Custom SS guitar amp build!

[mgcasella]

A few months ago, I found someone locally (a guy named Tom) who said he would build a ss guitar amp for me and I was (and still am) psyched

I met with Tom and we ironed out all the details of the amp. Upon meeting, he realized that my design was a little more complicated than he thought (I wasn't able to communicate all that I wanted clearly via email because I'm not an electronics engineer).

Here are the specs I wanted (along with some kick-ass suggestions from members at SevenString.org):
Here are the features so far:
-The design is based off a few common favorite ss amps that are specifically good for METAL (such as the Ampeg VH-140C [LOOSELY, that is]) plus the addition of extra controls and features (such as a "Depth/Resonance knob, plus a high-mid knob and low-mid knob for each channel)
-150 watts
-----I was skeptical about just having 150 watts but Tom assured me he knew
what he was doing and that this could compete with all the other
instruments in a metal band. I guess it's one of those quality of quantity
type of things.
-----He also said if I wasn't completely satisfied then we would tweak it until
I was or I didn't have to pay him. That works for me
-Two inputs: High gain and Low gain
-Two channels: Clean, and Distorted (plus a Boost switch for the second channel for soloing, getting even more gain if you are doing straight up grindcore/noise, etc).
-An "Edge" switch (adds more brightness)
-Volume for each channel
-Two output jacks
-Stereo or mono switchable output
-Direct line out
-MIDI
-Headphone jack
-Footswitch jack
-Effects loop (with level controls and foot-switchable)
-Master reverb (because everyone knows you sometimes just need a little bit)
-----This will also be foot-switchable
-Master volume
-Cup holder (thank you 7 Strings of Hate for this kick-ass idea )
-Small storage compartment for cables, footswitch, etc
-Top hat handles, as well as a recessed handle on top of the head. I hate straps

My overall goal is to create a high quality solid state amp that is specifically for METAL \m/ (and that includes all sub-genres).

If anyone can think of any other "must-have" features then please let me know! This is still in the design stage so there is time to include them.

[Josh]

How much are you paying him? That's a pretty serious feature set, especially when you include MIDI implementation and the fact that this is a one-off.

[Matt C]

Originally Posted by mgcasella

If anyone can think of any other "must-have" features then please let me know! This is still in the design stage so there is time to include them.

Tubes.

[Blankplank]

Originally Posted by Matt Crooks

Tubes.

[Drew]

Yeah. I don't think I've ever heard of anyone ordering a custom solid state amp.

Eh, if the end product sounds good, I guess...

[Soopahmahn]

This could be very cool if you're actually dealing with a smart engineer type. Otherwise... results may not be as expected. >.>

[Leon]

Originally Posted by BlankPlank

[mgcasella]

Originally Posted by Josh

How much are you paying him? That's a pretty serious feature set, especially when you include MIDI implementation and the fact that this is a one-off.

It was $400 to start the project and it will be $400 when it's done and to my liking However, the MIDI may end up costing me more and if that's the case (depending on the amount) I may not include it.

Originally Posted by Matt Crooks

Tubes.

I knew someone would say this but the whole point is that I want a good-sounding ss amp that doesn't use tubes

Originally Posted by Soopahmahn

This could be very cool if you're actually dealing with a smart engineer type. Otherwise... results may not be as expected. >.>

Before I paid Tom the first $400 I met with him in order to discuss the design. We ended up hanging out for about 3 hours talking about the design, ss amps, and general guitar stuff. All in all, I trust this guy and he seems to really know his stuff. Also, I paid via PayPal so in case he does the unthinkable, like running off with my money (which I'm sure he would never do), I could always file a claim with my credit card.

This is a bit nerve-racking, I must admit, because I'm having to put a lot of trust in a complete stranger but you never know until you try, I guess

[stealthtastic]

Wirelessly posted (A Destroyer of short people: Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4B1 Safari/419.3)

Seems really cheap..like too good to be true for only 800 dollars. If things are as they seem it'll be great.

[Kagami]

Might be a guy who just likes to build electronics, if that's the case the price isn't unreasonable.