DIY desktop/mini/lunchbox amps? similar to Big Trees

[slowpogo]

My bedroom practice amp is a Vox MV50 AC into a 1x12. The Vox is surprisingly good for the money but I always intended it as a stopgap. I'm wondering about DIY mini or lunchbox amps to fill a similar role, whether tube or solid state.

A DIY version of Big Trees from Audio Kitchen is the ideal thing I'm looking for. So far all I see is the MOD102+ kit which looks pretty interesting, but is there anything else like that out there?

 

[Feral Feline]

Fender Champ clone kits abound: Ceriatone, Trinity, Stew Mac, Mojo, BYOC…

There’s also Zeppelin Labs’ little kit.

DIY stuff for Danelectro-style/Marahall-on-Belt mini amps…

 

[slowpogo]

Hmm, thanks, I should have mentioned budget. A lot of those kits are $700 or more, except the Zeppelin, but I'm hoping for more than one-knob functionality. I thought I would find more along the lines of the Big Trees, which has a lot of features but looks like a biggish pedal build that I would expect to be relatively affordable to make ($300-ish or less). Maybe such a thing doesn't exist yet

 

[thesmokingman]

if I were in the market for a desktop amp I'd probably buy the Kustom Defender 5H or 5H Mod and run it to a small cab under the desk

 

[billfelter]

This might be a sloppy solution but in the inexpensive DIY spirit you could run a Valvecaster or Boob Tube into a Ruby. I've built a couple Rubys and they're loud enough to piss off everyone in your house. I should note that your speaker choice will make a HUGE difference in how good the Ruby sounds. I run mine through a homemade cabinet with an 8" Jensen C8R and it sounds pretty Fender-y to my ear.

 

[fig]

This might be a sloppy solution but in the inexpensive DIY spirit you could run a Valvecaster or Boob Tube into a Ruby. I've built a couple Rubys and they're loud enough to piss off everyone in your house.

Indeed!

I built a Zeppelin . It's actually a great little tube amp. I found an old tweed champ combo shell and put a Jenson special in it. As for control, I put either a mellow preamp or EQ pedal in front of it. You could mod it and add a tone stage I suppose.