Thanks Chris,
When I have some free time, I'll see if I can get a sample together to put on YouTube. You all can have a great rowdy side splitting laugh at my fantastic 'playing'.
It sounds excellent, I think and it makes up for all of the wrong turns I made during its design and construction. I learned a ton and had a reasonably good time building it.
Right now I'm actually building another one. Single preamp (the clean channel from the Ampeg), 60 watt amp, no reverb and the Eminence Copperhead 10" speaker. For a friend, so no fancy paint job - just a small and simple practice amp.
After that, I'll take a crack at a chorus pedal for mine.
When I have some free time, I'll see if I can get a sample together to put on YouTube. You all can have a great rowdy side splitting laugh at my fantastic 'playing'.
It sounds excellent, I think and it makes up for all of the wrong turns I made during its design and construction. I learned a ton and had a reasonably good time building it.
Right now I'm actually building another one. Single preamp (the clean channel from the Ampeg), 60 watt amp, no reverb and the Eminence Copperhead 10" speaker. For a friend, so no fancy paint job - just a small and simple practice amp.
After that, I'll take a crack at a chorus pedal for mine.
Thanks firechief
I see you are no slouch at putting one of these together as well: One off guitar amp. Looks fantastic!
I ran into a bit of a snag on the preamp for the new build. I included the power supply for the pre on the board:
Look close, at least closer than I did when I designed the board. The rectifier diodes are backwards...burned the diodes, the main smoothing caps, every other polarized cap on the board, the opamps and, last but not least, some traces. The regulators I didn't even test - I just tossed them.
Lesson learned: add the power supply on the schematic capture, then transfer to the board layout. Doing it 'by eye' on the board layout is ok for those of you who think it is worth a few minutes to double check the work. Not me, I'm in a hurry - I need to plug it in and watch it burn, baby!
I see you are no slouch at putting one of these together as well: One off guitar amp. Looks fantastic!
I ran into a bit of a snag on the preamp for the new build. I included the power supply for the pre on the board:
Look close, at least closer than I did when I designed the board. The rectifier diodes are backwards...burned the diodes, the main smoothing caps, every other polarized cap on the board, the opamps and, last but not least, some traces. The regulators I didn't even test - I just tossed them.
Lesson learned: add the power supply on the schematic capture, then transfer to the board layout. Doing it 'by eye' on the board layout is ok for those of you who think it is worth a few minutes to double check the work. Not me, I'm in a hurry - I need to plug it in and watch it burn, baby!
I must say that I think I've learned more about effective grounding on this build than I have on any other. Tonight I learned something new again - when you have 2 circuits that run on different voltages, the best way to avoid ground loops is to use the same power supply for both. I didn't do that in the GGA (Groovy Guit...etc) and had to (and still have) wrestle with a hum problem.
On this other build (let's call it No.2), I wanted to run the preamp board from the main supply, reducing the +/-37VDC down to +/-15VDC with on board regulators. My first attempt is chronicled above, burning out valuable gear. I replaced all the parts and then, being a scaredy cat, I ran it from a lower voltage transformer (12-0-12). Well, hum! and I couldn't figure out where it was coming from. It turns out it was from the transformers being close to one another but plugged in separately. I rewired both to the same power cord and the hum dropped a bunch.
This evening (Friday nite...yeah, no life) I finished the replacement preamp board:
(another lesson learned: if you have a power supply on a board like this, populate it first, hook it up and test it. Less collateral damage if you've frakked up again) and tested it. I connected directly to the AC output of the main transformer (26-0-26) and there is no hum with the input of the preamp shorted - excellent!
On this other build (let's call it No.2), I wanted to run the preamp board from the main supply, reducing the +/-37VDC down to +/-15VDC with on board regulators. My first attempt is chronicled above, burning out valuable gear. I replaced all the parts and then, being a scaredy cat, I ran it from a lower voltage transformer (12-0-12). Well, hum! and I couldn't figure out where it was coming from. It turns out it was from the transformers being close to one another but plugged in separately. I rewired both to the same power cord and the hum dropped a bunch.
