I've been pondering building an amp for some time now, you guys chatting it up over here have piqued my interest. Any suggestions/schematics on an amp to get my feet wet with? Also, if anyone has a good walkthrough site or something, just so I can have some idea of how to go about putting one together. Sources on materials too, that'd help.
I want something with some bite to it. I've got an ultimate chorus DSP, and while it does the nice clean sound well, it leaves something to be desired when I want a little bit more of an aggressive tone.
I've built pcbs before, I'm not afraid to tackle something above beginner level.
Any suggestions to get me started?
There are a lot of kits out there from Mojo and others where you can build your own Tweed Deluxe. It's a pretty cool little amp with a nice layout and a very simple circuit. They sound pretty good too especially if you use a very light low wattage 12 inch speaker like that 12ALP from Electro Harmonix.
I guess in terms of easier to start with I would look to something that is cathode biased. This would be maybe a copy of an early fender circuit or some sort of class A circuit. With cathode bias you don't have to worry about setting the bias and you don't have to have a scope or other bias setting gear. Otherwise, many kits are Marshall or Bassman clones, which are very similar circuits.
