Making your own amp?

[Garp]

I've been pondering for a while about actually making my own guitar amp, a small practice amp sized one. I often just need something small to either twiddle through on my electric or just to act as a basic foldback for my acoustic. Frequency response thus should be more in the favour of an electric guitar rather than acoustic (after all I don't want to damage it when playing an electric with distortion through it!)
I have access to some good quality blank PCBs, and decent spec electronics components for cheap, so I should be able to get most of what I need, and my father is a dab hand at electronics and is happy to teach me anything I don't already know.
So.. does anyone know any good resources for doing this? I keep digging up circuit diagrams for tone controls, but no good clear amp diagrams suitable for someone looking to make their own.

 

[Garp]

I built my own about 2 or 3 years ago. Was a tiny thing, ran off 2 9V batteries and was a 0.25 Watt speaker, had variable volume, distortion, and adjustable bass mid and treble.

Although when you say "small practised sized" i assume you mean bigger than that? Mine was slightly louder than my guitar without an amp

Yeah.. I guess 5 Watts would probably do the trick? I'm not looking for huge sound, but smaller is always preferable. Main thing has to be weight though, my normal amp weighs 20kg+ and if I can save having to lug that around it would be nice

 

[Garp]

If the main thing you're after is a small amp, there are already a few available. If that's the only reason you're thinking making one, then it may be easier to buy one? If it's something that interests you though and you want to undertake a project, there are so many schematics available online you can't go wrong. Although I found it was enjoyable to design and build from scratch

Are you intending to use a battery (or batteries) to power it, or mains?

Both preferably for power, though I'm flexible. It would be nice to be able to switch it to batteries, but I guess primarily it would be powered.

I'm in two minds over the whole idea, in some regards it would be a lot less hassle to just get a mini marshal amp, it'd probably suffice enough for what I need anyway. I just a little re-enforcement, my own sound heading back towards me as my guitar gets a little lost in the mix when I'm playing with other guitarists. I can play without, I just prefer to play with
On the other hand, part of me is thinking it would be pretty cool to have a hand built amp, an interesting little challenge for myself.