All that being said, there is an undeniable appeal to be able to build something useful that doesn’t require a heater circuit and the attendant 60-cycle-hum battles that come from those hi-current windings.  Solid state is just easier, which is prolly why it has won-out in the world of consumer electronics, if not necessarily in the pro-audio world.  In my endless diggin for ancient tubes and transformers and bakelite meters I invariably come across stashes of ole germanium and silicon transistors, and I recently decided to take the plunge and try and cross this bridge once and for all.  Cos I can talk tubes and tube audio circuits up+down, but frankly I don’t know shit abt solid-state and maybe it’s time I learned.

DOWNLOAD THREE CIRCUITS FROM RCA HM-80:RCA_SS_Hobby_1968

The old RCA Tube Manuals have always been my primary source of information for my tube-audio builds and experiments.  The circuits that they recommend are the most solid, reliable, and practical that you will ever find.  I trust them implicitly.  And why not?  After all, this was the company that made the tubes themselves!  So when I decided to try and get into SS, I started with the RCA Solid-State Hobby Circuits Manual.  In the scan above you will find a mic preamp, a line-level compressor, and a fuzz pedal.  I’ll be building all three eventually and I will LYK how it goes.  In the meantime, if any of y’all beat me to it, drop us a line and report back,,,