It was a 1x12 with volume and tone controls. The cabinet was built from ... leftover kitchen cabinets. Seriously, think early 80's brown plywood kitchen cabinets and that is what it looked like. Plus, the handle was a silver kitchen cabinet handle. 

If you ever saw Eddie Murphy talk about wanting a McDonald's Cheeseburger and instead, getting a home fried glob of meat with green peppers on Wonder Bread, that is how I felt about that amp.

At first, I was happy to have something (anything) that would get loud. But during the mid-80's, the popular guitar sounds were the high gain sounds of Crate, KMD, Peavy, etc. Remember the guitar tones of Jake E Lee, CC Deville, Richie Sambora, Warren DeMartini? That's what I wanted.

Well, being a tube amp based on the Princeton, that DIY just didn't cut it for my 15 year old ears. Yeah, I was stupid. Looking back, I remember how I had to crank it to get it to break up at all. And when it did, it was more of a crunch than the buzz I was looking for. That headroom and crunch would be sweet tone now that I know what to do with it. 

With that said, I've decided to build a DIY tube amp as a summer project with my son, Zach. It will be fun for me and will keep him off the XBox for a few hours over the summer. Who knows, he may even get into electronics or dare I say ... playing the guitar by the time we're finished!

The plan is to build both the amp and the cabinet. I'm going to film us during the process and write about what I learn (ex. don't touch that capacitor with your fing... - BZZZZTT). 

Hopefully you all will find it interesting as well!

A few weeks ago, I started researching DIY kits/schematics available online. One I found that had nice sound clips and great customer reviews was the Gilmore Jr. 1/2 Watt kit available from Guytronix. 

After listening to the Gilmore Jr. sound clips and then reading reviews from builders about the quality of this little amp and the great support from Richard Guy, I decided to get some information and place the order.

I talked with Rich today and he took plenty of time to answer all my questions and give me encouragement to tackle this project. 

So, at this point, the order is on its' way and I will be like a kid waiting for Christmas to get here! Once I get the shipment, I'll film the unpacking and the build and post here. Watch for the new posts in the coming weeks!