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Amps to give that Swampy delta feeling

Hi all, I've been out of pocket, now retired and volunteering at various State and Federal parks, many without internet. Now working on my 18th build, and learning more with each new one. Must be doing sumthin' right, people are placing repeat orders. I have a question, can those of you "in-the-know", point me in the direction of a decent amplifier preferably under $150. I travel in a motor home with my wife, so space and weight are at a premium. I have been using a Gitty CBG amp, but looking for a little more. I long to get a sound like John McNair, but afraid to ask (as the saying goes, "if you can't afford it, don't ask"). Hopefully I'll be connected for a while, so I look forward to some suggestions. Also look forward to posting completed shots of my latest two builds.

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Permalink Reply by BUGGY (C) on January 5, 2015 at 11:40pm

Sounds great in that video link..
Rockn roll have fun...

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Permalink Reply by john mackay on January 6, 2015 at 6:51am

this one sound better as chickin john said.

http://youtu.be/kUznTBCP9xM

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Permalink Reply by John Roberts on January 6, 2015 at 11:28am

Wayfarer:

Congratulations on your pig nose purchase. From my perspective the gritty sound that one desires comes from the gain setting on an amp. If the amp is quality (Roland micro cube GX), the gain will give the desired sound even if the volume is on a low setting. This is exceedingly advantageous. With the Pignose, you have to crank the volume way up to get the gritty sound. Also, if you want reverb out of a pig nose you have to play it in the bathroom, train station, etc., where the acoustics are conductive to producing the reverb sound., or you have to record and add it in post production. With amps like the Micro Cube, reverb is an onboard setting.

As I said before, I like the pig nose, and it was the champ for many years, because it served a niche in the amp market. With recent technology it has been dethroned.

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Permalink Reply by John Roberts on January 6, 2015 at 2:37pm

Exactly, and well said.

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Permalink Reply by Gene Jones on January 7, 2015 at 5:41pm

I've tried out or owned most of the amps mentioned on this thread, I ended up getting a used Yamaha THR 10 for $200 shipped. best purchase I ever made, my CBG's just sing through this amp, the sound still blows me away every time I turn it on, in my opinion, everything you will ever need in a small portable amp, I would recommend trying one out.

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Permalink Reply by John Sawyer on January 7, 2015 at 7:17pm

Just finished a LM386 based Amp, with an Artec distortion module from CBGitty... There's no echo, and this recording is just from speaker to my phone... Guitar is a fretted CBG, Piezo pickup... It definitely could use some echo/reverb, but:

https://soundcloud.com/john-sawyer-11/20150107_215349mp3

The distortion module was $20, amp $10, plus an old 6.5" car speaker... yes, it's more investment than a honeytone, but I like building things... That said, my Line 6 amp arrives tomorrow... :-)

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Permalink Reply by Scott aka Farmer Ted on January 8, 2015 at 12:24am

AMp sounds good. Very clean on first setting, light crunch is good too. Wonder which LM386 based amp schematic you used? And if it is similar to the one I build? Here's a schematic of my version, and it has no external circuits like the distortion you used from Gitty:

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Permalink Reply by Scott aka Farmer Ted on January 8, 2015 at 12:26am

I've seen versions of this circuit where a 10ohm resistor and a .047uF capacitor are added between the 5 pin of the LM386 and the 220uF cap (the resistor & cap are wired from that point to ground). And the gain can be modified by leaving pins 1 & 8 left unconnected, or a different value of cap can result in more or less gain, or even a 1K potentiometer to have a variable gain.

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Permalink Reply by John Sawyer on January 10, 2015 at 3:17pm

I stopped building circuits a long time ago due to cost and time... Here's the schematic from the $9 ebay board I bought... I normally bridge JP1 with a 1K pot for gain control....

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Permalink Reply by John Sawyer on January 10, 2015 at 5:10pm

HA!

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Permalink Reply by Scott aka Farmer Ted on January 10, 2015 at 6:06pm

Interesting schematic. C3 and C7 are not necessary, and C6 can be changed to a .1uF capacitor. It the is same circuit Ive been making. Have done at least 20 in last couple years. I like your use of a 1K pot for variable gain.

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Permalink Reply by John Sawyer on January 10, 2015 at 7:45pm

C3 and C7 have some use, since the designer has no idea what's being used for a power source, but yes, it's a simple circuit... The 1K pot works well, but for a Piezo, it is almost unnecessary as low gain is almost no volume...

Now, if you add a preamp/buffer...

http://www.till.com/articles/GuitarPreamp/ It helps a lot... the other thing to do is drop a small cap between C1 and pin 3, that can restore some treble... On one similar board, to drop terrible hiss, I put a small cap across the input connector. It did cut a bit of the treble, but for a low GDG guitar, it worked great...