Amps 101

[{Bold-as-love}]

Ok well.. I was never really educated on amplifiers and vocabulary on this topic so can anybody just give me a quick lesson... About pretty much everything that has to do with amps?:bonk

[TweeDLX]

No such thing as a quick lesson.
Start here:
http://www.aikenamps.com/Equations.htm
http://www.diystompboxes.com/pedals/tubedummy.html
http://www.valvewizard.co.uk/

[mcdes]

Oh dear, we just fell into a bottomless pit ! Ha

[chervokas]

Ok well.. I was never really educated on amplifiers and vocabulary on this topic so can anybody just give me a quick lesson... About pretty much everything that has to do with amps?:bonk

For a true novice this is an excellent place to start to learn how amps work, what aspects affect tone in what ways, the vocabulary, etc without too much tech for the previously uninitiated:

The Guitar Amplifier Player's Guide
http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Amplifier-Players-Guide-instruction/dp/1452803781

[{Bold-as-love}]

No such thing as a quick lesson.
Start here:
http://www.aikenamps.com/Equations.htm
http://www.diystompboxes.com/pedals/tubedummy.html
http://www.valvewizard.co.uk/

I'm not into building. I just hear a lot of terms on here like, cathodes, transistors, and a ton of other stuff!! And it's like frustrating because half these threads I can't understand!!

[chervokas]

I'm not into building. I just hear a lot of terms on here like, cathodes, transistors, and a ton of other stuff!! And it's like frustrating because half these threads I can't understand!!

Well if your really want to learn the nuts and bolts of tube circuits -- what parts do what in a circuit -- but you have no background in electronics, Dave Hunter's Guitar Amp Handbook is a good place to start http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Amplifier-Handbook-Understanding-Amplifiers/dp/087930863X


That actually will give you some info about how amp circuits work but it's designed for the player not for the circuit designer.

If you want more detail you'll have to dig deeper into eletronics and your reading will get more technical, and it's getting harder and harder to find books that cover tube circuits. But you'll need to read up on some basic electronics and basic audio electronics. I know I learned that stuff from some old text books that had been my brothers and some of the Sams books, like Alan Cohen's Audio Technology Fundamentals, but I don't think that's in print. It's probably going to require that you read some of these book, not something you're likely to learn exclusively through internet disucssion groups...it's too broad and deep a topic.

[TweeDLX]

Take a look at the Tube Dummies link I sent you. That's pretty basic stuff in simple terms.

[VaughnC]

There's a reason why it takes 2 years to get an associates degree in electronics. You just can't jump into and understand guitar amps without first understanding basic electronics, the math behind it, and understanding the associated test equipment.

[epluribus]

Terrific suggestions above, I started out on many of the same sources. Not as daunting as it looks, it actually goes pretty fast once the bug really bites...which they do.

Two other suggestions, both more as a different approach to what you may want to know. One is a thread on types of amplifiers (http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=748981), similar to what several of the sources above will provide. The other is a thread on amp tech as experienced from the front panel (http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=506881&highlight=jabberwoky)...aka, no soldering, no chassis-pulling. I wrote a bunch on both of 'em, so feel free to take 'em or leave 'em. :) In either case, you can't go wrong with the suggestions already posted by the other guys here.

And btw...wanna learn electronics from the ground up for free? The entire US Navy training course, good old NEETS, is available all over the place online...for free! I did it, monster resource.

--Ray

PS...to learn caps and resistors and stuff, an excellent approach is to snag one of those Radio Shack Electronics Learning Labs. The instructions tell you how to build the circuits, and very very simply, but tell you absolutely nothing of the theory. So add a nice inexpensive multi-meter to check your equations, and use it to build all the stuff you'll read about in NEETS and similar sources. Then you can actually watch the circuits do their stuff right on your workbench. Very soon you'll be ready to ditch the 9-volt stuff and head into actual tubes and amplifiers.

If and when you get into an amp, have a tech or other accomplished person show you, in person, how to work on amp circuits safely...the voltage inside can very easily kill you.

PSS...Welcome to TGP! :beer

[Timbre Wolf]

Well if your really want to learn the nuts and bolts of tube circuits -- what parts do what in a circuit -- but you have no background in electronics, Dave Hunter's Guitar Amp Handbook is a good place to start http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Amplifier-Handbook-Understanding-Amplifiers/dp/087930863X

:agree Highly recommended, for a first read.

- Thom