Yeah, You're right. Did I mention I only paid $40.00 for it?

I have the footswitch. It has two buttons. If you push one, it switches between channels. If you push the other, it turns on both channels, then if you push the wrong button to turn off the other channel it turns off the light on the other channel, but leaves some sound coming through it. Then you have to hit the buttons in the right order to turn it off. Like I said before, if I was going to use it regularly I would probably disable that second button. I don't like the sound of both channels together anyway.

I have one that I got used for $40.00. Ha! the Celestion is worth moe than that! I think it sounds pretty good. I don't like both channels at the same time though. If I were going to use it as my main amp, I think I would find a way to disable that feature.

Here is my Army surplus, night vision goggles case, amp. It uses a lm386 for preamp, and tda 2003 for power amp. 6" speaker. These goggles cases are heavy gauge aluminum,and include a built in handle.

I built the regulated power supply, and temporarily wired it up to the amp. No more motorboating! Now the gain control on the Gem doesn't seem to be working. I'll check into that when I get more time. Thanks for all the help and guidance. I'll probably be asking more questions when I decide to add some kind of tone control.
Thanks again, Dan

I guess I just wanted confirmation that I don't need the four 1N4001 diodes used in this circuit
http://www.instructables.com/id/Make_a_simple_12_volt_power_supply/
because they are for rectification, which is already done in the dc ww.

I noticed after I posted that that circuit uses an ac transformer. Could I delete the diodes and use a dc wall wart instead?

could I run my 12v 1500ma wallwart through this to get clean, stable 12v?
http://www.instructables.com/id/Make_a_simple_12_volt_power_supply/

I tried the 12v ww with the input open, and shorted, and still measured over 18v both ways. I found a 9v , 300ma ww in my "pyle-o-junk" that gives 12v with no load, but it motorboats, and hums too. I haven't tried the isolating methods yet, as I don't have the caps and resistors on hand.

so it's not going to kill my amp?

I stopped in to the good will store and got a 12v 1500ma wall wart. It measures 19.7v on my MM. What can I do to bring it down to 12v? or should I just get a lower voltage w.w.
Also, the cap across the + and -, would I need that with a wall wart? Is that like the filter caps on a tube amp? Is there a website, or thread where I could learn  about powering devices like this with a wall wart? and finally, what is a psu board?
Thanks

Woa Tony, That might be it. I'm running the whole thing on 8 D-cells. Do I need to go with a wall wart?

I could live with the little bit of distortion. It does clean up when I turn the guitar down. I really would like to fix the motorboating though. When I used the Gem as an amp, it didn't do that. It just started when wired it into the new tda2003 amp.

I was thinking maybe I could try disconnecting the Gem, and running the output from a zoom or digitech rp300 into the TDA, just to see if it is the amp, or just the way it ineracts with the gem

I put it all together today, and it sounds okay, but won't get a really "clean" sound and it makes a motorboat sound when turned up. I added a resistor in series between the Gem and tda2003 with no improvement. Any ideas?
The case is an Army surplus night vision goggles case. It's heavy gauge aluminum, so I bolted the tda2003s right to it for heat sinking. The speaker was salvaged out of a dead Yamaha powered subwoofer.

Here is a piucture

I haven't started on my amp kit yet. I have been using any spare moment to get my old Fender amp working. I have been thinking about it though, and I was wondering. Can I just run the speaker leads from my Little Gem to the input of the tda2003 amp? or is there more to it than that?
Thanks