First Act MA104 Amp with LED Distortion Mod

Here's the second round of mods to my thrift store MA104 amp. The previous mods were to add an external speaker jack and make a pigtail to run it off a 9v battery. In this mod I added a DPDT switch and two red LEDs for clipping diodes. The switch lets me choose between the original clipping diodes and the red LEDs. The red LEDs give a much louder sound and better distortion with a lot less sizzle than the originals. In the video I play first with original distortion and regular speaker. Next is the LED distortion with regular speaker. Third is original distortion into external speaker (jumpered into the Peavey speaker). And last is the LED distortion. I took the 4558 IC out, soldered in a socket and replaced the 4558 with a TL082 IC. The amps seems quieter and more responsive with the TL082, but that could be imagination. With the LEDs switched in and the gain turned down, the volume is better and cleaner on the clean sound. It was another worthwhile round of mods on the little amp. Now I'm eyeballing my Crate GX-15...

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Comment by Mike Bingham on January 16, 2012 at 9:26am

Thank you Wes! 

Comment by Mike Bingham on January 16, 2012 at 12:15am

Thanks Roadkill! I found some schematics on the Internet and they helped me do the mods.  I have a new Boss DS-1 pedal coming today I hope.  Gonna make it my next hot rod project.  See Ya!

Comment by Roadkill a.k.a. John Maw on January 15, 2012 at 8:41am

You have certainly found a way of getting a very good sound from that little amp. I wouldn't know where to start.

Comment by Mike Bingham on January 15, 2012 at 4:41am

Thank you Kevin! Gonna try to build a hum eliminator later today for my pedal board power supply. Gotta keep the pot boiling...

Comment by Mike Bingham on January 15, 2012 at 4:38am

Thanks for the comment Uncle John.  At 30 seconds I plugged the Peavey amp's speaker into the external speaker jack I added to the small amp.  The first riff after that was on the amps original distortion diodes and the next was on the LED distortion diodes. I highly recommend the LED clipping diodes to give an additional voice to an amp.

Comment by Mike Bingham on January 15, 2012 at 4:34am

Thank you James. That amp has been a lot of fun and a great learning tool.

Comment by jeff maurer on January 15, 2012 at 4:33am

i have that same amp

Comment by Uncle John on January 14, 2012 at 12:56pm

Mike, whatever you did at 30 seconds in sounded great.  My fave tones are warm and human voice sounding.  You got it.

Comment by James on January 14, 2012 at 11:19am

you are a very industrious one, with all those modifications mike, sounds really good.

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