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The Online Guitar Store - The Tube Amp Book: Deluxe Revised Edition
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List Price: $49.95
Our Price: $32.97
Your Save: $ 16.98 ( 34% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Backbeat Books
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Spiral-bound
Dewey Decimal Number: 780
EAN: 9780879307677
ISBN: 0879307676
Label: Backbeat Books
Manufacturer: Backbeat Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 416
Publication Date: 2003-09-01
Publisher: Backbeat Books
Studio: Backbeat Books
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Editorial Reviews:
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Already known as the bible of tubes and tube amps, The Tube Amp Book is now even better. This deluxe revised edition features 40 percent new material, including two CDROMs of circuit diagrams plus a dramatically improved design and page layout. The book's technical tips, in-depth electronic specs and explanations, rare schematics, hundreds of full-color plates, illustrations, charts and tables make it a must-have for the legions of tube-tone fanatics.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Impresive !
Comment: I have many books with the same subject, None compare to this book. The quality of the pictures and printing,the two books in one presentation, but what I like the most is the accurate information on the amplifiers and the drawings. I recommended this book to Musicians, Electronic Enthusiast and Technitians. Bert Checa MacBeath, Electronic Engineer.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Slanted: too much an adverstisement for GT
Comment: I've been fooling with tube guitar amps for decades. I more or less know what I am doing with them, and I've found most of the information that I want on line. But I thought it would be nice to have a book or two to consult when my wife or daughter was at the computer, when I was tinkering with an amp, or when I just didn't feel like sitting at a desk and looking at screen. Based on its appearance and description, I chose this book. Bad decision.
This book insulted me. I felt used and abused by the author, and that has perhaps tainted this review. I expected a comprehensive and useful guide. That is what this book should have been and what the format and price -and the use of "THE" in the title -- seemed to promise. Instead, I dropped $33 on a big, glossy advertisement for the author's "Groove Tube" tube-selling operation and, by extension, the manufacturers who buy tubes from him.
To make a happy customer, promise less and deliver more. This book went the other way.
Yes, some of the content is useful and interesting, written passages as well as photos. But the section describing amp brands and histories is rendered woefully incomplete as the author veers and swerves through it to make opportunities to refer to himself and his tubes and pimp for the manufacturers that buy from him. (Be wary of authors who never miss opportunities to tell you how important and knowledgeable they are. Quality of content should speak for itself.) Redundancies abound, further wasting the reader's time and valuable space that could have been used to at least mention other manufacturers or give some details about those that deserved more than a paragraph or two. But then, perhaps those manufacturers will yield to the pressure, become Groove Tube customers, and thus buy space in the next edition.
The technical section lacks depth and development, apparently a patchwork of reprinted magazine articles, disconnected one to the next, but with more shameless plugs for Groove Tubes inserted here and there. Many of the articles are reasonably well written and helpful in themselves and would be perhaps be a pleasure to find in a magazine. But overall, the technical section is less coherent and developed than one would expect in the sort of publication that this presents itself to be. Again, the book seems to promise more but delivers less.
Others have commented on many the schematics being illegible or inaccurate.
Perhaps the greatest disappointment is the section comparing tube types. Only tubes marketed by Groove Tubes are included, and they are all, of course, listed by their Groove Tube catalog name and are all shown photographed with the big GT logo prominently displayed. If you are looking for descriptions or comparisons of raved-about tubes by Tung-Sol or Svetlana or the like, you can do much better on the Internet, thank you. You won't find them here.
The book has its good points. It is big. It is glossy. The spiral binding is user-friendly. You will get some insights into the hows and whys of tube amp history and evolution - but then, the book is not unique in that. It has lots of great photos - but even here there are annoying redundancies and omissions: some things described in a way that makes them intriguing are not depicted while other things are shown again and again. Did I mention redundancies?
This book might be a good addition to the library of someone who already has lots of books about tube amps and has room on the shelves for more. But if you are looking for just one or two more or less comprehensive books on the subject, look elsewhere.
I was not happy with my purchase and returned the book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Enough info and looks nice
Comment: Good technical stuff. Lot of info about brands. Lot of schematic diagramas.
Also looks very nice the Deluxe Rev.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The "Bible" for Tube Amp Users
Comment: This book is such a FANTASTIC resource for anyone that has and uses tube amps for guitar! Aspen Pittman (founder of Groove Tubes) has such a profound knowledge of the history of tubes amps in music that you CAN'T be without this book if you you are a "tone hound" at ANY level!!!
He runs through all of the amp manufacturers from A-Z and also gives a tremendous breakdown and guide to both pre-amp and power amp tubes.
Loads of schematics both in the book and on a CD that comes with it.
If you play guitar, this book IS A MUST HAVE!!!!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great resource for players, engineers ann gearheads
Comment: The founder of Groove Tubes presents an 'updated" Deluxe Revised Edition of material he has developed over many years. 56 in depth amp company profiles with extensive color photos, tube and circuit technical sections, a printed section of many popular tube amp schematics and tube charts, and a CD with 800 total amp schematics in PDF. Great for technical and non-technical readers alike. Should be in the library of every electric guitarist who favors a tube amp. (Don't we all?)
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