MeasuredRenderInteractiveThirteen boards, zero design-rule errors.
Every board we have designed, checked by machine.
Boards
A tube amplifier, in design.
The SE-5: a single-ended valve guitar amp in a walnut case, designed and simulated here. Not built yet.
What it does
A small, warm guitar amp head with a tube power stage, a screen for its own readings and a line and headphone output, built around our own circuit board.
Who it’s for
Guitarists who like a small, warm single-ended amp, and anyone curious how a tube amp goes from an idea to a circuit board.
Why we built it
We wanted to see whether the way we design pedals, in code and checked by machine, holds up for a valve amplifier with high voltages in it.
What we’re proud of
The board inside the picture is not a mock-up. It is the real board file, and it passes the design-rule check with 0 errors and nothing left unconnected.
Where it stands
Designed and drawn. Not built yet.
Every picture here is a render. Here is each part of the SE-5, and where it stands.
Rendered
The amp
A walnut case with finger joints, a cut grille over the tubes and a brushed panel, drawn from the design files. The wood is taken from a scan of real walnut.
Rendered
The take-apart
Case, grille, chassis, tubes, transformers and boards drawn coming apart, one part at a time.
Rendered
Under the deck
The circuit board, its leads and the transformers laid out the way they would sit inside the chassis.
Routed and checked
The circuit board
Rev A5, generated from the amplifier's own circuit and routed to high-voltage spacing rules. It passes the design-rule check with 0 errors and nothing left unconnected.
Simulated
The circuit
The whole amplifier, power supply included, runs in a circuit simulator, and the board's own connections give the same answers as the circuit they came from.
Not built
The amp itself
No amplifier exists yet. It is not for sale, and it has no price.
Technologies used
What it’s built with.
- KiCadOpen-source circuit board design software. We design every board in code, check it in KiCad and send it to the factory.
- SPICE circuit simulationA circuit simulator we use as the reference: a sound model is only believable if it matches the real circuit.
- PythonOur board layouts, and the checks that run on them, are written in Python.
Get in touch
Want something like this? Say hello.
A person reads every message.
Email [email protected]
Text us
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Our goods: store.squatch.ccThe studio: squatch.cc