Welcome to the Guitar Amp Academy

Hi, I’m Rowan, owner and main engineer at Keld Ampworks Ltd in Newark.

The Guitar Amp Academy is where I teach people to build their own guitar pedals and valve amps, and to understand how they work.

I’ve been repairing guitar amps since 2010. Before that I studied amp repair with the Maughan Amplifier Company in the North of England, did a Masters in Electronic Engineering at the University of York, and spent seven years designing amplifiers as a development engineer at Ampetronic. I’ve also been gigging since 2004, so I come at all of this as a guitarist as much as an engineer.

Valve amps and analogue audio electronics are still everywhere on stages and in studios, but the people who know how to build and fix them are getting fewer. These skills used to get passed on in workshops and repair shops, and a lot of that has quietly disappeared. I’d like to help pass some of it on.

At the moment there are two courses, both run in our teaching space at the Keld workshop:

Pedal building (1 day). For complete beginners and anyone who’s dabbled. You’ll build a RAT or a Fuzz Face, learn how the circuit works, and take home a working pedal.

Valve amp building (2 days). For people who can already solder. You’ll build a single channel valve amp head, a Plexi style or a Fender black panel style, with simple valve amp theory along the way.

Groups are small, so there’s plenty of time for questions. Everything is taught from a guitarist’s point of view, so you don’t need an electronics background. All the tools are provided, and lunch and tea are included.

If you’d like to hear when new dates are announced, pop your email in on the Workshop Updates page, or just drop me a line 🙂