I built one for my first amp. I think if you're mature and able to be patient and understand it's not a toy and can be potentionally dangerous it's possible. PLUS, have a fair amount of electronics/technical experience is one form or another. I spent more then a few years in very large R&D test lab for a major corp. While I spent most the time relegated to specific tasks, I got to see the whole design process of an electronic commercial product from begining to end. This has made me rather brave about jumping into the deep end.

I should add that the experience from others at forums like this were critcal in my success.

I had been building guitar effects for a few years before building the amp too.

Also, even though there are no schematics available for these amps, do you have any experience in reading schematics?

Also, I understand wanting to build an amp that you will really want to play. In fact I was out to build my dream amp.

My Bluesmaster 50w was the first amp I've built. See my build thread - http://ceriatoneforum.com/index.php?topic=1952.0. I've built tons of electronic projects before this, mainly synthesizer modules, so lots of the project was the usual stuff, but there was also lots of learning along the way.

And my amp worked perfectly on first power up, and has continued doing so!

OTS FM50 was my firstborn
Before that I had built a BYOC effects pedal.
The amp was easier for me because there is room to work.
I have been working on electrical ( low voltage and high voltage ) for past 15 yrs.
But unless you are redesigning the amp you wont be calculating formulas or anything. I pretty much did the paint by numbers thing trying to learn as much as possible along the way.
Worked on first power up, I was confident it would because I triple check every connection.

It is addicting so beware. Just finished my second build and I am almost sad about it because it went so fast! 3 weekdays after working 10 hr days at my day job.
I guess I'll just have to order another kit

It adds a couple steps but one suggestion I got is to pre tin all stranded wiring before making the connection. It looks a lot cleaner and its easier to work with because it wont fray when you bend it around connection.

I am colorblind so I do not follow color coding, I noticed that some wire colors on layout do not match the actual wiring that boards come with so make sure you confirm each connection from point to point.

Once you get the kit and have started on it, if you have any questions or problems ask here and you will get help. If possible take pics and post them as well.

Good Luck

Todd

Unless there is someone here I do not know of who has all the models and can give you detailed comparison, you will have to decide on the model yourself!
I have not heard of one person regretting getting any specific model.
Listen to the soundclips and decide which flavor suits you best.

I liked every soundclip I heard so I just kinda picked one ( OTS FM50 ) and have no regrets.

Another thing you can do to get suggestions is state which Artist you would like your amp to sound like.
One guy said he wanted to get John Mayers tone to Nik.
He ended up getting an OTS with JM mod.
Food for thought

Todd

My first build was my Stray Cat, a OTS is a bit harder but not impossible for 1st timer.

Just follow the few golden rules:
Triple check your wiring
Don't rush your build
Ask if your not sure
And be very careful about touching anything when you power up and even after it has had power through it, some caps hold a deadly voltage for days. Always only put 1 hand in the amp and the other in your pocket so you dont accidently ground yourself.

There is plenty of help from experienced builders available here.

REMEMBER the only dumb question is the one not asked.

Hello Bluesfendermanblues, I try to be nice everywhere I go. You're a nice guy here and there too. I guess that's what first threw me a bit. Being honest, I was starting to build a bit of an attitude with some of the ways answers were given over there and you got the brunt of that attitude. A bad attitude is not a good way to go about things. I use to work with a bunch of EE's with huge egos that use to drive me crazy and I guess it sparked some old crap in me. Let me say, I really respect and admire your restraint with staying out of it after the initial interaction. So sorry for the attitude.

I can read, but I hate doing it. I get destracted easily and find it very boring. I'm much better with audible and visual learning. All my guitar ability is mostly from watching others. I can see and hear someone play a complex phrase and get it immediately, where seeing it written out will take me forever.

Thanks for the advice on a non-hrm. I very happy now with the HRM, but if I would've realized at the time just what exactly the #183 was, I probably would have gone with that.  I use to frequent the TGP a lot more about 4 or 5 years ago. I was there at TPG through PRS forums. This must have been about the time that Tag got the #183. At that time I had no idea what it was, but was super impressed with tone. I knew of the Dumble mistique, but didn't realize that was what I was listening to. What I remember more was all the crazy banter back and forth between Tag and others. I never really participated in the discussions and stopped posting there for the most part about that time. It wasn't until figuring it all out recently through the TheAmpGarage, that it all came together.

Hopefully amp building becomes something I do a lot more of and we can have a great relationship. Thanks again. 

Now back to the regular scheduled programming.........

You say "boards", does that mean you got the whole kit or just the main boards? Either way that's cool. Good weekend for sure.....

It took a little longer than two days, but I was blown away at how quick my kit got to me from Malaysia.