Originally Posted by: RickBlacker
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If you take two equilivent tube amps, say 50watts, pushing a 2x12 cab. And you know you're going to be thowing pedals in front of it (or in an effects loop) does it really matter which amp you buy? Afterall, you're GOING to color the tone anyway.
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It absolutely can make a difference. Plug a guitar and pedals into a 50W Fender tube amp (Bassman, or Super Reverb, for example). and then plug the same guitar and pedals into a 50W Marshall JCM800.

Fender and Marshall are only the beginning of the biggest divide between amp tones. In between and around those on a continuum you have the classic chimey Vox, the barky Orange, the mixture of Plexi & Twin in the Mesa Boogie.

I grant non-guitarists might not recognize the difference. But, I guarantee you can learn to recognize the difference.

And it all comes down to amp design; to how the circuitry is designed to light up the pre-amp and power amp tubes that it runs.

Originally Posted by: RickBlacker
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If you're going to be using a distortion pedal anyway, do you REALLY need an amp that has a dirty channel? I had a peavy valveking 100w half-stack, I played through the dirty channel with my distortion. I didn't care for it.
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Not necessarily. But you aren't going to get the same type of "dirt" without a pre-amp gain stage. Any distortion or overdrive pedal is really only going to help you focus or tighten the sound (via clipping and or compression). You still need the "natural dirt" that comes from tube saturation (pre-amp tubes & power amp tubes). Otherwise you are only going to get that "buzz" and "furry fuzz" sound.

And since you are looking at it like this, I'd like to put in my favorite 2 cents on the subject: why not get an amp with an awesome gain stage so you don't need a distortion pedal at all? :)
[QUOTE=RickBlacker]
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Again, if you're using all your pedals, does it REALLY make much difference if an amp even has tone controls?

Only if you don't want to have control over the EQ frequencies. I've seen plenty of amps with a "Tone" knob instead of 3 or 4 tone controls. Some work fine, some don't. My Reason Bambino has a Normal channel with only one "Tone" knob. And it is so expressive (covers so much variation in EQ spectrum bass, mid, treble) it is perfect.
[QUOTE=RickBlacker]
I'm bringing this up because I'm dying to build a tube amp.

Sounds like a fun project! Best of success with it.

You might get some better feedback on the Gear Page. I'm sure some of the gearheads over there have experience with that sort of thing. Not to mention all the actual amp designers and builders that are regulars over there:

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/

Search "amp+kits". I am sure you will get more info than you could ever use. :)

I think you have a good idea with only including the necessary components ("without all the bells and whistles"). But that assumes you know which are the necessary ones, and how best to put them together.