Valve Amp Building Kits - new project

russpm

I fancy having a go at building my own amp, preferably a head. I’ve seen and heard good things about Vyse, Modulus & Amp Builder on here.
Just looking for any recommendations, pitfalls, lessons learned etc. Which one are epic and which ones are a bit meh.

I looking to go with something less than 20 watts and I am open to any type of amp really.

I’m proficient at wiring, soldering, understanding circuits etc as I am an electrical engineer by trade although not for the last 15 years.

Something that could be modified my be-handy for future messing.

Thanks

John_A

Modulus stuff is great quality and very well priced IMO, you can’t go wrong!  Just need to decide what type of amp you want, but the 18w Marshall clones are great for future modding

Kalimna

Its a little beyond 20W, but the JTM50 Black Flag from Modulus is all kinds of awesome. Very mod-able, but on the loud side. 

I canno

hywelg

I suppose it depends on what type of amp you want to end up with. 

To my knowledge no one does an AB763 kit but Ceriatone will give you at least 10 different Dumble clone options, plus a load of tweed Fenders, Matchless Trainwreck and Hiwatt. 

Modulus seem to have the Marshall circuits covered. 

Personally I'd recommend Ceriatone as I've built three of them and they are all excellent, but I started with an Ampmaker SE5 as the instructions were excellent but I was a lot greener than you when I started. 

Modulus_Amps

Posting this as a member, not a supplier

First amp I ever built was a heavily modified tweed deluxe, I read a book and did all the suggested mods straight away and the worked fine, but compared to a real tweed deluxe was completely meh! I didn't build another amp for 5 years or so as a result. I now always tell guys to build amps stock and then modify from there.

My second amp build was a 18w 1974 type amp, the first time I got to crank that thing was glorious, it changed my understanding of the guitar // amp relationship and put my large pedal board in danger. It also led me towards Trainwreck amps and variations of them for a good number of years.

It was a few years after the 18w that I built a tweed deluxe properly, did one simple mod to it to trim the bass and it still sounds great, currently with my brother in SA, it is simple and there are lots of things you can do to it to tweak it if you want to. I just modded one of mine to have a blackface TMB tone stack and master volume and it is lovely.

The other sub 20w amp that for clean tone is stunning is a blackface Princeton reverb, there is much more involved in building one and I would not really consider it to be a beginner project, but you say you have some relevant experience so you might be able to handle it.

The suppliers you are looking at all offer slightly different things but as far as I know all offer good product, so it is really about you building an amp that you are going to love, rather than just have success at. 

russpm

Modulus_Amps said:

Posting this as a member, not a supplier

First amp I ever built was a heavily modified tweed deluxe, I read a book and did all the suggested mods straight away and the worked fine, but compared to a real tweed deluxe was completely meh! I didn't build another amp for 5 years or so as a result. I now always tell guys to build amps stock and then modify from there.

My second amp build was a 18w 1974 type amp, the first time I got to crank that thing was glorious, it changed my understanding of the guitar // amp relationship and put my large pedal board in danger. It also led me towards Trainwreck amps and variations of them for a good number of years.

It was a few years after the 18w that I built a tweed deluxe properly, did one simple mod to it to trim the bass and it still sounds great, currently with my brother in SA, it is simple and there are lots of things you can do to it to tweak it if you want to. I just modded one of mine to have a blackface TMB tone stack and master volume and it is lovely.

The other sub 20w amp that for clean tone is stunning is a blackface Princeton reverb, there is much more involved in building one and I would not really consider it to be a beginner project, but you say you have some relevant experience so you might be able to handle it.

The suppliers you are looking at all offer slightly different things but as far as I know all offer good product, so it is really about you building an amp that you are going to love, rather than just have success at. 

Thanks for this, I am leaning towards a Princeton. I’m going to give it some serious thought as it’s a fair investment in both £ and time.

Kalimna

Kalimna said:

Its a little beyond 20W, but the JTM50 Black Flag from Modulus is all kinds of awesome. Very mod-able, but on the loud side. 

I canno

Ive just noticed that part of my post has been cut off.
What I had meant to finish with was : 

I cannot recommend Modulus highly enough. Michael has shown a phenomenal amount of patience and knowledge with me as I piled question upon question  (I'm certain repeating my questions more than once).

My only word of caution would be that amp building feels like it might become an addiction!

Good luck

russpm

Thanks all for the input so far. I’m ruling out Ceriatone just because of the issues with receiving goods from overseas at the moment. I’ve had a some bloody awful delays from the USA and the import charges are being administered much more keenly. 

