Premier Rock Forum

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.

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.I first read this, and thought but all his amps are custom - he can't really 'publish' prices for that... but then realized that yeah, they're custom, but they are based on something.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.Would that be doable?Hell, now that I'm working, I might be back in the market sooner than I'd thought - though if my pedal-building inspires enough confidence to work with higher voltages, I might end up going to DIY route.... hell, even at THAT, I might ask someone like you whose work I respect and admire to help with some things - cutting a chassis, even building a cabinet. Not a lot of carpentry under my belt, I'm afraid.

And I am fully aware that my dream amp - 4x6V6, footswitchable dual-channel pres, one Orange-flavored with the Baxandall tone stack, one voiced like an AB165 Bassman with the channels jumpered (as discussed, those are very different phase inverters, so a compromise would have to be made; either faux-Orange with LTP, or faux-Bassman with a cath), with tube-driven spring reverb and Brown Fender harmonic tremolo/vibrato - would cost probably $3500 even from a builder as reasonable as Dr. Balls... hence the DIY, it'd probably be a lot easier and less completely idiotic pricewise to get a silverface Bandmaster Reverb, mod the pre to Bassman specs, settle for standard tremolo, and get (or clone) something like an Earthquaker Monarch pedal to mimic the Orange sound.After all, ain't it the compromises that force us to make better music? Tone attorneys who have the $$$ to buy the EXACT gear they want never seem to write compelling songs, despite their ideal rig....

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.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.

tallchris wrote:Seriously tempted to sell some of my amps and just have Dr. Balls build me the equivalent amp w/ what I like best about the ones I've got.JohnnySomersett wrote:Maybe I should get you to price one up 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.

motorbike guy wrote:tony may not want to disclose client information, which is cool. Oh, definitely. I wouldn't want to know what other people paid. I'd want to know what he'd charge for something like a bassman or AC30, rough estimates of course. People are pretty excited about his work, and I would sell some gear to fund a BALLS amp, but I have no idea what they cost.

Man, FM Dr.Tony Balls, your stuff is fanfuckingtastic looking.I look forward to the day that I own some of your work.

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.

Those are totally reasonable prices for those amps. Time to start saving.

Nico Adie wrote:Johnny S, have you considered a power soak? Sorry to derail the thread. Balls products look excellent and I would very much like to own one someday.Do you mean an attenuator?...JohnnySomersett wrote: ...but still I end up having to pull out the attenuator (read: the compressor I never wanted) and choking the hell out of it.I don't like the way it changes the sound