Guitar amplifiers and effects units

DIY guitar amplifiers fully equipped with tubes

I got my first electric guitar when I turned thirteen. All I needed was a guitar amplifier. Initially, I used the radio from our living room, a Telefunken Opus model, which found a home in my room after being replaced by a modern transistor radio. Proper guitar amplifiers were hardly affordable on a schoolboy's pocket money... read more

"Solid-state" guitar amplifiers that operate exclusively with transistors

All-transistor guitar amplifiers, often called solid-state guitar amplifiers, can certainly produce sounds reminiscent of vintage 1960s amplifiers. However, their tonal character will always be different from that of tube amplifiers. A further distinction exists between solid-state amps equipped with individual transistors and those using operational amplifiers... read more

Hybrid guitar amplifier with tube preamplifier and transistor power amp

The first experimental guitar amplifier circuit that I actually got working used an ECC83 from a broken tape device in the preamp stage. In the power amp, I used an EL84 from an old radio. The two triode sections in the preamp provided more gain and allowed for the inclusion of a proper tone control network. This resulted in a significantly better sound... read more

Effects units and circuits for electric or electronic musical instruments:

• Homemade delay/echo devices - digital and analog
• Classic effects pedals with germanium transistors: Treble booster and fuzz booster
• Distortion circuits for electric guitars that use individual transistors
• Circuit diagrams of various classic effects