mail order only.

Yes, i'd also like to see your amp :cool:
 
I'm really tempted to have a go at an ampmaker kit......

Got any soundclips of yours as well as pics.
 
Will post pictures tonight but i warn you they are not very exciting. I went for a head & cab option only problem is i built the amp about 8months ago and haven't built either since :( Have since discovered B&Q sell birch ply and cut it for you so i might get that sorted sooner rather than later. At present the chassis is sitting on top of my Marshall MG100 using the marshall speaker, whilst my lovely celestion g12-h sits in a box under the bed gathering dust :(
 
I like how they have some unusual parts like rev log pots (my minimoog filter wants one, i'm using 12 way switch and resistors at the moment), 3PDT footswitch, Germanium transistors and delay ICs. Not bad prices if your ordering a lot. The UK based place seems cheaper on more common parts (plus free delivery over £30; £3.70 or something otherwise), but if your building a stompbox or need obscure parts it looks good. Some of the knobs are cool too :cool: :D
 
Si. said:
Got any pics of your home made amp?
Click to expand...

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As you can see by the innards there isn't really as much to them as you would think.
 
Is that kit from that site? - which 1 is it? (if it is)

how much did it cost you in total?

sorry for all the questions, i just go all week at the knees where tubes are involved
 
How does it sound? Got any audio clips of it? :)

A few years ago for a project in 6th form I designed and built my own amp with distortion... It all worked but it was very small - 1/4W :o

Wouldn't mind having a go at something more substantial.
 
m3csl2004

No worries mate i love bragging about my amp :D

The kit is from www.ampmaker.com which is a UK based site, reason i didn't mention them was because i thought anyone reading this thread would already know about it. Equivalent kit on the German site would be the Madamp J5Mk1. The amp kit is for a 5watt class a valve amp - (12ax7 in the pre-amp & EL84 in the power stage) Check out the prices on the website for the amp, other costs would be soldering iron and solder a cheapo would prob do the job can be had for around £10. Guitar speakers - this really depends on what size (8" 10" 12") and how many speakers (1,2 or 4) are you going to use. I picked up a Celestion G12H (12") for about £35 of the bay. Finally there is cabinet construction, 3/4" birch ply can be used and just varnished 8'*4' sheet is about £35 in b&q or you could prob just use mdf and cover it with tolex for around the same cost. Or you could just use the cabinet of an old or broken amp. Probably some cosmetic things you would need like handles, speaker plugs if you making a cab, corners etc. Like i said i just built the amp and plugged it into my MG100 speaker until such times as i get round to making a proper head unit and cab for it. All in all you are probably looking at around £220-250 (depending on speaker choice) and you could probably buy new for not much extra, but i have to say the buzz i got from building mine was great, and when you hear it for the first time pure heaven. The other thing to bear in mind is that if you get the bug you can use the components to build other amps. If you check out www.ax84.com you will see that my amp is just a variant of the P1 model - a few modifications can be made to this to move on the the high Octance (dirtier overdrive) or the P1 extreme (taking you from 5watt to 12watt)

Evil-Penguin

I don't claim to be an audiophile and i'm really only a beginner/intermediate guitarist but imho it is a Rolls Royce to my Marshall MG100DFX metro. I mentioned on another thread about my a few of my friends. One in particular had already taken a DSL401 for a test drive and i could tell from his face that he wasn't expecting big things from my home made effort - when he heard it thought he soon changed his tune. I don't have any sound clips and i imagine any i might record would sound crap as i would be using on board sound and a £10 mic that you get for drunken karaoke on your home stereo :D There are sound bytes on the ampmaker site that are spot on - i purchased the kit on the basis of them and wasn't disappointed when i played mine. If you wanted something more substantial in terms of building rather than power then you should take a look at the 18watt model it's class a/b push/pull with 4 valves, should keep you awake for a few nights i would imagine ;)
 
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i've just looked at the 18W model, and i think i might ask for it for christmas :D

if i was looking to mod the design to add even more gain where would i begin to look? are there any good forums?

if i can get myself a point to point wired valve amp for that price (i think i'm good at soldering, ive completely rewired 4 guitars now lol) then i'll definately do it!
 
Si. said:
I'm really tempted to have a go at an ampmaker kit......

Got any soundclips of yours as well as pics.
Click to expand...

I can see from your other thread that you are between a rock and a hard place atm lol :eek:

If it helps you can msn me (in trust) and i'll answer any questions for you.
 
SidewinderINC said:
i've just looked at the 18W model, and i think i might ask for it for christmas :D

if i was looking to mod the design to add even more gain where would i begin to look? are there any good forums?

if i can get myself a point to point wired valve amp for that price (i think i'm good at soldering, ive completely rewired 4 guitars now lol) then i'll definately do it!
Click to expand...

www.18watt.com is the place you want to be. That model i think is a variant of the 18watt lite but if you go on to the website you will see their are quite a few variants and an excellant forum. The guy that sells the kit is also really helpful, if you ring him up he could probably steer you in the right direction (as far as i can remember he is a regular on the 18watt forum)
 
thanks a lot dude :)

best not ask for it for christmas, as i'll want to be sure on what i buy - its somewhere between the 5W and 18W, not for power but for control, i like having treble mid and bass separate.

*trundles off*
 
Just checked out the 18 Watt head on ampmaker.com. I have GAS now. It might have to wait until March time or so as I have just bought a Epiphone Valve Junior.

Blackvault
 
Check out www.ax84.com under legacy projects the P1 extreme would fall into your power category and has a full tone stack.

On the 18watt site check out the tmb variant also under lite there is a superlite tmb - both of these have a full tone stack

Only problem is you would have to do all the sourcing of components yourself.

In kit form the madamp A15Mk1 @ Musikding might be what you want, 15watts full tone stack 2 channels boost switches etc.
 
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