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I have found that if price is a consideration, the DIY is not cost effective. It is hella fun and you get what you want, but not cheap.

My 2c

Yeah, that's true.  At least it's almost certainly true for anything in mass production.  But if you're looking at booteek stuff, the economics changes in a hurry.  My Matchless copy was substantially cheaper than even a used model.

That's cool.  Hundred bucks for that seems like really good value.  Transformers look way better than I expected, and as you say, you could mod it like a madman.

Would be interested to see the schematic, particularly for how they dealt with the power attentuation.  From the pick it looks like they're just spilling heat with those metal oxide resistors.  Have you poked around the innards at all?  Is there more under the board?  Am curious.

Will it regain its former status? I reckon not. But that applies for everyone in the guitar business. Guitar is dead. Hiphop, urban and dance have supplanted rock, and rock is now where all the genres used to be after rock supplanted them. It will become more of a niche. And so will guitar manufacturers. Unless a miracle happens guys copy/pasting loops and samples in their bedrooms and guys playing a CD being called a concert is now the future. I'd love to be proven wrong but I don't see it happen.

I agree with this for the most part.  The guitar is the archetypal boomer instrument, and it's boomers with money that drove the overwhelming majority of the explosion in the market in the 90s and 00s.  And they're starting to, well, die.  It was totemic for them, a symbol of youth, freedom, excitement, etc.  So many of them bought guitars and they can't even play.  At all.  That was Gibson's core market.  I'm sure I wasn't the only guy shaking his head as he saw these guys buy $5000 wallhangers at the shop. 

The guitar is still reasonably popular for younger people, particularly people born in the 70s and 80s, but for anyone young it's just not the same.  I grew up listen to guitar driven music.  They didn't and they aren't.  Napster and the mp3 revolution is a huge part of it, too.  A generation of young guitar based bands was basically killed because of the changing economics of the music industry.  I'm not hugely optimistic that it'll ever really recover, but I guess it always has before so who knows.

There was a pretty fair article about this in the Washington Post about a year ago.  I think it was this one: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/lifestyle/the-slow-secret-death-of-the-electric-guitar/?utm_term=.77fe16f14b17

Gibson (and the other big companies--there's plenty of talk that Fender isn't doing so great atm either) will get paired down to its essentials and survive.  Hopefully it'll be for the best, Epi won't suffer, and they get their quality and price issues sorted.

Have you considered building your own?  Lots of great resources out there for DIY amps.  Worked out great for me.

Besides, let's consider the nature of "impeccable research" for some of the circuits whose schematics came taped to the inside of the device.

Zing!  Nice one!  And oh so true.  If I remember right, drip got started doing a REDD47--not exactly the most complicated design in the world of over-venerated studio gear.

I'm with you.  I just can't understand anybody paying that kind of scratch for a freaking PCB or two.  For that kind of money he better fly his greedy butt to my house to massage my shoulders as he talks me through every little step in sweet, sweet dulcet tones.

On a different note, has anyone here actually built anything like a Hairball 1176?  I've always been curious about doing a project like that but I've pulled the trigger.

That is a good point ahiddentableau. I don't need much power but on the off chance I was to gig again I would like about 30-50 Watts or so. I bought a VOX AC15HW1X 15-watt 1x12" Handwired Tube Combo with Alnico Blue Speaker. It is a bit stiff, brittle and uncompromising to a degree. It was an attempt to get into something different. Might be the Alnico Blue, might be the tubes. Might not have broken it in yet as I haven't opened it up much. I'm not sure how to make friends with it if you know what I mean. I would like to try it with a different speaker. I also have a Bugera 22 and running them both sounds pretty good but I would rather get it all in one. Maybe I'm dreaming.

I'm staring down the Hughes & Kettner Tubemeister Deluxe 40. I'm not hearing the warmth on most demos online but in person with hands on it might be better.  It has the control I'm used to having since I used a small rack system with a ton of preset slots for a while in the 90s. Really only need four or five to do all I want it to do. Looks like they did their homework on the user interface. The midi pedal adds another $200+ to the sticker. Hmm. I guess it's about time to go to (dread) Guitar Center to try out a few amps.

I am checking out everyones suggestions and am finding a lot of good stuff.
Thanks you guys and keep em coming!

Mesa Mark 5 25:

https://youtu.be/gjkfArHfV6Q

I know exactly what you mean, and I'm willing to bet that most everybody on the forum does, too.  My main amp atm is a DIY build that takes the front end of a Matchless DC-30 and pairs it with the power section of the Lightning--something pretty similar to your AC15, I bet.  I absolutely love it (although I wish I had your speaker!).  But it's a really bright amp and, well, that's great for me, but not for everyone.

A big part of what I was saying is to do with amp design.  The circuit and transformer design you use for an amp that sounds great clean and the sort of design you'd use for an amp that sounds great distorted are just flat out different.  So you're never really going to be able to get all three kinds of tone you cited from a single amp.  From an engineering and design standpoint, it just isn't possible.

