recommend good websites or books for tube/valve education?

[ovnifx]

I have done some searching and gleaned a few bits of good info from here, but I was wondering if any of you could point me to the best resources for learning how to design and repair tube circuits, especially tube preamps?  If there was a previous thread with this info, please direct me to it.  I know Googling "tube amp repair" comes up with a zillion results, but I'm hoping the folks here will have a more focused opinion about what books and sites are really helpful out there.  Thanks!

[pbrommer]

Most people say that "The Ultimate Tone" series are very good. (author's name escapes me)
I think Gerald Weber has a book or two out there.
And there's more. Try using Amazon to search for books - I think there's some good start there. And that's all... I think.

Patrick

[cd]

The Ultimate Tone series is at www.londonpower.com

If you've never been to university (and had to pay for textbooks) they seem expensive, but they're worth every penny.

[R.G.]

I'll second the London Power books.

Kevin O'Connor has done a great job of presenting tube technology on an easy to understand level. I have a first edition of "The Ultimate Tone."

[ovnifx]

OK, those books look like just the ticket!  Thanks for suggesting them.   Now I just have to scrounge the cash for them...    But I have no doubt it wil have been worth it.

Any other resources worth checking out?
Thanks!

[A.S.P.]

maybe not exactly what yer looking for,
but nice reads here:

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=35289.0
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=42176.0
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=43157.0

http://www.tubecad.com/

[geertjacobs]

The AX84 P1 Theory document

Geofex tube faq

[Mark Hammer]

JC Maillet was kind enough to send me a copy of his book "Inside Fender and Marshall Tube Amplifiers" recently (http://www.lynx.bc.ca/~jc/).  A wonderful book with lots of good ideas and info.  Not recommended if you never got a grade higher than B- on any of your math courses, though.

[sta63bmx]

I have really enjoyed reading Dan Torres' book Inside Tube Amplifiers.  Very math un-intensive, and presented in a very common sense and examples fashion.  He does a nice job of explaining things you'll commonly see, why some ideas are bad ideas, common problems you may run across, etc.  The book is really written from a concrete/examples perspective, I suppose.  The book did a great job for me in terms of getting me to think about just getting in the ballpark or thinking in terms of using someone else's circuit and modifying it rather than trying to design brand new stuff from scratch or anything.  In a way, it kind of removed my fear of working on those circuits.  The overall feeling was "as long as you aren't doing this or that and you try to stay in this range, you won't hurt anything."  And then he goes on to say "And if you're seeing this or that problem, you probably did this or that wrong."  It was a really down-to-earth book.  He makes a big deal about understanding existing designs and understanding how the circuit works and then using THAT information in your troubleshooting.  I mean, if you know how it works and what each part should be doing (what are your pin voltages? lol) then when something is out of plafce, you'll know it.

The other thing that I think is good to do with tube circuits is just to sit down and look through all of the schematics at http://www.schematicheaven.com and start looking for the patterns in the circuits.  Almost all of them are the same, so what are they doing?  He also has a lot of the common layouts from the eyelet board for certain parts of amplifiers drawn in there.  The book seems to really focus on Fenders, but it's useful for everything else, too.

After I got that book I can vividly remember looking at the schematics in there and then looking online and all of a sudden one day it was like I had an epiphany and I felt like I understood WHY the circuit was the way it was.  It was the weirdest thing I've ever had happen to me.  One minute I was struggling to understand and the next minute it all looked really familiar.  It was really neat.  I'm not saying I'm a genius amp tech or anything, but I felt really comfortable fixing both of my Ampegs last month. 

You can get a lot of great help over at http://www.ax84.com in the discussion forums, too.

[Satch12879]

Radiotron Designer's Handbook - A classic; WARNING: large download, but worth it.

Also, seek out The Vacuum Tube Logic Book by David Manley, out of print, but I've heard very good things.

And no library would be complete without the RCA Receiving Tube Manual; been reprinted somewhere.

[object88]

I'll x+1 the recommendation for the "Ultimate Tone" series, ax84.com, and pmillet.com's book repository.

(Wow, been a while since I've posted here, it seems...)

[cd]

JC Maillet was kind enough to send me a copy of his book "Inside Fender and Marshall Tube Amplifiers" recently (http://www.lynx.bc.ca/~jc/).  A wonderful book with lots of good ideas and info.  Not recommended if you never got a grade higher than B- on any of your math courses, though.

Is the book written with sentences that end like this ... all ... the ... time ... ?  I've always considered getting it but would rip it to shreds if that were the case ...

[ovnifx]

Whoo!  I've been downloading like crazy.  So much good material in .pdf format.  Man, I just finished downloading the Radiotron Handbook... holy cow that is a lot to read!  The table of contents alone is 32 pages!  I'm going to have to buy like two or three reams of paper and several new ink cartridges just to print that puppy out.

Well, I did ask for it...