Members Freeman Keller Posted March 2, 2015 Members Share Posted March 2, 2015 My old Gibson amp finally gave up the ghost and started blowing main power fuses. I poked around and couldn't see anything obvious so I put it on the back burner and bought a little Blackstar practice amp to get by until I could decide what to do. Looked at a lot of different amps, couldn't decide until a friend said "why not build your own?". I'm a do it yourself sort of guy with an electronics background so the appeal was immediate. Looked at the options and decided to try a kit from AmpMaker in the United Kingdom - my friend had build one of their Plexi kits and highly recommended dealing with Barry at AmpMaker. www.ampmaker.com First problem was a long delay at Christmas time - the kit I wanted to build was being retooled and then AmpMaker shut down for the holidays. Finally managed to get the kit ordered - it only took about a week to arrive from the UK to Washington State. I ordered what they call the Double Six - it is switchable between 1, 6 and 12 amps and is designed to be a very clean at whatever output you are running. I prefer clean sounds - I play mostly blues and a lot of fingerstyle stuff even on my electric and the whole distortion thing is sort of lost on me. I had a couple of 6V6's so I ordered the kit with the one preamp tube but no output tubes and transformer for American 120 volt power. Here is what I got It doesn't take much in the way of tools to build one of these Basic assembly steps are to first mount all the components on the chassis - tube sockets, transformers, etc and do some minor wiring between them. Most of the components are soldered to a "turret board" - the instruction say to install it in the chassis but I did it on the bench. It was easiest to stick the component wires thru the turrets, lightly solder them at the back and clip the excess leads. Looks like this when its done The turret board goes in the chassis and some final connections are made Some comments about instructions and skill level to build this. First, the instructions are very complete but they are not step by step and will required some thought on your part. I have seen kits that describe each and every step ('solder a 22K resistor (RRO) between pins 1 and 2 of.....) - that AmpMaker instructions are not nearly this specific. You get a picture of the turret board (you can see that in picture 3 above), a list of the components with their values and a resistor color chart (or you can use your DMM). I know my color chart but I checked most of the components and I checked each one off the list as it was soldered in place. You also need to be thinking ahead to additional wires that will connect to each turret - will you stuff it in the hole or wrap it around the post? How will you hold wires in place as you solder them (a hemostat works wonders)? Anyway, in my opinion the instructions are very good and completely adequate, but I do have experience with electronic devices. The second comment is about your assembly skills. You need to have your soldering chops down before you start. Soldering is not hard but don't try to learn it on the kit - practice on scrap before you start. Tin all of the stranded wire before soldering and make sure every joint is clean and bright. Other than that,m very straightforward too. As I said, I have a Gibson amp and cabinet and at least until I get the amp fixed I decided to simply mount the Double Six in the Gibbie box. At first I built an adaptor plate out of 16 gauge steel but decided it worked better to just drill some new mounting holes - they are pretty well hidden by the handles. Here is the Double Six hanging in the Gibson cab - almost looks like it belongs there. and a final underexposed shot of my little LP clone, VOX effect thingie and the Double Six I'm still learning what this thing can do but first impressions are very good - it is certainly loud enough for my little music room on the 6 watt setting, the tone is very warm and clean. It has a "Fat" switch which is supposed to be used with single coil pickups and a "Boost" switch which takes the bass and treble pots out of play - right now I've been leaving those off. Bottom line, nice little amp, good quality and relatively easy to put together - a fun project. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gardo Posted March 2, 2015 Members Share Posted March 2, 2015 Once again I'm quite impressed with your work. I would still be studying the instructions and getting comfortable enough to consider starting. and you're already playing It looks right at home in that cabinet too ,Great job Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members t_e_l_e Posted March 2, 2015 Members Share Posted March 2, 2015 congrats to your built, did it fire up on the first time? such a amp kit i just a small amount of time fun building, because they are finished that quick, right? it was so for me with my tweed royal btw BYOC has them in stock again with your wood working skills you need to built its dedicated cabinet, it really deserves it have fun playin with your new amp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members thatsbunk Posted March 2, 2015 Members Share Posted March 2, 2015 Looks good. I built a "Heathkit" Stereo in my younger days... It's quite satisfying when you plug it in and it actually works! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeepEnd Posted March 3, 2015 Members Share Posted March 3, 2015 Okay, I'm home and I can see the pics. Looks great, just as I expected. Congratulations and Happy New (Kit) Amp Day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jazzer2020 Posted March 7, 2015 Members Share Posted March 7, 2015 Nice job FK! Looks great. I hope you enjoy playing it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members hellion_213 Posted March 9, 2015 Members Share Posted March 9, 2015 Looks good man, HNKAD! Looks like fun too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members guitarcapo Posted March 10, 2015 Members Share Posted March 10, 2015 I really like to buy Hammond reverb amps (called AO-35 amps) and wire them up cheap. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hammond-Amplifier-Tube-Chassis-AO-35-7-/131450662317 Something like this you can find for less than $100 and usually the can capacitor, mounted power and output transformer, tube sockets and circuit board are perfectly usable. All you have to do is repopulate the board with resistors and caps to the design you are after, and rewire things to the tubes and add pots and jacks. Then you have a cool 18 watt push pull EL84 amp with a pair of 12AX7 preamp tubes and a tube rectifier. Some cool designs I've done are Marshall 18 watt, Matchless Spitfire, and Carmen Ghia. Mod to taste. I have a pair of them mounted in old dynamite crates and they sound great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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