Solid State Guitar Amp Forum | DIY Guitar Amplifiers

Just looking for any suggestions before I build one.....or two.....or three.   ;D

I just want something to practice on and fiddle around with before my first tube amp build.  I think I'm going to build a little gem and a ruby.  What else is out there?  I had a danelectro honeytone a couple of years ago that sounded pretty raunchy, in a good way.  It died after a few weeks and I should have opened it up figured out how to fix it.  A friend of mine had one that was labeled as a fender bassman that sounded pretty good considering what it is.  I'm just prodding for variations, enclosure ideas, tried mods that any of you have liked, good part sources, etc.  I've ordered electronic parts from mostly mouser in the past.  I'd like to get the stuff local but radio shack's prices are completely rediculous.  I'm thinking about trying out futurelec because of the low prices.  Anyone tried them?  For enclosures I want to use something different.  Maybe an old jewelry box, a lunch box, a toy truck, etc.  Any ideas?             

The little gem and ruby are basically the two good battery powered amps to build.  They are awesome though and have great tone.  For parts I would consider jameco.com, partsexpress.com and of course smallbearelec.com

Good luck!

Hey!

I'm completely new to amps(and forums). I'm 55 years old and decided to make some amps as a hobby... I'm not any where close to being an electronics person (but I'll learn it eventually). The main question is:   Is there a circuit, drawing, website, page, etc. that shows an original schematic AND the modifications available to that specific circuit on the same page? I'm also looking to see how difficult it would be to change an AC circuit to a battery powered one. PLEASE KEEP "TUBES" OUT OF THE CONVERSATION - Thanx for any info... CRITTER

If you've never built any electronics you should really start with a simple DC powered 1/2w amp like the little gem.  Check it out: http://www.runoffgroove.com/littlegem.html

After that you can do a little research about working with AC power and safety etc, and build a chipamp kit like a LM1875 or LM3886 kit from chipamps.com