The Watering Hole

What price are these in the states? (zvex nano amp)

I've wanted one of these for some-time now, lovely thick juicy sound, but over there they are just so damn expensive (around £400 ($632)  :o )


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U9ylAeSvDY&feature=player_detailpage

$499... it seems. I'm not buying one to find out if that's a correct quote ;)

Hmm, still pricey even in the states then?  Although I suppose they are all hand built so once you factor-in the labour cost/time to produce each one then I suppose it is actually reasonable. Having said that I won't be buying one to test either !

Zvex stuff is generally expensive, but very good.  I've owned the SHO and the Ringtone (a really neat ring mod).  SHO is a little bright for my tastes, but the Ringtone was way cool.

I've posted this amp before and I think it sounds great.

One of my buddies at BYOC builds his own version of these and they are supposed to be great.  And about half the price.  

DreamTheaterRules — Sep 27, 2011One of my buddies at BYOC builds his own version of these and they are supposed to be great.  And about half the price.  

Does he build and ship to UK ?

pretty sure he does.  You want me to put him in contact with you?  

Yeah, that would be good.

I hear it's $316 for the amp and another $316 to ship to the UK though...  ;) :D

CraigBert — Sep 27, 2011I hear it's $316 for the amp and another $316 to ship to the UK though...  ;) :D

That sounds about right !   The thing that fucks the price once it gets into the UK is VAT and customs duty.  Fortunately there are some "friendly" companies in US that I have bought from that put the value on the package as $10 and say it's a gift and that gets me out of paying VAT and import duty....nice  :)

While they aren't Nanoz, this cat makes lil amps in yer neck o' da woods.  Used to see him around the pedal forums and he always kicked his designs fer DIY.  At any rate, might be a decent cat to chat up:

http://www.frequencycentral.co.uk/

Binge, I listened to the Superfly and it sounds pretty righteous.  Nice!

I will take a look at those, cheers

look around his page... this guy is an ARTIST.  Some of his micro amps are incredible works of art.

Our new thing is buying chassis from old organs on ebay and building amps out of them.  My buddy Joe built an amp with a 6973 power section and it sounds insane...  we've got another one in the works from a hammond organ chassis section... $50-something on ebay.  Of course you have to know what you are doing...

charger — Sep 29, 2011Our new thing is buying chassis from old organs on ebay and building amps out of them.  My buddy Joe built an amp with a 6973 power section and it sounds insane...  we've got another one in the works from a hammond organ chassis section... $50-something on ebay.  Of course you have to know what you are doing...

Yeah I imagine you can do great stuff with those old things.  It's just like the old valve radiogram that I used as a guitar amp as a kid (think I mentioned this before) it just had this really lovely thick, juicy creamy tone when pushed hard and I've never been able to get that sound since.  The germanium4 comes close,  but it is an elusive sound of joy for sure !

Jon, I gave Rick your email address. He should be in touch soon.

DreamTheaterRules — Sep 30, 2011Jon, I gave Rick your email address. He should be in touch soon.

I actually already contacted him a couple of days ago via the website link that Bingewood posted, but he did send me another email last night mentioning you.....all good surprisingly :-)    Thanks anyway.   The problem I have is that the sound clips on his website are OK but don't sound that marvellous to be honest, I need to hear some better clips before I go further. I'm still liking the Nano more, but for this type of amp with so few components I wouldn't want to spend any more than £150, just not worth an many than that really.

he doesn't know me very well.   ;D    

These things are simple.  But making them micro size and micro power doesn't make them cheaper than a bigger "small" amp, because with something like a Valve Junior or VHT special 6, you are already at the minimum circuit/parts count/parts cost/ etc.  Rick and Zvex hand build these things and as anyone can tell you, the smaller you make things, the harder and more expensive.  

I've heard some samples of Ricks stuff that sounded really good.  But, I've been in that forum for 7 years or so...  I'll see if I can find some this weekend.  

Actually you could build an amp like that super super cheap.  I'm not sure how handy you are, ever since I started hanging out with an electrical engineer with serious skills and tools I look at everything as a $50 problem...  

charger — Sep 30, 2011Actually you could build an amp like that super super cheap.  I'm not sure how handy you are, ever since I started hanging out with an electrical engineer with serious skills and tools I look at everything as a $50 problem...  

Yeah, I did think about that.  I used to be very much into building electronic stuff years ago but the problem these days is that my eyes are not what they once were and I find it very difficult to see the damn stuff to wire it all up.  I wear glasses nearly all the time now and for most stuff they are fine, but for close work I have to put magnifiers over my glasses which is fine, but gives me a real headache after a while.   Having said that, I still might have a go at this, just need to find a good schematic, and I agree that the parts on this type of project should absolutely be no more than $50 max.

Ya gotta get the kid on learning to solder.  My pops had me on electronics "helper" duty early... helped me a lot when I got into DIY.