How to Service Your Own Tube Amp: A Complete Guide for the Curious Musician [Spiral-bound]

Tom Mitchell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1991

A well organized and easy-to-understand approach to guitar amplifier repair covering basic electronics, reading schematics, understanding tubes and transformers, tube biasing and use of test equipment. Also provides 10 troubleshooting flowcharts, voltage charts for typical amplifiers, and many modifications that you can do yourself.

Product Details

• Spiral-bound: 247 pages
• Publisher: Media Concepts; Lab Mnl edition (December 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0962817007
• ISBN-13: 978-0962817007
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #816,081 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I'd choose this above all others, February 16, 2000

By 

Anthony Watson "watsonad" (Pittsburgh, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How to Service Your Own Tube Amp: A Complete Guide for the Curious Musician (Spiral-bound)

This is a great book that describes how a tube amplifier works in very easy-to-understand terms and in sufficient detail that you will feel confident working with your tube amplifier. An excellent emphasis on safety pervades the book. Very helpful algorithms for diagnosing and treating common and not-so-common amplifier problems are also included. Procedures for biasing an amplifier are not as detailed as I'd like, and this is why I can't give it 5 stars. Nevertheless, if you just get one tube amplifer book, I'd get this one.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Best Beginners Tube Amp Service Book, January 31, 2003

By 

"rockin_john" (Tulsa, OK United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How to Service Your Own Tube Amp: A Complete Guide for the Curious Musician (Spiral-bound)

For the person with little or no electronics background, and an interest in tube amps, this book is an excellent place to start. Basic electricity and magnetic theory are explained thoroughly. Individual components within an amp are described, and their function within circuits is explained. It includes troubleshooting flow charts to help isolate problems, and testing procedures for many parts. Also included is handy reference material (tube pin charts and voltage charts) for many tubes and common amplifiers. The book is not perfect, but it is VERY good, and by far the most complete book I've seen for beginners. So... if you're looking for a place to start learning about electronics, and tube amps, this is the book you want.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easily understood descriptions of tube amps, January 8, 2002

By 

C H Tse (HONG KONG) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How to Service Your Own Tube Amp: A Complete Guide for the Curious Musician (Spiral-bound)

Being a tube amp fan who knows nothing about the technical details, I find Tom Mitchell's book very easy to follow. Not that I want to solder a tube amp myself, I just want to know what are inside a tube amp. I have read a couple of other books on the subject and also on speaker design. Of the other books, I am only able to understand about 50% to 60% of the content. But this book - I would say 90%. To someone who is armed with high school knowledge of physics and maths, I am extremely pleased. Now I know what are resistors, caps, the structure of tubes, the function and structure of a transformer and even how a speaker cabinet is constructed. What I would have wanted are more illustrations - drawings or photos showing how a signal travels from the source to the speaker. Who knows - I may someday solder an SE tube amp - possibly after retirement!