Hello all! New member here. I have started messing with amps over the last few weeks. I have built a couple of CBGuity's 2.5 watt little practice amps. The first one I used all the stock components in a nice Underwood box. The second one I used the amp board and used 2 of their speakers wired parallel for 4 ohm load. I made a 3rd one with their board and a 4" 4ohm Boss speaker.

    I would like to get a "Bigger" sound. I know it's only a 2.5 watt amp, but I'd like to get a more full sound if that makes sense. More bass instead of "tinny" sound. Would building a big box and using a 6"-12" Celestion or Jenson or ??? speaker make it sound better? Or am I asking for too much out of that little 2.5watt board?

   I bought a Tone Monster 5 amp unit for my next build and was thinking of building a nice cabinet for it. I was looking at the Jenson 6" Mod speaker for it, but am open to any other suggestions. 10"-12" Celestion or any other speaker? Will that make a "Bigger" or "fuller" sound? Or am I just asking for too much? Heck, I can just run my guitars through myPeavey Transtube or Peavey Ultra 60 tube head and 4x12 cabinet, but I never turn it past 2 or the neighbors will disown me. Besides that, I built these guitars and really want to run them through something that I built just for the satisfaction of doing it myself. Isn't that kind of why we all build them? Lol.

   Something else I don't understand is the Ohm rating on speakers. What is the relationship between higher ohm ratings and sound output? I have a good understanding of Ohm's law as it relates to car wiring since I'm an automotive tech and I do a lot of electrical/electronics diagnosis on cars, but not sure about audio. Can anybody point me in the right direction for reading up on it? I am guessing that too low an ohm rating (resistance) would pull too much from an amp board and smoke it? What about higher decibels? Does a higher or lower ohm load have anything to do with decibel output?

   Thanks in advance for any help or advise. Here is a build I'm working on. Matching Underwood pieces. I've been playing the guitar acoustic, but just received an Electric Delta 3 pole pickup from CBGuity that's going in it. Next to it is a 2.5 watt Artec amp from CBGuity as well. Built it stock with the complete 2.5 watt amp kit.

   Side note. How do I size these pictures? I think I'm posting them too big.

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http://smallbear-electronics.mybigcommerce.com/switchcraft-2/

It's at the bottom of the page for $5.45 They dropped the price whoohoo.

The one I talked about was a stereo jack so I could use headphones or a line out, but they also have a mono jack with shunt on that same page.

These are so much easier than wiring in a switch or electronic cutout circuit.

   Thank you! I ordered 3 of them for various projects. Now I have to get cracking on that Tone Monster amp I'm going to build, and the speaker cabinet, and more guitars, and...........

  Thanks for the advice Scott. I just ordered a few of the line out jacks. Switchcraft 13A, if I can remember correctly. I also, think I have found my next project after I build my Tone Monster kit. I found a tube amp kit I'm going to take a swing at trying to build, The Mod102+ tube amp kit. It looks like it will be a good beginner tube amp kit and the cash outlay won't make me cry too much if I fail at it. I listened to a few sound clips from people that built it and it sounds sweet.  I'm also going to build a 1x8,10 or 12 cabinet. I haven't decided yet but I've found a few speakers I'd like to try. I'll do some more research before I pull the trigger on a speaker.

Ian, I just added a video of my hacked Danelectro Honeytone driving my 4X12. You reminded me of this amp I built a while back, so I had to make a vid of it & I wanted to do a digital /analog test also. Check it out, the Dano is about 1w & it screams!!

http://www.cigarboxnation.com/video/digital-analog-test-1

To cut down the tinny quality, add a tone pot across the input... 500k pot and .047uf cap should work fine... Wire per standard guitar instructions, Or you can put a .022uf cap across the input Jack... Different value caps will have different effects... If you have a 3-way car audio speaker, cut the wire going to the tweeter...

The watt rating is what the speaker can handle. 20 watt speaker will handle 1/2 to 20 watts without trouble.

Large wattage speakers like 600watts are most likely 16 to 32 ohm speakers and would sound pitiful with a 2.5 watt 8ohm amp running through it. A low ohm amp run thru a high ohm speaker would be weak and a high ohm amp run thru a low ohm speaker would be loud. Running a mixmash ohm rated amp/speaker combo will damage the speaker coil and possibly the amp. So it's not what you want to do for long.

So as long as the ohm rating is right, a higher watt rated speaker will work well. Not as well as an amp with a matching output wattage, but good enough.

If you have a amp that has a 8ohm 5watt output. You would want one speaker rated at 8ohm and 5 to 20watts. It could be 50 or 75watts and be okay as long as the ohms are the same. You could run 2 speakers rated the same in parallel or 2 speakers of 4ohm 5 to 20watt in series to make up 8ohms.

I think you can run higher ohm speakers if you wire a resistor inline, but I don't know what value you would need and don't have enough experience with that.

If your Peavey cabinet is of the home stereo origin, that's a whole other ball game. It has a crossover circuit inside splitting the signal to different components and will damage the stereo speaker after a little while cause they aren't for guitar use. The speaker coils are different.

Simple rule of thumb is use speakers that are for instrument use, have the same ohm rating and the same or slightly higher watt rating for maximum results. Bass, acoustic and PA speakers are different from guitar speakers, but can handle the guitar with being a little more prone to distortion than usual.

So if that didn't help, it probably confused you more. LOL

Way finder, does the 20w amp have different ohm output jacks? If so have you tried them? Do you have a multimeter to test ohms of cab, or is cab marked with it's ohm rating. Even with a very poor matched amp & cab you should have a fair amount of volume coming from cab. Maybe there is a bad connection in cab? Do you have another amp to test with cab? Have you seen my vid of the 1w pushing a 4X12? It is unreal how loud it is. I'll just add that I have a 2X15 cab loaded with 1950's vintage Jensen hi-fi speakers, 1 co-axel, 1 tri-axel  with "huge " magnets, speakers have to weigh 20lbs each and it is the most amazing cab I have ever heard. But it is perfectly matched to my tube amps. Plus most CBG guys build amps with car speakers etc, & they sound great. So as Paul states check ohms, but I think there is another issue.

http://www.cigarboxnation.com/video/digital-analog-test-1

BTW, what kind of amp are you using, solid state, tube?

OK, I've used something similar, but with a lot lower wattage, more like 1w with a LM386 board. To be honest with you I doubt it is a 15w circuit. Pic won't blow up, maybe you have some specs or module # that is in the circuit. Do you have another type of amp to test cab?

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