Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Dan Sleep on March 21, 2010 at 7:13am

I have a Marshall Micro Stack and it seems to work OK for what I use it for, basically testing my electronics in my builds.

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Permalink Reply by Wes "I'm Baaaaack" Yates on March 21, 2010 at 8:17am

Minty Amp (mintyamps.com) is your best bet. 15 minues start to finish. and $5 to boot. My lil gem cost me ~$20 overall.

-WY

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Permalink Reply by MichaelS Country Boy Guitars on March 21, 2010 at 9:39am

Thanks Wes, it does look like a bargain, just add speaker and go. Another question, what is the difference between these mini amps and a pre-amp?

Wes Yates said:

Minty Amp (mintyamps.com) is your best bet. 15 minues start to finish. and $5 to boot. My lil gem cost me ~$20 overall.

-WY

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Permalink Reply by Robin Miller on March 21, 2010 at 11:55am

Last week I was in Harbor Freight & picked up a 5 watt mini handheld megaphone for 6.99 - it has a built-in contact mic, amp, 3" speaker, and 3 AAA battery power supply. I disassembled the components & remounted in an old cigar box, adding a 1/4" input jack. I added the contact mic to a cbg that already had a piezo for a bit more depth. The amp works great - it's not going to wake up the neighbors (or even the kid sleeping in the next room) but it's a fun little practice amp. Oh, I also tried running a danelectro distortion pedal thru it and yeah, that could wake the neighbors!

some pics:

Attachments:

• amp006.jpg, 112 KB
• amp003.jpg, 140 KB
• amp008.jpg, 130 KB

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Permalink Reply by Wes "I'm Baaaaack" Yates on March 21, 2010 at 12:42pm

Well a mini amp is about 1-5W. The minty is more like .5-1W if I recall so I really use them as a preamp. When the input source is not the same impedance as the output (piezo to amp). This is dependent on the power you use and the speaker you attach to. The larger the speaker the more output to drive it if I understand correctly.

-WY

MichaelS said:

Thanks Wes, it does look like a bargain, just add speaker and go. Another question, what is the difference between these mini amps and a pre-amp?

Wes Yates said:

Minty Amp (mintyamps.com) is your best bet. 15 minues start to finish. and $5 to boot. My lil gem cost me ~$20 overall.

-WY

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Permalink Reply by Mark Lillo on March 29, 2010 at 11:55pm

Hi ya Michael. I have used the Artec amp. It is a 2 watt amp kit that comes with a volume pot mounted right on the circut board and a 9v battery plug for 15.95 from Guitar Fuel. It also has a gain control on the board also, but you need to use a screw driver to adjust it. It works really well.

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Permalink Reply by Mark Lillo on March 30, 2010 at 12:05am

Mark Lillo said:

Hi ya Michael. I have used the Artec amp. It is a 2 watt amp kit that comes with a volume pot mounted right on the circut board and a 9v battery plug for 15.95 from Guitar Fuel. It also has a gain control on the board also, but you need to use a screw driver to adjust it. It works really well.

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Permalink Reply by Mark Werner on March 30, 2010 at 4:52am

If you want a good little pre-built amp, the Danelectro Honeytone is hard to beat. Looks cool too, for only 20 bucks.

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Permalink Reply by MichaelS Country Boy Guitars on March 30, 2010 at 6:36am

Thanks Mark, mainly looking for a kit or plan to build into a cigar box. Thanks

Mark Werner said:

If you want a good little pre-built amp, the Danelectro Honeytone is hard to beat. Looks cool too, for only 20 bucks.

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Permalink Reply by Bluesdog on March 31, 2010 at 3:10am

If you'r looking for plans there is a full plan and schematic for a simple Cigar box tube amp in the free resources page, (
https://api.ning.com/files/Fyz9lPoEiAvBfgQz4aSyh-qetlTical0T9qPtE4M... ) don't know exactly how much power it will give you but it's (supposed to be) made from parts off a kid's/mobile record player like this one

so i guess it will be in the 1-3w area. It's not battery powerd but they are pretty old plan's so that's no big surprise. Shouldn't be to hard to find one off those record players for under 10-15 buck's or less, especialy if you look for broken ones people sometimes put up for parts. All you need is the amplifier stuff so broken moters, arm's, mc element's (allthough you can use mc elements as pick-up's for one string diddly bow's) don't matter. Sure it is more work than a smokey or minty and less mobile but it will be a real DIY tube amp made from vintige stuff!

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Permalink Reply by Barry Evan Russ on March 31, 2010 at 5:12am

My friend, who has lots of vintage amps just bought a Danelectro Honeytone micro amp just to plug into occasionally, and you would not believe the sound out of this little thing! Wow! worth at least a test drive and it could almost fit in your pocket.

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Permalink Reply by MichaelS Country Boy Guitars on March 31, 2010 at 9:15am

That looks like a decent kit, the minty is cheaper but then you still need more parts, it would probably be about the same. But then the honeytone is only about 20 dollars, it seems making it from a kit should be cheaper? Or are these better?
wesley carl said:

you can rip off the gain and wire it external im not afraid i just pulled it off with a pliers and soldered 3 new wires on the board to a switch


Mark Lillo said:

Hi ya Michael. I have used the Artec amp. It is a 2 watt amp kit that comes with a volume pot mounted right on the circut board and a 9v battery plug for 15.95 from Guitar Fuel. It also has a gain control on the board also, but you need to use a screw driver to adjust it. It works really well.

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