anybody else build solid state amps?

[thetragichero]

so i got bit by the bug after purchasing a broken 1969 kustom k200 off Craigslist for $40. the few moments i had it working (before blowing the new production 2n3055s) i just LOVED the way the output transistors distorted. so then i converted a 6 channel traynor pa mixer to a guitar head by cascading all of the channels together. LOVE it
so I've been repairing old acoustics and sunns and whatnot while also picking up old solid state organs fur parts so I've started working on a clone of a single channel sunn beta lead/bass
power amp ended up point to point and now i know why it's usually only relatively simple tube amps that are done in this style



for the preamp I'm gonna try something a little different, using these terminal strips to try to assemble it outside of the chassis



i realize that this is probably the most complicated way to achieve my goal of a working amp (perf would be so much easier), but it's fun trying stuff out and almost like solving puzzles

anyway, anybody else building solid state amps?

[MakerDP]

Very cool.

I've been kicking around the idea of doing a high-powered class-D bass amp and I do a pedal now and then but my latest SS efforts have been some studio gear. Recently I've built a few 500-series pieces from kits...

DIYRE CP5 preamp with British Colour module (the one with the blue transformer): Very transparent, very clean, LOTS of clean headroom gain... until I dial in the transformer. Very nice sound at a great price.
Hairball Audio Copper preamp: neve-style sound - amazing mic preamp and the DI is also fantastic for bass or if I want to go all S-Gear on a guitar track.
Sound Skulptor CP5176: An 1176 compressor stuffed into a 500-series slot. Wow this thing is something. I use it for tracking vocals, guitar and bass.

Those were all fun kits to put together. The 1176 clone was a time-consuming build... LOTS of components to stuff into that small of a package but TOTALLY worth the effort.

Next will be the Sound Skulptor LA502 for vocal/bass tracking, and then for mixdown/mastering a pair of EQP501's (pultec clones) and a CP4500 (SSL G-bus compressor). Maybe down the line some API clone preamps.

[thetragichero]

some of those preamp/color module things I've seen have piqued my interest. trying to find a schematic to build on perf has proven a bit more difficult than just a simple Google search

[MakerDP]

Yeah the complexity of some of these circuits don't really lend themselves to perf layouts. PCBs are the way to go. You can get a couple of really nice bare PCBs for an API-style and a Neve-style preamp and a nice power supply PCB for them diyrecordingequipment.com but you need still need to do your own chassis and source your own parts, which obviously us folks are not afraid of doing but I decided I wanted to go the 500-series kit route.

The 1176 compressor however, that design can easily be done point-to-point and there is a lot of info out there on that if you want to hunt it down. There are also 2U rackmount kits available.

The DIYRE Colour pallate is a tinkerers delight though. The basic 500-series host kit for it is pretty cheap and you can get a prototyping PCB kit for only $5 to experiment with making your own Colour modules... another thing I want to get into... maybe next summer vacation. Of course you need a 500-series lunchbox but there are actually kits to make your own for those too!