Perihelion, a Solid State Guitar Amp

So, Perihelion is basically my take on a compact, modular guitar amp head. I built it around a JFET-based version of the Marshall 2203 preamp, which gives it that classic crunch and surprisingly clean tones too. The idea was to make something that sounds great, is PCB-friendly, and doesn’t need tubes or scary high voltages.

I wanted to do this because I’ve always thought it would be sick to have a “real” amp head that I designed myself, something that could gig if I wanted but also be safe to mess with at home.

How it works is pretty straightforward: the guitar goes into the Perihelion preamp, which shapes the tone. From there, the signal either goes straight to the power stage, or it can go through the FX loop. And here’s the fun part: that FX loop is where Aphelion is supposed to come in. Aphelion is my tape-echo-style, spacey delay/reverb/modulation module. It’s not ready yet, but the amp is already done, so once Aphelion lands, the whole “cosmic guitar rig” idea comes to life.

Perihelion and Aphelion are space-themed: Perihelion is the point closest to the sun, the core, energetic part of the rig. Aphelion will be the farthest point, all the echo, reverb, and atmosphere. Together, they’re like a mini orbiting guitar universe, and you can build the system incrementally: start with the amp, add Aphelion later, and suddenly you’ve got something truly “spacey.”