John_A

Ceriatone are great, and they will 'help' with customs charges however the postage on full kits is a lot.  IMO Modulus stuff is just as good quality and he's here in the UK.

I'll also second Michael's knowledge and willingness to help 

RiftAmps

russpm said:

Modulus_Amps said:

The other sub 20w amp that for clean tone is stunning is a blackface Princeton reverb, there is much more involved in building one and I would not really consider it to be a beginner project, but you say you have some relevant experience so you might be able to handle it.

Thanks for this, I am leaning towards a Princeton. I’m going to give it some serious thought as it’s a fair investment in both £ and time.

I absolutely would not recommend a Princeton Reverb as a first time build. In fact any amplfiier with onboard effects is a bad idea for those with little-to-no diagnostic ability.

Great starter projects:

• 5F1 Champ
• 5E3 Deluxe
• 18w Marshall
  

Good luck!

russpm

RiftAmps said:

russpm said:

Modulus_Amps said:

The other sub 20w amp that for clean tone is stunning is a blackface Princeton reverb, there is much more involved in building one and I would not really consider it to be a beginner project, but you say you have some relevant experience so you might be able to handle it.

Thanks for this, I am leaning towards a Princeton. I’m going to give it some serious thought as it’s a fair investment in both £ and time.

I absolutely would not recommend a Princeton Reverb as a first time build. In fact any amplfiier with onboard effects is a bad idea for those with little-to-no diagnostic ability.

Great starter projects:

• 5F1 Champ
• 5E3 Deluxe
• 18w Marshall
  

Good luck!

Thanks man. I used to design and build electrical control panels for the manufacturing and process industry so I do have a good understanding of circuits, reading drawings and building, soldering, wiring etc.

Keefy

Modulus_Amps said:

...

The other sub 20w amp that for clean tone is stunning is a blackface Princeton reverb, there is much more involved in building one and I would not really consider it to be a beginner project, but you say you have some relevant experience so you might be able to handle it.

...

RiftAmps said:

russpm said:

Modulus_Amps said:

The other sub 20w amp that for clean tone is stunning is a blackface Princeton reverb, there is much more involved in building one and I would not really consider it to be a beginner project, but you say you have some relevant experience so you might be able to handle it.

Thanks for this, I am leaning towards a Princeton. I’m going to give it some serious thought as it’s a fair investment in both £ and time.

I absolutely would not recommend a Princeton Reverb as a first time build. In fact any amplfiier with onboard effects is a bad idea for those with little-to-no diagnostic ability.

Great starter projects:

• 5F1 Champ
• 5E3 Deluxe
• 18w Marshall
  

Good luck!

+2

The Princeton Reverb is a phenomenal amp. However, I have just converted a modern PR to (near-)blackface spec, and it was easily the most complicated valve amp project I have undertaken to date. It worked first time, but I have already had to tweak the tremolo depth and may still want to tweak the speed range.

I would certainly recommend a 5E3 build. Modulus do two head versions. Build it, play it, then decide whether you want to mod it. 

Fuengi

Any update on the builds? 

I'm seriously considering my first build project and eyeing up something from @Modulus_Amps at the moment.

Modulus_Amps

@ Fuengi, What are you considering?

I met up with @Kalimna at the guitarshow with two of his recent builds to have a look over.

Was looking at figures a few weeks ago, last year we shipped ~150 amp kits and also started selling kits in the US market for the first time, probably a result of the transformer issues they have there.

Fuengi

Modulus_Amps said:

@ Fuengi, What are you considering?

I met up with @Kalimna at the guitarshow with two of his recent builds to have a look over.

Was looking at figures a few weeks ago, last year we shipped ~150 amp kits and also started selling kits in the US market for the first time, probably a result of the transformer issues they have there.

Blimey! Glad you can still get hold of your components. 

Ultimately, I'd love to build a Princeton Reverb but I understand that's going to be too ambitious as a first (or probably second) build. 

I've got a Marshall shaped hole in my amp collection, so looking at your 18w or the 20w Plexi-ish amps. The extra headroom of the 20w and your demo make it look ideal and a reasonable place to start.

I'm intrigued by your comments above about Trainwreck amps. From what I had read about him, he sounds like some sort of Happy Gilmore type amp maverick who cannot be emulated. Your experience building one of his designs sounds like a huge success? 

MentalSharps

Do you do any Dumble type amp kits Modulus? Seems hard to find affordable D style amps in the UK

Modulus_Amps

Fuengi said:

Modulus_Amps said:

@ Fuengi, What are you considering?

