Want to build a guitar amp.

[kostaz8]

I need your help with a project i want to do.I'm searching for a guitar amp that i can make my own but i can't find something good that has distortion.Can you give a link to any good project please?

 

[audioguru]

Many guitar amps use vacuum tubes because they produce the distortion that is wanted.
A Fuzz Circuit can add more distortion to any amplifier.

 

[kostaz8]

I need a good schematic of a good amp so i can build it, i couldn't find any good one.

 

[audioguru]

There are millions of good amp projects on the internet.
But there are very few lousy distorted vacuum tube amp projects.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Here you go:

**broken link removed**

 

[Mr RB]

You don't want to build a lousy distorted tube amp! That would suck.

Build a really NICE sounding tube amp, that sounds a zillion times better than those lousy solid state amps! Like one of these;

AX84.com - The Cooperative Tube Guitar Amp Project
Guitar Amp Tone and Effects Placement

 

[Mikebits]

Here you go:

**broken link removed**

Looks like a nicely done amp. Good instructions as well.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Rubbish removed, and thread tidied - moderator.

 

[hdc090360]

Homebrew Guitar Amplifier

When my son took up the guitar, and I didn't know whether he would stick with it, I built him an amp using the preamp stage from the 100W Mark II that Nigel mentioned and teamed it with 25W kit amp using a LM2875 if I remember correctly. He is into heavy rock and he was satisfied with the sound and distortion available. Later we bought him a 40W Marshall and looking inside that, the circuit is not very different. The only advantage the Marshall has is the digital effects which he doesn't use.

 

[gabeNC]

thanks for that link Nigel, that's exactly what I was looking for too. his PCB's are very reasonable.

 

[tony ennis]

Bear in mind that for bedroom players, 5 watts is plenty loud. Deafeningly so.

So you don't need an enormous amp probably. I built a Fender 5f1 champ circuit amp. I'd probably build a slightly larger amp next time. Not for the volume btu for the features.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Bear in mind that for bedroom players, 5 watts is plenty loud. Deafeningly so.

So you don't need an enormous amp probably. I built a Fender 5f1 champ circuit amp. I'd probably build a slightly larger amp next time. Not for the volume btu for the features.

If you're building your own amp, you may as well build one big enough to gig with - the amount of effort involved isn't that much greater, and it's not that much more expensive either. You can always turn a 100W amp down to practice in a bedroom, but you can't turn a 5W amp up to do a gig.

If you want a little practice amp, go to a secondhand shop, there are always loads for sale for little money.

 

[tony ennis]

You can always turn a 100W amp down to practice in a bedroom

No, not really. A 100w amp won't distort at low volumes.

If the guy wants to gig he should build a bigger amp however, 40watts would be about right. Huge amps aren't needed as much anymore as most halls have PA systems.

 

[OutToLunch]

a lot of what I see these days are single musicians - be it a guitar player or a sax player or whatever - with an iPod full of music that has the track for their instrument missing. They get the back up band and back up singers but they sit in the corner of the bar and take up very little room. They, of course, have their own amp as these bars have no sound systems.

 

[tony ennis]

I'd check out AX84 as mentioned previously if you want to build it from scratch. I built mine from scratch and it was a pain, lol. Mine is a replica (electrically) of the 5F1, and as such was unduly expensive. If I had to do it again, I'd use common parts, lol. The transformer jacked the price by 25%

There are also amp kits out there which is good way to start. I think some good names are Allen amps and Victoria amps.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

No, not really. A 100w amp won't distort at low volumes.

You don't overdrive a transistor power amp anyway - it sounds absolutely dreadful. You turn the master volume down and the preamp gain up, the design posted (in common with most guitar amps) has clipping built-in the preamp for this specific purpose. So it will distort perfectly well at low volumes, and even at no volume at all - although that would be pretty pointless

I presume you aren't a guitarist?.

If the guy wants to gig he should build a bigger amp however, 40watts would be about right. Huge amps aren't needed as much anymore as most halls have PA systems.

As with anything, the bigger the amp, the more reserve you've got - a 100W transistor amp is easy and low cost to build.

 

[tony ennis]

I pretend to be a guitarist. The amps just don't sound right at low volumes. They weren't made to sound good there. AX84 exists in large part because of this.

a 100W transistor amp

I was talking about tube amps. Hmm OP said nothing about tubes.

I suppose it comes down to what you want.