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Music Books [Issue
#20]
Dave Hunter:
The Guitar Amp Handbook: Understanding Tube Amplifiers and Getting Great Sounds By
Pat Mavromatis
Dave Hunter in his
book The Guitar Amp Handbook: Understanding Tube Amplifiers And Getting Great
Sounds (BackBeat 2005) provides you, the guitar player and his/her ever-ending
search for the perfect tone, with everything you need to understand the mighty
tube amplifier and how it relates to your own style and sound.
This 240-page, wonderfully
illustrated, soft cover, larger format publication really digs down deep (so deep
it can get intimidating at times – but view that as a challenge) into the
soul of tube amps. Hunter describes in painstaking detail the components (capacitors,
transformers, etc); the circuit stages (preamp, effects, and the “power”
section); and even tells you how to build an amp yourself, step-by-step (not for
the faint at heart!) including setup and basic maintenance, and how to choose
the appropriate speakers and cabs.
Of course this book would not be complete without dissecting and examining some
classic vintage amps like the Vox AC15 (1962), the Fender Super Reverb (1965),
and the Marshall JMP50 (1971), or some newer classics like the Soldano Decatone
(2000), and even newer “boutique” amps like the Mojave Coyote (2004).
In this section, there are pictures of the amps and their circuit boards as well
as a color-coded indexing system that identifies each component shown in the picture.
Add to that a really useful glossary and extensive index as well as an interview
section with legendary amp makers and you have one of the most complete books
I’ve seen about tube amps.
For those of you that do not have the patience, background, or desire to dig deep
and really understand what’s behind great tone, I found that reading one
chapter only (Choosing Your Amp) and skimming through the rest of the book, using
it as a reference, will give you a very strong tool set to go out there and find
an amp that represents you and your playing, and, to quote the author “hopefully
know when to quit flogging [an amp] that’s just all wrong for your sonic
desires.”
Backbeat
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