diy baby amp builds you have tried and loved?

[tabbycat]

not sure if we have a general amp gossip thread here somewhere, if we do then this can be moved.

anyway, a neat little mini-amp build by dan @4114 i noticed at fretboard today. doesn't seem to be doing anything extraordinary re design, but very tidy for what it is and reportedly sounds sweet.

it made me wonder, i know of the valvecaster, the double-valvecaster, the firefly and frequency central's murder one', has anyone here built any of these things and can recommend or warn off the various options out there?

i checked amps under the subsection 'amp' on the main gfx landing page, but they are all ss 386 ruby etc things. 12ax7 and 12au7 related builds seem to be a blind spot in the catalogue at present.

dan's mini amp:





http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/72890/tiniest-valve-amp-i-ve-ever-made/p1

[PMowdes]

tabbycat wrote

not sure if we have a general amp gossip thread here somewhere, if we do then this can be moved.

anyway, a neat little mini-amp build by dan @4114 i noticed at fretboard today. doesn't seem to be doing anything extraordinary re design, but very tidy for what it is and reportedly sounds sweet.

it made me wonder, i know of the valvecaster, the double-valvecaster, the firefly and frequency central's murder one', has anyone here built any of these things and can recommend or warn off the various options out there?

i checked amps under the subsection 'amp' on the main gfx landing page, but they are all ss 386 ruby etc things. 12ax7 and 12au7 related builds seem to be a blind spot in the catalogue at present.

dan's mini amp:





http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/72890/tiniest-valve-amp-i-ve-ever-made/p1

I've built both the valve caster and the vibracaster recently.  I boxed the valvecaster with a switchable naga viper treble boost.  Both are pretty good, but there isn't a huge amount of gain with the 12AU7 valves.  I quite like the effect I get using the treble boosted valve caster with PJP's photonic jeurgulator (MKII).  I have a board made up for a twin caster but I haven't but around to boxing it up yet.

I'd be interested to see how this thread plays out, I kinda wanna make a small valve amp.

[strewel_peterson]

I've built 3 amps from kits over the years: the Guitar Magazine Stinger combo, Aston Amplification's 4w master volume amp, and Ampmaker's Double Six. All 3 were straightforward builds, with excellent instructions.

I've not gone for a full DIY build yet as I'm a scaredy-cat around mains voltages, and feel happier when the designer knows much more about electrical safety than I do. You should see me shaking even after I've carefully bled the smoothing caps in a power supply before starting work, and gingerly tested for voltage with a multimeter. And as for dielectric absorption... quake, quake.

Another thing to think about with anything but the smallest build is woodwork and finishing - ready made cabs can be quite expensive, and home-built boxes (like mine) can look, shall we say, a little rustic.

It's a great feeling cranking up your own amp, though.