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SSGuitar.com Contest

Started by joecool85, August 19, 2009, 06:51:46 PM

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joecool85

Post your pics of your chip amp builds (anything from kits to self made amps and boards are fine).  The winner of the "best chip amp" will get a free chipamp.com t-shirt shipped to their door AND 25 Chip Points!  Thanks go to Brian at chipamp.com for donating this shirt and helping out SSGuitar.com as always.

Pictures may be submitted until 9pm EST on Saturday September 5, 2009.  The decision will be made by the following Monday and the shirt will ship as soon as the winner PMs me their mailing address.

Let the contest - BEGIN!

**If anyone has issues posting pictures, please PM me or post a question in The Newcomer's Forum**
Life is what you make it.
Still rockin' the Dean Markley K-20X
thatraymond.com

joecool85

I will be posting a picture of the shirt over the weekend when I get time just so everyone knows what they're shooting for  :tu:
Life is what you make it.
Still rockin' the Dean Markley K-20X
thatraymond.com

joecool85

Life is what you make it.
Still rockin' the Dean Markley K-20X
thatraymond.com

phatt

Hi Joe ,, Quick Q if I may;
Can I enter something on a bread board? With a schematic of course and maybe a short sound clip if I can get that to all happen.
Thanks,, Phil.

joecool85

Quote from: phatt on August 24, 2009, 07:39:32 AM
Hi Joe ,, Quick Q if I may;
Can I enter something on a bread board? With a schematic of course and maybe a short sound clip if I can get that to all happen.
Thanks,, Phil.

Sure!  That sounds great.  Any project you have going on can be posted.  Actually, any project you've done at all, it could be an "old" one that you did a while ago.

If you have a modified or restored amplifier that could count too.
Life is what you make it.
Still rockin' the Dean Markley K-20X
thatraymond.com

mensur

Here is mine
Sound clips:
Ultra Sample.mp3 - Wet
Ultra Sample1.mp3 - Dry
Images of THE AMP ;)






joecool85

Quote from: mensur on August 24, 2009, 02:48:27 PM
Here is mine
Sound clips:
Ultra Sample.mp3 - Wet
Ultra Sample1.mp3 - Dry
Images of THE AMP ...

Very nice looking amp.  Any pics of the inside?
Life is what you make it.
Still rockin' the Dean Markley K-20X
thatraymond.com

mensur

I didn't, take the guts, but I will tomorrow when I'm finished with work :)

J M Fahey

Very nice and profesional amp.
Tell us something about the cabinet, the single most important stumbling block for electronics hobbyists
Remembering that, it´s been stated that box-less projects are very acceptable, with the only condition that they work.
MP3s are always welcome, of course.

joecool85

Quote from: J M Fahey on August 25, 2009, 02:19:08 AM
Very nice and profesional amp.
Tell us something about the cabinet, the single most important stumbling block for electronics hobbyists
Remembering that, it´s been stated that box-less projects are very acceptable, with the only condition that they work.
MP3s are always welcome, of course.

Looks to me like maybe an old VCR - something I've considered many a time.
Life is what you make it.
Still rockin' the Dean Markley K-20X
thatraymond.com

armstrom

#10
Well, I've posted this here before but what the heck... Here's my entry. The Hurricane was built for a friend as a gift for the harp player in his band.

Here are the particulars:

  • LM386 preamp similar to a ruby/noisy cricket
  • TDA2005 power amp
  • Big Muff tone control
  • Weber Signature Ceramic 6" speaker
  • Cabinet start out life as a flower box from IKEA that was heavily modified
  • Small leather handle hand made by a local leather repair shop for a whopping $12


Overall I'm pretty happy with the outcome. My first attempt at the amp had almost no distortion as I was running the preamp from the same 12V supply as the power amp. The distortion you hear in the clips is obtained by running the preamp at about 7V so it breaks up more. The "Category" control varies the gain of the preamp while the "storm surge" toggle enables an additional gain boost similar to the grit switch on the noisy cricket.

