Hello

This blog serves to document my project to safely build and debug a working valve guitar amplifier. As someone with no prior background in electronics and who until recently didn't understand the difference and relationships between volts, watts, amperes, ohms, and farads, it's been a steep learning curve to get to the point where I'm confident in my ability to succeed with this project.

The general advice for people starting out in guitar amp building is to build a low-powered (5W or less) practice amp such as a Fender Tweed Champ or an AX84. While this is good advice, I chose to ignore it because:

• I don't want or need another low-powered small amp at home.
• I was looking for a challenging project that would take me more than a weekend to complete.
• I have wanted a blackface-era Fender amp for some time having played through one or two of them in my younger days. They don't come up too often for sale in Australia and when they do the prices are through the roof. Rolling my own sounded like a good way to go.
• I have previously built a couple of guitar pedals, rewired guitars, and years ago used to solder RS-232 cables for computer terminal installations, so I'm confident in my practical skills.
• I'm a glutton for punishment.

I chose to go with a kit from Marsh Amplification in Florida USA. Mike and Denise Marsh provide a detailed build guide with good photos and diagrams and also email support (which I'm hoping that I don't need to call on too often). I'm also getting great support and encouragement from the members at the Aussie Guitar Gearheads forum and progress pics will also be posted there.

Wish me luck.