Tube Guitar Amplifiers Volume 2: How to Repair, Modify & Build Guitar Amps

I've read both Vol One and Two, and being an electrical engineer and a post graduate IT engineer, these books are hard to review because they contain alot of really good information. Although they are marketed as maintenance and upgrade type books they run into masses of theory and especially in Vol 1 the maths describing the operational aspects of amp, tubes etc etc...so much so the general thread of the narrative gets a little more than lost on the maths. What Mr Popovitch doesnt know about tube amps and the associated maths theory and physics could be written on a very small postage stamp. This is then one of the major negatives about these volumes...Volume 1 is more than half filled with Maths and you could easily leave that book on the shelf if your just interested in low level maintenance and fixes for your amp/ home hobby. If your a serious repair/ designer then by all means dig in. The other aspects of both these volumes is that the narrative gets lost among "Case Study" examples which dont always have a complete narrative of their own. Your often left with the distinct impression the text was cut and or you missed something which wasnt there...Each chapter attempts to deal with specific key areas and ends with examples or contains framed highlights, many of which are useful and high relevant for all levels of study/ application, if you can forgive the erratic narrative structure and apparent " collected" together style then your ok, however Vol1 is a serious trek through Maths territory and you will need algebra and sin cos tan etc etc, along with a good knowledge of the variations and adaptations of Ohms Law. Without these you will be reading alot of numbers and symbols and gaining nothing. The latter part of Vol one calms down and develops the focus into more practical approaches and this is worth reading at any level.Vol 2 is much more practical and relevant to someone focussing on practical repair... there's lots of case studies again using lots of maths and good analysis of basics like transformers and power supplies...all very useful and practical stuff... there's good examples of modifications in Vol 2 which can be applied although some of these would never be realistic unless you were making a point as in writing a book...I feel Vol 2 is by far the easiest to digest although again its narrative structure and chapters styling are very lumpy making the whole thing less easy to read. The chapter introduction is an attempt to summarise, but often seems to be abandoned in an orgy of examples that say lots of useful things in themselves but as a chapter there is little if any concluding focus or definition for students / readers in working through the ideas...Vol two also hassome great insights and even comedy to be had....and this brings me to my final point....Spelling....whoever didn't proof read this book and basically typed it up without a basic spell check needs a kick in the rear. The publishers are either blind or careless...Career Professional Publishing from Aus....mmmm not really, these books have been thrown together by a student in printing terms and I get the distinct impression someone did a find and replace removing all the conjunctions and definite articles like The, a, an etc...some classic word replacement also litter the text....Mice Capacitor, Lover Voltage being two laughable ones...others are repeated sections, complete miss spelling and bad grammar. Although Mr Poppovitch is obviously an intelligent and genuine individual, he's let things slide on the English Grammar and Spelling front. He complains of people taking short cuts in amp building and making classic bad mistakes like wiring your heater circuits in loops...well I have to say you need to learn to Spell Check and perhaps pay for a higher word count if thats what the trick is when doing your own self publishing...removing all the The's comes out cheaper I presume. Anyway I paid my money and waded through it all ,enjoyed 75% and had to put up with the rest and attempted to work out what the sentence should have said etc. So I have to recommend these books because of the level of knowledge and passion etc, but they are a bit of a mess typographically and expensive for what you get.

If you have a load of old valve amps and you wish to modify them then the book is ok.For major make amps vox marshall peavy very little use. Every section seems incomplete. just not finished off

brilliant book.

one of the few ewer books on tube amps.