Making your own amp?

Garp · 20 Mar 2006 at 18:55

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.

elroberto · 20 Mar 2006 at 22:12

I've seen loads of diagrams for making amps but they've all been tube amps. I was looking at a kit to make a replica of a '62 Marshall Bluesbreaker, I'll see if I can dig the site up for you.

Sp!ke · 21 Mar 2006 at 00:01

100 W solid state Amp
Loads of resources here Although lot of links seem to be 404 now, I really must update my bookmarks more often!

http://tdsl.duncanamps.com/schematics.php

Personally if I were building an amp I would use valves as it is a very cost effective way of getting a valve amp. (That sounds a bit daft, sorry. What I mean is solid state amps are relatively cheap to buy, as opposed to valve amps. So building your own is a good way to get a true valve sound for a smaller outlay. Rather different construction practices of course, and not for the faint hearted (HT can be lethal))

S

Skilldibop · 21 Mar 2006 at 15:33

S p!ke said:
100 W solid state Amp
Loads of resources here Although lot of links seem to be 404 now, I really must update my bookmarks more often!

http://tdsl.duncanamps.com/schematics.php

Personally if I were building an amp I would use valves as it is a very cost effective way of getting a valve amp. (That sounds a bit daft, sorry. What I mean is solid state amps are relatively cheap to buy, as opposed to valve amps. So building your own is a good way to get a true valve sound for a smaller outlay. Rather different construction practices of course, and not for the faint hearted (HT can be lethal))

S

Best bit's when you switch it on and the coils go BANG, and you get to start the fun all over again

.

Sp!ke · 21 Mar 2006 at 20:02

Skilldibop said:
Best bit's when you switch it on and the coils go BANG, and you get to start the fun all over again .

Yup, been there

(Class C rather than A/B)

S

Jotun · 21 Mar 2006 at 21:11

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 :eek:

m3csl2004 · 21 Mar 2006 at 21:18

power supplys are a bit of a problem so im told

allough you can get decent speakers from auction sites

Garp · 21 Mar 2006 at 21:29

Evil-Penguin said:
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

Jotun · 21 Mar 2006 at 21:39

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?

Garp · 21 Mar 2006 at 22:25

Evil-Penguin said:
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.

Makavelli · 22 Mar 2006 at 12:59

www.ampmaker.com

Check out this guy. He sells valve amp kits with step by step instructions. A 5watt model and an 18watt plexi lite clone. English company so carriage won't cost you an arm and a leg and the guy is really helpful, have spoke to him on the phone and e-mail. There's sound bites on there for each amp as well. Am considering buying the 5watt kit myself.

Other sites you can check out are

www.ax84.com
www.firebottle.com/ampage/
www.18watt.com (might be down at the minute though)
There is also a JTM45 community on yahoo

Makavelli · 29 May 2006 at 09:47

Just thought i would follow up on this, don't know if you are still interesting in building or not but i thought i would tell you about my experience. I recently built a 5watt valve amp and i have to say i'm very happy with the results. I had a Marshall MG100DFX which i could never really warm to so i starting looking at valve amps but the prices were scary, then i stumbled across the websites dedicated to building your own and thought i would give it a go. Learn a bit about circuit diagrams etc and then took the easy was out and ordered a kit ( i can understand the schematic am just not that great at translating it onto layout stage) The instructions were idiot proof and all in all there was a good 8 hours work in it for me, although someone with electronics experience should be quicker i imagine. Everything went to plan and i have to say when i first heard it i was ear to ear grin i never thought such a dramatic difference in sound was possible. Anyone who has the time and inclination to build there own i would definitely say it is well worth it. Just ordered a Celestion G12H of the bay for £32 so gonna build myself a nice 2*12 cab to run it - then who nows an 18watter maybe.

Oh and don't let 5watts fool you there is a fair bit of poke out of it.

m3csl2004 · 29 May 2006 at 12:55

Makavelli said:
Just thought i would follow up on this, don't know if you are still interesting in building or not but i thought i would tell you about my experience. I recently built a 5watt valve amp and i have to say i'm very happy with the results. I had a Marshall MG100DFX which i could never really warm to so i starting looking at valve amps but the prices were scary, then i stumbled across the websites dedicated to building your own and thought i would give it a go. Learn a bit about circuit diagrams etc and then took the easy was out and ordered a kit ( i can understand the schematic am just not that great at translating it onto layout stage) The instructions were idiot proof and all in all there was a good 8 hours work in it for me, although someone with electronics experience should be quicker i imagine. Everything went to plan and i have to say when i first heard it i was ear to ear grin i never thought such a dramatic difference in sound was possible. Anyone who has the time and inclination to build there own i would definitely say it is well worth it. Just ordered a Celestion G12H of the bay for £32 so gonna build myself a nice 2*12 cab to run it - then who nows an 18watter maybe.

Oh and don't let 5watts fool you there is a fair bit of poke out of it.

any chane of a sound bite?

bcjames · 1 Jun 2006 at 11:10

Ive done an ax84 P1 with some mods, and am doing a 50w twin channel now.

Valve amps are pretty easy to build, can be a bit more difficult making them quiet etc, but its all part of it! They are much easier to build than solid state amps!

Give it a go. Id go for a p1 as an electric amp. Its small, easy, and can be built as small as you like. I went for a 112 but it'd work well with a decent 8" for instance.

Sasso · 5 Aug 2008 at 19:43

hey well im a bit lat into this forum but only really had the idea about building an amp, would really like to try and build an valve Amp head that could power a stack, well a half stack at first so just one cab with 4x12" speakers but possibly to power a second cab later on maybe, any one know of any good instructions and schematics??