For nearly 20 years I have been building tube based guitar amps. Above is a hybrid design, Orange AD-50 power amp stage with a Marshall JTM-45 pre-amp design. With more than 100 builds under my belt, there are some vintage circuits I can build without a schematic. I built my first electronic circuit in 1993, a ProCo Rat distortion pedal,  from schematics. I fell in love with the warmth of tube based audio early on. My grandfather had a tube stereo system that he built in the 60's and on Saturday mornings he would crank big band jazz while having his coffee. The magic of vacuum tubes has never left me. Some of the finest sounding amps to ever exist were some of the simplest in design. The venerable Fender Deluxe (5e3) is my personal favorite. The spectrum that you can achieve with two volume controls and one for tone is incredible.

  As much as I like a variety of brushes in my painting tool kit, the same is true for guitar pedals for writing and recording music. My guitar tone is created entirely with components that I have built over the years. Many classic pedals are incredibly rare. They either cost far too much to justify or are unobtainium. My delay is a clone of the Ibanez AD-80. It's lo-fi characteristics make it the best piece of kit to ever come out of that company, in my opinion. Why buy when you can build?