• I know some of you have built your own valve amps and I’d like to do the same. I’ve previously built a Bottlehead Crack and I’m keen to cut out the middleman and source my own parts. Does anyone have a good steer for online resources - plans, parts lists etc.?

  • You can't go wrong with a classic Mullard 5-20 or a 5-10. Mullard 3-3 is a bit more involved and less beginner-friendly. All three of those sound fantastic. Plans for those available on sites like this one: http://www.r-type.org/articles/art-003d.htm if you do a Google search.

    There's also the Tubelab SSE if you want a single-ended EL34/KT66/KT88 amp and the guy is happy to ship boards to the UK. It's quite a straightforward build but it's an expensive one and there's a small solid-state constant current device it uses which can be hard to get hold of.

    For transformers you have a choice of new manufactured or vintage from eBay. I'd recommend new transformers unless you're an experienced builder and know what you're looking at. You can get very nice quite reasonably-priced new transformers from Primary Windings: https://primarywindings.com/ or from Hammond: http://www.hammondmfg.com/1627.htm (I think you can buy these off the shelf at Farnell). Avoid any good-looking deals on eBay because you don't really know what you're getting.

    Valves, either use new ones, NOS from eBay or the Soviet equivalents which are interchangeable and quite abundant. The Soviet ones sound quite nice in my experience.

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