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by Dr Tony Balls_Archive
yard barf wrote:Say, Doc. Would you mind ballparking (no pun) your prices for amp builds that you have done, and maybe some of the builds that people are expressing interest in? I know this could be done through PM's, but it seems to me that it might be cool to have some numbers (estimates) out there so people could consider different models and mull them over and get tempted and maybe start to put some money aside.Your amps are just gorgeous. Weird sentence, I know.Everything pricewise is based on the specific parts I wind up, which vary amp to amp,so prices also vary a bit. This is usually related to the transformer requirements, but price of tubes can factor into that. That said, generally the price for a custom build 30-50W head like what's been shown in this thread is gonna be around $1100 or $1200.whoisalhedges wrote:So maybe to jump off of what FM yard barf said, maybe you could share some sort of very preliminary chart, like $X is for a single ended output section and $Y is for push/pull; $A for a tweed style pre, $B for black or silver, $C for top boost or EF86 Vox, $D for Marshall, $E for Orange with Bax stack and cathodyne PI. Anything other than standard (reverb, tremolo, any type of non-"stock" amplifier or preamp, FX loop, whatevs) will be extra, actual cost to be discussed personally.nah, when you get down to the nitty gritty most of that stuff doesnt make a lick of difference. An Orange OR80 clone will cost the same as a Marshall 1986 clone because they use the same transformer set and roughly the same tube set. Everything else is pretty much gravy and the build time is the same on about everything. Where things start to vary, say, is on this V-30 build I just did. A quad of EL-84s, with tube rectification requires a whole different transformer set which may or may not cost less or more depending on the specific vendor. motorbike guy wrote:tony may not want to disclose client information, which is cool. I will say that he built me a Hiwatt DR504 clone, with no box and he charged me $900, which I gladly paid. there are pictures somewhere in the forum. vockins has played it and can vouch for the sound quality.that was cool build for sure!whoisalhedges wrote:Holy crap, that's an amazing price - that's not a cheap amp, even to make. I know from pics that the doc favors those pretty blue Edcor transformers (as do I, aesthetically, though I can't vouch for their sound)... do they make a convincing Partridge copy, or did he have to source other (even more expensive) trannies? I'm far from an expert on vintage Hiwatts, but I've heard from myriad sources that there's a lot of "mojo" in those Partridges.I dont necessarily favor the Edcors, but they do make economically priced transformers in a wide variety of specs so they're a good go-to for anything specific. For the Hiwatt-style build in question I used Mag-Comp transformers, which are a very nicely spec'd, paper wound transformer. The supposed big thing about the Partridge OT was a claimed massive frequency response (up to 112 khz) which is bonkers and outside the range of human hearing.