Ideas for DIY amps?

[Left_Hand_Strat]

a dangerous time is a foot... I have been thinking again

i was throwing out an old redundant pair of PC speakers when the thought crossed my mind to test them, and luckily both still work, so i hacked myself into the PC speaker casings and carefully removed the Speakers themselves. the speakers are 4 ohm and 3w a piece, so I had a coolish idea....

What about a 12V amp which has a mini 2x12 cab with those PC speakers?? I would like to build something which is fairly loud and has the potential to be plugged into a proper cab if needed, mainly a bit of fun though. Preferably I would like there to be clean sounds predominantly, some nice headroom too, I suppose I could have two channels so i could have a crunch channel too.....

but yeah mainly an idea as a little project I was thinking where to get a suitable schematic and thought I could always hack a little gem or Ruby amp circuit and up the voltage by using a 12V rated op amp... I don't mind using LM386's but the problem is the beggers can break up quickly... any ideas are welcome.

Cheers

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Ideas for DIY amps?

Yes.

1) Afoot is one word.
2) Just buy a Roland Micro Cube.

 

[Left_Hand_Strat]

Re: Ideas for DIY amps?

I hate cube amps though they sound crap to my ears, just neer liked the tone from them, can't get on with it...

unless i got a fender frontman again.. sold my 15G and regret it now..

 

[MrTondo]

Re: Ideas for DIY amps?

What I would do: Get some schematics from something like the black '65 from wampler and the DLS from catalinbread for your two channels, or choose another amp-in-a-box type schematic you like and use it for a preamp. And use a power amp section that stays very clean all the way through. Remain in the ultralineair zone of your poweramp. It should get you some nice sounds (I am still wondering why there are no SS-amp manufacts getting licenses for wampler or catalinbread or whatever really great amp-in-a-box pedal and creating a really awesome line of SS amps from them, but ok... steal my business idea if you like (as if it would sell in a tube dominated world anyway...))

While you are at it you might as well make it a stereo amp... That would be nice, not too much extra work either, maybe include a little mono-out, stereo-in effects loop (or just duo-mono out, whatever). Let your delay, reverb or chorus pedal get you into the stereo territory. Maybe an option to bridge the power amp... That will give you enough options to work with for a while I suppose

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: Ideas for DIY amps?

http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.ca/2012/04/noisy-cricket-mkii.html

1/2 watts of screaming rage. You can mod it for headphone outs as well. Hook up your 4 ohm speakers in series so the amp sees 8 ohms and you're golden. It's 9 V though.

 

[Left_Hand_Strat]

Re: Ideas for DIY amps?

ooh cheers, will it have enough headroom though?

 

[Artie]

Re: Ideas for DIY amps?

You could always do one of these. They get good reviews and all the hard work is done for you.

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: Ideas for DIY amps?

ooh cheers, will it have enough headroom though?

I wouldn't gig with one. Your headroom is going to depend on your speaker efficiency. More efficient speaker = more headroom.

 

[Artie]

Re: Ideas for DIY amps?

That "Noisy Cricket" seems like a cool little project. I may have to do one of those myself.

 

[jon the art guy]

Re: Ideas for DIY amps?

You should build a 12v tube amp.

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: Ideas for DIY amps?

^ That's really cool!

 

[Surgeon]

Re: Ideas for DIY amps?

Do a search for "sparky amp" from "paul in the lab". 5watts no preamp. Ideal with those ampsinabox previously mentioned.

Edit: Here

I got a couple of the required chip (lm384) directly from texas instruments with their free sample program. Haven't had a chance to build it yet though...

 

[GoldenVulture]

Re: Ideas for DIY amps?

- http://www.experimentalistsanonymous.com/ve3wwg/doku.php?id=fet_tone_ss_amp -

 

[Left_Hand_Strat]

Re: Ideas for DIY amps?

hmm these are interesting. GV do i need a power amp where it says buffer out?

 

[GoldenVulture]

Re: Ideas for DIY amps?

hmm these are interesting. GV do i need a power amp where it says buffer out?

Yes, It's just the pre amp section. you could use anything from a one transistor amp or a Chip or valves.
You could replace sparkys pre amp with it and use sparkys output stage.

 

[GoldenVulture]

Re: Ideas for DIY amps?

You should build a 12v tube amp.
View attachment 50716

That's neat. I wonder how easy the valves are to get.

 

[jon the art guy]

Re: Ideas for DIY amps?

That's neat. I wonder how easy the valves are to get.

The one that isnt a 12au7 is a space-charge tube. Still pretty available thru HiFi vintage audio places. They were used in tube car radios

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[GoldenVulture]

Re: Ideas for DIY amps?

The one that isnt a 12au7 is a space-charge tube. Still pretty available thru HiFi vintage audio places. They were used in tube car radios

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It's a 12U7 , not a 12AU7. your right though, they're available and depending on where you get them, don't cost much.

 

[jon the art guy]

Re: Ideas for DIY amps?

It's a 12U7 , not a 12AU7. your right though, they're available and depending on where you get them, don't cost much.

Eek. Yea, you're right. That would have sucked.

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