Ham-fisted attempt at DIY combo valve amp

[Andy123]

Simon, you're nothing if not generous and thorough. Thanks for all the time and thought you've given this. I should clarify a few things though:

The "kit" amp is a printed circuit board and a handful of components that plug into it. That's it.The chassis comes separate, if at all. The pots and inputs etc for the "front" and the "back" are perforated and separate out from the main PCB but remain connected by wires. In theory you could set this up in any format you wanted to. I included the pic of the head version to give you an idea of what some folks have done with the kit.

I imagine when I remove the amp section from the Kustom combo, the back panel will be coming with it and possibly not getting put back on. I'm not sure at this point. The dimensions of the chassis and possible back panel are still entirely hypothetical.

I'd also suggest that this isn't a 'kit' amp in the true sense of the word. You get complete PCBs, so you've only really got to fit some leads together, wire in the transformers, screw the PCBs to the chassis fit the valves, fit the knobs and you're there. You won't learn anything worthwhile about valve amps along the way. Not like getting a kit where you have to wire components to tag or turret boards, do all the wiring yourself and then (carefully) test it yourself. But maybe that's just what you want?

That's EXACTLY what I want!!

I wanted the combination of tone/wattage/features this kit offers and can't seem to find it anywhere else. I like the idea of smuggling an amp like that in a small, neat, unassuming combo. Most importantly I want to own and play through this thing, and get there on the cheap. This means some assembly is unfortunately required. If I had to learn electronics from scratch and build a cab from scratch I don't think I'd bother.

[DrNomis_44]

To be honest I hadn't even thought about the amp itself overheating (something new to worry about ). I was concerned about the heat generated by the amp damaging the speaker (valves practically sitting right next to it) or causing glue to melt and the leather (or faux leather) to separate off.


Perhaps its less ventilation than your Marshall but it does have a vent on top, directly over the valves where the Kustom currently doesn't. I think I may have to take a saw to the top of my cab.

Unless one or both of the valves have glowing-red plates, which shouldn't happen if the amp is operating normally, the likelyhood of the speaker getting damaged, or glue melting and the leather peeling is pretty remote, I haven't had any of that happen to my Marshall amp or my Fender Super Twin amp at all to be honest.

[dave.king1]

Looks interesting but there's no pricing on the website that I could find

[Andy123]

Looks interesting but there's no pricing on the website that I could find

They're sorely in need of a retailer. I've only found them for sale through their ebay store.

[dave.king1]

They're sorely in need of a retailer. I've only found them for sale through their ebay store.

I didn't even find that, must look harder

[PJSprog]

I stumbled across this about a week ago whilst tumbling down the YouTube rabbit hole:



So, having never heard of that company, I went to check out their website. Sure enough, they sell a US$219 15-watt tube amp. (they also have a small 5-watter as well)

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=611815

If you're dead-set on building one yourself, then completely disregard this. If you just want an inexpensive tube amp, though, this might be worth a look.

[king casey]

I saw that...however it's for the U.S.
So factor in the exchange rate $219 us = $310 aus and then the crippling postage.

cheers, Mark.

[Andy123]

Not sure how long these links will remain active, it is ebay after all:

Kit $142USD
https://www.ebay.com/itm/KLD-Pilot15...frcectupt=true

chassis $50USD
https://www.ebay.com/itm/KLD-Pilot-1...frcectupt=true

[dave.king1]

Not sure how long these links will remain active, it is ebay after all:

Kit $142USD
https://www.ebay.com/itm/KLD-Pilot15...frcectupt=true

chassis $50USD
https://www.ebay.com/itm/KLD-Pilot-1...frcectupt=true

Nice, I'll talk to my son in law about getting it here ( major freight forwarding company with offices all over the world )

[Andy123]

If only we knew someone who was already set up as a business selling kits to a broad customer base who were really into diy musical equipment. Perhaps someone with experience dealing with a Chinese supplier. Do you folks know anyone like that around here?