Engineering help on Amplifier Design

[gtr31]

1. Listen to clips of a bunch of players testing high quality amps on the internet.
2. Make up a list of amps you liked in those clips.
3. Contact world renowned amp builders and tell them to copy-paste all the sounds and features of the amps you liked on those clips.
4. Explain that you want to sound unique and different to all of the guitarists in the world for $500-$1500.
5. Change your mind every month on what sounds and features you are looking for in an amp.
6. Ask for help at Rig-Talk.


You Have pretty much described 95% of people who have GAS.
Minus maybe the budget of $500 to $1000

 

[155]

too much thinking and not enough playing lead to shit like this....ask me how I know...

 

[snowdog]

This genius should have been banned for good the first time. One of the few faults of this site is it doesn't ban IP addresses.

 

[LukeCurd]

No I wanted a Side forum on just trouble shooting problems. Q/A style.

How many ground loop, tube questions, strings etc threads have we all seen. I thought it would be helpful is all.

Your examples of why you wanted a dedicated forum (call it whatever you like) were mostly subjective. When you took your marbles and left, did you have all your posts and threads removed too? If not, the thread is still here for all to see.

But that's all water under the bridge.

Have you not noticed that a lot of "outsiders" seem to be confused by your posts and/or approach? Do you think it's more likely that everyone else has the problem, or perhaps it's you?

If I made a poor argument 6 months ago about adding a sub forum for just tech stuff oh well. Have you really been holding on to this resentment all this time?

I was pissed all my posts got deleted. I put a lot of work into my post, research etc. I guess it doesn't take much work on your part to be a ASSHOLE I guess.

Happy sailing.

 

[LukeCurd]

Hi Luke,

So you know, I was only posting to clear up something you were saying about me. I wasn't hoping to create any confusion about you. I have no hard feelings against you, I'm not trying to run you through the mud or anything, so I hope you understand.

Your comment about your custom amp costing $500 though… Honestly, you should say that first thing when you're talking to somebody about a custom design. Had I known that's the price that you expected to pay for what you were asking for, the conversation would've been over very quickly. My cost of parts alone even for single channel amp, is considerably higher than $500. I suspect the same is true for all of the people you were talking to.

I don't blame you for wanting something possibly different from what you've already found on the market. Expecting it to cost less than a Bugera amp however, is another story.

Anyway, if you are still going to pursue a custom design, I would recommend one more thing: don't mention too much about technical specifications to the potential builder of the product. Focus more on the sound and functionality you want, make sure you don't presume something about the functionality which may not be true Based on anecdotal experience with other amplifiers. If you do that, you limit what the amp designer is capable of performing.

I am not sure why you wish to bash me James! Calling my experience with amplifiers over the past 10 years as anecdotal is GREAT customer Service.

You and I talked on the phone about both liking Heybor Transformers. You use them in your amps right? Why is it wise for you to want to use them, and anecdotal for me?

 

[LukeCurd]

This thread is dead!

Thanks for all the PM's from folks and the helpful people on this forum.

I am starting the build next month. Will post clips when I finish.

 

[JerryP]

Hi Luke,

So you know, I was only posting to clear up something you were saying about me. I wasn't hoping to create any confusion about you. I have no hard feelings against you, I'm not trying to run you through the mud or anything, so I hope you understand.

Your comment about your custom amp costing $500 though… Honestly, you should say that first thing when you're talking to somebody about a custom design. Had I known that's the price that you expected to pay for what you were asking for, the conversation would've been over very quickly. My cost of parts alone even for single channel amp, is considerably higher than $500. I suspect the same is true for all of the people you were talking to.

I don't blame you for wanting something possibly different from what you've already found on the market. Expecting it to cost less than a Bugera amp however, is another story.

Anyway, if you are still going to pursue a custom design, I would recommend one more thing: don't mention too much about technical specifications to the potential builder of the product. Focus more on the sound and functionality you want, make sure you don't presume something about the functionality which may not be true Based on anecdotal experience with other amplifiers. If you do that, you limit what the amp designer is capable of performing.

I am not sure why you wish to bash me James! Calling my experience with amplifiers over the past 10 years as anecdotal is GREAT customer Service.

You and I talked on the phone about both liking Heybor Transformers. You use them in your amps right? Why is it wise for you to want to use them, and anecdotal for me?

He didn't bash you at all. You should really quit while you're ahead.
Jerry

 

[Bob Savage]

If I made a poor argument 6 months ago about adding a sub forum for just tech stuff oh well. Have you really been holding on to this resentment all this time?

I was pissed all my posts got deleted. I put a lot of work into my post, research etc. I guess it doesn't take much work on your part to be a ASSHOLE I guess.

Happy sailing.

Resentment? That's humorous. No, just the memory is there, not resentment.

Yep, very little effort...

 

[Bob Savage]

I am not sure why you wish to bash me James!

And the answer is: it's everyone else.

This thread is dead!

Thanks for all the PM's from folks and the helpful people on this forum.

I am starting the build next month. Will post clips when I finish.

Looking forward to hearing them.

 

[RG955TT]

Wow, just wow...You have a clue but you think you can have a custom amp built for $500? By some of the best builders out there? OK then.....

 

[LukeCurd]

Wow, just wow...You have a clue but you think you can have a custom amp built for $500? By some of the best builders out there? OK then.....

Thanks for READING. I wanted a design not the amp built.

 

[LukeCurd]

I am going to give this one a try.

 

[Cflat96]

Yeah. That looks exactly like what you're looking for. Oh wait. Nobody knows what the hell you're talking about, including you.

