Burns, Shocks & Lead Fumes: The Joys of Amp Building

It is no big secret that I play guitar in a rock and roll band (aptly named, “Hideous Business”). While I absolutely love playing music to live crowds and practicing at home, my favorite thing to do is to build my own equipment; it scratches my creative itch while letting me use power tools. 

I’ve built and refinished many guitars over the years (some much nicer than others), and built over 30 effect pedals (which mostly populate my gigging pedalboard). Recently, though, I’ve found real joy in building amplifiers. 

I started soldering when I was a teenager and I’ve gotten more than adequate with a soldering iron over the years. In an alternate reality, I would have liked to have been an electrical engineer – I enjoy learning how circuits work and how individual components work together to make something work. 

Not surprisingly, the whole amp building process has pretty close analogs to programming – things are going well, progress is being made, and then you run into a problem and nothing works. Spending some time with the schematic and a multimeter will always expose the fact that you’ve made a stupid mistake, just like writing code. 

While debugging code can definitely make you feel like you are going crazy, it can’t really hurt you. Debugging amplifier circuits, on the other hand, has the potential for pretty serious accidents! Capacitors the size of a C battery hold enough voltage to stop your heart; you have to really focus and be aware of where your fingers are!

Once the debugging is done and everything is working properly, there is nothing like the satisfaction of taking a newly-built amp out to a gig. 

Knowing that you took a pile of parts, plus a steel box, plus a few boards:

And turned them into something that can produce amazing sounds is very rewarding.

Notice those two brown wires towards the top left? Those connect to the power switch, which connects directly to the AC. If the amp is plugged into the wall, you really do not want to touch those wires – don’t ask me how I know!

Classic amplifiers that occupy the pantheon of rock-and-roll tone can set you back anywhere between $1,500 and $10,000 (or much more). With a schematic, some parts, and a willingness to splatter molten solder on your hands, those amplifiers are far more in your reach if you build your own. I’m currently working on a Marshall 18 watt amp and I’ve got plans for a few more, but each one gets harder to justify!

Seth Berry

Associate Teaching Professor of IT, Analytics, and Operations

Burns, Shocks & Lead Fumes: The Joys of Amp Building