This evening (Friday nite...yeah, no life) I finished the replacement preamp board:
(another lesson learned: if you have a power supply on a board like this, populate it first, hook it up and test it. Less collateral damage if you've frakked up again) and tested it. I connected directly to the AC output of the main transformer (26-0-26) and there is no hum with the input of the preamp shorted - excellent!
Hi firechief,
I still have some work to do on the amp but took a break from it to build another one for a friend. That one is now finished (and there will be a video on that one too) so now I can get back to this one.
I'm mostly satisfied with it, but I believe I can improve the 'B' channel (distorted) and will be getting into a preamp redesign for that.
A total strip-down in the spring to finish painting the cab as well.
Should be fun.
I still have some work to do on the amp but took a break from it to build another one for a friend. That one is now finished (and there will be a video on that one too) so now I can get back to this one.
I'm mostly satisfied with it, but I believe I can improve the 'B' channel (distorted) and will be getting into a preamp redesign for that.
A total strip-down in the spring to finish painting the cab as well.
Should be fun.
Here it is.
Clean channel: YouTube - DIY Guitar Amp
Distorted: YouTube - DIY Guitar Amp - dirty.m2ts
Sound quality could be better (video taken with a Nikon coolpix S8100 using it's internal mic). Gives an idea anyway.
Oh, No.2 - I cristened it "The Steamer": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE-RRCuOYtk
Really sounds great.
Clean channel: YouTube - DIY Guitar Amp
Distorted: YouTube - DIY Guitar Amp - dirty.m2ts
Sound quality could be better (video taken with a Nikon coolpix S8100 using it's internal mic). Gives an idea anyway.
Oh, No.2 - I cristened it "The Steamer": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE-RRCuOYtk
Really sounds great.
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Aye, you could probably make a fair amount of money making and selling guitar amps.
They do sound good. Very good. How much do you charge?
If you wanted to mess with the distortion, I'm told changing the diodes in the feedback loop will change the sound drastically. Try more than one diode in series and you can get asymmetrical clipping, which gives an interesting sound.
Chris
They do sound good. Very good. How much do you charge?
If you wanted to mess with the distortion, I'm told changing the diodes in the feedback loop will change the sound drastically. Try more than one diode in series and you can get asymmetrical clipping, which gives an interesting sound.
Chris
Thanks Chris!
No plans to go commercial (that would ruin the fun, no doubt) and the smaller one is gone - to it's new owner. Parting with it was hard...
I don't know if you saw it, but HERE I designed the preamp for 'The Steamer' and I must say that I'm VERY pleased with the results. I'm so pleased, that I'm going to redo (again!!!) both channels in this amp to this new configuration. The distorted channel will get some extra attention, but the clean will be the Steamer preamp without changes.
No plans to go commercial (that would ruin the fun, no doubt) and the smaller one is gone - to it's new owner. Parting with it was hard...
I don't know if you saw it, but HERE I designed the preamp for 'The Steamer' and I must say that I'm VERY pleased with the results. I'm so pleased, that I'm going to redo (again!!!) both channels in this amp to this new configuration. The distorted channel will get some extra attention, but the clean will be the Steamer preamp without changes.
My friend thanks you and I thank you
No plans (ever) to build a tube amp but I have something else I've been toying with that involves a high voltage (200V+) output stage and an output transformer. I think that some of the 'magic' attributed to tube amps is imparted by the output transformer. Also, tough to clip an output stage that has that kind of voltage swing. I haven't decided if it will be single ended or push-pull.
and I thank you No plans (ever) to build a tube amp but I have something else I've been toying with that involves a high voltage (200V+) output stage and an output transformer. I think that some of the 'magic' attributed to tube amps is imparted by the output transformer. Also, tough to clip an output stage that has that kind of voltage swing. I haven't decided if it will be single ended or push-pull.
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