Recommended books?

[Axtman]

What books do you recommend should be on every tech / amp enthusiasts book shelves? On the flip side, what books would you recommend not buying and why? there seems to be a ton of books out there and I would like to know what books you guys find helpful. Thanks!

[Enzo]

A thousand guys, and you'll get a thousand stories.

And what do you want from the books? SOme books are for learning in the first place, some are for advanced topics like amp design and engineering, while others are more for reference.

In no particular order, some of my thoughts.

1. RCA RC-30 Tube Manual. Reprints available from many places. This belongs on the shelf of every tube amp shop. (There is also an older RCA book available. DOn;t be tempted by it instead because it costs a lot less. it is a very informative book, but doesn't include a lot of the tubes we use nowdays) Not only does it have all the data on each tube - specs, pinout, etc - but it also has tutorial chapters, and such things as selector guides, and pinout guides. (Pinout listing is useful for that "what other tubes would work in this socket?" question) I've worn numerous copies out over the decades.

2. The RDH - Radio Design Handbook. Written a long time ago, but timeless. This is the book that explains everything tube in text book style. It assumes you have some initial knowledge of electronics. You can buy copies where tube amp books are sold, and used copies show up on ebay etc. But it is also scanned and online for free at a number of sites. Here is one: RDH4 mirror You may not find the parts on antennas, and radio circuits too useful, but it has substantial coverage of audio and power supply, and tubes in general.

3. The Radio Amateurs Handbook. Ham radio guys buy this book. A new edition comes out every year. It is published by the ARRL. A personal favorite. Not maybe for most guys here. But I learned my electronics from this book as a kid, so it is on my list. No nonsense tutorials from the ground up. Seriously, starting with atoms and electrons , moving through basic circuits and components, and on to practical circuits, a lot of tutorial material, with practical projects aimed at the amateur radio operator. But the circuit chapters pertain to anyone. I mention that it comes out new each year. Most hams bought a new one every couple years. As electronics changed and interests changed, so did the book. It always covered the basics, but a 1962 issue would be largely vacuum tube stuff, while now tubes get a passing attention only. You wil find plenty of integrated circuits in current issues, but in 1957 there were none. SO a 1965 or earlier copy would probably be more interesting than 1985 editions. You can find them used on ebay and at ham fests. What have you got to lose for a few bucks?

There are other popular books like Kevin O'Connors TUT series that are well respected by many. The Darr book too. I learned my stuff well before those books were written, so I can;t say how they are for a novice to read. Plenty of other folks here who can speak to that. But they are specific to the guitar amp area. More project oriented.

Gerald Weber has written a few books, and I have a couple. I find them interesting, and there are some nuggets in them. But having said that, he drives me nuts. All his mods and such are offered in the "change this part here, move that wire there" style with pictures of the layout. SO you know that if you change the third resistor from the left, and the fourth capacitor, it will do whatever to your amp. But he offers NO explanation or schematic reference as to what this actually changes in the circuit or why it works. If he were to tell you to increase the cathode bypass cap value on the input stage of an amp for increased gain, you would know then how to do that mod on any amp. But if he only tells you to change the third cap over, you might know that works on a Bandmaster, but what if you want to do it on a Twin? You don;t learn anything. And ther is also that nagging 10% bullshit content that puts me off some. But they are worth reading after you have learned stuff elsewhere. Bunch of old schematics in there though. He has since written a more general book that I have not read. Might address the shortcomings of the previous work, but i couldn;t say.

Aspen Pitman's Tube AMp Book. I don;t get it out much anymore, but there was a time I used it a lot. I now use other things for the references in it. But by itself, there is a lot of interesting stuff in there. And a touch of bullshit also. Pitman tells you that the GC in a 6L6GC stands for "Glass Container." Well, no it doesn't. I suppose then a 6L6GB means Glass Bulb, and a 6L6GA means Glass Ahhhh... what would the A mean? The G does indicate glass (As opposed to the original all metal 6L6), but the C just means a later revision than the B or A versions. Still if you get the fancy version the included CD of 900 amp schematics is nice. You can find most if not all of them online, but it is nice to have them in one place.

The Story of Marshall by DOyle, and Ampeg by Hopkins are a couple books I enjoyed and found interesting. I don;t "use" them a lot, but now and then I refer to them or look something up. (Oh just when did they make that B18X I have out back?) Customers pull them off my shelf and leaf through them time to time.

The Antique Electronic SUpply catalog. Even if you buy your tubes elsewhere, this catalog is a good representative cross section of the sort of support parts that are generally available.

[BackwardsBoB]

Enzo's right about needing to know your goal. I'll tell you mine and tell you what I found.

