You could always throw it in the Swapmeet section here.

Quote from: Untilitkills83 on May 08, 2023, 12:58:21 PMGreetings all. Hoping someone might be able to point me in the right direction. I own a Crate BX 160 amp, it is a beast. Recently, when it is powered on, regardless of a bass guitar being plugged in, there is a consistent for lack of a better term 'raspberry' sound coming through the speaker and a minimal / intermittent crackling effect think listening to a record / turntable. All the input and master volume could be turned all the way down and it is still present. When I plug my bass in, all noises remain. If I turn the main volume master and input up, the noise is there but it doesn't get louder. More often than not, the bass can drown it out. I thought I had confined the source to the cable that connects the speaker itself to the main input Jack on the electrical board. After getting a new cable, nothing changed. I've even tried the line out into my preamp interface for recording and luckily it is clean, no raspberry sound or crackling so it would seem that the issue is the connection on the circuit board from where the input Jack is to the main electrical component. Hoping someone might know of a fix for this. Thanks in advance.

I'm re-reading this now and realize that you said the line out is clean.  If this is the case, then it couldn't be related to input whatsoever as this would be evident in lineout.  I'm thinking something is up with the output transistors.

If the volume doesn't change with position of the knobs or anything, I'd be questioning the power supply caps and maybe output transistors.

Quote from: saturated on May 04, 2023, 12:19:19 PMI went back and read most of the posts in this section going back to 2009 and stuff.  lots of success stories.

I enjoyed reading the unselfish contributions of the heavy hitters here and wonder where some of them are if they have moved on or passed on R.I.P. 

anyhow its a gold mine of technical info and entertaining as well.

my hat is off to those with the knowledge and experience helping out in all of those threads, asking nothing in return.

Some members have digitally moved on, spending time on other forums etc, while you are correct that a few have passed on in the real world.  We've been here long enough to experience so pretty amazing things, as well as lose some amazing people.  I'm grateful that I've been able to keep this community going all these years.

Thank you for joining, and thank you for sharing your experience!

As we run low on stock of Honey Amp kits (currently no more kits with speakers, and limited PCB and PCB w/parts kits), I have taken the time to look through where these have shipped.  We have shipped kits to 12 countries, with 22 states in the USA being represented.  Not bad!

I'm currently gearing up for working on the second version, Honey B.

Thank you to everyone who has watched the videos, shared opinions, purchased kits, and built these fun little amps - it's been a blast!

Quote from: Tassieviking on April 21, 2023, 12:21:13 AMWelcome Saturated, yeah I know , a bit late but I am always a bit slow.

If you are new to soldering then the best thing you can do is get a soldering iron with a temperature control and some small tips.
I use a 50 watt iron with a digital temperature display, 50 watt lets it keep the heat better then a smaller iron.

Never buy solder cheap online, you will just produce *s!!t* solder joints that might not make a connection.

I use a 1mm solder tip and good solder that is 0.5mm thick, 0.8mm is ok as well.

I use a magnifying loupe  10x or 20x to check all my solder joints, its amazing how much you will miss if you don't check them properly.

I have been building stuff since I was a young smart-arse way back, my first serious project was a 16 channel mixer desk (ETI I think) around the mid 70's, along with 2 x 100 watt amplifiers that a friend used as a mobile disco.

Once you start building your own stuff you never stop, and why would you when you can make your own amps and pedals cheaper then what you can buy them for.

Shop around for parts as you can get some stuff a lot cheaper if you do, I buy a lot of stuff from Tayda because the price is good.

Cheers
Michael

I second about the cheap solder being a poor choice, it never works well.  I almost exclusively used Kester solder.  Typically 60/40 in 0.031" diameter.  Definitely go small diameter solder and small to medium size tip for your iron.  If you don't want a digital unit, I recommend the all analog adjustable unit - Weller WLC100.  Typically these sell between $50 and $75 right now online.