The clips were all made with the little 6" speaker in the cab. I tried it out on a 4x12 sealed cab and it sounded great! Didn't get a recording of it though and now it's off at its new home.






Here are some clips:
Clean
Some breakup
More overdrive

J M Fahey

Thanks Mensur and Armstrong, great home-builds.
Now all others please show us proudly whatever you have built.
Even if already posted somewhere else, or yet not mounted on a nice enclosure, remember that even a piece of wood with some plastic or metal sheet to hold pots and jacks and a taped-down protoboard, or a "Smokey" clone built in a soapbox or Coke Diet will be fine.
Hey!, maybe I´ll post one of those !!
This is not a "heavy" contest where just one wins and all others are deported to Siberia for 10 years , let's have fun building things that sound good.
Ideas are everywhere, for example a Brazilian friend mounted a footswitch into a dead Genius Mouse, it was cute!!
Sergscar should re-post his textured-cover mini Ruby, and so on.
As an example: I´m looking now at a "drum" 50 virgin CDs case and measuring it's around 4,5" diameter, perfect for a 4" speaker.
I´m also drinking some tea from a plastic glass, and a transparent plastic cone speaker fits perfectly in its mouth ..... hint ... hint ....
Keep posting.

Minion

Well here is one I did a year or so ago ..... I might have posted it here before ....



It is a PAiA "Stack In a Box" tube guitar preamp kit that is modded to provide 10x more Gain than stock and with better opamps .....

the Preamp then goes into a 15 band graphic eq (consumer gear) and then into a TDA7293 100w Mosfet Power amp chip ......

It sounds freaking awesome and loud as hell .....

I"m now working on a dual channel Tube/solid state hybrid amp with a 5 band eq for each channel and each channel can be used independantly with 2 seperate guitars or can be run in Paralell with a single guitar , each channel can also be summed at the output so the same signal goes out the two LM3886 chips or can be done independantly in stereo ......

Cheers


sergscar

#13
Hi guys !,
I can see people here is taking things seriously... so seriously that I feel so miserable posting my work !  ;D

Anyway, and just in case the judges are blind or something like that, I'm sending the pictures (already posted somewhere in the forum) of the "SCARFACE RT2" Preamp (LM386) and the "SCARFACE RT1" MiniAmp (also LM386).

THE "SCARFACE RT2" PREAMP:
- MDF box, painted and shielded
- LM386, fixed gain at 20db
- For the decalcs, I've used a very amateur process: a) with a brush, I've applied a coat of regular white glue, on a transparent plastic sheet (those used for transparencies), the printed the information with an inkjet printer, after dried, used an XActo knife to cut the pieces and unsticked from the transparency very carefully, then applied to the top, painting everything with dual layer varnish





THE "SCARFACE RT1" MINIAMP:
- All construction from wooden scratch:
  * Cover in wood, protected with PU varnish (that "dual layer varnish" used in cars)
  * The case itself (100% handmade), was painted with a rubber paint (also used in the car industry), giving that particular "canvass" for, finally, using PU Varnish.
- LM386, variable gain.
- Powered by 9V DC battery or 12V DC adaptor (P4 Jack)
- 01 x 3'' Drive, 4 Ohm
- Ortophonic fabric was used as drive/speaker cover/protection
- Measurements: 13 (w) x 7 (d) x 10 (h) Cms.
- Weight: abt 400 Grs (battery not inc.)





A word to the judges: be nice !  :lmao:
Guitars: Hondo II Les Paul '79, Crafter FW-770 EQ (steel) '96, Edwards ESP Strato '02, Acoustic Yacopi (nylon) '09, Fender Strat MIM S/S/H '05
Amps: "Scarface" Ruby, Dean DGX-12, Laney TF-200
USB Interfaces: M-Audio JamLab, M-Audio FastTrack Pro
Mic: HSR 3.2 Multipatern Condenser

armstrom

I really like the second amp pictured. Looks like a retro radio :)