Hello to all the members of this forum. My name is Dave, I'm 58 and have been dabbling in amplifiers for years. I'm one of those people that knew just enough about doing this stuff to get myself hurt (lol). I have built amp kits and pedal kits in the past, but all I was really doing was following instructions, I didn't really know "why" I was doing what I was doing. Well I decided for my new years resolution this year I was gonna learn "why" I was doing what I was doing when I built those kits. I've been watching a lot of you tube videos on the subject (Uncle Doug does a good job of explaining this stuff to newbies) and I've finally figured out how to read a schematic. The next thing I need to figure out is turning a schematic into a real world layout. I recently purchased an old (1953) Masco (model ME-36) PA amp with the intention of turning it into a Harp/Guitar amp. This experience has helped me out greatly and pushed me forward in my learning of this craft. I am now taking on my next project of doing the Hoffman conversion of the Fender Blues Jr. amp complete with the transformer upgrades and the choke addition, which led me to this forum. I hope you guys can help me when I need it, and at the same time, tell me when I'm doing something stupid when I need it. Hopefully one day I will learn enough to actually contribute to the forum. But gaining knowledge is mainly what I'm here for and from what I've seen from just browsing around, I've come to the right place! Thanks in advance to all of you that may help me in the future! Take care, Dave