This book is a step-by-step tutorial for simulating vacuum tube guitar amplifiers using LTspice, a free SPICE-based electronic circuit simulator for Windows and macOS. The book walks you through the basics of developing a schematic, setting up a simulation, integrating vacuum tube models, and interpreting the results. From there it gradually ramps up to advanced topics, like verifying the sonic performance of a guitar amplifier as a complete system, analyzing the dynamics of overdrive, and writing new SPICE models for triodes and power tubes. With this book, you will learn how to

• analyze tone-shaping circuits
• simulate real-world components
• evaluate the performance of a tone stack
• compute a power supply's DC output voltage under load
• determine the effects of negative feedback for single-ended and push-pull power amps
• measure the dynamics of harmonic distortion in preamps and power amps, and
• analyze transient behavior when stages are overdriven.

Richard Kuehnel is a member of the Circuits and Systems Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.