Build Your Own "Tinny Amp" Small Amplifier.
by Phantomn in Circuits > Audio
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Build Your Own "Tinny Amp" Small Amplifier.
Here I will show you how to construct a small amplifier for your guitar, should be about 3 watts and run off a 9 volt battery.
Parts
You Will Need:
-Soldering Iron
-Tin or box of some kind (or cigarette packet)
-1/4 inch jack input
-Wire
-9v battery clip
-9v Battery
-Speakers (I got mine from an old broken pair of speakers.)
-Amp i decided to use a 3.5 Watt amp from my local electronics store.
-Soldering Iron
-Tin or box of some kind (or cigarette packet)
-1/4 inch jack input
-Wire
-9v battery clip
-9v Battery
-Speakers (I got mine from an old broken pair of speakers.)
-Amp i decided to use a 3.5 Watt amp from my local electronics store.
Disassemble Your Speakers
My speakers had a little amplifier bult in, but i chose to just remove it and take the speaker.
Firstly unscrew the housing that holds the whole speaker/amp and remove the front. Then disconnect the speaker from the amp so it can be removed easily. Unscrew the speaker, next I had to prise the speaker out with my penknife, because it had been stuck down with some kind of Uber glue.
Keep the amplifier for another project!
I decided to keep the other speaker housing to use as the case for the final amp.
Put all of the bits somewhere safe. (In my case a hat.)
Firstly unscrew the housing that holds the whole speaker/amp and remove the front. Then disconnect the speaker from the amp so it can be removed easily. Unscrew the speaker, next I had to prise the speaker out with my penknife, because it had been stuck down with some kind of Uber glue.
Keep the amplifier for another project!
I decided to keep the other speaker housing to use as the case for the final amp.
Put all of the bits somewhere safe. (In my case a hat.)
Wire It Up!
Wire up your selected amplifier as instructed!
I used stripboard to neaten the whole thing up and get better connections.
Remember if putting yours into a metal case, all of your connections need to be covered. For me this involved electrical tape, lots of it. You could use a hot glue gun or just insulate it properly.
I used stripboard to neaten the whole thing up and get better connections.
Remember if putting yours into a metal case, all of your connections need to be covered. For me this involved electrical tape, lots of it. You could use a hot glue gun or just insulate it properly.
Prepare Your Container.
The whole idea of this was to be portable, so it needed to be in something relatively small. In the end i chose a tin.
I then realised this wouldn't let any sound out, and in drilling two large holes for my now upgraded 2 speaker amp, the tin would become a bit flimsy. So I chose to drill 114 small holes.
Note: This is very tedious and time consuming.
Drill a line of holes down your tin, i used a set square and a pencil to mark it out 1cm apart both ways.
Do it again, and again and several more times until you heave roughly 6 lines.
Then drill in between the holes you have just made. *sigh*
Next drill two holes for your switch and jack, i chose to put this on top of tin, for ease of access.
I then realised this wouldn't let any sound out, and in drilling two large holes for my now upgraded 2 speaker amp, the tin would become a bit flimsy. So I chose to drill 114 small holes.
Note: This is very tedious and time consuming.
Drill a line of holes down your tin, i used a set square and a pencil to mark it out 1cm apart both ways.
Do it again, and again and several more times until you heave roughly 6 lines.
Then drill in between the holes you have just made. *sigh*
Next drill two holes for your switch and jack, i chose to put this on top of tin, for ease of access.
Fitting It In
This is definitely the trickiest of the steps so far.
Tips:
-Do not try and pick too small a container you'll just get incredibly frustrated and end up hurting something. =]
-Make your electronic components take up as little space as possible.
-Don't force it or you'll break connections and have to take it out and re-solder it. (Twice)
-Be patient.
Sorry there aren't any more pictures, but once i had it in i didn't really want to remove it.
Tips:
-Do not try and pick too small a container you'll just get incredibly frustrated and end up hurting something. =]
-Make your electronic components take up as little space as possible.
-Don't force it or you'll break connections and have to take it out and re-solder it. (Twice)
-Be patient.
Sorry there aren't any more pictures, but once i had it in i didn't really want to remove it.
Rock!
Now you can rock anywhere you want!
Be sure to bring music to the ears of every nearby person with your new portable amp!
Things I would change about it are:
-Sound holes at the front need to be a little bigger
-Get some better speakers, these pretty much distort straight away.
-Plan the internals out a little better as to replace the battery i have to remove all of the components
That's pretty much it, hope you enjoyed the Instructable and Vote For Me!
++ There is a sound clip now attached. I basically mess around with the guitars' volume controls subtly to change the tone. First it's on about 8 then 10 then I turn it down to about 7 and a bit. (Excuse the scrappy playing =] )
Be sure to bring music to the ears of every nearby person with your new portable amp!
Things I would change about it are:
-Sound holes at the front need to be a little bigger
-Get some better speakers, these pretty much distort straight away.
-Plan the internals out a little better as to replace the battery i have to remove all of the components
That's pretty much it, hope you enjoyed the Instructable and Vote For Me!
++ There is a sound clip now attached. I basically mess around with the guitars' volume controls subtly to change the tone. First it's on about 8 then 10 then I turn it down to about 7 and a bit. (Excuse the scrappy playing =] )