Apart from the circuitry, the driver, and a cabinet to hold it all in, is
there really any complicated hoo ha to building a decent guitar amp? I'm
thinking of building a 1959 5E7 Bandmaster copy from some schematics and
component layouts. Doesn't have to look good, just sound good.
Any of you done this before with success or failure?

"offpeak808" wrote in message
...
Apart from the circuitry, the driver, and a cabinet to hold it all in, is
there really any complicated hoo ha to building a decent guitar amp? I'm
thinking of building a 1959 5E7 Bandmaster copy from some schematics and
component layouts. Doesn't have to look good, just sound good.
Any of you done this before with success or failure?



** Have you tried to get the specs for the Fender power and output
transformers yet ?

Tried to obtain closely similar ones anywhere ??





............ Phil

In article writes:

Apart from the circuitry, the driver, and a cabinet to hold it all in, is
there really any complicated hoo ha to building a decent guitar amp? I'm
thinking of building a 1959 5E7 Bandmaster copy from some schematics and
component layouts.

The circuitry isn't that complicated, but it may be difficult to find
proper power and output transformers unless some company like Magic
Parts or Ruby is making a good replacement. Without those, you're just
building any old amplifier. If you have a schematic, the first thing
I'd do is make up a shopping list and fill in the "where to get it"
blanks. See where the blanks are.




--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

The circuitry isn't that complicated, but it may be difficult to find
proper power and output transformers unless some company like Magic
Parts or Ruby is making a good replacement.

I suggest Mercury Magnetics. They make a far better transformer than
the above companies.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...8909 582&rd=1

I've found
http://www.angela.com/
very useful in the past (about 4 years ago) for parts, don't know about
now but have a look...

good luck,

Evangelos


%
Evangelos Himonides
IoE, University of London
tel: +44 2076126599
fax: +44 2076126741
"Allas to those who never sing but die with all their music in them..."

Oliver Wendell Holmes


%

Not yet. Do you know where I can dig some up?

"Phil Allison" wrote in message
...

"offpeak808" wrote in message
...
Apart from the circuitry, the driver, and a cabinet to hold it all in,
is
there really any complicated hoo ha to building a decent guitar amp? I'm
thinking of building a 1959 5E7 Bandmaster copy from some schematics and
component layouts. Doesn't have to look good, just sound good.
Any of you done this before with success or failure?



** Have you tried to get the specs for the Fender power and output
transformers yet ?

Tried to obtain closely similar ones anywhere ??





........... Phil

On Mon, 21 Mar 2005 02:06:33 +0800, "offpeak808"
wrote:

Not yet. Do you know where I can dig some up?

Antique Electronics, :
http://www.tubesandmore.com/

Triode Electronics:
http://store.yahoo.com/triodeel/index.html

Good fortune,

Chris Hornbeck

Hi, thanks for your tip. Where I live, I can take a trip to any number of
transformer shops on one street and if I knew exactly what I was looking for
can maybe find something similar and of decent quality. (The shop certainly
won't know or care!) Problem is, how do I determine what is similar and of
good quality? Primary impedance value, voltage ratio, weight, material? If I
could say, "Hey, I'm looking for a standard push-pull primary that will
handle 30+ watts into for a speaker from 4-16 ohms..." then I could probably
find something, but I don't know if that is what I should be asking.

You have any experience in doing this?

Try posting this on alt.guitar.amps.

--
Jedd Haas - Artist
http://www.gallerytungsten.com
http://www.epsno.com

This is the wrong group for this question, but yeah there are a lot of
guys out there building thier amps from scratch. If you have little
experience you might want to start with a simpler design, like maybe a
tweed Fender Champ. There is tons of info abount doing this on the
web:

http://www.diyguitaramp.com/
http://www.ax84.com/
http://www.missionamps.com/
http://www.webervst.com/

Al

On Sun, 20 Mar 2005 16:19:40 +0800, "offpeak808"
wrote:

Apart from the circuitry, the driver, and a cabinet to hold it all in, is
there really any complicated hoo ha to building a decent guitar amp? I'm
thinking of building a 1959 5E7 Bandmaster copy from some schematics and
component layouts. Doesn't have to look good, just sound good.
Any of you done this before with success or failure?

Sorry if this was an OT post. I'll post on alt.guitar.amps.

"play on" wrote in message
...
This is the wrong group for this question, but yeah there are a lot of
guys out there building thier amps from scratch. If you have little
experience you might want to start with a simpler design, like maybe a
tweed Fender Champ. There is tons of info abount doing this on the
web:

http://www.diyguitaramp.com/
http://www.ax84.com/
http://www.missionamps.com/
http://www.webervst.com/

Al

On Sun, 20 Mar 2005 16:19:40 +0800, "offpeak808"
wrote:

Apart from the circuitry, the driver, and a cabinet to hold it all in, is
there really any complicated hoo ha to building a decent guitar amp? I'm
thinking of building a 1959 5E7 Bandmaster copy from some schematics and
component layouts. Doesn't have to look good, just sound good.
Any of you done this before with success or failure?

"offpeak808" wrote in message ...

Sorry if this was an OT post. I'll post on alt.guitar.amps.


Not at all... variety is the spice! Here's a fellow with an old book which
you might find interesting, called, "17 Watts?"

http://www.mofoster.com/books/

http://www.btinternet.com/~shadows_a...er/default.htm

--
David Morgan (MAMS)
http://www.m-a-m-s DOT com
Morgan Audio Media Service
Dallas, Texas (214) 662-9901
_______________________________________
http://www.artisan-recordingstudio.com

The crew on a.g.a. are all obsessed with replicating the same old amps
the same old way to play for the most part the same old music (just not
as well). However the amp he describes is pretty much it.



Reasonable facsimiles of the origiinal transformers for most any
tweed/blackface Fender are available from several sources. I think it's
funny to see the extent they go to to copy the old transformers because
I used to put better output transformers in old Fenders all the time.

Of course you could always wind one yourself, although it's probably
more work than it's worth.

offpeak808 wrote:
Apart from the circuitry, the driver, and a cabinet to hold it all in, is
there really any complicated hoo ha to building a decent guitar amp? I'm
thinking of building a 1959 5E7 Bandmaster copy from some schematics and
component layouts. Doesn't have to look good, just sound good.
Any of you done this before with success or failure?

Yes, it's not that difficult a thing to do if you're reasonably safe
working around high voltages.

The thing is, you'll find that once you've bought the power transformer,
the output transformer, a set of chassis punches to fit the tube sockets,
a steel chassis, etc. that you wind up paying more than a new amp would have
cost you.

BUT, The Tube Amp Book by Pittman has schematics of hundreds of different
amps that you can easily grab, and there are some reasonable transformers
out there from guys like Hammond Manufacturing.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

If you are a scrounger and have access to metalworking tools or know
someone who can bend stuff up cheaply-and sheet steel is not
expensive-you can build one reasonable not counting your own time.
However if you can deal with most of the reissue amps all being built
on a PCB it's probably not justifiable on economic grounds.

In article .com writes:

Reasonable facsimiles of the origiinal transformers for most any
tweed/blackface Fender are available from several sources. I think it's
funny to see the extent they go to to copy the old transformers because
I used to put better output transformers in old Fenders all the time.

As with any restoration, scholars differ. If you make it better than
the original, you've destroyed a classic (and fairly consistently
produced) sound. It looks like a Fender but is sounds like something
else.

When building an amplifier from scratch, the first thing you need to
decide is whether you're going to shoot for a classic and well known
sound or do you want to make the guitar sound like you want it to,
without comparison with an off-the-shelf amplifier.



--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo