Cheaper to make or buy?

[lukasuk]

This might be a stupid question, but just out of curiosity, would it be cheaper to buy or make a basic amplifier?

[octatonic]

Buy.
You can buy a cheap amp for less than you would pay for the tools to make that amp.

If you want something specific, like a Dumble, then it changes things.

[Sporky_McGuffin]

Also down to whether you already have the tools and whether you value your time.

[ESBlonde]

There is an element of experimentation to get a decent amp sound, what the book says is right doesn't always translate into a musical sound. If you are happy to accept what it sounds like in your first design then thats OK. If you buy a kit of parts that others have designed then much of the profit has already been taken. You can get a kit and build it for less than a Brand name that it copies, but the resale is poor so the actual savings are not sustained.

[Dave_Mc]

Also down to whether you already have the tools and whether you value your time.

not to mention how good you are at it- if you have to start from scratch and learn how to do everything, that's going to cost a lot more...

[ICBM]

The cheapest Chinese-made amps (eg Epiphone Valve Junior for a valve amp, or even cheaper for a basic solid-state job) are so cheap that you can't even buy the parts at retail in this country for what they cost, let alone the tools.

So much so that buying a Valve Junior in order to get the nicely-made cabinet and chassis, and possibly using the transformers, then totally gutting it and building a different circuit in the box is a good way of making a "home build" amp.

[Dave_Mc]

^ that's what a lot of people were doing on the diy forums... some builders even were doing it, too.