Books on amp building

[MadAsAHatter]

tl;dr I've successfully built a couple of kit amps by just following the layouts and am looking for some book suggestions to help expand my knowledge beyond that. What you you recommend?

I'm at a stage where I can follow the layout to build a kit and follow a schematic and mostly match it to a layout. I understand things like changing components in areas like the tone stack will change the sound in varying ways. I can also do a little basic troubleshooting like measuring components to find a busted one or just narrowing down if a problem is on the preamp or power amp side. That is about the extent of my current knowledge & skills; so very basic.

I've read through Rob Robinette's amp guides and a couple other online resources several times. I guess that's maybe leveled the dirt to start building the foundation. I'm wanting to expand on that past just following a layout to build a kit. I want to start building a better understanding of how things work, why they were designed that way and get better at troubleshooting. The goals I'm working towards are 1. being able to troubleshoot and service my own amps, 2. be able to do some modding beyond just copying someone else's design, 3. be able to translate a schematic to a physical layout, 4. maybe one day take a crack at designing something myself.

What books or other resources would you recommend to help me start building a better foundation for understanding amp design, troubleshooting, building, and such?

 

[DanTravis62]

Consider me subbed, would love to learn more as well. Built a couple amps from kids by following diagrams but know jack shit in the big scheme of things.

 

[MadAsAHatter]

Built a couple amps from kids

This doesn't sound right....?

 

[DanTravis62]

This doesn't sound right....?

bless my phone's autocorrect.

Yes, I built my DR103 and Plexi from the bones of children. I got the invite to bohemian grove and decided I'm a Moloch guy now. Me and the Podesta's are homies.

 

[griff10672]

Finding some decent channels on Youtube on the subject helped me way more than any book I found ... not that I found many books on the subject ..

Jason's videos from Headfirst helped me a TON ....... him and Ossie .....I love watching Ossie's vids ..... he expalins shit while he's literally building amps from the ground up ... from drilling and marking the chassis to firing it up at the end .... talks you through Jose mods etc ..

https://www.youtube.com/@ossieahsen6732

 

[midnightlaundry]

https://www.ampbooks.com/mobile/vacuum-tubes/

Get a kit and play with values. Switch out resistors and bypass caps to see how it affects the sound.

 

[technomancer]

Merlin Blencowe's stuff.

 

[Rottweiler]

I haven't built a kit yet, but I read this book about 20 years ago during a surgery recovery. After reading, I felt like the author did a good job of explaining the sonic contribution of the amp components. I felt like I was ready to give it a shot. Problem was, as soon as I felt better, I was back at work 70 hrs a week. Some day I will build an amp! It seems like kit prices have really gone up since 2020. The book was endorsed on the corner by one of my Rottweilers. She was quite the custodian of literary taste.
Edit Adding title and author for search purposes. The Guitar Amp Handbook by Dave Hunter

 

[Geo]

It certainly couldn't hurt to learn more through books but at some point you have to learn by doing.

I would look for cheap and broken amps to fix or refurbish.

I have always looked at it like this, it's broke already worst case scenario I break it even worse.

Just don't fool around with expensive amps or anything Mesa Boogie.

I have seen Mesa make even experienced techs want to cry.

 

[gybe!]

Some good recommendations from this thread:

Thread 'Circuit breakdown/getting started amp building'

Mar 8, 2026

I have toyed with amp building forever and currently am in a position to do so, but I am trying to chart my best path so am looking for advice/feedback from those that have done it before.

I have exposure to basic circuits (from undergrad physics courses, not EE; have done some basic troubleshooting beyond that), can follow a schematic generally, can solder, have built a few pedal kits, but am lacking the actual connection and understanding of the practical application of what is happening at a circuit to the impact. Said another way, I built some pedals but that was assembly and I...

