Implementation Notes

WHAT'S IN MY STUDIO TODAY

What works best for me right now.

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WHAT I'M INTO AT THE MOMENT

I want to build a really nice tube amp. I could just buy one, but that's now how my mind works. I enjoy the satisfaction from struggling through the various problems until my mind settles on a solution. It may take a long time. Here's a few helpful links for the tools and sites that have helped me so far.

  • Dumble 0077:
    • Guitar Player - As a treat from my wife, we went to Songbirds Guitar Museum in Chattanooga TN. I had the opportunity to play this very amplifier with a '63 Les Paul, and another early model Les Paul Jr. I've never fogotten that sound. It was the closest thing to telepathically creating sound with superb tone.
    • Dumble Archive - this site has a lot of pictures and a few layout diagrams. It could benefit from some smaller thumbnails.
    • The Amp Garage / Dumble Files - There's lots of schematics out there for various ODS. This is probably the first place I really dug into it.
    • Songbirds Foundation - They own the ODS 0077, but don't respond to emails about the thing. In my frustration to find out as much as I could about that amp, I did find some really good information burried deep in the internet here, here, and here, and here.
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  • Building Modules:
    • My Guitar Amps - My amplifier page has a short description of my modular approach to building up circuits, and a quick view of the tube test harness projects. These experiments eventually led to my Cigar Box Guitar Amplifier Notebook publication. I left out all of the tube amp stuff because it wasn't complete enough. Perhaps a volume 2 of the book will include all of the tube amp stuff, greatly simplified.
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  • Virtual Studio Technology (VST):
    • Background / Inspiration:
      • Jim Lill - he didn't write a VST, but he has done a fantastic parametric study (not that he knew that's what it was) of where tone comes from. His Where Does The Tone Come From In A Guitar Amplifier? laid out a simple formula for Gain, EQ, and Boost and how that could duplicate the sound of most every guitar amp. I would eventually like to build a version of the Tacklebox amp just for fun.
      • VST Tube Amp - Libre Arts interview of Oleg Kapitonov who followed the thinking of Jim Lill and reduced it to a combination of Filter, Limit, Filter again. Oleg's website has more info and links to source code.
      • The Ultimate Guitar Amp, For Free - GAS Therapy is an entertaining channel. Michael has written and made many usefull tools available. Check out his AnyAmpIR vst plugin that "won't hurt your braincell".
    • Hacking Amplitube / ReValver:
      • My first exposure to real-time amp modeling from from Amplitube and ReValver back when Peavey owned it. It seemed obvious (to me at least) that Peavey was using software to model amplifiers in efforts to make them better. I wanted to do that too.
      • Limitations in those products would not allow for me to model a completely original schematic. I was looking into writing a tool to inject my designs or to hack existing designs for my own use. I never got very far implementing this.
    • Development Environment / Roll your own VST:
      • VSTi Tutorial - Mitxela's (aka Tim Jacobs) walk through was the most straight forward (and the first) example that actually worked for me. He added details that other folks overlooked, or didn't reveal in a way that I could follow. Also, I totally dig this website.
      • MS VisualStudio - I didn't want to use this again, but I could not get a vst2.4 project to compile and then link with just Eclipse. There's probably 2 or 3 other people that would like to see a vst2.4 solution in Eclipse left in the world. If they find this mention... Sorry. I tried it too. Just go with VisualStudio and be done with it.
      • VST 2.4 source code - It also took some digging to find a version of this too. Even though it's no longer supported, it's much easier to start with than everything piled on top for VST3.
      • Martin Finke's Blog - Has an entire series of pages dedicated to VST developement (both Mac and PC, XCode and VisualStudio). Even though I don't care to install Python or move to VST3, I had a working UI example up and running in a few minutes.
      • liveSPICE - searching for a way to turn SPICE models into real-time VST plugins, I found this incredible project. I was just looking for tonestacks and liveSPICE had entire amplifiers modeled. And, liveSPICE is open source.
      • Neural Amp Modeler - If I actually had a working amp, I could just take a snapshot and play it this way. Perhaps there's a way to build a virtual amp in liveSPICE, play the NAM training input file through it, then have the NAM make an accurate real-time playable amp from that. That might actually work.
    • Plan:
      • Eventually, my cunning plan is to write VST versions of the tube test harness and build up a virtual Dumble that can be infinitely tweaked and played through live until it's conceptually as good as it can get. Then I can build a hardware version of it so my brain can move on to the next thing that I obsess over.
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PARTS (FOR THE CIGAR BOX GUITAR AMPLIFIER NOTEBOOK):

GUITAR BUILDING, LUTHIER, AND EFFECT SITES:

  • Rob Robinette - Amp Stuff page... For every question I've had recently about tubes and tube amps, Rob's page comes up near the top in a goggle search. It's an impressive collection of practical information. Bookmark it. You'll thank me later.
  • Aron's Stompbox Page - Build your own stompbox pages.
  • Run Off Groove - Fantastic DIY stompbox site. FET amp models.
  • Schoen Guitars - Cigar Box Guitars are cool. I'll never be able to look at a guitar the same way again!
  • Teuffel - The electric guitar has lost its myth...

GUITAR, AMP, AND EFFECT PARTS:

GENERAL TOOLS AND STUFF:

  • Eagle America - More tools and woodworking site
  • Grizzly Industrial - Lots of big machines, and guitar parts
  • Home Depot - Wood, hardware, paint, you name it, they got it
  • MLCS - Router bits, woodworking products
  • H Valley Tools - Eagle America and MLCS Woodworking have rolled into this site
  • Woodcraft - More tools and woodworking site

HOMONYMIC SITES

SITES WITH SIMILAR NAMES: In no way affiliated with BellyJelly Music.

GUITAR LINKS

THINGS I USE AND RECOMMEND:

  • ASCAP - The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (I got paid by them a time or two)
  • Clayton - Used them for years at a time. Clayton guitar picks rule!
  • DiMarzio - Guitar pickups
  • GodLyke - If you have more than one effect, buy a Power-All. I love this thing!
  • Monster Cable - The finest instrument cables
  • Tech21 NYC - Makers of the SansAmp