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CBG Amp ideas anyone? :)

So as some of you know I am currently building my first CBG. What actually motivated me to ACTUALLY finally do it? I am making my first one for my father for christmas- he's going to FREAK out- IF I succeed of course LOL

Anyways- he no longer has an amp around, so I thought I would get/make him one to go with the CBG since it has a pick up. This will just be for personal use- he won't be on stage or anything like that... so not too worried about it being super loud or fancy.

Now, of COURSE I want to MAKE the amp... (great excuse to start another project ASAP ;) lol) -but most the amp kits I see are only battery powered. I would LIKE for him to be able to plug it in, as I know he'll use it a lot and I don't want him to have to constantly be buying batteries.

My first grand idea was to buy an amp, tear it open, gut it, and stick it all in a cigar box pretty much... or into SOMETHING unique/cool (lunch box, gas can, ammo box, suitcase, so on and so forth) has anyone done something like this successfully?

I have a couple friends who have suggested that I just buy him a little mini fender amp or a pig nose or something... but I don't know. I kind of really want to make one if at all possible!

Thoughts anyone? :)

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Permalink Reply by Thomas Blasque on November 21, 2016 at 1:08am

Yes my dear, please contact grampacbg. He has been helping me with my builds and I have been bringing him various types of boxes. It seems every time I go over to his place he has built a new amp.his work is the best and the has great ideas.I've worked with him awhile and no better person have I ever met. He has some wild amps from just about anything.He told me about going junking and digging thru the scratch and dent bins ,so he can find stuff for builds. Pretty cool I think. Well contact him and I think you will be a ok.

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Permalink Reply by crossroads on November 21, 2016 at 6:05pm

i am to new here to know anything, give any kind of advice.... or have thoughts...

just wanted to say. you are a good daughter!

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Permalink Reply by Blues Frog on November 22, 2016 at 12:50pm

OK I know you have already made your choice, but I wanted to chime in. I also built a MAH-3 amp. It has the 9v battery and adapter as well. It has three settings, Clean, Dirty, and the Blues.

I made a custom body for it......

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Permalink Reply by Blues Frog on November 22, 2016 at 2:26pm

I will put one together

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Permalink Reply by Blues Frog on November 23, 2016 at 12:32am

It should be up here http://www.cigarboxnation.com/video/mah-3-amp-demo

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Permalink Reply by Blues Frog on November 23, 2016 at 11:13am

I hope you found the one that actually has working video.

The first one didn't work so well.........

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Permalink Reply by darryl kernaghan on November 23, 2016 at 4:52am

The Mah 3,4 and 5 are sound units i've used all 3, probably 15/20 all up, but i've cooked 2 mah 5's due to over powering them, unfortunately, the exchange rate makes them very expensive now, and i haven't bought any for 2 years or more, but a good option for a straight amp head, no effects, is the lepai LP-808, i've used them for computer speakers, git amps, and other things, at about 12 bucks, hard to beat

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Permalink Reply by darryl kernaghan on November 23, 2016 at 6:21am

weird, i've had 4, made good head units, nothing special, but i use 2 of them daily for my pc, and lap top audio, and i'm very happy with the results, the laptop i use in my shed, high quality scavenged speakers, can't fault it

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Permalink Reply by darryl kernaghan on November 23, 2016 at 6:42am

the issue is getting the mono to work via stereo output, i struggled with that, then went to using 1 channel only, always meant to try it with dual input and output, but haven't as yet

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Permalink Reply by David McQueen on November 23, 2016 at 9:37am

You can always go with a little solid state board off of Ebay. I used a 15 watt, 12 volt stereo board TDA7297.

TDA7297 listing

Here is a trial of the amp I made with it.

15 Watt Amp Trial

I combined the channels at the stereo input end and ran two speakers. It is powered with a 12 volt DC wall wart I picked up locally.

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Permalink Reply by RTZGUITARS on November 27, 2016 at 11:42am

Hi Rosanne, I can't read what all these Hobo's have said in response to your ? But

as cool as a amp in a Cigar box is and I have built many, for the same cost of a cba kit or hand wiring one you can get a used Amp at Guitar Center for $45 dollars that have reverb distortion amp sims tuner and if you want some are battery and wall powered I got one at a garage sale for $20 sounds great. So much more fun......good luck and don't get discouraged were all still learning