Quote from: phatt on April 21, 2023, 09:37:27 PMWell it might be Lead free solder which is really hard to work with at home.
For the humble home hobbyist far better to use lead solder.
Label will say 60/40, 60% Tin, 40% Lead.

Lead-free (Pb-free) solder really needs to be done in a factory that is setup for it. Yes it crumbles and does not flow like 60/40 solder.
Phil.

Agreed.  Even newer lead free solder is miserable to work with (though significantly better than the old stuff).  I still use 60/40 or 63/37.

Regardless, if it is soldering poorly I would pitch it.

Honestly I would just build up a cheap PSU for the 15v rails.

Quote from: saturated on April 22, 2023, 03:07:05 PMthanks its a 1980 Bronco
T18 and 300 six

it will do anything you ask

just not in a hurry

Potentially my favorite engine of all time.  I'd love to have a ~1990 F150 w/300 I6, 4x4, 5spd stick.  I test drove a used one in high school but wasn't able to afford it at the time.  Damn nice truck.

It mostly depends on value (size) of the capacitor.  For larger capacitors, electrolytic capacitors are the way to go.  On smaller capacitors I like to use polyfilm (rather than ceramic) as they are fairly inexpensive and also quiet for audio use.

Quote from: rockaffe on April 17, 2023, 02:31:14 PMHello everyone, I'm doing the veroboard layout for the honey amp but, as I'm not yet very familiar with reading schematics, I'd like to ask for some advice.
The first concerns the connection of the headphone jack, which I solved as follows:

You cannot view this attachment.

Is that correct?

The second concerns this part of the circuit:

You cannot view this attachment.

Does it mean that pins 1 and 8 of the IC need to be connected to lugs 1 and 2 of the gain pot?

Thank you!

Do you mean you are creating your own vero layout?  I haven't seen one for this yet.

Regarding the headphone jack, it is designed for a switching jack.  You have the blue line connecting two pins and it shouldn't do this.  It should go from board to the jack, then jack to the speaker.  When nothing is plugged in it goes straight to the speaker, when something is plugged in, it cuts off the speaker and only goes to the phones.

Regarding the gain pads, these can be left unpopulated.  The regular gain control goes inline at the start of the circuit (effectively a volume control before the preamp stage).  Those two gain pads are for increasing the gain of the power amp (lm386).  With a bunch of testing, I've found that I can get any more clean volume out of the lm386 at more than the stock 20x gain setting.  If you want more gain though, crank it up!

Quote from: Lady_Azurewolf on April 11, 2023, 05:50:40 PMI am very very new to this whole topic and got myself a Woodstock GX-55R Amplifier the other day cheap from a second hand shop. Yep the question of watts came up. I   don't know how many watts it has.
But I have been told itno good for a bass guitar.
Yeah I don't even have half the knowledge of people here however I have found reading everyone's post absolutely fascinating.
Cheers all.

Go ahead and start a new thread and share a few pictures - specifically any labels or markings on the amp.  We should be able to help!

With a few pictures and some measurements (diameter of the potentiometer body as well as distance between pins), and then also if it is a knurled, smooth, or "flat d" post, and we should be able to help you find a potentiometer for you.

Vox has released new versions of the popular MV50 (not technically solid state as it uses nutube technology, but close) as well as the new Brian May amPlug (completely solid state).  Both units claim to have the "Brian May sound" and from the clips I've heard, they deliver in spades.  Definitely worth a look if you are a Queen fan, or really anyone who loves the cranked AC30 sound.

MSRP for the MV40 is $249 USD while the amPlug comes in at just $59 USD.

https://www.guitarworld.com/news/vox-brian-may-amplug-mv50

Blackstar has released another amp in the Amped series, the Amped 3.  Boasting 3 channels, reverb, 100 watts of power, and more gain than either the original Amped 1 or Amped 2, this might be for you if you're looking for heavy tones powered completely from your board.

If you are a gigging musician, this could be for you.  Otherwise it may be out of your price range.  Preorder is currently available at $599 USD.

https://www.guitarworld.com/news/blackstar-amped-3