Book & Bias Probe recommendation
Question:
After years of pleading ignorance when looking into a chassis or tube array, I’m starting to get the bug. I figure I can at least buy matched tubes from a reputable vendor and adjust bias on my old BF amps without too much risk that I’ll fry myself. Particularly if I read up first, and use a bias probe. I was going to get these books and this probe: 1) How to Service Your Own Tube Amp (Tom Mitchell) 2) Tube Amp Talk for Guitarist & Tech (Gerald Weber) 3) Bias King (about $160) Good choices? Lemons? Any guidance greatly appreciated. — Life is a test to see if you can keep your sense of humor. This post simply contains some of my personal opinions. ObURL: http://home.earthlink.net/~huddler
Response:
I own 5 books about tube amps and though I haven’t read much yet in tom mitchells book I think you can learn more from Dan Torres’ book "Inside Tube Amps" and both of gerald weber’s books; "Tube Amp Talk For Guitarist & Tech" and especially his first book. I forgot the exact name of that book but it’s something with the words "hip vintage guitar amps" in the title. In his first book there’s a chapter about biassing while in Tom Mitchell’s book he explains what biassing is but not how to bias your amp!! Gerald’s second book assumes you’ve read his first book as well so it might be a good idea to buy both of his books and dan torres’ book. good luck! Steven
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> After years of pleading ignorance when looking into a chassis or tube > array, I’m starting to get the bug. > I figure I can at least buy matched tubes from a reputable vendor and > adjust bias on my old BF amps without too much risk that I’ll fry myself. > Particularly if I read up first, and use a bias probe. > I was going to get these books and this probe: > 1) How to Service Your Own Tube Amp (Tom Mitchell) > 2) Tube Amp Talk for Guitarist & Tech (Gerald Weber) > 3) Bias King (about $160) > Good choices? Lemons? Any guidance greatly appreciated. > — > Life is a test to see if you can keep your sense of humor. > This post simply contains some of my personal opinions. > ObURL: http://home.earthlink.net/~huddler
Response:
… > 3) Bias King (about $160) > Good choices? Lemons? Any guidance greatly appreciated.
If you’ve got plenty of money, go ahead… the bias probe is very easy to make, especially if you have a good junk parts bin. You’ll need bananna plugs, HV wire (Rat Shak has 600v wire that I used), an octal plug, an octal socket, a 1-ohm resistor and a piece of PVC that fits the octal hardware. Connect the pins on the plug/socket except for pin 8, which has the 1 ohm resistor in series. Take two wires, one off of each end of the resistor, and bring them out and terminate them in the bananna plugs. Presto, bias probe. Implementation left up to you… better to have the PVC where you can split it to install it, than to have to wire through it. Be creative. __ Steve .
Response:
Richard, I have the books that you mention as well as Tom Mitchell’s video and Gerald Weber’s other book "A Desktop Reference of Hip Vintage Guitar Amps". Here are some observations and suggestions: 1. First off, the only complete reference (course) to amps and servicing that I have found is the Tom Mitchell book and video. He shows biasing in the video and discusses it in the book. You can get the complete book and video package for about $69.00 from Stew Mac. I really like this package. Until I found this set, I had to read a lot of books, articles, newsgroup postings, etc… to get information. It seems that there’s bits and pieces of information here and there. You have to wade through a bunch of stuff to develop your knowledge. With Tom Mitchell’s program, everything is presented in a concise format, sort of like a course if you will. Tom also shows you how to make your own bleeder resistor (cap discharge) so that you don’t fry yourself during servicing. He also shows how to make a cap tester. I recommend. 2. Gerald Webers books are top notch as well. The Tube Amp Talk for Guitarist and Tech assumes that you already have some knowledge. It’s a collection of articles that is presented in book format. One of my favorites but you should already have a basis of knowledge to start. 3. My FAVORITE amp book is Gerald’s "A Desktop Reference of Hip Vintage Guitar Amps". When I started reading this book, I thought I finally found the "holy grail" of amp books. This book cover’s a lot of territory, but it is written so that it is very easy to understand, even for a beginner. Gerald covers some of the early Fenders, explains how amps work, covers some mods, components, has a ton of schematics and layouts, etc… It was this book that turned me onto Metallized Polyester caps, as Gerald mentions that his favorite caps are the Mallory 150’s. If I could only have one book, this would be the one, closely followed by Tom Mitchell’s book. 4. Tubes – I buy my tubes from LV, you’ve seen him around this newsgroup. He’s a straight shooter and his tubes kick ass. He does all the testing prior to selling the tubes. I buy from him with confidence. I’ve never had any problems with anything that I have bought from him and he generally throws in some freebies, along with a computer diskette that has some good information on it, including biasing. 5. Bias King Probe – Do yourself a favor and save some huge $$ at the same time. Check out Doug Hoffmans website. Doug’s another straight shooter. I’ve purchases his board manfacturing materials and am working towards becoming an authorized Hoffman board builder. He has one of, if not the most extensive web sites around. He sells amp building parts, but has a TON of free information on just about everything amp related. He also shows how to MAKE your own bias probe. I made mine from parts that I got from him. Cost? about $7.00 or so. He also sells both of Gerald Weber’s books at the best price around ($20.00) and also sells one of Gerald’s amp servicing videos, along with Aspen Pitman’s book. Check out his site at www.hoffmanamps.com. I hope this has been of some help to you. I would check out Doug Hoffman’s site first, there’s a lot of information on there, free for the taking. Then, I would order Gerald Weber’s Hip Vintage Guitar Amp book from Doug, along with the parts that you will need to make your bias probe. You might also want to consider Gerald’s amp servicing video as well. With the money that you save buy making your own bias probe, you could buy all of the books and video’s mentioned, along with Tom Mitchell’s complete amp servicing program, and still be saving money. Good Luck. Mikey
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> After years of pleading ignorance when looking into a chassis or tube > array, I’m starting to get the bug. > I figure I can at least buy matched tubes from a reputable vendor and > adjust bias on my old BF amps without too much risk that I’ll fry myself. > Particularly if I read up first, and use a bias probe. > I was going to get these books and this probe: > 1) How to Service Your Own Tube Amp (Tom Mitchell) > 2) Tube Amp Talk for Guitarist & Tech (Gerald Weber) > 3) Bias King (about $160) > Good choices? Lemons? Any guidance greatly appreciated. > — > Life is a test to see if you can keep your sense of humor. > This post simply contains some of my personal opinions. > ObURL: http://home.earthlink.net/~huddler
Response:
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