The Guitar Amplifier Player's Guide: An instruction and reference manual for musicians: 1

As another reviewer has put it, it is much tube reviews in here. Not as many practical gear reviews andd combinations that I had hoped for. The passage about speaker elements is very good. pratical reviews of gear you can buy and hear. I escpecially miss review of combination of gear.

One of the best book to understand guitar amp.

Very interesting undersatnding and insight on how an amplifier is done and how it works.Too much focussed on tubes, though.

Dave Zimmerman has literally covered everything the guitarist needs to know about amps, cabs, speakers, tubes, and tone in this book. If you're a guitarist, and you want to know EVERYTHING you NEED to know on these subjects, this book is the bible.The point to re-emphasize is that target audience for this book is guitarists. For example, there are certainly some technical bits in here about ohms, amps, volts, etc. (and if you don't need 'em, don't read 'em) but if you're interested in that stuff, this never feels like a text book written for engineers or amp techs. This is need-to-know info, presented for guitarists at a level that makes it easy to understand. It's like having these topics explained to you by a very knowledgeable amp tech who knows how to convey complicated material in an easy-to-understand way.Each topic is relatively short, contained, easy to find, read, and comprehend. It is a fantastic reference source when you want to look up something, and a good cover-to-cover read as well.A book like this is LONG overdue. I wish I'd written it!Extremely highly recommended. Hat's off to Dave Zimmerman. Great work!

I purchased this book as a kindle edition to have a source of information on guitar amplifiers, to read while away from my other books on the subject. Although Kindle books seem to be limited as to the contents of origional book contents, this provides some good reading on amps from the prospective of what a player can expect from different amplifiers. Humorous and insightful, the author goes to the components of amps and gives the reader the knowledge of what a Guitar Amplifier is all about. This book is full of viable information and usefull insights about the equipment. If you need more info on how the tube amp works then this is the book you will want to understand how these cofigurations of vintage electronics work and put out the sounds you want. It is well written and has much useful information and enough technical dialog to please the repairman in you. I recommend this book for anyone, as a casual reader or a gear head wanting to open up the amp and look over the wiring, caps and tubes, to determine the workings of the Amp you own.Dave Zimmerman covers nearly everything one should know about amps, caps, speakers and tubes. As a guitarist you will want to understand something about your tone generation and the sound as it is developed after you pick the strings. This book is a source of that information for you. Each topic is covered with understandable descriptions of each aspect of the amp and as written, it is easy to understand. This will be a reference source for learning and future rereading. If parts of this book don't fill all the needs of all Guitarists, as each section will contain more vintage electronics than all would need, pass it up as information that is not for you. Some day, you'll remember it is in there and may need to go back an fill in some of the blanks you have in the understanding of your amp and it's sound. Then you'll figure out something about you amp and sound and be able to fix or point out the problem to your tech. He'll be impressed and think you are really special. Maybe not, but you can and most likely will if you own this book. This is a must read.

A very informative book for a linguistic mathmatical type learning person. There are no pictures so if you are an artsy visual learner this is goin to be a real drag.Very intelligent author , has alot of insight .But the nearest thing to an illustration would be a block diagram or a bw pic of a tube.

This is a good overview book about analog tube amps and their musical sounds. Whether you want to dive deeper and mod or design your own tube amps or play your guitar with newfound info about how to get the best sounds this book will remain a valuable resource.I refer to it often when I'm designing a tube amp circuits to remind myself about why I'm choosing this tube or component.Very helpful

"The Guitar Amplifier: Players Guide" is the ultimate Masters class in Rock and Roll, with behind-the-scenes secrets and hilarious, erudite instructions in the electronics of creating great sound.As the founder of the boutique amplifier company Maven Peal, Dave has a 20-year history working with professional rock and roll bands, and he shares his immense expertise in this volume.Colloquial and conversational in his tone, Dave makes the information accessible even for the beginner, yet he fills the text with expert information gleaned over years of building amps for world-class rock musicians.Beginning with an overview of amplifier sound, Dave gives instructions on how to create "good dirty tones", "old-school swampy", and "brittle and zingy", just to name a few, and educates readers on eliminating "hum" and avoiding the "can-full-of-bees" syndrome.Continuing with a comprehensive list of resources and recommendations, Dave then teaches readers the basics of amplifiers; how they create sound, and how to choose the right amplifier components.For the technically-minded, he includes a look at the inner workings of amplifiers and the electrical engineering aspect of creating a rock and roll sound with an in-depth explanation of the distortions that amplifiers can create.With humorous asides and warnings - "Wear earplugs...Tinnitus is forever..." and "Follow these instructions to avoid blowing up your amp, getting yourself electrocuted or starting a fire." "The Guitar Amplifier: Player's Guide", seems like it should be required reading for rock stars.