ampmaker

“Just thought that I would give you an update, I have now finished building a case, photos attached. I decided to go for an old hi-fi look, as you can probably make out from one of the photos I made the case out of the remains of my parents old front door which gave me […]

“I got in contact with Chris and he built me a Chunky Combo in black with white piping – see attached. I have to say, I enjoyed building the kit as much as I do playing through the completed combo! It’s loud enough, particularly with that G12H 30W speaker, that I can really annoy the

“The SE-5a now has a VVR installed and a switchable headphone output (also used to drop the signal low enough to use the amp as a preamp for my Musicman 112RD Sixty Five). Now I get a decent valve preamp (Musicman is a horrible solid state preamp stage) and the sweet Musicman output.”

“I bought an SE-5 kit from you nearly a year and a half ago. I had it built within a few days but things got in the way and a cabinet was not forthcoming. So, whilst taking out some fitted storage this weekend I looked at the pile of wood and MDF and decided ‘today

“The carcass is made from 18mm birch ply that has the top dovetailed and the bottom lapped as I originally had it taller but decided to square it off. The tolex is black Marshall elephant grain glued with PVA and the grill cloth is 1960s style grey mottled Marshell style. The handle is Marshall style

“Just to let you know that I’ve posted a few more pictures of my SE5a build if you want them for the site. And when posting them I realised it is coming up to two years old now! Can’t believe how quickly it has passed – other amps have come and gone (including a rather

“I’ve attached a photo of my completed ‘Grizzle’ amp (an SE-5a in sheep’s clothing – literally). I constructed a case from pine with a detachable bottom so that the amp is locked in, but easily accessible when I need to show off its innards to friends. “The case was more difficult than the amp, mainly

“I used SE-5a kit and added VVR circuit for power control. To highlight the number 5 (and to play with Nixie tube) I inserted one IN-8 tube, wired to show only nr. 5. When the voltage is turned down with VVR circuit to reduce the power, the Nixie also turns down indicating that we are

“This is my SE-5a with a cab from Chris Uff. Lovely handwork. Switch on right side is a fat switch (1uF and 22uF caps), the mini toggle by the middle, is, fittingly enough, the tone stack bypass. No problem with space, and I only needed to drill through the front plate, as the chassis has

“Thought I would drop a note about the kit I bought from you in August. It’s finally done, except for finishing touches such as graphics and some cab work. It’s an amazing and fantastic tone-monster, and I couldn’t be more pleased! “One of the best things about the setup is the range of volume that

What’s better than an SE-5a? Two of them in one box! Charles explains:”Despite it’s simplicity and beauty, for me there were several good reasons to ‘butcher’ and heavily modify the SE-5a. The first is quite simply, by my very nature, I cannot resist opening things up, seeing out it works, and wonder what happens if

“I built one of your SE-5a amps a couple of years ago whilst recovering from hip replacement surgery. I have to say that it was the best kit I’’ve ever encountered (I’’ve built a lot of kits in my time). “The final cabinet is made from 20mm thick Jarrah veneered chipboard (Jarrah is a beautiful

  “I built the amp a while ago but have only got round to taking photos etc. recently. I’m loving it so far; and it loves my Les Paul!”For more info on his build and many pedal builds, see here: http://sj-effects.com/2012/10/12/ampmaker-se-5a/

“So I made up a case but I am wondering what to do about the design of the “empty” part. I sent a picture of the actual thing and then a bunch of other ideas that my wife and I had fun playing around with using Adobe Fireworks. “Thanks, I have wanted a class A

Not everyone wants to hide away their amp-building handiwork in a wooden case! Here’s Steve’s approach to keeping it all on show: a chassis with bass plate and roll-over protection, just like a roadster. :) Steve also built the two matching speaker cabinets, using Celestion Heritage speakers. “The idea for the cage came about as

“Finally, my SE-5a is ready and it sounds absolutely fantastic! I am pretty familiar with electronics but this was my first amplifier and my first project involving any kind of valves. I took a shortcut with the head and speaker cabinets, I made them from grey plywood and just painted the edges to match but

“The amp is just gorgeous … I can’t get enough of it. So much so, the Marshall stack I have is now down in the garage in second place. I’’ve attached some pictures of the finished project. The cabs are 18mm birch plywood covered in smooth brown tolex. The grill cloth is a vintage basket

Here’s another vote for red tolex, this time used in combination with contrasting black tolex for the cabinet’s front panel and gold plexi for SE-5a’s control panel. “The cab is ply, dovetail joints and screened. The first tolex attempt was disappointing. I chose white which was OK, but I wasn’t happy with the corners and

Another classic head here. Cristian used his own chassis and tweaked the standard SE-5a layout very slightly to look a little more like a Marshall.

“John from Oz: The amp sounds amazing. I’ve sent a photo over of my amp and the latest guitar I have made. I made the enclosure out of an old ’60s Freedman tower speaker that had two 12-inch speakers and a horn. “I pulled the tolex back, removed the baffle and back, popped one end