Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by ron carlson on April 28, 2012 at 11:38pm

Thanks Wes!  Building them is almost as fun as playing through them. Almost anyway.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Maddog on April 29, 2012 at 2:11am

Cool old school vintage look! I love em' both. What did you use for the speaker cover fabric?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by ron carlson on April 29, 2012 at 2:27am

Thanks!  I just used some burlap I found at Joanne Fabrics. I usually wouldn't use something like that for a audio speaker build but sure works well for something like this.

Just so you know, I'm not usually found hanging out at Joanne Fabrics. Not that there's anything wrong with that ;)

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Dan Sleep on April 29, 2012 at 2:22am

Love the old school look!!

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Garrett on April 29, 2012 at 3:15am

Very cool looking amps!

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Darren Wolbold on April 29, 2012 at 3:17am

They look really good

So far I have made some using the 386 op amp and the little gem circuit.

I have also  seen some videos of the guy from red dog guitars using old radios and just hot wiring a conection into the amp already in there, they looked really retro and sounded good to

http://darrenscigarboxguitars.blogspot.co.uk/

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by ron carlson on April 29, 2012 at 3:41am

Thanks!  Not sure if these would be too impressive to the audio community at large but guitar guy's actually "get it" and that's appreciated.

I read about that when searching for a good way to go about building one. I also thought about scratch building one of these op. amp, amps myself.  Thing is, by the time I sourced out and ordered all that was needed, figured that for a few more bucks, I could just buy a ready to install amp harness from Ty and save myself the headache of soldering on a small board.  He's been a super guy to work with and the SD-MAH3 has turned out to be a great little amp. I'm not sure what the output would test at but it's go a lot of get up and go for it's reported 5w. Pretty nice tone also with the right driver. 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Darren Wolbold on April 29, 2012 at 4:02am

Yep it a bit fiddly for sure, also can turn into a nightmare with dry joints and stuff for sure.

Still a good feeling when it finally works and yes its always surprising to me that these little amps can quite often get some very nice and usable tones

I found red dogs youtube for you check out these crazy amps made out of old radios

I think there awsome

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXYWe0jZ3y0

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by ron carlson on April 29, 2012 at 4:32am

Dealing with something point to point is much easier on the eyes. Small circuit boards are a more than I want to deal with. Particularly when my iron only has two speeds. Off and incinerate.

That's pretty cool using a old radio like he did there. I may just have to try that sometime. Solid State isn't as bad as potentially deadly as a tube circuit but I still don't think I'd be pokin my fingers around in there like that, though ;)

• ▶ Reply