 

[JamesPeters]

Luke,

Your experience with amplifiers is in fact anecdotal experience. You don't know much about electronics, and you admitted so yourself. You were taking things out of context and trying to slap them together into an amplifier design. What else would you call that?

No, I do not use Hyboer Transformers. I have used them in the past however, and I have nothing against them.

Stop playing the martyr. It's not working. It did however teach me one thing: not to bother trying to help you, or someone like you, in the future.

 

[VC4Ever]

this thread is great

 

[JamesPeters]

Calling my experience with amplifiers over the past 10 years as anecdotal is GREAT customer Service.

I should also mention, since you seem to have forgotten: you are not a customer. I helped you for free, both for you and your friend, at the expense of a fair bit of my "free time"...which I didn't mind until now.

Here's another thought: how could someone design an amp for you with "fixed tone stacks" anyway? The way the tone stacks would be set would have to match to your preferences and your setup, and these are things which wouldn't be present when someone designs the amp for you (unless it's a local tech and you go to him, or he comes to you). It's one thing designing the tone stacks to be flexible enough to work with different gear, but it's something different entirely when wanting them all fixed at a particular setting that you prefer with your playing style, gear, etc.

About paying $500 for "only the design": well, see above. The same applies, except with an additional consideration: the amp would have to be prototyped, built and tested and then modifications would have to be performed before the desired result is achieved. You wanted the design "working" "to your specifications", but the amp would have to be built (to know that your personal preferences are met) before the designer could hand off the design schematics to you. Or, you'd have to build a preliminary design yourself and then try to explain to the designer what you did and didn't like about it, resulting in what would probably be a long string of conversations and modifications. $500 may not be a reasonable fee for the amount of work required.

And if it's true you wanted to pay $500 for only the design and not an amp: why bring up the cost of finished products as a comparison (saying the Suhr amp was overpriced, for instance) in the same post? I'm not calling you a liar, but this helps demonstrate the problem with you: you're all over the place.

Remember what I told you in the first of our conversations, about your perceived attitude on the forum and how you need to take a step back, calm down, and present your thoughts more clearly.

And you wondered why so many amp designers/builders treated you the way they did? Remember your first thread on this forum under your original moniker? I think I know the other side of that story now.

 

[Mailman1971]

*puts multiple bags of popcorn in the cooker*

 

[glpg80]

No I wanted a Side forum on just trouble shooting problems. Q/A style.

How many ground loop, tube questions, strings etc threads have we all seen. I thought it would be helpful is all.

You wanted a sub-forum that had a opinionated/subjective topics. These topics would be used as reference material only, and generalized amplifier information at best. This was with zero reference material, zero user input from users, from someone with no experience in the field, and someone with zero EE training. You posted a list of 10 examples and 9 of them were common internet mistakes.

I will say now what i simply said then. Anyone who wants to know loop, tube, strings, or any other question has access to the search button.

 

[Deleted member 10619]

Meltdown in process

 

[LukeCurd]

Calling my experience with amplifiers over the past 10 years as anecdotal is GREAT customer Service.

I should also mention, since you seem to have forgotten: you are not a customer. I helped you for free, both for you and your friend, at the expense of a fair bit of my "free time"...which I didn't mind until now.

Remember what I told you in the first of our conversations, about your perceived attitude on the forum and how you need to take a step back, calm down, and present your thoughts more clearly.

And you wondered why so many amp designers/builders treated you the way they did? Remember your first thread on this forum under your original moniker? I think I know the other side of that story now.

And just what exactly have you helped me and my friend with? If you think you offered a special relationship or a client type service for free you are mistaken. We talked shop a few times about amps, I give free estimates all the time for my work, part of the biz when you are selling your products and time. Sounds to me like you shouldn't sell direct. Taking this shit to personal. Also you lost my respect with your condescending tone in your posts. May I quote you.?

LukeCurd wrote:
I a willing to commision anyone for working design. I have contacted to Bogner,Friedman, Suhr, Diezel, Peters, Splawn, Germino, 3 monkeys and metro amps. They all told me that a 1 off build to my specs would cost more trouble than its worth. These amp builders are too busy selling their own designs to even mod amps anymore.

Hi Luke,

Our conversations involved a few custom ideas, none of which were what you're mentioning on this thread. The amp-related ones (not counting your cabinet idea) were of two different camps: one was for your guitarist friend, and involved several possible things (including my giving suggestions for rigs in general whether I made them or not, from AxeFx to plugins to mods to a JCM800 by another tech); the other idea was for a single channel amp (one of my own designs) for you, but with everything stripped--including basic cosmetics--so that it could be made for lower prices than my standard models (which I declined, because I won't do custom work for less than my standard models' prices).

I try to be open minded when it comes to custom amp design requests, spending a lot of my "free time" talking on the phone with people about them, usually to discover that most of these people aren't willing to pay my standard prices let alone anything higher. I keep an open mind regardless because I want to give everyone the benefit of the doubt.

I hope you don't mind my clearing this up.

SO THAT EVERYONE IS CAUGHT UP I reacted poorly to this post. It pissed me off. I didn't and still don't find any reason for you James to have posted this? It has never been explained by you!

All you had to say is this:

I do in fact do custom work, Luke and me just didn't come together on a design Idea.
Luke it's cool you seem to be going in a different direction. Best of luck!

Scott Splawn, and yourself are the only two amp builders that have been dicks to me. Everyone else has been cool and eager to discuss amp designs and variations on pricing. No hard feelings and no other builder posted on this thread. You Did!

Still I ask the question Why?