From what I've read the bottlehead is easy to assemble but I would just have to do research before I dove into it to keep myself from getting zapped. The bottlehead is so affordable I could get one of those to start with and then try other preamps later. I have also been looking at the Zen ZSLA-1 http://www.decware.com/linestage/zp1.htm which seems to be a very simple design and also affordable.