Projects and repairs and your input, please...

[Died Young]

Hello all. I am new to electronics, I am a guitar player and have just got a breadboard / starter kit and I have a few bits left from previous projects and salvages. I have repaired (successfully !) a few thing, guitar and mic leads, battery inputs, middle pickup on a strat, basic stuff. I have a 45ohm speaker (from phone with speaker) and want to make a small guitar amp with it. I've got a jack socket / guitar input jack and a volume pot somewhere and I have some transistors, resistors, capacitors (disc and electrolytic) and alike, is it possible to hook that up if I have the right balance of resistors and use the transistor(s) or do i need a chip - eg LM386 ? Also, I have a 'vintage' pearl distortion pedal, DS-06, MadeInJapan, I resoldered the battery connector (won't power up from DC-in) but I'm just getting high pitched squealing, which is switchable with ' spectrum select' control (frequency selector). I wanna repair it, I had a look, looks like there has been short on the power board (there are two boards, one which the pots, input / output connect to, one which footswitch connects to - which i'm referring to as 'power board') looked like it was from an electrolytic capacitor so I removed / desoldered and soldered a replacement but same result. Any tips with that one greatly greatly appreciated. I'm still learning, started reading Audio: Demystified and been reading Electronics: for dummies but any  pointers would be great. Thanks in advance (THANKS), 
Neil

[phatt]

Hi and welcome,
Re the pearl Dirt box;
Try and find a schematic for that unit then you have a very good chance of fixing it.
or failing that post some clear close up pictures of the insides,, I'm sure folks here can help you out.
Phil.

[Died Young]

Hi Phil and thanks for your reply, I had a look on a few sites but haven't found the schematic for this pedal, I'll keep trying and if not maybe post picture like you mentioned.
Cheer  :cheesy:  Neil

[J M Fahey]

As a sample, read this .
http://www.scribd.com/doc/56157375/Electric-Guitar-Amp-Handbook-Jack-Darr
Then get the original and keep it.
I´ve read it what? 30/40 times?
*Every time* I get something new.