How to Service Your Own Tube Amp: A Complete Guide for the Curious Musician Spiral-bound – January 1, 1991

This book was like a great adventure movie. It was exciting to read. The author's love for amplifiers and how they work came through in his writings.This is the best beginners book, because it starts with the most basic foundations of electronics. The book starts with a good look at basic physics and what electricity actually is. Hey, good point! If we are going to tinker with electronics we should probably have a good grasp on what electricity actually is, how it behaves and how it's measured. What a nice solid rock to begin building on. Once all that is explained we come to Chapter 3 which is all about resisters, the most basic electronic component. Here we learn how resisters work, where they work, what they are used for, the different styles, preferences, history, etc. And when he explains how they work, he's still speaking on a molecular level. "A resister is basically a component whose purpose is to introduce a specific amount of opposition to current flow into a circuit. A resister is made of materials that are intentionally poor conductors. These materials have few free electrons to contribute to current flow. The electrons that are used in the flow of current are tightly bound to their atoms. When electrons pass through a resister some of the energy is converted into heat. This loss of energy is called Voltage Drop." So you get the idea. I felt I was really getting to know how tube amplifiers worked and at a molecular level even.I was an aerospace repair technician for 21 years. I retired at age 40 to play the stock market full time. I took up amplifier repair as a hobby. I'm also a professional musician. I read many popular books about tube amplifier repair. I fixed a couple of my vintage Marshalls already. Of the dozen or so books I have read from cover to cover this is by far my favorite, and it's because it starts with the most very basics of electronics.After we learn about all the components, the book then, and this is great, takes you for a ride THROUGH an amplifier as a signal from beginning to end. From the string vibrating causing an electromagnet field that gets turned into a DC current by the pick ups into the first resister of the pre amp circuit and through ever following capacitor, tube, etc,and finally as a sound pressure wave from the speaker.By the end of the book you could know what electricity is, does and how it interacts with the electric components and circuits found in a typical tube amplifier.There are also chapters on how to solder, bias an amp, how to use a multimeter, how to read schematics, the tools you need. There is a chapter on voltage charts of common amplifiers. There's a chapter on troubleshooting of course. There's a chapter about modifications too.The book also has larger print than most and comes in a spiral bound binding so you can be rough with the book and not have the pages fall out. All in all a book that left me completely satisfied.

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!I wrote the above on January 8, 2002. Now on May 11, 2013 I can report that I have retired from the beginning of the year and during the first three months of retirement I have built a single-end stereo tube amplifier with the help of a tutor! I have also just finished re-reading Tom Mitchell's book. I find it much more interesting than the first time I read it over 10 years ago. My hands on experience of soldering the tube amp parts together has enabled me to understand a lot more of the information given in Mr Mitchell's book, though I remain not much more knowledgeable about electronics than in the past. I am also bold enough to tweak one or two parts with the tube amps that I have!

Excellent book, well written and easy to read.

Firstly, let me say that I'm a tech in my own repair shop. I read the book because frankly you can never read enough and it's great to have all the info you can on hand.Tom's book is well written and easily understood. From a technicians stand point it's all basic stuff unless you know nothing about tubes. From a players stand point I believe this book could save you the price of the book the first time something goes wrong with your amp, maybe many times that cost. He does a good job explaining tube amps and what's what in there. The troubleshoot charts may be worth the price of the book alone. If you own a tube amp and have the mind set to approach the hazards, and he covers safety techniques, involved in working around very high and dangerous voltages then this book will pretty much help you repair about 90% of the things that go wrong in a tube amp. The other 10% is stuff that throws the best of us and wouldn't be easily covered in a manufacturer's service manual.He covers everything from the history and basics of electronics, the tools and how to use them, even a great bit about proper soldering technique, to all the parts used in amps. The "What Not To Do" is just simply great advice. If one thing is missing it would be the lack of basic circuit section layouts and schematics. It's very well known that all tube amps are much the same inside and even the basic schematic of a Fender Tweed Bassman would have been most helpful in visualizing how these parts inter-relate.There are a few things that need revising as the book is dated but the fact that tube amps haven't changed much in 50 years pretty much means these changes aren't important. They are mostly just changes that have happened since the book was printed and relate to the market and not the technology. I would also like to see the book rebound as I had trouble when some of the pages started falling out and I had to figure out how to get them back into the binder.I give this book the rating I do because for a player this is one of the most helpful books you could buy. From my perspective, I learned a few things and have a nice reference on hand.

A good intro to amp repair. Well written and easy to understand

O livro atende muito bem aos interessados em saber como funciona um amplificador valvulado, como fazer seus próprios reparos e regulagens. Além disso, traz explicações desde o princípio para não deixar de fora os que conhecem pouco a eletrônica.

good book good seller