ampmaker

It’s always useful when your own skills help complete your amp. Peter’s a joiner by trade and that made the cabinet easy. “Thanks for your help. Chopsticking seems to have found the problem – a bad solder to the side of a turret hopefully that’s it. Hope you like the photo. I made the carcass […]

For a home-only amp, it’s possible to forego the cabinet, as Dale has done here. He’s added a ‘roll cage’ for valve protection. :) “I finally got round to building the SE-5a amp I collected from you back in September. Building it was a breeze; your instructions are very clear and easy to follow. It

“Finally finished, got the kit for Christmas last year and eventually got round to covering the cab. It’s based on the Premier Twin 8 – I play harmonica, so a better sound for harp is obtained from the two P8R Jensen Alnico speakers!!! It sounds great, and I love it! Next step… to start experimenting

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

“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

Is the tide turning against black-tolex covered amps? I’m certainly seeing a lot more blonde and ‘contemporary’ finishes on customer amps these days. Here’s Paul’s stunning SE-5a combo: “It’s made of solid beech with a Fender ox blood grill.”

Daniel’s posted a useful photo guide to his SE-5a build – covering the amp kit itself and his 1×12 combo cabinet. “The guide was very clear and I managed to get it all done correctly first time, so no need for any trouble-shooting and de-bugging at all. “Anyway many thanks for the fantastic kit and

“As you can see the amp has been in regular use at practice and live gigs,in and out of motors endless times. Never had a single problem of any kind! “It’s quite road worn now cosmetically, but totally reliable.”

“Just wanted to let you know I finished the amp just in time for my mate’s wedding present, suffice to say he was well chuffed! I was so impressed with the sound that I’m planning on building a PP-18 for myself, so thanks for getting me hooked on a new and expensive hobby! “I’m really

A classic combo style in an eye-catching colour combination. Ricardo has used a smooth red levant/rexine style covering, with white and black details. Inside there’s a Celestion 12in speaker.

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

Got to confess that I’m always a secretly jealous of people with the skills and finesse for luthiery! Here’s another reason why: Charles’ gorgeous guitar and ’70s-style SE-5a combo cabinet. “I usually make acoustic instruments – my tenor banjo with a bridge transducer sounded fine through it. I am putting a snake under saddle transducer

“Well… I finished the amp, and as promised some photos. More by good luck than anything, the SE-5a was pretty much a plug-in replacement for my Velocette. The only thing I had to do to the SE-5a amp chassis was bring the IEC and fuse holder round the front (which is now the back). One

No, it’s not a B+W photo! :) Although it does look like it. Kirk has matched the SE-5a’s silver aluminium control panels with Fender-style grille cloth and chrome corner protectors to create a monochrome amp head to match his speaker cabinet.

Croc and lizard effect vinyls are quite rare over here, so I don’t see many Brit-built amps with it. Here’s an example from US-based Robert for his SE-5a. “The Tolex I bought from Mojo Music Supply. Just looked for something original. $16.00 a yard. One yard was just enough. The Weber speaker I just happen

“Here’s a couple of pix of the amp! It sounds beautiful! Thanks for all your help over the last few weeks. :) I’ll keep checking the site for new models. I feel this is going to become an expensive and addictive hobby.” :/

“I’ve been busy working on the amp, a 1×12 combo cabinet – and then figured what the hell, I’ll build a new guitar to go along with it. Some lousy cell phone pictures are attached. I’ll send good ones when everything comes together. Thanks for putting together such a reasonably priced kit!”

Andy’s a serial amp builder, and has WF-55, SL-18, Double Six and PP-36 projects done and dusted. For his SE-5a build – named Maztone Brave – Andy opted for a classis combo in green and gold.

“Attached are some pics of the SE-5a. I’ve got to tell you: this amp rules! It sounds really awesome. I’m amazed at the range of tones I can get with just my guitar and the amp. The distortion that this thing produces is very classic and very much like the Vox Night Train to my