Page 1 of 1
List of suppliers for DIY guitar amps
Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2023 9:18 am
by echoplex
Re: Any good DIY tube amp kits out there?
Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2023 9:55 am
by jthomas
Lotsa amp kits available. 3 basic price tiers:
Cheapest: Ebay no name chassis and component kits. I have no experience with these. You get what you pay for.
Mid-level: Weber VST. I have built one of their kits (the Maggie) and essentially rebuilt another (a high-power Princeton style). Chinese transformers that some people dislike, but work fine in my experience. No detailed instructions and they closed their forum down last year. They do provide layouts and schematics. The kits have functional parts and I've had no difficulty, but some builders will swap out jacks and pots for higher priced components. The prices on the website are basically for a whole amp (chassis, components, cab, and speaker) but you can subtract out various parts of the amp if you want to, for example, build your own cab, etc.
https://www.tedweber.com/amps/kits/
Higher price point: MojoTone, Hoffman, Tube-Amp Doctor etc. I have no experience with these sellers. On the mojotone website, they give prices for the chassis and components and you will have to add in the cost of the cab and speaker. Essentially the opposite of the way the Weber does it.
https://www.mojotone.com/amp-shop/amp-kits
https://hoffmanamps.com/
I'm not sure how the Hoffman site works... maybe you choose a general amp category and then order a la carte? I dk and don't want to take any more time trying to figure it out.
A friend bought a Tube Depot Champ-type kit. He's not put it together yet. I was at the unboxing and it looked like something between the Cheapest and mid-tier. Raw MDF cab in pieces and a printed circuit board instead of an eyelet board or turret board.
Sorry that I cannot help with stuff from Europe, but I am sure that others will comment, also. Amazon also has some kits. DK if any originate from Europe.
Re: Any good DIY tube amp kits out there?
Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2023 11:58 am
by Steadyriot.
Most affordable kits I know of in the EU are from Madamp.
They’re sold by Musikding.
Tubetown is another seller of kits. No beginner kits though.
Tonefactory also sells kits, both TAD and their own.
Re: Any good DIY tube amp kits out there?
Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2023 12:17 pm
by JSett
I built one from Modulus Amplification here in the UK. It was good quality and the instructions were sufficient for someone with a working knowledge of electronics. They do all sorts of US and British style kits
Re: Any good DIY tube amp kits out there?
Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2023 3:20 pm
by echoplex
Maybe we can use this thread to gather suppliers of DIY amps for both the US, Europe and rest of the world.
I will eventually be able to edit the thread title and post to list all the links we amass.
Re: List of suppliers for DIY guitar amps
Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2023 9:04 am
by echoplex
Just updated the original post with all links I've found.
Feel free to add
Re: List of suppliers for DIY guitar amps
Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2023 7:08 am
by hulakatt
I've had good experience with Marsh amps in the US.
Excellent experience with Valvestorm for Marshall builds!
Boothill amps is on par with Weber kits.
Trinity enjoys an excellent reputation but not a wide range of kits.
Re: List of suppliers for DIY guitar amps
Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2023 7:50 am
by ryland
hulakatt wrote: ↑Mon Feb 20, 2023 7:08 am
I've had good experience with Marsh amps in the US.
Excellent experience with Valvestorm for Marshall builds!
Boothill amps is on par with Weber kits.
Trinity enjoys an excellent reputation but not a wide range of kits.
Is Marsh still in business? I keep looking at the site and it doesn't seem to have been updated in quite a while. I never reached out to see if anyone was still there, though.
Can confirm that Trinity is top notch. I built a Triwatt kit as my first build. It's still one of my favorite amps.
Re: List of suppliers for DIY guitar amps
Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2023 1:24 pm
by hulakatt
ryland wrote: ↑Mon Feb 20, 2023 7:50 am
hulakatt wrote: ↑Mon Feb 20, 2023 7:08 am
I've had good experience with Marsh amps in the US.
Excellent experience with Valvestorm for Marshall builds!
Boothill amps is on par with Weber kits.
Trinity enjoys an excellent reputation but not a wide range of kits.
Is Marsh still in business? I keep looking at the site and it doesn't seem to have been updated in quite a while. I never reached out to see if anyone was still there, though.
Can confirm that Trinity is top notch. I built a Triwatt kit as my first build. It's still one of my favorite amps.
Someone's still paying the hosting bills for the site at the least
Re: List of suppliers for DIY guitar amps
Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2023 4:46 am
by madlovepickups
Ampmaker in the Uk, used to have a good selection of components but seems to be concentrating on kits now.
Evatco pretty much the only local option here in Australia
Ceriatone has a good reputation for amp kits as well as a popular Klone.
Re: List of suppliers for DIY guitar amps
Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2023 3:31 am
by HarktheUmpire
There's also
Banzai Music in Berlin. They mostly just resell TAD stuff it seems, but they're a great resource for parts. Someone here was complaining (sorry, couldn't find the thread) about paying over 150 dollars to replace their filter caps recently, and I just replaced mine with F+T ones ordered through Banzai for something like €20 total.