High-Gain JCM800/2204 Build

[nico22]

Thanks Larry sharing your experience about those ceramic caps

So did you test (i suppose yes ) the murata brand, the blue ones? they are easy to find, but how do they sound, compare to others?

 

[FourT6and2]

More progress. Still trying to decide on a few values here and there. Will need to test them out when I get it fired up. Still need to wire up some of the pots and a few other things here and there.

 

[technomancer]

Ok I recognize the yellow ceramics etc but what are you using for the PI?

 

[lespaul6]

OP you really should be doing this for a living.. you have a gift --- good job

 

[FourT6and2]

Ok I recognize the yellow ceramics etc but what are you using for the PI?

Wima

 

[FourT6and2]

OP you really should be doing this for a living.. you have a gift --- good job

Thank you.

Nobody's making a real living building guitar amps unfortunately. To make any profit on these things you need to charge $3K+. But hey, if you're interested let me know lol...

 

[technomancer]

Ok I recognize the yellow ceramics etc but what are you using for the PI?

Wima

Ah ok, I see it now The bottom of the cap threw me off...

 

[CrazyNutz]

OP you really should be doing this for a living.. you have a gift --- good job

Nobody's making a real living building guitar amps unfortunately. To make any profit on these things you need to charge $3K+. But hey, if you're interested let me know lol...

^^^ 1000%

You'd have to be in that $3k+ range on handwired amps, and have a good volume of sales.

When I was self employed doing engineering, and/or software projects from my home office I charged $75 per hour. I would sometimes get the guy here, and there say build me an amp. I would say, man you wouldn't want to pay that price, which would be around 3k just for labor, and 1k to 1.5k for parts. That killed the conversation pretty fast, haha. I would however offer information, and help if they wanted to DIY it.

Other than that, I donate some time to build for a few close friends, and local artists.

I can only imagine how many packs of Ramen the top builders had to go through to get to where they are now.

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

Seems to me you CAN make money as a small builder but you need to sacrifice a bit of quality. For example, NOS this and that, forget about it. Transformers, probably go good sounding ClassicTone and then charge 800$ on top of it for profit. So really, you aren't going to make much per amp and would be doing it more as a hobby and a bit of side cash for other things. I think there are plenty of builders in the 1800-2000$ range. Hell I see people sometimes off loading weber kits for like 600$ .. built!

 

[FourT6and2]

Seems to me you CAN make money as a small builder but you need to sacrifice a bit of quality. For example, NOS this and that, forget about it. Transformers, probably go good sounding ClassicTone and then charge 800$ on top of it for profit. So really, you aren't going to make much per amp and would be doing it more as a hobby and a bit of side cash for other things. I think there are plenty of builders in the 1800-2000$ range. Hell I see people sometimes off loading weber kits for like 600$ .. built!

Time/labor is the thing.

Some builders can charge $3K for similar amps because the've got the marketing weight of famous bands behind 'em. Maybe I'll give this amp to Adam Jones or Mastadon or something for an endorsement and then everyone will beg me to build one lol

My day job is ok (copywriter). I make a good living from it. Would I rather spend my time building amps or doing photography? Yeah. But I make way more money as a writer.

 

[FourT6and2]

Almost done. Just waiting on some parts in the mail, then I can start testing a few voicing tweaks.

 

[IndyWS6]

 

[MrDowntown]

So clean. You do beautiful work dude.

Very excited to hear this beast especially with the iron youve put in it.

 

[IndyWS6]

By the way, if it sounds as good as it looks, dibs

I wanted the SLO-clone, but was traveling when that hit the board and missed it. I'll be out of the country frequently over the next several months, so if you decide to let it go, PM me. Seriously

 

[FourT6and2]

By the way, if it sounds as good as it looks, dibs

I wanted the SLO-clone, but was traveling when that hit the board and missed it. I'll be out of the country frequently over the next several months, so if you decide to let it go, PM me. Seriously

Will do
I've got a few others already built, btw. Not the same amp as this one. But similar. Easy enough to tweak them to taste though.

 

[IndyWS6]

By the way, if it sounds as good as it looks, dibs

I wanted the SLO-clone, but was traveling when that hit the board and missed it. I'll be out of the country frequently over the next several months, so if you decide to let it go, PM me. Seriously

Will do
I've got a few others already built, btw. Not the same amp as this one. But similar. Easy enough to tweak them to taste though.

 

[FourT6and2]

Fired it up for some testing and yuuuup, sounds good. Making a few changes, but it's a keeper.

 

[novosibir]

Have you formed the filter caps before first firing up?

 

[petejt]

Looks good!

 

[FourT6and2]

Have you formed the filter caps before first firing up?

No, I didn’t for two reasons. 1) I’ve tried it in the past and haven’t noticed any real benefit. And 2) the caps are new and already pre-formed.