Hear the StewMac '81 Brit-800 Amp Kit
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We put together this video to show you how our new '81 Brit-800 amp kit sounds. We've lovingly recreated this rock classic head as a kit that you can build yourself. If you think this sounds hard, we've created very clear step-by-step instructions with hundreds of full color diagrams that walk you through each step of the build.
Video Transcription
[Mike is playing an electric guitar really fast on the 81 Brit amp]
'81 Brit-800 50W Original British Circuit
Speaker 1: The StewMac '81 Brit-800 Amplifier kit is a 50W clone of the JCM 800 developed by Marshall in the early eighties. It's not the first amplifier to have a master volume, but it's certainly the most famous. With just one channel, you can get the crazy, crazy preamp distortion you want without getting kicked out of your mom's house.
Mike: It is an awesome, awesome, just straight rock amp. This thing's made for really, it's kind of shredding, but it was really controllable. You can control that distortion too. Awesome for just single string solos, I noticed when I was playing that. It's great because I can see myself practicing with this at home on that kind of stuff and then even playing this thing out without having to worry about micing it for sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah extremely versatile.
Mike: I mean, I have a lot of issues with playing out and my amps being too loud to get the tone I want, and I can see this thing just being able to creep it down to blend with the rest of a band or whoever you're playing with.
Speaker 1: It's not quite as loud as a factory JCM 800 I think, I think maybe just a hair quieter, but there's a little more definition because of it.
Mike: I mean this thing's got some serious high end on it that just goes great with that distortion. I mean I could control the feedback that was happening a little bit in a good way, especially when you're muting strings and you can still feel that. When you do that you kind of want that gritty hum that comes with having more bass.
Speaker 1: You want to feel it.
Mike: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1: Well, Mike, I think that's enough talking. Let's get back to rocking.
Turning on an amp that you built by hand for the first time and having it run and having it sound amazing is one of the best feelings in the world. If you're nervous, you don't know how to build an amplifier, you've never even looked at a schematic before, our instruction manual has you covered. We'll walk you through step by step where each one of these components goes and what they're doing in the circuit. This circuit itself is quite similar to the Brit-Plex 45 watt amp kit we have, but with only one channel using all three of the preamp tubes, you can get the crazy, hairy preamp distortion that you can't get in the Plex 45. From all of us at StewMac, happy building and happy playing.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