I'm one of those "upper mid-life crisis - buy a Strat" guys. I think there are a 200,000 of us, minimum. You'll find bunches of us on the tamer guitar and amp forums, and quite a few here. The thing that separates me from most, but surprisingly far from all these guys is that I've been designing computers for 29 years and 10 months. I know lots of general electronics theory.

In 29 years and 10 months, I've watched software in general, and software development in particular devolve to the point where, usually, dreams can't come true. There's no software in tube amps. Circuits I design at work usually have about 1000 parts, 5000 pins, 1000 signals, and much of my task is sheparding their organization. Tube amps are elegantly simple. I like the idea of sheparding electrons, and there's nothing much cooler than tubes. I want to design tube amps. To do this, you need to do your research first. I believe that I started by buying a a Fender DRRI, then looked at the schematic, and found that I could inhale most of it. I followed that with books, so to answer your question, here's what I found helpful:

1. If you have the electronics background, Richard Kuehnel's preamp book is a good place to start. I found it after reading his Bassman book, which makes a pretty good overview. I'm reading his power stage book now, and it's great too. He's the only guy I've seen model a triode as a voltage or current source with a plate resistance in a drawing, at least to the extent that he does it.

Scientists discover and prove the laws of the universe, or apply them to explain mysteries. Carried to its logical conclusion, Science discovers the minimum set of laws of the universe that explains how everything in the universe works. Some people consider this information the basis of a philosophy, in spite of the fact that Science, by its nature, is incapable of explaining why the laws and initial conditions of the universe are as they are. Ravi Zacharias states that a coherent worldview must be able to satisfactorily answer four questions: that of origin, meaning, morality, and destiny. Science can't address any of these questions.

In the same way, Kuehnel's books "explain" amplifiers by generating the relevant equations. This is great if you want to compute the gain and frequency response of various stages and eventually design them, but, as with most of what I've read, it's very hard to correlate this with how an amp sounds. Keuhnel generates equations for distortion, and shows ways to vary it, but amp theory books tend to leave a big hole in your understanding.

If you want to gain control over an amp, and be able to modify it's sound with some control over the process beyond random trials and a small pile of blown circuits, you really should do the theory work, and the earlier you do it, the better. But it's only a first step.

2. Merlin's new book is good for a basic theoretical understand of all the triode circuits in an amp. It's much more practical than Kuehnel's work, and Merlin does try to describe the sound of various distortion sources, and even suggests circuit types for different playing styles. He'll show you how to re-bias a triode in an amp or change the gain or brightness of a stage and change the other five parts that will compensate for the change. He promises a second book with the big bottles and, I expect, some supply stuff.

3. After the Kuehnel books, I read the Kevin O'Connor's TUT series many times, and I keep going back to it. The series is a 1500 page core dump of O'Connor's brain, and he writes well. In a work this massive, he can go ahead and spend 90 pages of TUT1 discussing channel switching circuits and footswitch architectures, using BJTs, MOSFETs, JFETs, tubes, relays, etc. Most of a whole volume is spent discussing various complete amp designs and how to build them.

The writing is less analytical than Merlin and Kuehnel, but it provides a really good grasp of architectural choices, philosophy, the state of the art, and the largest collection of design ideas you'll find anywhere. O'Connor isn't bashful about incorporating semiconductors into his designs, and I'm not either. The Carvin amps I own incorporate lots of opamps running off a +/-15V winding on the PT, and these circuits do reverb and effects loops, tone controls, and switching wonderfully. O'Connor will spend 70 pages talking about the uses of transconductance amplifiers, including how to build a discrete high voltage version, or 500W amps, or many ways to power scale, or do the inverse with GmX. I think there's a load line or two in there somewhere, but I can't recall where.

If you're a newby, O'Connor has a few introductory books to get you ready. If you're a student of the basics, TUT1 is good, and if you've moved beyond basic theory, TUT4 or TUT6 is lots of fun.

Just remember that all our current arrows are backwards. His are correct. Aparently, V=-IR, and the force on a current carrying wire in a magnetic field follows the left-hand rule.

4. Enzo provided recommendations for books, and he sent you to the manufacturer. Datasheets, application notes and reference schematics are a good way to learn alot. It's how I became a computer hardware designer. These days, much of this information is on the web and easily accessed. If you want to know what "blocking distortion" is, Google it, and you'll get lots of information. The problem with the web is that you can find out a little bit about anything almost instantly, but there's little organization and not alot of depth. Still, once you know what you want to look for, it can be a better resource than books. This forum is certainly amazing, with a wealth of experts hanging around, apparently with all the time in the world, generously sharing their insight and experience.

