New stuff a brewing

Things have been busy over here at Amplates.com. We are getting ready to roll out a new web site for a brand-spanking new product line that we're really excited about. Stay tuned!

Plan ahead for faceplate design

When designing and building your amp, be sure to plan ahead on the faceplate side of things, too. You want to make sure that you have enough real estate to fit control labels and other markings, plus any logos or flourishes.

Inspirational faceplate design

For inspiration, I like to look to the more unusual amplifier faceplates from the past, and this 1964 Gibson Titan III bass amp is a good one to draw from.

The plate uses legible typography for the controls and a futuristic script face for the amp logo. The use of rules and outlines gives the design movement to imply that this amp is forward and ultra modern (for 1965 it was!). And you've gotta love those stovetop knobs!

Thanks to the Gibson Garage for posting this and hundreds of other great pics of the classic Gibson amp line!

Whither Schematic Heaven?

Don't know what the deal is, but Schematic Heaven has been down for about a week now. The entire homebrew amp-builder community is hoping against hope that this is only a temporary state of affairs! It would be a major loss if this great site were to go away for good.

During the (we hope) temporary outage, you can go to the Web archived version of the Schematic Heaven site and grab all of the schematics you need for now.

You can also find some schematics at the Triode site and at the Free Information Society site.

The list to end all lists

In case you might want to start your own amplifier company (more power to you!), Philip Ruetz over at DIY Guitar Amp has the be-all, end-all list of links to your competition. His list of guitar amp manufacturers is a veritable who's who of the big guys, the bou-teeks and even the smart-alec newcomers on the block. Check it out!

What makes a good faceplate design?

Since faceplates are our bread and butter around here at Amplates.com, I figured a primer on what makes a good plate design might be in order. Bullet points are always fun, so try these tips on for size:

• Legibility. There are two basic types of fonts: text and display. You want to use text fonts for your control labels. If you use crazy, squiggly or super stylized fonts in positions above controls where they need to be small to fit, they won't be readable. Save the squiggles for your amp name and logo.

• Simplicity. Don't throw the kitchen sink on your faceplate. This isn't the launch control for ICBMs, it's a guitar amp built to be used on a cramped, dark stage. You need to be able to quickly and easily change settings, and having 1 billion small knobs and switches will seriously muck up the works.

• Style. The world doesn't need another Fender or Marshall clone. Think outside the box a little when choosing fonts, colors, and design elements. Simply adding a rule or box on your plate can make it stand out from the hordes and make people go "wow!"