I had a great time building my first amp. After a little hiccup with a hidden cold joint on a heater wire, the amp fired right up. I had a local trophy shop make an emblem for me, using the logo that I use on all of my projects. I got some help from a friend who used to build amps for 3Rd Power for all of the mods except for the MV, which came from this forum.
I made some modifications and learned some lessons along the way. Please note that this is a wonderful kit, with terrific instructions. I'm sure that factors like cost, staying true to the original, and ease of assembly factored into what comes in the kit. This is in no way a sleight at the fine folks at BYOC. I'm so thankful that they got me started at making pedals, and now amps.
1. Plan on building the EL34 version. I started with KT66, and it was really flubby. I thought that they abandoned the KT66 back in the day because of cost, but I think it may have been more than that. I ended up giving a really nice set of KT66's away.
2. Buy a 1 Meg Ohm pot and plan on installing a master volume. I installed the pot on the back of the amp to keep the aesthetics of the front of the amp. This is a really easy mod to do, and it makes the amp so much more usable in the environments that most of us play. WITHOUT IT THE AMP IS REALLY LOUD!!!! To add the mod, you just need three wires and the pot. If looking at the pot from the back, connect the left lug to ground. Then connect right lug to the output of the treble pot, and the center lug to where the treble pot output connects in the instructions/diagram. I suggest drilling the hole and installing the pot from the beginning, but build the amp as designed. This will help when troubleshooting if the amp doesn't work on the first try, and also give you a point of reference for why you installed it.
3. Order 4 0.022uF Orange Drop Caps. Again, build the amp as the instructions, and try these changes after you play through it to see what effect they have.
https://www.tubesandmore.com/products/c ... ypropyleneTwo of these will go in the tone stack, and two will go in C13-14. This will tighten up the bass a LOT. I had to run the bass almost at zero before.
4. Order a 50v/50uF cap in place of the 220 uF for the Cathode. Again, install the one in the kit, listen, then try this one.
https://www.tubesandmore.com/products/c ... ectrolyticThis amp sounds really good. A friend borrowed it and wants to buy it off of me. I'd be willing to build another. I did try a SS rectifier in it, and it certainly is much tighter attack in the bass. But it caused the voltage to climb higher than I wanted because the load is less. If you want tighter attack, I'd build the plexi. If you want the squish and bloom of a tube rectifier, this amp, with these mods, is wonderful.