So I am picking up one of Gitty's 2.5 watt amp kits and plan to wire in the gain control, as per the video advice that they provide. But I am wondering if the Psycho Knob kits they offer would have anything else to add to the mix - or if I will be getting the same control by wiring in the gain control? And to add even more confusion.....what about adding a tone control with a small capacitor? AND just for fun, how difficult would it be to add a headphone jack to bypass the speaker? (Yes, I seem to be trying to jam a whole pedal board system into this little amp) You all are so free with advice and suggestions, any help would be appreciated.
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The amp board has a positive off, the psycho knob lists the setting 0 as bypass/off but a former member tested and found it still pulls a little juice in that position and recommended adding a switch to save the battery.
The gitty factory folks did try testing the psycho knob and the amp board sharing a battery and found there was too much cross-talk between the boards over the battery leads and recommends a separate battery for each.
Maybe shielded cable would work?
A Gain knob adds some distortion to the amp and can be very versatile when adjusting your amp's controls. I would add the gain knob.
A simple tone circuit can be run off the volume pot. Run a wire off the volume pot's center lug to the #1 lug of a B100k tone pot, jump lugs 2 & 3 and attach a 100n/.1uf cap between lug 3 and ground. These type circuits work best with quality pots, the cheap ones tend to limit the effect too much.
A Psycho Knob should be treated more as a effect pedal. You could run your guitars signal through the psycho knob first and then to the amp like the usual effect pedal.
Another consideration, instead of adding a tone circuit to the amp, use a acoustic guitar preamp with EQ as a effect pedal. This will give you a boost effect and the EQ will be more effective at adjusting the tone.
Thanks for the advice, gents. After some serious cogitation I'm gonna try to stuff an EQ pre-amp to dial in the natural sound of my git, the Psycho Nob and the little 2.5 watt amp into one box. My plan, to simplify the wiring and save the batteries, is to wire all three separately and use short jumper cables between each. That way the units won't be 'on' unless I plug into them and I can patch out before the amp into a small headphone amp on occasion( to avoid scaring the cats). I guess I'm making up for dreams of playing through stacked Marshalls. I really appreciate the free flow of ideas on this site.
You could wire them and the amp into a input plug for a walwart with optional battery hook up for outdoor use and no electricity.
The Psycho knob and the preamp that C.B.Gitty sells have on/off knobs if I'm not mistaken. They would drain your battery if they're not on and are true bypass. Something to look into to make sure. If not, I'm sure we could figure it out.
C.B.Gitty website shows that the psycho knob is off and true bypass in position 1. The acoustic preamps have a on/off switch.
The gain knob will get you a little bit of distortion. The Psycho knob will give you more than you can handle...
IMHO, the psycho knob would eliminate the need for the gain, as you can use it in Bypass, Gain, Blues Crunch, Rock and Metal modes...
The downside to the psycho knob is a 2nd 9v battery (no big deal) and slightly more complicated wiring. (again, no big deal)
no idea on the psycho knob but if you want to use headphones you will need a series resistor to limit the current flowing into them. full amp power would just destroy them. as to what size resistor to use depends on the resistance of you headphones and their power handling capacity.
need a bit of time and a notepad to work out a suitable starting resistance... if i can...lol