Dave Vader Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 Right, I'm in a bit of a fix, we've agreed to play at this weird street festival thing in Exeter on Saturday, which is an all-acoustic festival, hoorah! However, i don't have a double bass (and have never played one) and don't own a battery powered amp. I have been offered the use of a Crafter Acoustic bass, but in my experience they're too darn quiet to get up with even a standard acoustic guitar unplugged. My ingenious plan is to borrow a "smokie" amp from my mate (you know the little ones inside fag packets) and put it through a 1x10" cab I have. Hoping it will go above the acoustic guitar, so I can play my usual nasty fretless bass and not worry. Anyone else tried this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dood Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 I once built a 2watt battery amp and ran it into the speaker on my practice amp. Yes, it did work, but wasn't loud enough for what i wanted, however, it would have been loud enough to keep up with an acoustic guitar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Vader Posted July 6, 2011 Author Share Posted July 6, 2011 [quote name='dood' post='1294012' date='Jul 5 2011, 09:50 PM']I once built a 2watt battery amp and ran it into the speaker on my practice amp. Yes, it did work, but wasn't loud enough for what i wanted, however, it would have been loud enough to keep up with an acoustic guitar.[/quote] Excellent, I have the smokie in my possession now, and will be testing tonight. I fully expect a totally abysmal blur of mud and fuzz. Then a rethink... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
escholl Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 I built a 1 watt amp into my tuner -- powers my full rig pretty bloody loud, even louder if you don't mind an over-driven sound, but then I have very efficient cabs. Sounds ace too, although obviously not on the same level as either of my proper amps. Runs on anywhere between 3 and 12 volts (the higher the voltage, the louder it goes before clipping), powers a 4 ohm load quite happily. Imagine it would run quite well off of a 12V lead acid battery for portable use. Only about a half-dozen components in the whole thing, found it as a kit when going through my stuff one day, but can send you my revised circuit diagram of it if you like -- it's a dead easy build (assuming you don't try to stuff it into a tuner! lol) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Vader Posted July 6, 2011 Author Share Posted July 6, 2011 [url="http://runoffgroove.com/ruby.html"]http://runoffgroove.com/ruby.html[/url] I found this that I might put together later on if the idea works out. Would like to see your tuner amp spec as well escholl, more ideas hanging about to steal from the better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
escholl Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 [quote name='Dave Vader' post='1294525' date='Jul 6 2011, 11:35 AM'][url="http://runoffgroove.com/ruby.html"]http://runoffgroove.com/ruby.html[/url] I found this that I might put together later on if the idea works out. Would like to see your tuner amp spec as well escholl, more ideas hanging about to steal from the better. [/quote] lol! my tuner one is a lot simpler than that, literally about 6 components which i just tweaked a bit to work better for bass. the only issue with the Ruby is that in it's current state it's not going to let through a lot of bass -- in fact the roll off starts around 400 Hz into a 4 ohm load. so, I've tweaked it a bit, as I really like this idea and think it is something I'll use. i've designed a distortion pedal around a 386 before, might as well properly do an amp too. I would use the attached version over the Ruby, but the choice is up to you. if you really want to strip it down, you can do away with R6, R7, C2 and C4. Q1 can be literally any n-channel FET you can find, the only difference will be to the overall gain levels and the difference won't be massive. one final note, the schematic software I use writes anything over 1000 uF as a millifarad (mF) -- thus the output cap is 2200uF (or 2.2mF), and not 2.2uF. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Vader Posted July 6, 2011 Author Share Posted July 6, 2011 [quote name='escholl' post='1294850' date='Jul 6 2011, 03:34 PM']lol! my tuner one is a lot simpler than that, literally about 6 components which i just tweaked a bit to work better for bass. the only issue with the Ruby is that in it's current state it's not going to let through a lot of bass -- in fact the roll off starts around 400 Hz into a 4 ohm load. so, I've tweaked it a bit, as I really like this idea and think it is something I'll use. i've designed a distortion pedal around a 386 before, might as well properly do an amp too. I would use the attached version over the Ruby, but the choice is up to you. if you really want to strip it down, you can do away with R6, R7, C2 and C4. Q1 can be literally any n-channel FET you can find, the only difference will be to the overall gain levels and the difference won't be massive. one final note, the schematic software I use writes anything over 1000 uF as a millifarad (mF) -- thus the output cap is 2200uF (or 2.2mF), and not 2.2uF.[/quote] Nice one, thanks, I haven't done a lot of circuits since I left school 20 years ago, so this could be fun. Done a great deal of guitar insides, but laid off the fiddly bits. Will let you know how I get on, like the stripping down idea, and your tweaking should help. Might end up slotting the whole thing into the old horn slot of my 1x10, thus making a battery combo of sorts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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