Originally Posted by TC1600
Wokka: For a similar shop built amp I figure you would likely spend at least 50% more, and even if it didn't work out cheaper, as you said the experience is worth its weight in gold
Stan: It's actually not that heavy, but it certainly is solid! I considered putting casters on it, but figured I can live with it, I've carried heavier amps! It's not massive, here is my guitar next to it for scale:
PK: It's the baby amp of their range at 5W, but apparently a 5W tube amp is louder than a 5W solid state, not sure why but that's what I've heard. Check their site, they do a range of different style amps from a tweed Champ clone to an 18W Marshall style. Like anything else, do your research, companies vary in price and support (some don't provide instructions, only a schematic) and some companies offer a complete kit including cab and speaker if you don't want to chase them up yourself.
Some people reckon a Tube amp is louder than a similarly rated Solid-State amp due to the fact that a Tube amp has a softer overdrive characteristic compared to Solid-State amps, a Tube amp will tend to clip gradually as you overdrive it more, whereas a Solid-State amp clips sharply, when you overdrive a Tube amp it produces more even harmonics which are said to sound pleasant to the human ear, on the other hand, when you overdrive a Solid-State amp it generates predominantly odd-harmonics which sound harsher, in addition, the soft overdrive of the Tube amp tends to compress the signal going to the speaker and when you compress a signal it tends to sound louder, well that's the theory anyway, another thing is, Tube amps tend to use very little or no negative-feedback to control power-amp distortion so a Tube amp is going to sound more "colourful" or "Musical".
My two cents worth.
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