We have investigated the direct fabrication of subsurface waveguide amplifiers in Er-Yb zinc polyphosphate glass by utilizing the relationship between the initial glass composition and the resulting changes to the network structure after modification by fs laser pulses. Waveguides, exhibiting internal gain of 1 dB/cm at 1.53 μm when pumped with 500 mW at 976 nm, were directly fabricated using a regenerative amplified Ti:sapphire 1 kHz, 180 fs laser system. Optical properties as well as insertion losses and internal gain are reported. © 2012 Optical Society of America.