I recently decided i would try to build an amp, I looked all over for a good schematic and finely decided on an amp I found at www.runoffgroove.com. It is a 1/2 watt solid state amp, I am very critical of solid state amps, usually they suck pretty hard in my opinion. The sound sample for this one seemed pretty promising and I decided to buy the parts and build it.
I finished the building process 4 hours later with burned fingers and sore eyes, the parts were a bit smaller than I expected and It was one of my first projects with my soldering gun.
I will post a picture later, but right now I'll just link to the sound page.
http://www.runoffgroove.com/littlegem.mp3
It sounds better in real life, i run it through my 8 ohm fender pro junior speaker and it is great. Recently i ran it through my guitar teachers 4 x 12 16 ohm cab and it sounded even better, it is quite a decent volume and although it is pretty crunchy at full volume it cleans up well with the guitar volume knob.
The schematic is at www.runoffgroove.com/littlegem.html but I have made some subtle changes to it, mainly because it was easier and cheaper this way.
The amp calls for a 5k linear potentiometer between pins 1 and 8 on the LM 386 semiconductor, forget it. it works great with a 10 ohm resistor wired in between the two, you can control gain with your guitars volume knob. I also wired 1/4 in speaker jack for the output, this way I can plug it into cabs.
My guitar teacher, and owner of Grassroots guitar store, loved my amp and wants me to sell some at his store. Right now I'm trying to adapt the circuit enough that it would sound good but be different that the runoffgroove model.
If your interested in building this amp or modding it post here.
P.S Don't buy your parts at radio shack, if you are interested in making this amp order the parts from www.smallbearelec.com it is much cheaper.
Smilemon
I finished the building process 4 hours later with burned fingers and sore eyes, the parts were a bit smaller than I expected and It was one of my first projects with my soldering gun.
I will post a picture later, but right now I'll just link to the sound page.
http://www.runoffgroove.com/littlegem.mp3
It sounds better in real life, i run it through my 8 ohm fender pro junior speaker and it is great. Recently i ran it through my guitar teachers 4 x 12 16 ohm cab and it sounded even better, it is quite a decent volume and although it is pretty crunchy at full volume it cleans up well with the guitar volume knob.
The schematic is at www.runoffgroove.com/littlegem.html but I have made some subtle changes to it, mainly because it was easier and cheaper this way.
The amp calls for a 5k linear potentiometer between pins 1 and 8 on the LM 386 semiconductor, forget it. it works great with a 10 ohm resistor wired in between the two, you can control gain with your guitars volume knob. I also wired 1/4 in speaker jack for the output, this way I can plug it into cabs.
My guitar teacher, and owner of Grassroots guitar store, loved my amp and wants me to sell some at his store. Right now I'm trying to adapt the circuit enough that it would sound good but be different that the runoffgroove model.
If your interested in building this amp or modding it post here.
P.S Don't buy your parts at radio shack, if you are interested in making this amp order the parts from www.smallbearelec.com it is much cheaper.
Smilemon