So that's the first stage. I feel like I've reached the end of it, and I'm absolutely dying to start doing major modifications and scratch designs. I've developed my tube stash, listened to alot of amps and tubes, found the necessary vendors, and I instantly feel comfortable with any amp schematic I run into. I've been repairing amps, I've got the tools and bench stock in place, and I'm ready to start on stage 2.

I'm going to start doing a preamp redesign on a Carvin, hoping to better learn to control overdriven tone in the preamp, and I'll be working with 6V6 retrofits in high-power amps and power scaling. I intend to lean on simulation using LTSPICE and observation with my Velleman USB dual channel scope/signal generator. I want to simulate a whole Carvin X100B in LTSPICE.

After that comes Stage 3, where I'll redesign the Carvin X-series PC board, with lots of stuff options, and probably find out exactly how little I know.

At Stage 4, I go after those 200,000 guys in mid-life crisis. They've got money, and their needs are poorly met. I'll be a neophyte amp designer.

I'm now seeing a need to study small business. I'm buying things, and I need to find out how to get a tax break for them. I'm sure I'll have to pay it back when I sell them.

It's good to have goals.

[Steve Conner]

At Stage 4, I go after those 200,000 guys in mid-life crisis. They've got money, and their needs are poorly met.

Where do you think all the money in the music industry comes from?! Every real musician I've ever known was broke. It's these weekend warriors that buy all the expensive gear. Same story as with Harleys and so on. So, it follows (by Adam Smith's invisible hand theory or some such) that the expensive gear is designed to meet their needs, not the needs of real musicians.

By all means follow your dreams, but remember that every amp maker got there first.

Apart from that, +1 on everything else...

[gbono]

Where do you think all the money in the music industry comes from?! Every real musician I've ever known was broke. It's these weekend warriors that buy all the expensive gear.Same story as with Harleys and so on.

They also buy Porsches (now Volkswagen)

The Art of Electronics is a great reference though not very good for tube designs.

[BackwardsBoB]

Been reading Kuehnel's newer Guitar Amplifier Power Amps book.

It's excellent. Once again, he digs into the math of the whole thing, but with more sensitivity to the fact that he's talking about guitar amps, and more input on how the circuits sound. This time, he turns the volume all the way up to 10 and talks about distortion. His detailed analysis of grid bias excursion is unique. He covers paraphase, concetina and LTP phase splitters in great detail, as well as single-ended and push-pull fixed and cathode biased outputs, with long discussions on transformers and speakers regarding their non-idyllic behavior, as well as the whole negative feeback thing. Triode connection, ultralinear taps, power supply behavior and mis-behavior etc. are covered too.

It's hard to open the book and not find a tube curve with a load line or the Thevenin equivalent of something. It's not exactly decidedly practical, but it will get you adjusting tube curves for a different screen voltage, drawing transformer load line on composite curves for a push-pull pair, and coming up with good first guesses for all those capacitors.

The last fifty pages conclude with the scratch design of single-ended and push-pull output stages with the various phase inverters.

At 374 pages, with only about 54 pages of tube data sheets, the price per page starts to get reasonable, especially when you can learn that the load lines for power tubes in guitar amps are actually ellipses.

[loosecounty]

I have been studying tube amps for over a decade and there are some good books ......and a bunch of junk. Quite a few of us start building amps to get great tone (WHEN PLAYING OUR GUITAR ). From here we chase the perfect tone and play A LOT less guitar. Our guitars become "test gear" to check out our latest mod or design idea. In my opinion, here is where the real watershed lies. What am I talking about? Well, at this point some folks plung head long into the abiss of "electronics perfection" and get WAY too far into math, and forget about playing guitar alltogether. They trade being musicians for being full time electronics geeks. This is not a good trade.The rest of us come to the conclusion that, quite a bit of "guitar amp engineering" is really irrelavent. When it comes to the stuff that really matters, here are my suggestions.
1. all the Gerald weber books. He does "rehash" the same info again and again, but gets the point across well and covers most all the info anyone really needs to know.
2. An RCA tube mannual. This book has the teck info you will need to speck transformers, and component values. This is a must have if you are serious about building amps.
3. Dave hunters book is a good intro.
4. aspen pitmans book is OK, as it has a bit of good info, but more inportatnt it has a million schematics. You will learn tons from just reading the schematics and seeing how things go together.
5. Start your own band ,by marty gerard.or. a good small business primer. Dont't become an electronics nerd for nothin'. Either start your own brand of amp ,open up a repair shop, or put together a rockin band with SMOKIN' tone.