Building - The Audio Amateur comes to mind. (been a long time...). I'm sure there are others. Try Google yet?

Designing - Not to sound flippant or anything, but I'd recommend you start with a degree in Electrical Engineering.

http://www.groupdiy.com
simple

my site and follow some links
I'm never far away if you need me

or try tassman, good app to learn the principal of structuring a synth.
then translate to hardware... if you are good with a soldering iron :D

Thanks Kev, that's just the sort of thing I was looking for. Aside from an EE degree, that is...gotta finish this one first. It never ends.

I tried google, I mean, who wouldn't. I had difficulty finding information/people (not books, kits, things to buy).

Soldering, check. I've only burned myself badly once, and I deserved it.

Thanks for the help.

as far as google is concerned ... it can be a little more about how you make your search.

Small burns are all part of the experience but BAD burns are a BAD thing.

Please be careful and also be careful when dealing with the mains power and HT power on tubed circuits.

Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2005 6:40 am Post subject:

Small burns are all part of the experience but BAD burns are a BAD thing.

Please be careful and also be careful when dealing with the mains power and HT power on tubed circuits.

I was using a Metcal soldering tower with an 800 degree tip in it. Set it down, took a break, and forgot to turn it off. Came back and went to switch the tip out with my bare hand. Only time I did it though...

Cautionary words for the ages...beware the juice.

yeah first step is to find out which end is warm :lol:

once left a hot soldering iron on the floor..... my friend stepped on it with tubesocks :?

captainzanzabar wrote: Anybody know a place where I could get information about building my own gear. Perhaps even designing?

I can give you a couple of hints but what exactly do you want to build? Meanwhile http://www.diyaudio.com is the best diy audio forum in the world. I would be happy if somebody could say I'm wrong and point me to an even better forum.

yeah
http://www.groupdiy.com

remember this place is about building recording gear
the meta threads contain a huge amount of infomation

here is a web page from one of the new comers to Group DIY ... looks experienced and is one of the AX84 and Ampage crew
uses Hoffman Amp styled turret boards to make a Mic-pre
http://www.frontiernet.net/~jff/pultec_mb1/DualTubeMicrophonePreamp.html

wait till you see stuff made by Steff and Frank .. and Igor
people say my stuff is pretty good ... 8)

diyaudio's wiki stuff does look very cool and the whole wiki idea looks promising.

The wiki pages are mostly used for group buys, not much facts I'm afraid. What I ment was the forum, which quite lively.

group buys and group designs are alway on the go at Group DIY

see the above link to the New Commers Mic-pre

google some of the pages held right here at RO for some of the early stuff

and yes I must not forget the Gyraf stuff.
Jakob has provided some of the popular DIY projects

... and don't forget Eddie C and Dave J for his LA2 project.

it's all out there

even Andrew from Purple Audio has sold some PCBs and transformers to make the MC76 ...
then if you are switched on you can upgrade it to a MC77 ... Andrew will even help

Scott Hampton
Tim of Seventh Circle
Joe of JLM Audio
even DanKennedy or Great River have all posted at the forum both here (old days) and now at the LAB.

while I'm on the subject
head for 3dB to hear what some of these guys have to say about Mic-pres .... and a very funny set of comment from GM himself

it's all good
we love our DIY
err
I'll shut up now

:)

peranders wrote:
I can give you a couple of hints but what exactly do you want to build? Meanwhile http://www.diyaudio.com is the best diy audio forum in the world. I would be happy if somebody could say I'm wrong and point me to an even better forum.

I'm thinking about building mic pre's to start with. They're basic, useful, and composed of pretty much 4 components: Power Supply, Gain, +48v, and maybe a hi-Z input if yer feelin frisky. I'm actually looking for a good project for a group of audio students at my university. I'm kind of captaining the project, which is a little scary, since I wouldn't unequivocally say that I know what I'm doing. I don't even own a real oscilloscope, I'll have to borrow one from a friend. But all of this is surmountable. It's a well-documented, reasonably inexpensive project that I need now. Of course I expect to pay some dollars for transformers, but I figure with a group, some discounts on PCB's and components would be possible.

Check out me rambling.....

Fin

A question for Kev and the other DIY types....

Why do vitually all DIY projects revolve around PCB? Wouldn't DIY projects be much easier to build (especially for those of us without much skill or patience) be better suited using point to point techniques like in old tube equipment?

Thanks

They don't all use a PCB.

one of the early net favourites
LA2a by Dave Jahnsen
http://home.earthlink.net/~djahnsen/

and much of the guitar amp stuff
too many to list but
Hoffman has a very neat build technique
http://www.Hoffmanamps.com

based on the Hoffman style and his experience with Guitar Amps Kent Stevenson made a point to point opto comp
http://www.diyfactory.com/projects/diyla2/diyla2.htm

Lulu the Space Cat also has some point to point ...
http://webpages.charter.net/altaflux/preamp1/intro_preamp.html
http://webpages.charter.net/altaflux/preamp2/pre_add_parts.html

and many more

Excellent! Thanks for the info...