Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Cloudy Knuckles on September 10, 2011 at 8:02am

A good place to start is a little solid state amp like the smokey with a speaker out, build a few cabs and learn about that design, wiring multiple speakers etc, practice soldering and electronics stuff, how to make a cabinet actually sound good, speakers etc.

 

Then I would start with a circuit like the ruby/little gem/smokey learn practice soldering to a board with a simple amp.

 

At that point you should be able to start designing your own stuff, modifying, try your hand at tube amp kits, whatever direction you want to take it.

Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on September 10, 2011 at 8:27am

Take at look at the C. B. Gitty amp kit (click on the ad to the right of this page, then Search for "amp kit.").

Take a look at the Smokey Amp; buy one ( they run around $25), take it apart, and be amazed by Bruce Zinky's design. Buy a Danelectro Honeytone, take it apart, and reinstall it in a cigar box. Find Joel Grey's eBay store, get him to build you one, then open it up to see how he did it. Search the Web for "LM386 amp kits;" then you'll know how he did it. Look at CBN "CBG wiring and electronics" Group.

Follow Cloudy's advice; there's loads of info on how to do this out there.

Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on September 10, 2011 at 8:53am

Mike,

Further to my last...check under the "Performance, .." forum for a thread called "Ruby little gem / smokey? Amp question"

There's lots of discussion there about these and other amp kits, and the LM386 chip and variants.

Hope this helps,

Oily

Permalink Reply by Michael Cuell on October 10, 2011 at 4:53pm

The LM386 is definitely the way to go. They're cheap and plentiful. There's all kinds of info on the net on how to build a 386 amp, most notably in Altoids tins. Sites like Instructables are a good place to start. You can also search YouTube for assembly videos.

Permalink Reply by Mark on October 11, 2011 at 3:06am

Runoffgroove.com is well worth a look. They have a page on LM386 amps...

http://www.runoffgroove.com/ruby.html

Also Beavis Audio has some interesting stuff on simple amps.

http://www.beavisaudio.com

 

But probably the best thing to do is to look at the existing amps group on CB Nation (titled "It Goes To 11")

http://www.cigarboxnation.com/group/amps

 

Permalink Reply by jamie bark on April 29, 2012 at 8:40am

Bought a really cool (heavy duty) box today at a garage sale... might be a little big for a traditional CBG amp though. Pic is on my wall- any advice? Kits for a DIY amp with more wattage out there? Cant find anything... 

Permalink Reply by Shaun on May 28, 2012 at 2:58pm

If it works then its good.