ChuggNorris
Well-known member
I don't claim to be a professional amo builder out if respect to the ones who do it daily. And with my welding business, I do work for myself and I have a heavy workload with that. The last person I worked for was a winston cup champion building racecar chassis. I've been in business myself for 5ish years. I am considering transitioning more and more to electronics because my pop and my grandfather were certified. My grandfather was a tube wizard and I spend alot of time around hum growing up. He was the first one I'd call when I was young and working on a live amp. I was messing with 500 volts as a teenager inside amps. It's just a bug I've always had and I know my way around schematics and basic tube amp circuitry to safely work around the voltages now.
Alot of it has to do with layout. It is a thing where if you sloppily toss an amp kit together, it might not do well. It may hum... some wires can't be strung up over others. I do respect a clean layout. If you were going to try to build your own amp... I'd start with a Ceriatone kit to get the understandings down. Or contact Jason Tong. He is getting bigger with his brand now but I've corresponded with him before through emails. You can build yourself a Wizard MTL for less than 1500 if you're confident enough. If high voltage and concepts of handling it scares you, I'd have a local tech handle the transformer power ups with a variac.
The parts can be a point of selling and upscaling also. Like fortin did the whole "nos" internals thing for the meshugga amps. Like some people will say a Sprague sounds warmer. Theres alot of debate on that. Gumdrops, orange vs yellow. It gets crazy. They do cost more depending what brand. Metal film vs wire wound. Theres debates on all of it in techncial discussions. The parts list is easily available it just gets murky with brand name. For Instance you can take a fixed negative feedback modded marshall, buy it. Copy the layout and add a switch. Or another knob that allows you to change the value of the negative feedback, or hardwire it a different value and literally just say "I designed a new circuit" and it will change the feel enough that people will think alot more has been changed than has been changed.
It takes a couple of days if you have all your parts laid out. Electronics tools. A clean workspace. And you actually work on it. Let's say you build 3 amps a week and do a run of 6 amps. You charge $4000 per amp. That's $24,000. Subtract your materials which can vary and parts. Let's be generous and say you spent 1200 to build it including chassis and shell. Usually it's less. So let's say 2800 net profit on each amp. That's $16,800 you made in 2 weeks of amp building if you can get it out there and market it like on these boards and YouTube. For 6 amps.
Now how someone can't "make a good business model" on those numbers is beyond me which is why I say.... 4k for modded marshall circuits is not exactly fair, regardless how good and long a man has been building. This easily is profitable at those numbers.
It's to the point where, I think anyone with a decent understanding and background in tube topography can ease their way into the business because there are apparently plenty of people with 4k to toss on amp heads. Sometimes more.
Wizard was built on a Marshall Jubilee if I'm not mistaken. And now look at em. Changing a few things here and there and making absolute killings. Paying this much for amps DOES create a cult like following. Once you establish yourself there.... you're good. Long as you don't pull a Cameron.
And why would you buy a CCV for like 10,000 when you can just build a Ceriatone Molecular? It's pretttttty much the same thing. You can take that schematic and change a couple values, use different brand parts, and iron, and label the panel differently with a different logo. And tell people you have a new cameren style design. Get Jason to make your PCBs. Add a switch for a value change... bam you can start your own lil amp company on the side. This is what most of them have done.
It's alot of marketing shit at the end of the day.
Most of the cost is in transformers for building.
Now I don't mean this to bash on builders. I really don't. And I'm not saying people don't do good work. Or anytbing like this. Some guys feel like they really did buy something very special if they pay a certain amount for it. And that is the main demographic they're aiming for. It's business afterall. I don't think they're scamming anyone for the most part, they are putting their own little tweak on a very recognizable circuit and marketing their business. This is fine.
Not saying it's easy and anyone can do it either. It is alot of details. Relationships. Parts shortages like the transformer issues that occurred for a while. Lots of bending over looking down into a chassis. But it's quiet peaceful work and if you enjoy working on electronics it's not actually "laborious"... you do have to dedicate yourself to become a notable builder and get amps to people. The more you grow the more you must keep up. Maybe even hire a qualified helper after a while.
It can be hard to balance work and building amps if you're not setup to quit work. With enough marketing you get to points where guys like Shea are at, taking deposits enough to cover your investment and the previous amps paid for you to not have to work at a regular job. And stick with that long enough with good customer service, you can't fail honestly. There will always be a market for this. Has been since the 80's and there's still room for more.
And look at what someone like Kyle Rbodes was able to do building amps. I think his circuits are more original than any new modded marshall circuit builders are because they are all JCM 800 and Plexi circuits with clipping diodes for the very most part with different values on switches and or tone pots.
Peters the Canadian builder.... another great example of true building. And his amps were some of the more reasonably priced for what you got. Not even sure if he still doing it or not now.
I think I'm rambling now. I need some orange juice.
. Point being that I covered them in neon pink tolex and studs, rhinestones, spikes. Had matching cabs 
. Can you believe that Marshall has still yet to do that? 
I don't even know what I'm asking for 
It's not just vintage but actual antique tone fabric. You can't even get children to make the stuff these days.
