The Valve Wizard

If you are reading this you are in the wrong place! Please go to the main site at www.valvewizard.co.uk!

Welcome to the wonderful world of valve amplifiers! If you're here, it's probably because you've come to realize that valve guitar amplifiers are better than solid-state amplifiers, but you either can't afford a commercial one, can't find one that suits you, or simply want to build one out of curiosity.
Designing amplifiers is a rewarding pastime, but learning how to do it can be time consuming and frustrating. It is relatively easy to find introductory information on how to design simple amplifier stages, and it is also fairly easy to find extremely advanced information on complex circuit design, and nearly all of it is intended only for hifi! This website aims to fill the gap between the two extremes. I have also tried to remove unnecessary maths and leave only the essential formulae and rules of thumb. This should make the design process quicker and less confusing, leaving more time for the actual building!
However, this site assumes that you know some basic principals already, like Ohm's law, what a capacitor does, roughly how a valve works, what a transformer does etc. If you don't know these things yet then I recommend you read some introductory electronics material. Even so, I have done my best to write these tutorials cook-book style, so that even a layman can follow the instructions and design a working circuit without actually knowing how it works- but it certainly helps to understand first.

Although aimed specifically at designing guitar amplifiers, principles of hifi have been included here so that audiophiles should find something of use too, and guitarists should be able to learn some of the science behind the mojo. (And audiophiles may learn some distinction between sense, science and fantasy.)

There is of course, a world of information that this site will not cover, from choice of components to layout and construction techniques, as well as more unusual topologies such as parafeed output stages, switch-mode power supplies etc. However, answers to these issues are fairly readily available elsewhere, or at least on forums. This site hopes to address the more common design questions pertaining to well-used and successful amp topologies, but in a more concise and organised way than usual.

This site is currently under construction.

Disclaimer: Building and modifying amplifiers is DANGEROUS (like most fun things). Valve amplifiers invariably contain both very high voltages and high currents, capable of killing you. Whilst anyone can learn the skills to build an amazing amplifier, it goes without saying that you must never work on a live amplifier! I provide the information on this site free of charge and have done my utmost to make it accurate and succinct. It is up to you to exercise caution and common sense at all times to avoid electrocuting yourself, and make your amplifiers safe to use. I will not be held responsible for your negligence. Building valve amplifiers is also more addictive than heroin and nicotine; you have been warned.

Contact: [email protected]. Suggestions, comments, criticisms welcome.