Not Really A Guitar-- But Heres My Portable Amp

[IbanezFreak666]

this is a my DT project that i made for my GCSE coursework

the specifications were:

it has to be battery powered,

it had to be louder than an unplugged guitar,

it much have volume and gain controls,

it should be small enough to clip onto a belt,

it should have an earphone out socket,

it must be able to play clean and distorted.

the finished prototype is powered by 4 9v batterys,

it is just louder than an unplugged guitar,

it has volume and gain controls

it is just small enough to clip onto a belt however so far i havnt desined a way to do this.

it has an earphone out socket, which automatically switches the power from the speaker.

it is able to play distorted however i cannot get it to play clean, however my guitar has a much higher output than the one i origonally based the cuircuit design around.

the amp has quite crunchy distortion, however it is easyly overloaded which creates a popping sound, i think i could solve this by using more expensive chips that can handle bigger voltages. it is also quite noisy while being played however when it is not it is completely silent. i have also found that it works extremly well for maiden riffs and rhythem parts.

this is the curcuit layout, however i made a few small alterations as i was building it.

Circuit Layout (PCB)

and this is the finished amp

The Amp

the insides:

the PCB Etc

and the battery layout

battery layout

changes for the future:

because the speaker is quite quiet, i am planning to remodel the circuit and repackage it as a distortion pedal. i am also going to look at ways to include a tone control, and try and reduce the noise. however i am going to try and keep the same body shape as it is extremly ridged and i think works quite well.

if anyone has any ideas how i can add a tone control, boost the volume or add a noise reducer, input would be greatly appreciated!

Edited May 18, 2007 by IbanezFreak666

[Geo]

I could answer your questions if this was a tube amp... sorry man. I don't understand transistors.

[Samba Pa Ti]

you could put the Ruby amp inside it

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

that has gain/volume controls and runs on one 9v battery

Edited May 20, 2007 by Samba Pa Ti