Building a Tube Amp from scratch

Hey there guys, I ordered two Kevin O Connor books last week and they arrived today. I'm doing a masters degree in electronic engineering so I figured I may as well link my studies and my hobby together!
Has anyone else here made their own amp or even FX unit? how did it turn out? what are the problems and pitfalls the books dont tell you about? any other info worth sharing?
I've never attempted this before, but I really wanna make something I can use!

I've screwed around with modding tube amps but never built one from scratch. I can tell you this... Building one will probably cost more than buying one...
Of course if you really want to I got a bunch of marshall, mesa, and soldano schematics.
In Marshall, I have an 800,900,2000,Plexi, and a lead 12.
If this is your first project, I would suggest the plexi or the lead 12.
The only Mesa schematic I have is the dual rectifier. But then again that's probably one of the best amps they ever made.
As for Soldano, it's an SLO100 and it's not really a schematic, rather a bunch of really detailed pictures on the layout of the amp.

Let me know if you want any of them.

Take a lesson from the CBS years of Fender amps. A bunch of well-meaning engineers ruined the character of the amps by 'improving' on the design. A lot of things don't make sense initially, like the small size of the power supply filter caps. They seem like an obvious place to make improvements, but the small cap values result in a momentary sag in the B+ line, which is where that wonderful 'swell' comes from! Be aware that your first guess is almost always going to be wrong.

I'm interested in something like a JCM800 but with that smooth bottom end of a rectifier. Quite a gritty sound, good for metal and hard rock, but backing off the gain should give a nice heavy blues sound.
so therefore I'd be interested in the JCM800 schematic and the dual rectifier one.
I've read about modding amps, and several people have said that these days you can buy an amp which will do pretty much whatever you want. Although I'm thinking of doing something along the lines of tube vs solid state amplification for my 3rd year project for university, so I was thinking I should get up to speed on the techniques and whatnot.
My setup at the moment consists of a PRS - maxon OD-9 - roland cube 30.
I know the cube amp is the weak link in the chain, but I want to make quite a high output amp for gigs and whatnot. Plus without tubes I know I'm not getting the full benefits from the maxon pedal!
Anyone know any suppliers with component prices?

My advice, start small, SE Class A, maybe a $100 worth of parts, just to get your feet wet, I realize you have the smarts, but don't overlook the practical application, jumping into something on the scale of a JCM 800, cold, may result in a very expensive, oscillating, pile of components thats not finished in time, but you know your abilities and I don't, so just take all that for what it's worth, but here's something you will need,

http://www.ampage.org

all the links for suppliers, info, software, etc if you can't get it from there, it probably can't be got, Good Luck, N.H., and keep us updated, OK?.........

I sure will! thanks for the link, I was wondering where I could get parts from. I have been talking to a guy online who built a tube/solid state hybrid amp. He said that the expensive part is the power section, so he used a 60 watt mosfet setup as opposed to the tubes. What are the benefits of this kind of approach? I'm thinking of perhaps trying to make a valve pre-amp and couple it with a solid state power amp to start with, simply from a cost point of view.
I'm quite capable of reading schematics and building the thing, but yeah this is my first foray into tube amp making. And I've managed to calm down and tell myself that I need to learn to be able to crawl before I'm capable of running before I can walk...
Thanks for the advice!

Teansistors work very well for accurate amplification, but that's not what a guitar amp is supposed to do. It's a musical instrument, that has desirable sonic characteristics. A tube power section, when pushed into distortion, produces harmonic content that is very different from the odd-order trash you get from overdriven transistors.

Do some reading on that Ampage that pstring suggested. There are some very useful discussions of the differences.

Also, use the search feature of this site to dig up some of the older threads on this topic. I spent a lot of time discussing this stuff with other members.

Check out:

AX84 project site

Thanks guys, this info is SO helpful, it's all I've been able to think about today, I've been drawing sketches of circuits and such when I really should have been working (but hey what are screenbreaks for)
That AX84 project site seems fantastic, almost feel like I've wasted my money on the kevin O connor books, but it's nice to have a hard copy in reference, printing pages off the net can be a hassle as my printer sucks, and the one at university wont let you print more than 10 pages at a time!
Thanks for the support, I'll let you know as soon as I get started, and I'll get some pics taken when I have it made!