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TDA2003 based Guitar Amp

Started by n9voc, January 19, 2008, 01:55:11 AM

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n9voc

Good Day All!

Attached is a schematic of the amplifier I made I call the "Bug Eyed Monster" because the grills from the Roadmaster 5x7 speakers I bought at Wal-Mart give it that appearance!

About 8 to 10 watts RMS capable per speaker in this configuration.   Again, Mouser.com for most parts, I build the cabinets for these from scrap lumber and use hardware store handles and rubber furniture feet for the amplifer feet.  When I get my digital camera operational, I'll post some pictures of these amplifers I am providing schematics for - They are in use!

Again, the input is from "The Ruby" by runoffgroove.com, and the P.A. portions are from the datasheets for the chips, with my own "tweeks" added.  "Astro-Peke Music" is the "pen name" I use if I am building an amplifier for someone else, but I folded it as a small business - not enough time with my full time job to give a side business proper care!

To repeat from my first post -  I like high impedance inputs, and to keep hum and such down, you need to make certain and use a switched input jack that shorts the input to ground when there is no plug inserted.  (personal preference, in all my designs the input impedance is determined by the input resistor pair - feel free to modify as you see fit)

n9voc

Front and back pics of the Bug Eyed Monster!

n9voc

The "innards" of the Bug Eyed Monster.  Yep, 5x7 Roadmaster speakers from Waly World (20.00 for the pair), scavenged transformer and computer grade filter capacitors.  In the second pic a closeup of the "buisiness end" of the boards - note the HOT GLUE board mounting.  (Glue Guns - not just for crafties anymore).  The heat sinks on the TDA2003 chips are anodized aluminum.

joecool85

Why such giant caps on the power supply?  (The ones as tall as the transformer lol)
Life is what you make it.
Still rockin' the Dean Markley K-20X
thatraymond.com

n9voc

Simple reason for the BIG caps - I got them FREE, and had the space in the case. 

n9voc

Attached is an improvement I made in the B.E.M.   Moving the injection point for a tape player/CD/external audio seems to work better in the new location. 8)

casiomax

i dont really understand electronics, but from what i see, the front stage was with a FET pre-amp, can i eliminate this, and use other pre-amp? or the FET stage is critical?

I have built the tda2003 stage, and put an 8ohm speaker on each output, plug it to my electric-acoustic guitar, it already made a loud sound.

the pre-amp that i was thinking is the Tonemender from runoffgroove.com

thanks.

n9voc

Casiomax,
Yes, you certainly can use a different preamp with this unit.  I used the FET as an impedance matching device only, to give me a higher "front end" impedance going into the amplifier.
I use this ampifier with both electric and acoustic (piezo pickup) guitars, and the EXTEREMELY high input impedance is a MUST for the piezo pickup.
The FET preamp section has NO gain to it, typical of a source follower circuit.  In fact, I have measured the output voltage at the high end of the Volume Pot and the voltage is approximately 90% of the input voltage.
The buffered output is simply an additional feature that I use to daisy chain amplifiers together. (or to go to a "house" system).
Good luck and good building!
:tu:

casiomax

I succesfully build the amp, also the preamp using the tonemender. I try to plug my guitar directly to the amp, it produce great clean sound, but when i try to hook up the tone mender before the amp, withouth plugging in my guitar it produce noise sound and humming.

Is pre amp design prone to low frequency signal? like RF signal sometime giving oscilation or something?

teemuk

Many amplifiers hum when their inputs are left "floating". You need to use a switching input jack that grounds the input when the cord is not plugged in.

n9voc

Casiomax,

Glad to hear you had a successful build.  I designed the amplifer to be squeeky clean in its original inception, and haven't tried putting any pedals other than my chorus in front of it.  The chorus pedal does NOT have a "shorting when unplugged" input to it and if I turn the amplifier on with only the chorus pedal plugged in and on, I also get HUMMMMM.

If you look at the third paragraph of the first post, you will see that I recommended a "shorting when unplugged" input jack to the amplifier.  Most commercial amplifiers (the good ones, anyway,) have this type of arrangement on the input to keep hum down when the guitar is not plugged in.

Teemuk has it right on the money!  I'm certain that the hum you hear is the high impedance input picking up the powerline frequency.

The noise should go away when the guitar is plugged in.  It is for this reason the "old timers" in the music scene recommend plugging in the guitar BEFORE turning on the amplifier - stops hum and "connection noise".

Hope you enjoy it! :tu:




casiomax

without the tonemender no noise coming out from the amp. when i plug my guitar a short hummm is normal. without the guitar attached to the pre-amp (tonemender) noise is coming out from the amp. my intention was to build a tonestack before the guitar. and yes, the guitar input was grounded when no jack is plugged.

I guess i just build a simple 3knobs tonestack with a transistor pre-amp, maybe this would solve my problem.

thank you all for the help, lets see how it goes.

casiomax

by the way, can I bridge the output from two TDA2003 into one 4ohm speaker?

n9voc

RE: Bridging TDA2003

Indeed you can, take a look at the datasheet for the chip, some versions of it on the net have the bridge circuit included.

casiomax

hey, thanks again, i found the datasheet and i will try to bridge my 2xTDA2003 amp. Regarding to the tonemender i builted, maybe using TL072 was the problem, should change to a better low noise dual opamp.

Basically, I only need a preamp with tone control.