Volume 1 of the most complete and practical modern reference on tube guitar amplifiersThe first three chapters of this unique book cover introductory topics such as basic electronic circuits and passive components (resistors, capacitors, inductors), the building blocks of tube amplifiers. Audio amplifiers are also investigated as “black boxes”, from the outside perspective, and important concepts such as spectra, gain, bandwidth and distortion are introduced.Chapters four to six explain operational principles behind vacuum tubes (diodes, triodes, tetrodes and pentodes), and their use as rectifiers and active amplification components in guitar amps.The rest of the book progresses through various stages of guitar amps, from input circuits and preamplifier stages, through tone control circuits and analog effects, to output or power stages.After the in-depth coverage of tube power supplies, single-ended output stages (triode, pentode and “ultralinear”) are covered first, followed by phase inverters and push-pull circuits.Various types of negative feedback are explained, together with their benefits and drawbacks. The associated controls such as “Presence”, “Resonance” and “Texture™” are also discussed, using Peavey ValveKing 212 amp as a case study.Despite claims by their manufacturers, many modern guitar amps aren’t “all tube” at all, but hybrid designs.