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This is just a commentary, I had a realization/epiphany/reality check last night - building amps from scratch is NOT as easy as fixing amps!!!
I know, you guys that have been doing this for years already know this but hopefully it will help some of the other new builders.
After a few different failed attempts at building (and one partial success) custom amps I determined that working on them late at night when I'm more tired than I thought is NOT a good idea. I can't count the number of times I've looked at it the next day and said "WTF was I thinking when I hooked this up there?" I've also smoked a couple of transformers that may or may not have already been bad or really weren't designed for what I'm trying to do.
I have to qualify this to say that all of the amps I've repaired for other people have turned out really well [edit- and I don't work on them when I'm tired] but I wasn't starting with a bare chassis there and I was working with a tried-and-true circuit that already worked at one point.
So you're probably thinking "why are you working on other people's equipment?" That would be a fair question. It seems to come pretty easy to me, I often spot problems quickly just by following the basic troubleshooting steps and so far I have been able to fix things a regular shop just plain missed. Whether it's because I have more time to look closely and carefully, measure voltages and resistance, spot defective parts, whatever, I don't know but it seems to be something I'm naturally good at.
Having said that, my goal for building an amp for myself is due to the fact that I don't have a real good, high quality guitar amp of my own. Yeah, I've got a small Vox, a SS Fender that sounds gorgeous, and of course my bass rig (Ampeg SVTIII) so it's not like I have junk to play through, but I don't have that SR or Princeton or Twin tone-monster. That's my goal. To that end, I've had to use parts from other devices like a Hammond organ and various things I've picked up over the years. When I got back into repairing for other people last fall it had been some twenty years since I had done it before and I have this box of transformers that I started with. Of course I have a small supply of used and new tubes, all new resistors, caps, etc. and figured since I built electronic projects for many years as a teen-early 20s (thirty plus years ago) building a tube amp from parts should be a piece of cake thanks to all the available info on the 'net.
Right.
I've been very frustrated and discouraged at times, trying to make these parts come together but so far I'm stuck on "almost there". I've also received a lot of help from some of you experienced guys and I can't thank you enough for that. I keep making headway, albeit very slowly, but I will succeed. I know it would be easier to buy a kit and put it together but this is not financially possible right now and I wouldn't learn the theory behind it. I am persistent, that's one of my best qualities and I won't let this lack of success stop me from trying. Edison failed thousands of times before he succeeded with the light bulb. I figure if he can do it with persistence, so can I.
So for you other amateurs like me, don't get discouraged, keep asking questions and trying things. You will succeed and so will I. Eventually.
I know, you guys that have been doing this for years already know this but hopefully it will help some of the other new builders.
After a few different failed attempts at building (and one partial success) custom amps I determined that working on them late at night when I'm more tired than I thought is NOT a good idea. I can't count the number of times I've looked at it the next day and said "WTF was I thinking when I hooked this up there?" I've also smoked a couple of transformers that may or may not have already been bad or really weren't designed for what I'm trying to do.
I have to qualify this to say that all of the amps I've repaired for other people have turned out really well [edit- and I don't work on them when I'm tired] but I wasn't starting with a bare chassis there and I was working with a tried-and-true circuit that already worked at one point.
So you're probably thinking "why are you working on other people's equipment?" That would be a fair question. It seems to come pretty easy to me, I often spot problems quickly just by following the basic troubleshooting steps and so far I have been able to fix things a regular shop just plain missed. Whether it's because I have more time to look closely and carefully, measure voltages and resistance, spot defective parts, whatever, I don't know but it seems to be something I'm naturally good at.
Having said that, my goal for building an amp for myself is due to the fact that I don't have a real good, high quality guitar amp of my own. Yeah, I've got a small Vox, a SS Fender that sounds gorgeous, and of course my bass rig (Ampeg SVTIII) so it's not like I have junk to play through, but I don't have that SR or Princeton or Twin tone-monster. That's my goal. To that end, I've had to use parts from other devices like a Hammond organ and various things I've picked up over the years. When I got back into repairing for other people last fall it had been some twenty years since I had done it before and I have this box of transformers that I started with. Of course I have a small supply of used and new tubes, all new resistors, caps, etc. and figured since I built electronic projects for many years as a teen-early 20s (thirty plus years ago) building a tube amp from parts should be a piece of cake thanks to all the available info on the 'net.
Right.
I've been very frustrated and discouraged at times, trying to make these parts come together but so far I'm stuck on "almost there". I've also received a lot of help from some of you experienced guys and I can't thank you enough for that. I keep making headway, albeit very slowly, but I will succeed. I know it would be easier to buy a kit and put it together but this is not financially possible right now and I wouldn't learn the theory behind it. I am persistent, that's one of my best qualities and I won't let this lack of success stop me from trying. Edison failed thousands of times before he succeeded with the light bulb. I figure if he can do it with persistence, so can I.
So for you other amateurs like me, don't get discouraged, keep asking questions and trying things. You will succeed and so will I. Eventually.
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