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Mini Amp Power


X1TX

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Anyone have a schematic or a link to one showing how I can make a mini-amp (like one of those Altoids can amps) power up when I plug the jack in? I know it can be doe as some of those other mini amps do that to eliminate the power switch.

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So the ground for the battery would be the second lug on the input jack? When the jack is inserted it makes the ground path for the circuit. That what you're saying?

Yeah, my next after trying the Altoids amp (since I pretty much have all the stuff laying around) would be a Ruby or possibly a Little Gem. Just figured I'd do this one first since it's so simple and I already have everything to do it.

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If I were you, I would go straight to building one out of parts as opposed to cannibalizing other gear. If you want an audio heaphone amp, a common starting point for headphone amps is the CMoy design. There is some good info available here: http://tangentsoft.net/audio/cmoy-tutorial/. If you want specifically a guitar-oriented headphone amp, if I were you I would jump directly to the Ruby.

If you can solder enough to put together the cannibalized tape player version, you can build a CMoy or a Ruby. They're not anything fancy, but they're easy to build and I'm sure they'll sound better than the one in a cheap tape player.

Of course, neither of these will sound all that good with a guitar either :D. I've never heard a simple solid state circuit that sounds decent for playing guitar through. If you just want to mess around with it, go ahead, but don't set your expectations too high.

Edited by jnewman
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Thanks. But mostly I'm doing the Altoids amp as just a tinker project. I'll probably do a Ruby next. I have an old Fender Frontman that died and I may use that to house the Ruby later on. Though I kind of like to make a smaller amp I can carry around so I don't have to drag out the amp and cables somethimes when I just want to mess around. Not trying to build a Marshall clone or anything, I just enjoy the tinkering and this one will cost me nothing but a few hours time (that I wanted to spend tinkering anyway).

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