I can offer this first. I have found that you must build many projects as you can. Therefor to keep cost to a minimun the end product will not dazzle the eye. Some of my projects look like crap;.. but they work and were cheap to build and above all sound good. If you get caught up in the notion you are building art, you will end up not building anything. I will eventually find something worth keeping. Then the spitshine comes out, until then my projects will look like trainwrecks. So this pre-amp I am building can be assembled for about 90$. It is not done yet so I can't comment on the sound, but it is a proven circuit with good parts and I believe good execution. This will accompany the Gainclone I happen to like. Run some ideas by me, things you need; we can run it up the flagpole and see if it waves.