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Not Sure Where All the Wires Go...

Hello All,

This may not be a CBG for this group, but I didn't get much from the other appropriate group. I came across a circuit board and speaker from a Fender Mini Amp. I thought I could just wire up a 9 volt batter clip, connect the speaker and away we go... But I am at a loss as to where things connect to the board.

I know some of these little amps have a smaller board that connects to a 12 volt wall jack and a headphone jack, but these parts aren't absolutely necessary are they, or is that the control board for these components and without it I am screwed?

I see a DC Power (red wire), and I see a ground (orange and white?). The speaker has a white and dark brown wire coming off of it.

Can anyone help?

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on May 14, 2016 at 8:38am

The Red wire to board marked "DC" is + battery/walwart power. Orange wire is marked "GND" for ground. White is marked "HEAD", gotta be short for Headphones - would be + for speaker/headphone.

It appears from the pic that the White and Orange are grouped in the same box, so assuming they are the + & - for the speaker connection. Red "DC" appears to be by itself, but should have a ground connection as well and I'm not seeing that. a pic of the under side might help.

Permalink Reply by Graham Wedepohl on May 14, 2016 at 9:43am

I'm going to assume the GND wire would be for both power and speaker/headphone

Permalink Reply by David L. on May 14, 2016 at 12:14pm

From the circuit board I can see the MD20 stamp which corresponds to this amp by fender
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fender-Mini-Deluxe-Guitar-023-4810-000/dp/...

From what I can see of the wires you have

RED (DC)= 9v battery supply +
ORANGE (GND) = common ground, both the battery - and speaker - attach here
WHITE (HEAD) = Speaker +

I think it is labelled "head" because they use a switchable Jack in the circuit for headphones which then attach to the speakers (head phones inserted signal directed to the head phones, no headphones the signal passes through to the speakers. They cost about £1 off eBay if you want to add one later). This is why the speakers have different colored wires to the wires left on the circuit board.
It should work wired direct to the speakers using the above wiring.

Permalink Reply by Brian Revels on May 14, 2016 at 1:02pm

Well alright then... so if I got this straight, I use the ground as common for the ground on the speaker and ground on the battery clip. I then wire the power to the DC Power (as I suspected) and the white head wire to the plus on the speaker.

That's a whole lot better than the other advise of "why not try using the wire that appear to be cut?".

Awesome, thanks guys! Hopefully one of these days I can figure out enough of this stuff so that I can actually wire my own boards (that's the goal and dream).

Permalink Reply by Brian Revels on June 7, 2016 at 3:10pm

I finally got back around to this amp project. Thanks so much for the help. I truly appreciate it. The amp works great. I am learning... slowly, but surely.