Quote Originally Posted by tunghaichuan
You're very welcome. I was approaching this a hobbyist who has built at least 10-15 different versions of the tweed Champ/Princeton circuit. I've gotten more money invested in this that I'll ever be able to get back.

Let us know what you come up with.
After much talking with various kit vendors in Europe and the US, and with Victoria and Fender distribuitors, I ended up pulling the trigger on the Tube Amp Doctor kit. It looks like it's using solid components, and frankly it's all I can afford right now and it doesn't look like I'll be able to afford a more expensive one in the foreseeable future. Hopefully with attention and proper regard for safety I should end up with a good amp.

Meanwhile I've built myself a capacitor discharge tool out of a pair of insulated alligator-clip-ended wires and a 5W 22kOhm resistor that I've put many layers of insulating tape around. I intend to hook one alligator clip to the chassis (ground) and put the other one on the end of a wooden chopstick when discharging caps, then check the results with a digital multimeter, so hopefully that'll be safe enough.

Also, I've been reading these:

http://angela.com/thetrainwreckpages.aspx
http://www.geofex.com/tubeampfaq/taffram.htm
http://www.aikenamps.com/TechInfo_2.htm
http://www.freewebs.co.uk/valvewizard/index.html
http://www.diyguitarist.com/Misc/J_Darr.htm
http://ax84.com/p1.html
http://www.tubebooks.org/technical_books_online.htm

I still have about a week I think until the package gets delivered, so if there's anything else it would help to read I'd really appreciate the advice.

Thank you to everyone who replied in this thread, thanks for your time and suggestions!