Circuit Analysis of a Legendary Tube Amplifier: The Fender Bassman 5F6-A, Third Edition Paperback – September 8, 2009

A very well written analysis of guitar amplifier circuits. The circuits in the book are common to almost all guitar amps. Other amps just have different values for the resistors and capacitors, and the book gives general formulas into which you can plug the values from any amp. For example, I copied the formulas for the tone stack into a computer program, plugged in the values for my Princeton Reverb amp, and could display the frequency response as a function of tome control settings.

Love electronics and math and want a detailed explanation as to what makes this wonderful amplifier tick? Then this book is for you. Also covers some Marshalls based on the 5F6-A. A good high level read. Other material is available that just explains various circuit component functions and why specific component values were selected without getting into detailed math analysis. Bottom line though - it's a great book for lovers of guitar amplifiers.

This turned out to be a very interesting and important book for me to have read. I have been servicing amps for years and recently found myself working on many old Marshall, Hiwatt, Laney and Fenders amps. Reading this just before doing them seems to have made me noticeably better at it! Lots of maths and theory in this book, but this assists in the understanding that can then be drawn upon when dealing with those many guitar amps derived in part or indeed, whole, from the Fender Bassman 5F6A circuit when "on the bench". Each part of that classic design is analysed in isolation and then the bigger picture is there to be seen. Nice to have the fold-out circuit diagrams. Hat's off to Leo Fender for this and so many other innovations. Of course the author, Richard Kuehnel deserves credit for a solid and thorough work.

As you can tell by the cover this book is very much an engineering style circuit analysis. If you are unfamiliar with equivalent circuits, voltage and current sources, and circuits 101/102 type analysis, this book may be a bit much. If you are familiar with circuit analysis this book is excellent, it breaks down the stages into equivalent circuits at different frequency ranges and shows the effect of various parts of the circuit on the sound and feel. It really takes the things you can hear and observe about the circuit and explains the way the circuit is interacting to produce those sounds. I highly recommend this and all Kuehnel's books. Also if you like this, or any of Kuehnel's books, I recommend checking out Merlin Blencowe's books as well. These are on another level from the non-technical fairy tale books that seem to fill the tube guitar amplifier world with garbage information.

(Disclosure - I am a newcomer to the subject of electronics and amplifiers but with an advanced degree in mathematics and an interest in this subject)I found Mr Kuehnel's book to be a very well structured, comprehensive as well as comprehensible approach to this subject. Few texts on tube amplifiers you will find today (whether guitar amps or audio amps - and you will benefit from this book no matter which you have an interest in) will do such a complete job of analyzing the circuity as you will find here. Of course, an understanding of basic circuit theory is assumed in the time as well as frequency domain.

This book deals in facts, just the facts,ma'am. That said, the book gives a very insightful circuit analysis of this legendary amplifier from Leo's venerable stable of amplifiers. It also has a section of the book devoted to the most famous Bassman clone from across the Pond and illustrates similarities and differences.All in all a great starting point for anyone interested in designing an amplifier or someone who wants to get a better understanding of how circuit analysis can be applied to any vacuum tube amplifier. Very good book, many useful formulas, but if math frightened you as a child this may cause nightmares! Definitely aimed at technical people, engineers primarily and not the average weekend warrior guitarslinger who is not up on electronics.Definitely not beyond the average person's comprehension by any means, but probably a little better understanding of electronics would make it a more valuable resource as well as easier to read. All in all a very good book to read and study-highly recommended !

Mr. Keuhnel has put together a masterwork that will serve as an essential reference for years to come. To get the most out of this book, you need to have:1. A solid foundation in math - algebra at a minimum, trig and calculus are a plus2. Many, many pencils and a lot of scratch paper to work the math3. A basic understanding of key electronic concepts and formulae; Ohm's Law, Kirchoff's law, etc.4. A passion for tube guitar amplifiers.Now, you don't have to have anything but number 4 when you start working through the book, but if you dig in, do external research on the basic electronics as they come up, you'll be in great shape with a solid understanding of tube amp design.

This book gives enough background that if you are a little bit rusty on your circuit analysis (as I was), you can still get the maximum value from the book. I have only completed the 1st chapter, but if the rest of the book is as good as the 1st chapter, then this book will prove to be the most valuable of the numerous books I have on tube amps. Duplicating the techniques outlined in this book I will be able perform a similar circuit analysis of my Marshall 50w Plexi and Cornford Hellcat, and then hopefully, fully understand why each sounds the way it does. I just wish it was available in hard copy because I think it will become a reference book for me moving forward.