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Book Recommendation for understanding Tube Amps and Amps in General

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  • #1

    Book Recommendation for understanding Tube Amps and Amps in General

    Can any one recommend a good book? I'd like to learn about them to get a better understanding of what's going in that box. Plus maybe some maintenance stuff would be good to know. I checked StewMac's site but I didn't see one there. On Amazon there are two that look like they may be good.

    -Guitar Amplifier Handbook - Understanding Tube Amplifiers and Getting Great Sounds (Softcover) by Dave Hunter (Oct 1, 2005)

    or

    -The Guitar Amplifier Player's Guide: An instruction and reference manual for musicians by Dave Zimmerman, Cecilia Bizzoco and Nancy Sepe (May 17, 2010)

    I'm thinking the 2010 might be better since it's more current. But if there's another book that I should also consider that anyone knows about let me know.
    ____________________________________________
    Live your life like you're going to die your own death
    No one from above is going to take your last breath
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  • #2
    Inside Tube Amps by Dan Torres was really helpfull for me. - Not so technical that that you need a separate book in linear electronics to understand (a lot of the books at www.tubesandmore.com, which is a good source for this stuff, tend to be like that, full of logrithmic graphs and such). Torres' book also is not a photo album with a miscellaneous collection of mods (like the Aspen Pittman books). If you are actually going to build or mod and you are not an engineer, the Torres book is great. If you just want a basic understanding and don't plan to build or mod, then Dave Hunter's The Guitar Amp Handbook is good. Gerald Weber's books are more like compilations of articles and kinda uninteresting unless you happen to own the particular amp in context. Kevin O'Connor's books are a lot of theory, kinda too techy (at least for me), and really expensive -nice to have if you are gonna start a boutique amp company, otherwise not a super engaging read. - just my advice. Good luck, wear rubber soled shoes, and keep one hand behind your back.

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    • #3
      Building Valve Amplifiers
      Morgan Jones
      ISBN: 978-0-7506-5695-5

      Some really great info in this book. A lot of explanation why things are the way they are in the design of a good tube amp. Lots of pointers as well, lots of which could be used in maintaining an already built amplifier. Id really like to get the other half "Valve Amplifiers", but this book was $40 as it was.
      HTTP 404 - Signature Not Found

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      • #4
        Thanks fort he info fellas. I don't plan on servicing amps or even going the builder route. I'm completely lost about amps in general, all I know is I turn it on and plug in. I recently got a tube amp and I'd like to know how to use it properly without breaking it. You know? Do's and don'ts & very basic amps maintenance. I know enough not to open it up and just start touching things.

        I'm particularly lost when I read things about FX Loops, signal chains, power sections?, tubes, power tubes, EL's, 6L6's, etc... I'm just looking for a good understanding of what's happening.

        I don't know if anything I'm saying is making sense but it's because I'm confused. It's like... I didn't know anything about guitar maintenance, and setup's, floating tremolo's and intonation... I got a Earlwine book, read lotsa good info here and now I think I have a basic grasp of all that. I'm looking for the same thing for amps I guess.

        SOoo I think I'm going to go with Dave Hunter's The Guitar Amp Handbook as that looks like it's got what I need.
        Last edited by Sharkfin; 11-18-2011, 01:59 PM.
        ____________________________________________
        Live your life like you're going to die your own death
        No one from above is going to take your last breath

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        • #5
          Hey Sharkfin. The Dave Hunter book you found on Amazon will cover all you want to know and more as far what's going on inside of the amp with possible exception of explaining where to plug in different effects pedals (between the guitar and amp or into the effects loop jacks, if your amp has these). To my knowledge, whichever way sounds best to you is fine, though there are some pretty standard convensions around these and around what sequence in which to put different sorts of effects if you have more than one, but again whatever sounds best to you ought to be fine. I only have one effect and my amps don't have effect loops. If you want to know more about loops and effect chains, maybe try putting up a post called What's Your Standard Effects Rigg or something like that. It seems like the guys on this sight love chiming in on stuff like that.
          Last edited by MIB; 11-18-2011, 02:22 PM. Reason: Mispellings

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          • #6
            On second thought, maybe disregard that last bit. I see there are over 8000 posts just in Amps and Effects and I'd feel terrible if a senior, platnum, whatever dude were to pounce on you for not first checking for existing posts.

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            • #7
              Yeah, maybe you should check the "Petes guide to effects loops" thread first!! Freekin neeeeeewwb!
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              • #8
                Doh! My bad. Thanks for the lead Twitch!
                Last edited by MIB; 11-18-2011, 11:58 PM. Reason: Misspell

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by Twitch View Post
                  Yeah, maybe you should check the "Petes guide to effects loops" thread first!! Freekin neeeeeewwb!
                  Wah wah... I read the sticky dude... Hardly a newb
                  ____________________________________________
                  Live your life like you're going to die your own death
                  No one from above is going to take your last breath

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by MIB View Post
                    Hey Sharkfin. The Dave Hunter book you found on Amazon will cover all you want to know and more as far what's going on inside of the amp with possible exception of explaining where to plug in different effects pedals (between the guitar and amp or into the effects loop jacks, if your amp has these). To my knowledge, whichever way sounds best to you is fine, though there are some pretty standard convensions around these and around what sequence in which to put different sorts of effects if you have more than one, but again whatever sounds best to you ought to be fine. I only have one effect and my amps don't have effect loops. If you want to know more about loops and effect chains, maybe try putting up a post called What's Your Standard Effects Rigg or something like that. It seems like the guys on this sight love chiming in on stuff like that.
                    I got the book on Wednesday, it really has more info that I need but a great book nonetheless. Lot's of good info, I'd recommend it to anyone who owns a tube amp!
                    ____________________________________________
                    Live your life like you're going to die your own death
                    No one from above is going to take your last breath

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                    • #11
                      For a quick crash coarse, the Mesa Boogie Dual Recitifier manuel is a wealth of knowlage and free on their website.
                      Widow - "We have songs"

                      http://jameslugo.com/johnewooteniv.shtml

                      http://ultimateguitarsound.com

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                      • #12
                        Cool, thanks for the tip. I will check it out as well. After some reading I got the encouragement I needed to pull the tubes from my amp to see what is installed. I have 2 TAD EL34B-SRT, 1 ECC82 and 2 SOVTEK 7025/12AX7WA. I'm still not sure what is what, bit I'll figure it out eventually. Everything is back in it's place and working as it was before hand... so back to business as usual
                        ____________________________________________
                        Live your life like you're going to die your own death
                        No one from above is going to take your last breath

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