I met up with @Kalimna at the guitarshow with two of his recent builds to have a look over.

Was looking at figures a few weeks ago, last year we shipped ~150 amp kits and also started selling kits in the US market for the first time, probably a result of the transformer issues they have there.

Blimey! Glad you can still get hold of your components. 

Ultimately, I'd love to build a Princeton Reverb but I understand that's going to be too ambitious as a first (or probably second) build. 

I've got a Marshall shaped hole in my amp collection, so looking at your 18w or the 20w Plexi-ish amps. The extra headroom of the 20w and your demo make it look ideal and a reasonable place to start.

I'm intrigued by your comments above about Trainwreck amps. From what I had read about him, he sounds like some sort of Happy Gilmore type amp maverick who cannot be emulated. Your experience building one of his designs sounds like a huge success? 

We started making our own transformers as that became an issue during lockdown, glad we did as the ones we make now are better than many of the ones we used to get before. The benefit of being able to control the design and manufacturing process.

That new GTS amp is great, had a good number of people at the guitar show say they thought it was the best amp on the show - of course that is all about taste and what you are after!

I don't buy into the "can't be emulated" thing, He came up with some great amp designs, that were simple and sounded great. I think Z Wrecks or many of the Comets amps do a great job of tipping the hat to him. I still have a rocket build that sounds great and a 20w Express that is brutally loud for 20w but is so dynamic to play. I will be building a full on Express later this year as I now have an attenuator that I am super happy with.

Fuengi

Modulus_Amps said:

Fuengi said:

Modulus_Amps said:

@ Fuengi, What are you considering?

I met up with @Kalimna at the guitarshow with two of his recent builds to have a look over.

Was looking at figures a few weeks ago, last year we shipped ~150 amp kits and also started selling kits in the US market for the first time, probably a result of the transformer issues they have there.

Blimey! Glad you can still get hold of your components. 

Ultimately, I'd love to build a Princeton Reverb but I understand that's going to be too ambitious as a first (or probably second) build. 

I've got a Marshall shaped hole in my amp collection, so looking at your 18w or the 20w Plexi-ish amps. The extra headroom of the 20w and your demo make it look ideal and a reasonable place to start.

I'm intrigued by your comments above about Trainwreck amps. From what I had read about him, he sounds like some sort of Happy Gilmore type amp maverick who cannot be emulated. Your experience building one of his designs sounds like a huge success? 

That new GTS amp is great, had a good number of people at the guitar show say they thought it was the best amp on the show - of course that is all about taste and what you are after!

Do you think it's do-able as a first build? 

I've build several pedals and partscasters now, and rewired most of my guitars. I consider my soldering to be an acceptable level..

Modulus_Amps

MentalSharps said:

Do you do any Dumble type amp kits Modulus? Seems hard to find affordable D style amps in the UK

We are working it, I am working with a new chassis supplier and have a ODS style chassis drawn up for manufacture

Modulus_Amps

Fuengi said:

Modulus_Amps said:

Fuengi said:

Modulus_Amps said:

@ Fuengi, What are you considering?

I met up with @Kalimna at the guitarshow with two of his recent builds to have a look over.

Was looking at figures a few weeks ago, last year we shipped ~150 amp kits and also started selling kits in the US market for the first time, probably a result of the transformer issues they have there.

Blimey! Glad you can still get hold of your components. 

Ultimately, I'd love to build a Princeton Reverb but I understand that's going to be too ambitious as a first (or probably second) build. 

I've got a Marshall shaped hole in my amp collection, so looking at your 18w or the 20w Plexi-ish amps. The extra headroom of the 20w and your demo make it look ideal and a reasonable place to start.

I'm intrigued by your comments above about Trainwreck amps. From what I had read about him, he sounds like some sort of Happy Gilmore type amp maverick who cannot be emulated. Your experience building one of his designs sounds like a huge success? 

That new GTS amp is great, had a good number of people at the guitar show say they thought it was the best amp on the show - of course that is all about taste and what you are after!

Do you think it's do-able as a first build? 

I've build several pedals and partscasters now, and rewired most of my guitars. I consider my soldering to be an acceptable level..

Yes, for those you have some soldering/assembly experience.
There is more space in the chassis to work with so is actually easier than some of the tweed builds that get tight fast.

nick79

My first amp build was the wf55 from amp maker, it was perfect for me as I hadn’t done anything than a few pedal builds before. My next kit will be coming from Modulus, the 5e3 will be perfect I reckon. 

I’m intrigued by the brown face deluxe I’ve seen on Modulus fb page though, that’s pretty much a dream amp for me!