Where to start?

[Chunkosaurus]

hello all,

I'm new here and am looking for help. I tried to search for a thread on where to start as a noob. If one exists then sorry for this post and just direct me there. I want to get into building amps and effects. I have built guitars for a few years now but electronics are a whole other ballgame.

I'm trying to figure out what sort of tools and equipment one would need if they wanted to become fairly serious about this.

What skills and general knowledge is needed?

What projects would be a good start?

What is a good cheap amp to modify for a starter project?

What is a good first build?

Does anyone have any older or used unwanted parts and such they would want to get rid of to help a noob?

Thanks,
Chunk

[black_labb]

i was in a similar situation to you 9 months ago. i have made a few guitars and started making pickups. making the pickups helped me understand what is going on inside a guitar electrically, which made absolutely no sense to me when i was wiring my first guitar up, and i thought "if that made no sense to me before, and it seems so simple now, making a simple amp cant be too hard"

to cut a long and pointless story short, i picked up a book(The guitar amp handbook: understanding tube amplifiers and getting great sounds by dave hunter) and read that, which explains alot about the basics of tube amps and how they are used for guitars. once you get the basics, reading things on here can further your knowledge alot, as there are plenty of people here who know alot about amps.

for a suggested first project, id suggest a simple amp. i made my own variant on a 5e3 deluxe which are very popular amps (they have their own section on this forum. there is also a tweed champ or a princeton that are quite simple and would be a good project. there are some other simple amps that would be good to make, but often they are not very well documented/the schematics are not as clear as you would like. there are plenty of kits available for these popular amps. id also consider making a head as opposed to a whole amp. speakers are expensive, and using a head means you can test it out on a speaker cab before building the box. just dont get caught in the trap im in where you dont put it into a box for a few months as your happy to leave it out.

[Paul P]

Hey Chunk, welcome to this place. You wrote :

I'm trying to figure out what sort of tools and equipment one would
need if they wanted to become fairly serious about this.

Two tools I suggest you plan on getting yourself are a good soldering
station (like a Weller WS50) and a quality digital multimeter. No matter
if you build from a kit or from scratch these are two tools that you're
going to be using all the time. Get the best you can afford.

Paul P

[Chunkosaurus]

Hey Chunk, welcome to this place. You wrote :



Two tools I suggest you plan on getting yourself are a good soldering
station (like a Weller WS50) and a quality digital multimeter. No matter
if you build from a kit or from scratch these are two tools that you're
going to be using all the time. Get the best you can afford.

Paul P

That's good news! I have a nice multimeter and A good soldiering gun I use for my guitar wiring. I wasn't sure if I would need scopes or any other testing equipment.