The Amp Garage

Typical "standard" value you will see is 1M. There have been others lower and higher. Ampeg used 5.6M. This is the resistance your guitar sees looking into the input so it will affect tone. The load your pickups see are the parallel combination of the pots in your guitar and the grid leak resistor i...

Still a few spots left in the March 14 & 15, 2015 Amp Building Class at The Berkley Music Company in Berkley, Michigan. Cost is $1650 total for the two days. You walk out with a fantastic, 20 watt, 6V6, hotrodded Marshall style head (just like in the photos) that you built with your own hands. You d...

One thing about the Sundowm amps that I have seen is that they used all solid wire. Most of the problems I've repaired were related to broken wires. For that reason, rewriting may be a benefit.

What Jana said. The diodes will limit the signal into the reverb but will also distort it. Since the amp is already distorted in that scenario, it may be OK. Let us know what works for you. Assuming you are using a switch to bypass the tone controls, could you use a switch with additional poles and ...

Of course you can elevate the heaters regardless of whether you use DC or AC.

You mentioned earlier you had a bias tool set to milliamps. What gadget is this? The reason I ask is because they typically measure the VOLTAGE across a resistor as opposed to measuring current which must be done in series.

I have tested both the elevating and DC and find the DC is a 100% solution while the elevating is still somewhat affected by the filament balance (or lack of) in the tube itself. If you don't put the AC noise into the tube (DC filament) there is not chance of internal (or external) coupling. You can...

Email me for the Egnater amp schematics.

I view this as similar to learning to drive. You can take all the classes you want but until you drive a car, you really don't know what it's like. That is why we build on the first day with ongoing explanations working from drawings, schematics etc. The second day is sort of the classroom setup whe...

We "prebuild" much of the kit so it can be done in one day. Classroom is day 2 where they really learn stuff. You still get enough intense building experience in about 10 hours without caving under the pressure. We build the board, which would take a day or two itself and prewire some of the utility...

It is one of the things we really love doing. I'm glad we can continue to do it. FYI, I would guess 80% of the past attendees were from out of town. We have had people come from Alaska, Dominican Republic, Australia and all over the US and Canada. It is pretty cool meeting others from all these diff...

Thanks. Every student's amp will look as nice when they are done.

Lots of views but no comments, good or bad. Could use some feedback to know we are doing the right things.

Not sure if this is OK to post here? If not, please delete. I do think the classes are of great benefit to people interested in amps though. Spring is right around the corner. Time to start up the amp classes again. First class is March 14 & 15, 2015 at The Berkley Music Company in Berkley, Michigan...