Tube amp book?

[flagstaffcharli]

I have no business building or repairing anything. But I would love to curl up with a book that helps me understand tube amps better. I'm not big on schematics. I would prefer history and general descriptions. And I like reading paper. These old eyes are getting tired of looking at these screens.

Recommendations?

[M Hayden]

The Tube Amp Book by Aspen Pittman is a classic.

Gerald Weber has written like three books on amps.

Dave Hunter's The Guitar Tube Handbook is great because it walks you through the stages of a tube amp and discusses components in detail.

Enjoy!
mh

[printer2]

Well worth the time viewing on the screen.

http://www.ax84.com/p1/P1_Theory_Document.zip

[clintj]

'The Soul Of Tone' covers the history of Fender amps from the 40s to near present. There's chapters on each type or series of amp, plenty of history and photos, stories from behind the scenes, and not too much technical reading. There is a chapter on amp tech and basic circuit types, but it's written for the layperson and covers the material in a general overview.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

[muscmp]

Originally Posted by M Hayden

The Tube Amp Book by Aspen Pittman is a classic.

Gerald Weber has written like three books on amps.

Dave Hunter's The Guitar Tube Handbook is great because it walks you through the stages of a tube amp and discusses components in detail.

Enjoy!
mh

these, to me, are the bibles, so to speak. i would also include clintj's adding of the soul of tone and, i would add, "fender amps" by teagle and sprung.

dave hunter's book is excellent as it is not so technical that you can't understand it.

play music!

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by flagstaffcharli

...I'm not big on schematics. I would prefer history and general descriptions...

One or more of these may be out of print, but well worth a look:

• Amps! - Ritchie Fleigler
• The Story of Marshall - Michael Doyle
• The Vox Story - David Peterson & Dick Denney
• Ampeg: The Story Behind the Sound - Gregg Hopkins & Bill Moore
• The Fender Amp Book - John Morrish

[aknow]

"The Soul of Tone" is really helpful.

[maxtheaxe]

I'll second the recommendation of "The Tube Amp Book" by Aspen Pittman. He includes a lot of company history, characteristics of all the important/widely used tubes, and of course, schematics from all these classic amp companies A to Z. Seriously...every important tube amp maker is represented.

I picked up the 'Deluxe revised edition' a while back, which is the giant-size 'coffee-table book' version (I've had the original edition since I was in college 40 years ago)...it's really hard to put down; full of great pics, copies of vintage advertising, technical articles, a wealth of knowledge based upon decades of experience. This one is The Bible for anyone interested in tube amps.

Incidentally, this edition also includes the schematics...800 of them...on a CD in .pdf format.

[LSemmens]

I was looking at the possibility of building my own tube amp one day and came across This site which seems to cover a lot of information related to amplifiers. I've no experience with Valve technology, but this was easier than trying to work out how transistors and multi-legged fuses work!

[muscmp]

Originally Posted by LSemmens

I was looking at the possibility of building my own tube amp one day and came across This site which seems to cover a lot of information related to amplifiers. I've no experience with Valve technology, but this was easier than trying to work out how transistors and multi-legged fuses work!

that is robrob's link off of the tdpri-tele forum. i used his documentation to build a 58 deluxe clone with a couple of mods in it. his explanation of the workings of tube amps is excellent.

check my blog below for info and pictures.

play music!