BFSR, 1st attempt at DIY?

[Chris Devine]

I'd love to have a Blackface Super Reverb. Is it unrealistic to use this as my first attempt at amp building?

I am not new to electronics (8yrs in the USAF as an ET) and I have a fair amount of experience/training in electronic fabrication (NASA soldering school, et al.). But I don't want to drop more than $1,000 in parts if it's unwise to do so. I would also rather not build more projects than I need to if the techniques I would learn might be something I'm already comfortable doing.

I don't need much info regarding kit makers (I've already looked around at the usual suspects), but any suggestions specific to the BFSR would be much appreciated.

Thanks a million,
Chris Devine

[hasserl]

IMO I think it's unwise to attempt a build like that for your first build. There are so many little things to get right with any amp build, and the sorting out of issues after the first fire up can be quite taxing. Add the complexity of an amp like this and you mulitply the possible issue that can plague a first amp build. Personally, I'd start with a less complicated design, or even refurbing a few older amps first to learn troubleshooting skills.

But I do have an online friend that I gave the same advice to a few years ago, who went ahead and built a Deluxe Reverb style amp anyway for his first build, and it went well and he's now built a few more amps. So it's not impossible or unrealistic, it's just not how I would advise starting.

[Chris Devine]

What would you suggest as a more suitable amp to start with?

[tubeswell]

+1 what Hasse said. A tweed princeton or (for more grunt) tweed deluxe is what lots of people start with. Relatively easy to troubleshoot, fun to play - take pedals well too.

[axpro]

The usual recomendation is to start with a tweed champ, and work your way up. but if you are experienced with electronics, i too would reccomend going with somethign a little bigger. A tweed princeton is pretty simple, but like the champ, it is always useful to have a little portable amp like that. I love my champ, but i wish i had built the princeton. The issue is going to come downt o whether you like tweeds or not. personally i don't seem to dig them, so all my tweed projects are not very "tweedy" anymore.

a 5e3 deluxe is the "go to" amp for tweed gyus, and even if you build it and don't like it, there are a few simple changes to make it have more headroom and a little less snarl. on the other side of the coin, you could build an 18 watt. lots of kits out there, and a fairly simple amp (a little more complex than a deluxe)

were you goign to source parts or were you going with a kit?

[Bruce / Mission Amps]

If you have to have an amp with reverb and vibrato... a good choice would be a Princeton Reverb kit from MOJO... or WeberVST
It isn't gawd awful to build one.
I don't know your skill level but for most new novice builders, I also would like them to try something much more simple and smaller like a single ended Champ or single ended tweed Princeton first... single ended means one power tube in class A.
The Champ is small and has a single volume control.
The Princeton is a little bigger and has a single volume and a tone control.
You might be able to pull off the Super Reverb though... ha ha

[Chris Devine]

I'll more than likely go with a kit. From reading around I've seen that some vendors offer better parts than others. I like the cabinet and speaker options from Weber.

[Chris Devine]

I don't necessarily need an amp with vibrato. I've got a Roger Mayer Voodoo Vibe that can probably handle that. Reverb would be nice, but I wouldn't mind producing something a little easier at first. My brother plays harp and would more than likely be willing to take a Tweed off my hands.

I'm pretty confident in my fabrication skills. Not so much with my ability to troubleshoot a tube amplifier. I've got a pretty firm grasp on Ohm's law and the use of a multimeter (and all kinds of other test equipment I can't afford). However, the only experience I have with tubes is the purchase of a HRD and the modules in USAF tech school. We never used them in the field.

[axpro]

With a harp player in the family, i would definitely start with a tweed deluxe... even if it isn't your thing, its like catnip for harp players!

[Chris Devine]

I told him I was interested in building a tube amp and the first thing he did was offer to chip in if I'd build him a Tweed Bassman.

[afm_380]

Chris ... I'm new into this game, but have had two builds come out quite nicely. For my first build I chose to build a 5e3 clone and bought a simple kit, primarily because I became a bit overwhelmed in selecting the parts ... too many choices of types of resistors and capacitors. The kit came with all of the right parts and I didn't need to worry about this aspect for my first build. This amp came out beautifully ... not a single issue. My next build I decided to build a smaller version of a Bassman (just one input section) which required me to source everything myself ... I even mod’d the layout onto a 5e3 turret board (had to add a couple additional turrets to the board). With some help from this forum I was able to troubleshoot a couple of issues that I had with my work. But this amp too came out REALLY nice.

I think that one of the key reasons for my success in these builds was the use of a couple layout tools. I built my own schematics with ExpressSCH from expresspcb.com. I researched almost every 5e3 schematic and layout I could find, and became intimate with them by building it on paper long before the parts ever arrived. I did the same exercise with the board layout. I used visio to build the layout and printed the final layout full size. This allowed me to place it directly on my turret board to ease the placement of these components. Attention to detail and triple checking everything is extremely important at this stage of the build. Both of these exercises can be done with old fashioned paper and pencil … but software packages are inherently more difficult to use, requiring more attention to get placement correct.

I hope this helps …

[tyru007]

You may also want to check out the 5E3 PCB build over at PPwatt.

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[booj]

When someone asks what amp to build to start with, My reccomendation is go with what you want to have at the end. Your going to run into problems, setbacks, aggrivations, and maybe even have to start over, but when you are done you will know how to build a great tube amp.
Just build it in sections. The power supply first, then check that, then the power amp, driver stage, preamp and effects.
Afraid yer gonna "give up" if it don't work? Not likely.

[loudthud]

There are a lot of wires in one of those dual channel Fender amps. Routing those wires is what burns up the most time. My suggestion is to get a good "one hand" wire stripper, one that grabs the wire and strips it with very little effort. This allows you to solder one end of the wire in the amp, route the wire neatly to it's destination, cut accurately to length, strip the end, and solder to the destination.

[Diablo]

My first build was a Marsh Deluxe Reverb, and I'm amazed the thing actually worked when I finished it. It's about as complex as the Super Reverb. I made a couple of dumb mistakes when I was "painting by numbers", not really understanding the circuit completely. I spent about 4 hours debugging problems I created by my lack of knowledge. The internet and this forum makes it a lot easier to get help in this hobby.