Solid State Guitar Amp Forum | DIY Guitar Amplifiers

Hay, I want to design my own mini amp (I mean about 1/2 to 1 watt like the smokey). I know I can use the little gem/ruby/smokey but I want to make a lot of them and sell them so I prefer my own design. I want it to work on 9V battery. Do anyone have suggestions? Oh and sources of info will be good too.

I really like the way my ruby and little gem MkII sound with a tone stack and booster in front of them. Maybe you could try combining such things into one amp. Maybe combine the tonemender (see ROG) and the ruby or little gem.

Okay. But will the battery (9V) last long enough? Also I am afraid it's illegal to use this designs for commercial use.

Actually, I really do not think it is. ROG probably want's a license fee for using their designs, but they are not patented. (Still, it would be damn nice to send them a cut of your sales if you use their designs.) Also, there's really not that much difference between their ruby/little gem designs and the reference design in the data sheet for the lm386. You can use the reference design as a starting point. Use a little different tone stack. Or maybe a very different tone stack. The real mojo in the lm386 designs comes from how the lm386 sounds when overdriven.

If you use the circuit suggested by the chip manufacturer , you will have no legal problem.
They designed it and still hold the copyright, but they *want* you (or anybody) to use it, because you will buy their chip.
The Smokey is a *simplified* version of that; you can use the full one (6 parts instead of 3, big deal).
Same applies to all other datasheet schematics.