*Really* understanding... and getting into design.

[R.G.]

The Radiotron Designer's Handbook 3rd (not 4th) edition is very good too. Unlike the more-normally-sought 4th edition, the 3rd is much more compact and accessible.

One has to learn, try, fix the mistakes, learn more, try some more, and keep on this way. It's a journey, not a destination.

[Tom Phillips]

The Radiotron Designer's Handbook 3rd (not 4th) edition is very good too...

Good suggestion. I see that a scan is available for download at the same site listed in post #30. As you will find there are many other book scans available there too.

[soundmasterg]

You may also see if you can find the Dave Funk Tube Amp Workbook around. It is sadly now out of print, but this is a recent thing so there are still examples around. It is great for the basics and has nice, large Fender schematics in the back that are very handy. The Gerald Weber books and videos are also decent for the basics as long as you can get past the folksieness and sometimes incorrect info and/or sales pitches in there. His 2nd, 3rd, and 4th books are better than the first, but all of them are reprints out of the Vintage Guitar magazine articles that he used to do. Dave Hunter also wrote a basic amp book that might be useful to you. Kevin O' Connor's TUT3 is extremely useful for the practical considerations of making tube guitar amps, but is not a first level book.

Greg

[Amp Kat]

I have that book SG and it is a very good book. Thunderfunk I think he called that amp on the front page. Good stuff though if you can find it.

[Gibsonman63]

To me Dave Funk was one of the easier reads and he has a lot of information on the various blackface Fender amps that I haven't seen anywhere else. I started with Gerald Weber, before I got hip to Randall Aiken, Merlin Blencowe and others. Weber is a fairly easy read, but the information is very disorganized and I have since learned to take it with a grain of salt. Randall Aiken digs into the math really well. I keep going back to Merlin Blencowe. It is way too much too fast for me to digest at once, but he is very organized and thorough. Very useful if you have a specific design issue. Aspen Pittman has a lot of interesting amplifier company history and some good pictures. Lots of schematics, but there are better ways to print schematics these days that older eyes can actually read.