Cigar Box Amp

From s047731–(at)–et.rug.nl Sat Nov 19 17:28:16 CST 1994
Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar
From: s047731–(at)–et.rug.nl (M. Verhoef)
Subject: Cigar Box Amp
Sender: new–(at)–et.rug.nl (News system at let.rug.nl)
Date: Wed, 16 Nov 1994 19:53:47 GMT
Nntp-Posting-Host: pc4305p.let.rug.nl

Hi All!

Reading all the pro’s and con’s about the Pignose amp I remembered a posting
sometime ago. It is included below. It’s a small practice amp, similar to a
Pignose only way cheaper :-). Good Luck!

Mike

—————————————————————————–

From: jjkullm–(at)–ela.acs.oakland.edu (J. J. Kullmann)
Subject: CIGAR BOX AMPLIFIER
Date: 21 May 1994 05:01:28 GMT

CIGAR BOX AMPLIFIER

After months of looking around the local guitar shops looking for something
cheap that I could plug my guitar into and listen through walkman style
headphones and finding nothing, I decided to attempt building my own.
After a little effort and experimenting I finally built a low noise amp
that works wonderfully. This amplifier is driven by one 9 volt battery.
The op amp is a LM386. The gain with this configuration is 200.

I have checked this diagram carefully. It is correct.

Components (minus the headphones) only cost me $15.00 at my local Radio Shack.

You do not have to an electronics expert to build this. I have no real
electronics experience and was able to hack this together. Must be heard to
be believed.

You could build this on a little perfboard and actually fit this into your
guitars body cavity.

IT WORKS FOR ACTIVE AND PASSIVE PICKUP ARRANGEMENTS

+9Vdc
|
| | 10uF
3 | | | |
Signal in——-|+ 6| |
| 1| +|| 220uF
| 8_____________||___________
|/ ||| |
2 | / ||| |
———-|- / —— |
| | /|4 ——0.1uFLow Impedence Speaker
| |/ | |_______///____ |(8 ohm Walkman Style)
| | 10 ohm | |
| | | |
|_____________|___________________________|___|
|
GND

Materials
1/4 ” Jack for guitar signal input
Head phone jack (stereo connect left and right channel)
1 9 volt battery terminal connector and 9 volt battery
Capacitors one each: 10uF, 220uF, 0.1uF
1 10 ohm resistor
1 LM386 op amp
8 pin IC base (optional, I used one because I did not want to burn up the IC)
SPST switch (optional, I used one so that the battery would last longer)
Perfboard of choice.

You can go gonzo with different boxes (I used a cigar box for the first
one that I built) or you can fit it into the cavity in your guitar
(I used velcro to keep the battery from flopping around) or you can add
LED bar graphs (I don’t know the number for the control chip) etc.

I am new to the net and do not know how to cross post. Everyone can feel free
to share this anyway they want.

Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Thank you and enjoy!!!

James Kullmann

///////////////////////////////////////
TTFN – Ta Ta For Now!
-Tigger
///////////////////////////////////////
m.verhoe–(at)–et.rug.nl
050 – 731966

 

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