Amplifier theory

[beans-on-toast]

I actually prefer older textbooks. I find them easier to read. Unfortunately, most of them are only available in PDF formats, and I am unable to stay focused on the thing I am reading when I am reading it on the computer. One moment I am focused and in the zone, then one "CMD+T" later I have wasted an hour of my life.

I know what you mean about reading online. I also like to make notes in pencil on the page.

I've printed chapters. You can buy used books through places such as Amazon. I used to use book finding services. Don't know if they still exist.

When working with transistor circuits, it is very nice to have a scope, power supply, and breadboard so you can test as you design. Pedal circuits are a great way to get your feet wet.

If you really want to go to town, add in a microcontroller such as an arduino or raspberry pi for the interface. There is no shortage of things to learn. But best to try to do one thing well at a time.

 

[Woodstockz]

Here's a link to the third edition: The Art of Electronics: Paul Horowitz, 3rd edition. Textbooks are expensive.

Beans, thanks for the note on the third edition. I just ordered it today.


$80 bucks. Textbooks are initially expensive, but if you use it for ten years, then it's only $8 per year. 40 years, and it's only $2 per year. That's cheap, especially if it helps you make more $$ in your career.


I might also get the 2nd edition for the chapters on RF. One review said that the RF chapter was deleted on the third edition.

 

[Woodstockz]

My bad.

Thank you @Woodstockz !

I actually prefer older textbooks. I find them easier to read. Unfortunately, most of them are only available in PDF formats, and I am unable to stay focused on the thing I am reading when I am reading it on the computer. One moment I am focused and in the zone, then one "CMD+T" later I have wasted an hour of my life.

Sure thing.

When I was in college, we used another book for the class. Afterwards, when I was working at my second career job, the Art of Electronics came out. Everyone at work was talking about it. I thought that the book that I used in class was good enough, but they said that I had to get it. They were right. It is easy to read. I have read it cover to cover a couple of times over the years. Just ordered the new one.

 

[agedhorse]

Damn you guys, I am such a book whore... good for those nagging questions that can't be extracted from the 'ol brain

 

[Woodstockz]

Damn you guys, I am such a book whore... good for those nagging questions that can't be extracted from the 'ol brain

Yeah, me too.

 

[beans-on-toast]

Me three.

 

[beans-on-toast]

For a more in-depth understand of tube amps, I highly recommend Richard Kuehnel's three books: Guitar Amp Books for Professional Builders.

These aren't for beginners and require some understanding of network analysis if you want to take everything in. You don't have to understand everything to appreciate what is going on in musical instrument tube amps though.

The ('59) Fender Bassman 5F6A Book presents an analysis and interesting insights as to how the amp performs. Things like what happens in the first milliseconds of a note being struck in terms of bias excursion and power supply sag are examined in detail. The differences between the 5F6A and the Marshall 1962 and 1987 models which are based on the Fender design are also examined. The pre-amp and power amp books are more general and provide an understanding of the intricacies of design from the pickups to the speaker and everything in between.

 

[Woodstockz]

For a more in-depth understand of tube amps, I highly recommend Richard Kuehnel's three books: Guitar Amp Books for Professional Builders.

These aren't for beginners and require some understanding of network analysis if you want to take everything in. You don't have to understand everything to appreciate what is going on in musical instrument tube amps though.

The ('59) Fender Bassman 5F6A Book presents an analysis and interesting insights as to how the amp performs. Things like what happens in the first milliseconds of a note being struck in terms of bias excursion and power supply sag are examined in detail. The differences between the 5F6A and the Marshall 1962 and 1987 models which are based on the Fender design are also examined. The pre-amp and power amp books are more general and provide an understanding of the intricacies of design from the pickups to the speaker and everything in between.

I dabble in tubes, but the high voltage is really scary.

Yes, I admit it.

 

[beans-on-toast]

You have to have deep respect for high voltage. Nobody likes getting bit.

 

[Woodstockz]

You have to have deep respect for high voltage. Nobody likes getting bit.

True dat!!!

 

[Mark Reccord]

High voltage DC with very little current capability is preferable to mains AC in my book. Jolted myself with 350VDC the other night and while it hurt, a friend of mine got hit with 347VAC a while back and spent a few days in hospital.

@icke2433: I don't have anything to add other than reiterating what you guys have already said. SPICE is great but there's no substitute for grinding through the math and actually building the circuits. I do think that you should download and start using LTSPICE though. You can use it to verify your answers if nothing else.

Plus a million on Horowitz. I learned most of my device theory from Sedra/Smith's Microelectronic Circuits but it doesn't have anywhere near the breadth of The Art of Electronics.

 

[agedhorse]

There is enough current available in most plate supplies to do some serious damage.

 

[Mark Reccord]

There is enough current available in most plate supplies to do some serious damage.

Still preferable to getting bitten by your standard 347/600 service....

 

[Passinwind]

Still preferable to getting bitten by your standard 347/600 service....

Or this:

Link Removed

The safety lecture before they let you work there is pretty sobering, even after you've heard it several times.

 

[cfsporn]

So my copy of The Art of Electronics came yesterday, and from the first pages of the first chapter, it seems very readable. My EE bookshelf got a bit bigger.

 

[Woodstockz]

Tell us when you get to the secret man inside the transistor - if he is still in V3.

 

[fdeck]

Well, since we're all sharing...

Volume 1, from 1983, the textbook for my college electronics cours. Yes, it has Transistor Man.

 

[agedhorse]

Why not transistor woman?

(A sign of the times, very few women were interested in EE!)

 

[beans-on-toast]

Years ago, the guys that repaired radios in small neighborhood shops were often called a radiomen. But in the tube manufacturing and electronic assembly plants, women were prized for their hard work and attention to detail. A lot of these women weren't allowed by their families to go on to higher education.

Chances are your vintage pickups were wound by a woman. If you have a hand assembled amp, good chance a woman did some of the work.

 

[Raf Seibert]

But in the tube manufacturing and electronic assembly plants, women were prized for their hard work and attention to detail. A lot of these women weren't allowed by their families to go on to higher education.

Chances are your vintage pickups were wound by a woman. If you have a hand assembled amp, good chance a woman did some of the work.

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My dad worked for RCA, first in the tube division, later in semiconductors. In the transistor and chip production lines, job applicants had to pass a manual dexterity test. There was no discrimination, but in the twenty years he supervised that production, he never had one man pass the test.

Raf