• gybe!
• Replies: 9
• Forum: Tech Corner

 

[311boogieman]

I haven't built a kit yet, but I read this book about 20 years ago during a surgery recovery. After reading, I felt like the author did a good job of explaining the sonic contribution of the amp components. I felt like I was ready to give it a shot. Problem was, as soon as I felt better, I was back at work 70 hrs a week. Some day I will build an amp! It seems like kit prices have really gone up since 2020. The book was endorsed on the corner by one of my Rottweilers. She was quite the custodian of literary taste.
Edit Adding title and author for search purposes. The Guitar Amp Handbook by Dave Hunter
View attachment 463053View attachment 463054View attachment 463055

This is the one I have. But I'm not as interested in building one, just understanding them.

*following

 

[7704A]

Here's a ton of old books on tubes 'n stuff: http://tubebooks.org/. I'm reading through Reich's book from there, and it's glorious. Though if you don't want series expansions of plate current, it might be a bit much.

I learned a lot from Kevin O'Connor's TUT series as well, though there are typos sometimes and occasionally the theory can feel a little hand-wavy. He has a forum where he'll engage with your questions though, which I've found very useful.

 

[inyarak74]

I haven't built a kit yet, but I read this book about 20 years ago during a surgery recovery. After reading, I felt like the author did a good job of explaining the sonic contribution of the amp components. I felt like I was ready to give it a shot. Problem was, as soon as I felt better, I was back at work 70 hrs a week. Some day I will build an amp! It seems like kit prices have really gone up since 2020. The book was endorsed on the corner by one of my Rottweilers. She was quite the custodian of literary taste.
Edit Adding title and author for search purposes. The Guitar Amp Handbook by Dave Hunter
View attachment 463053View attachment 463054View attachment 463055

Off topic, but in reference to the rottie putting her touch on the tome, we sold a rottie to a couple years ago, she was a trained personal protection dog. She was a queen, but would occasionally get into the trash. Received a call from the new owner in a panic said she was relieving herself and her guts were pouring out. Poor lady was beside herself.. it was then she realized it was her pantyhose she had thrown out a good Rottie is a jem

 

[MadAsAHatter]

I was working on a building a headshell earlier so I'm just catching up on the responses. I've only been able to surface level look at the suggestions, but I'll be checking them out more closely.

@griff10672 I've watched a good bit of Jason's videos. Really great info. While I do mostly get what he's going over and they've been very helpful I still feel like I lack the foundation to fully understand everything. Not sure how I missed Ossie's videos. Having someone talk through as they're building is going to be really helpful to me. I'm a bit of a visual learner.

@midnightlaundry I just came across that website with all the calculators a few days ago. I have a feelign I'll be spending a decent bit of time there playing around with them. Those books they offer is what sparked this question. I was considering getting a couple but didn't know if they were decent or not. Good to know they're worthwhile.

@Geo No better learning experience than diving in and getting your hands dirty. I'm definitely going to be doing more than just reading; especially since I've done a couple of successful build. Though at this stage I feel like I'm getting ahead of myself before understand the basics. I think of it kind of like a new person in my field of work. Anyone can follow the instruction to extract a sample, run it on the instrument, and spit out results. But if you really want to be successful you need to understand what's actually happening. I feel like that's where I'm at; just being able to spit out results without understanding what's happening. I need to be doing both, learn what's going on while getting elbow deep in everything while making sure to not get too far ahead of myself.

@gybe! Will be checking out that thread too. Maybe the mods can make a Resources sticky in the Tech Corner section and link to a few threads. Not that I expect any of the mods to go digging through to find more threads, but that could be a start. I think a sticky with some links to books, calculators, tech videos and such would be useful addition. @DanTravis62 @JackBootedThug @japetus

@311boogieman Researching all this and actually building a couple has actually helped me in dialing in better tone. That's the way my brain works. Yeah I can adjust knobs and do it by ear, but knowing what each knob is actually doing has really made things click better. It's like okay, the tone stack has these components and they affect these frequencies so when I turn this knob these frequencies are being adjusted, etc. etc.

 

[midnightlaundry]

You can get a lot of gain going in a couple stages, but the input grid can only take so much and ull get blocking distortion. It sounds blabby farty blobby mess. Plant that in ur brain. Cascading resistors or bleeder resistors to grid are the ticket.