That's not to say that some amps don't come close.  For example, I had a H&K Triamp (MK1) for quite a while.  It was a nice amp.  Its third channel had high gain tones to die for.  Good breakup tones.  But it couldn't really do clean or even a clean-to-edge of breakup--at least not in the way that a good Fender or Vox does.  And that amp has three discrete circuits, so the gain staging was excellent.  But the transformers and shared power stage just didn't allow it to go all the way.  The designers chose big iron and a really tight power supply and response.  So the clean ended up being kind of sterile.  A trem-o-verb is, IMO, the same sort of thing.  Awesome amp.  Very flexible.  Probably as good as you can do in the swiss army knife school.  But it hedges in the direction of high gain, and that design choice has consequences that are unavoidable.

I eventually figured out that I have a strong preference to get an amp that does clean and mild OD well over one that hedges in the direction of high gain tones.  Because if you're reasonably handy with pedals you really can get good distorted tones with your pedalboard.  Since that obviously doesn't work the other way around, it makes sense to me to take the amp that does clean and milder OD well and then use that as a platform for the rest of your sound.

Probably not the response you're looking for, but I have to ask: how exactly does one build from "less than scratch"?

Sounds like magic to me!

Seriously, though, what kind of solid(s) are you going to build?

Kinda need more information.  Do you prefer Fender, Vox or Marshall style tones?  How much power do you require (sounds like quite a bit)?  Do you like bright or warm sound?  Particular tube types you like or dislike, etc.

IMO it's not really possible to have an amp that does all three of those things really well because of the design compromises involved.  Tubey clean and wicked lead tones just don't go together, unfortunately.  You can have basically have the first two or the last two qualities on your list, but not all three.

I'd look for an amp that does clean and break-up and then go pedals from there.

The only thing you have to worry about when using bigger caps than is required is that they'll fit in whatever kind of enclosure you plan to use.  As a general rule, 11mm high caps will fit in anything 1590B depth or bigger.  So the Tayda caps will almost certainly be fine.

Using different colour LEDs only makes an audible difference if the forward voltage of the other coloured diodes have a different forward voltage than the ones you're currently using.  So you have to check the datasheets of the particular brands you're considering in order to tell if it's going to matter.  Also, there can be a certain amount of variation among units of the same brand/size/colour.  The only way to know that is to measure the devices via a test circuit or testing device.

As far as the lighting up is concerned, that will depend on the threshold of the build.  I would assume that they will give a brief flicker since that's what most LEDs used as hard clipping diodes in that type of circuit does.  But don't expect a light show: the lighting up in that situation is usually pretty mild.

The only way to know for sure will be to build it and see.  This is a prime example of the "rock it before you box it" adage.  Build it before you put it in your enclosure, set it up, turn off the lights and you'll know soon enough.

Good luck!

Awesome build, looks great!

I am wondering about one thing though.  Your enclosure looks like a black prefinished type with a roughish surface, similar to the Hammond 1590BBBX--I don't know what the precise word is to describe the texture of the surface, but the Hammond is slightly rough.  Is that right?  If so, when you used that enclosure label technique, did you use it directly on the surface of that enclosure?  Did it require any extra prepping?  Or is the technique just super forgiving?  I have a 1590BBBX and I wouldn't mind trying your method out. 

Sweet builds and nice boards!

Where'd you get the stamps for your enclosures?  Are those the ones I've seen on eBay from china?  I like the look of the font when it's all said and done.  Oh, and what kind of ink do you use so it doesn't end up getting smudged all over hell's creation?

Lol, yeah, rust and oxidation probably goes beyond the 'relic' look.  Of course I'm not saying don't replace your pickups.  I'm saying I don't think it's worth getting bent out of shape over it, or obsessing over it, or, most especially, spending a ton of $$$ on it.  Just my 2 bits.

I agree with madbean about the red/silver lace combo.  Sounds really good.  I love those two pickups, just not the blue.

But it's true that pickup choice depends radically based on the particular situation.  My strat sounds better with brighter pickups than most others.  And I like bright sounds.  And I use bright amps (deluxe reverb, homemade matchless style 15W).  So I use bright pickups.  It works for me.

In the end, I think we make too much of pickup choice.  They make a difference, but it's not huge.  If you're looking to change your sound, pickups are probably toward the end of the list of things you would look to change.  Effects, speakers, cabinet, amp circuit, guitar choice, playing technique all make so much more of a difference.  Pickups are somewhere around pick brand and tube rolling in terms of magnitude of importance. 

It reminds me of a Kevin Shields interview I read years ago.  He said something along the lines of: "Yeah, I got all obsessive about pickups for a while and tried everything, but in the end I just went back to the original stock units."  There are better places to focus your time, money and attention.  If I could go back in time, I'd probably save the $150 and use it something else. 

So funny.  I own exactly the same pickups as the bean: Fralin vintage hots and blue/silver/red Lace sensors.  Right now I'm using the Fralins.  The Fralins sound vintage-y.  I love them in neck and middle.  Bridge...not so much.  But you can't have it all, now can you?

I like the Lace sensors a lot, except for the blue, which IMO sounds muddy.  I hated it from the start, and the bad feelings never really went away.  It doesn't do the sweet neck p/u strat sound like the Fralin.  It does warm and gooey.  But warm and gooey is not an approved Strat tone!  Such are my feelings.  But I love the silver and the red.  The red with the TBX was an especially great setup if you want to get distortion out of a strat, and the silver has a nice clarity to it that I loved.  They also seem to play really well with pedals, probably because of the higher output.

Good luck with your investigation!