New Music Gear Monday: MOD Kit MOD 102+ Guitar Amp Kit

There used to be a lot of companies that offered DIY kits for audio gear at one time, and many of us in the business were introduced to electronics that way (myself included). Alas, over the years these companies mostly fell by the wayside once gear became so inexpensive that it took much of the incentive away from building your own. Then there was the liability issue of someone potentially hurting themselves either in building or operating a kit that scared many companies away.

It looks like a number of companies are now willing to get back into this market, and one of them is MOD Kit, a division of Amplified Parts. Although the company features a wide range of pedal kits, one of its cooler products is the MOD 102+ guitar amp kit.

The MOD 102+ is a simple circuit based upon the circuit design of an old Gibson GA-5 amp from the 50's. It's about as simple as you can get with just two tubes, but that will get you around 8 watts of creamy guitar heaven that's perfect for recording.

The Class A circuit is based around a standard 12AX7 preamp tube and an EL84 power tube, so it has more of a Vox "British" sound, which could be a perfect compliment to the more common 6L6 (like  a Fender) or EL34 (like a Marshall) that you might have around.

The "+" version of the original MOD 102 has a number of features that customers inevitably asked for or added themselves, such as a standby switch, and push-pull switches for the bass control that provides mid-boost, the treble control for top-boost, and a "turbo" setting on the volume control.

You have to supply your own speaker, but at a cost of only $265 and a few hours of your time, this thing looks like a winner. And you'll learn a bit about electronics along the way.

Check out the other kits available, including other amp versions, at MOD Kit as well. Here's an older video from MOD Kits that doesn't feature this current product, but you'll get the feel for what they offer.

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