the chassis is a cigar box , ACID , by Drew Estate , they seem to pretty popular , for an 8 dollar cigar . i guess they have 2 sizes , this is the larger box , i have a few of the smaller box's . i actually offered to give one of these smaller box's to a good friend . they are really sturdy , they smell great , you put your money in there , or what have you (crack) . he took it , then gave it back cause it says "acid" , he didn't want his nephew to think he does drugs or condones smoking .
dude bums a half pack off me every time we hang .
[img]http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/9804/sdc10684800x600.jpg[/img]
the over size GEM lite really pulls it all together . it was a gift from a good friend who found it cleaning out his late father-in-laws garage . odd twist of fate , this guys's wife passed away recently as well (aneurysm) . such a tragedy , they were in love , she was way too young and sweet to leave us so soon .
[img]http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/9992/sdc10686800x600.jpg[/img]
the top right switch shuts down the speaker for headphone use , a switching jack doesn't have the thread depth for mounting thru thicker panels (wood) .
[img]http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/1021/sdc10688800x600.jpg[/img]
the two knobs on the bottom where mod'd in to provide tremolo rate , and echo time . this mod gives the unit 3 and a half seconds of echo , opposed to the stock 1/3rd of a second . i got lucky on the trem , but the echo mod required removing an smt resistor (the size of the head of a pin) and soldering micro wire onto the leg of a tiny 16 pin ic chip , Phew .
[img]http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/4411/sdc10689800x600.jpg[/img]
yes the speaker grille IS from a fan . my lil bro garbage picked this odd string of five of those fans on a single ac line , it had one switch . i still cant figure out what that would be for ? some sort of ikea design that was inspired after a bad glug night perhaps . i cut one of those fan units on to a long cable and i use it as a fluid less bbq charcoal briquette starter with one of those steel chimney tubes . fantastic little contraption .
[img]http://img849.imageshack.us/img849/1150/sdc10690800x600.jpg[/img]
the actual amplifier is a danelectro hodad , 29 bucks on amazon , it only has a couple 2 inch speakers , but if you run it on a larger speaker its much much louder . the speaker i used came out of another guitar amp i mod'd into a battery powered bass amp for my wife . i use power transformers hooked up to deep cell batteries for remote . you can run a few these amps for 8 hours with that set up . for home use , i use wall warts . you see how its a little crooked there , thats on purpose , now its got character , see ?
[img]http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/9809/sdc10691800x600.jpg[/img]
i had to remove the original input jack , it was in an odd location . it was a switching jack that turned the input on . no reason whatsoever for this , i guess so it makes em tougher to mod ? it took an extra hour , what a hassle ! i filled the hole with a little hot glue so when i spill beers on it , maybe it will take a little longer to explode .
[img]http://img815.imageshack.us/img815/1968/sdc10692800x600.jpg[/img]
i also removed the stock led so i could utilize the mega mojo gem lite . the voltage off the pin was 1.8 volts . i bought a fancy super brite 1.8 volt led for 2 bucks from frys only to realize it wasn't very super (turned out to be RED , when it was clear and that was not specified on the packaging) and also it was not very bright . later i ended up getting lucky at home depot , they had a reduced package with a super nice box cutter knife , a 9 led mini flash light and a miner light for 3 bucks . the miner light is what shines in the gem now . it runs on 6 volts . on the board there was an smt (teeny tiny) resistor cutting 9 volts to 1.8 for the original LED so i held my breath , removed that smt resistorand slapped in a 100 k (i think) to get it around the proper level for the 6 volter . i popped an amp board doing that with out a resistor before , just the power section for the lamp , but . i smoked an led or two like that as well (use your meter you dummy) .
[img]http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/4319/sdc10693800x600.jpg[/img]
this was a pretty fun project , i took my time , only got hung up for a minute or two on some of the switching for the headphones , power in , and that goofy pointless input jack . the insides look fantastic , but my wife took the pics and its super late . i am in an incredible amount of pain from messing with this thing . the main challenge is making everything fit and this one was pretty tight in some spots . NOTHING compared to my metal amp though . . . that build was a living red nightmare .
[img]http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/1485/sdc10696800x600.jpg[/img]
thanks so much to my wife , she really does quite a bit of the work for / with me . since my injury i cant do much , i will be laid up for a week cause i did a little work tonight . sure we bickered a little bit here and there but it wasn't like the cops showed up a few times like with the metal amp . :lol:
[img]http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/9339/sdc10697800x600.jpg[/img]
the mojo emitting from this gem is capable illuminating even the darkest depths of a broken heart .
i think this may be the last one for me , i have 5 now including the bass amp , i do need to test this with a guitar , tomorrow , its too late to crank it .the preliminary tests sounded great though . cigar box amp , really fun project , try one sometime ! i cant wait to make a few more , lets see , stereo amp , thermin amp , compressor / auto wah / echo amp . . . .
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I picked up a set of forstener bits for 8 bucks from the cheep tool / cigarette store . that helped for the dc jack . those are always a challenge , but i found a different model jack at frys that is round and threaded with a decent length of thread so i bought an extra ! i had time to try a test today . it has a great clean tone , the fx are really nice , i can get it to fuzz with the gain knob cranked . i tried it with a boss ce-2 eh freq analyzer , foxx tone clone , TS clone , and an electric mistress . i should have a vid series on these amps soon . i want to see how they all stack up , comparing the differences in the amps / speakers / cabinets / fx . i cant say its the loudest one ive made for sure , but i think it is . the metal amp has an od and a metal distotion . it screams so ... it seems where these mini amps fall short most of the time is a good clean tone . this one has a fantastic clean sound . the first problem is the stock ones have such tiny speakers .
i would say an honest upgraded alternative to a ruby or gem kit would be to get a honeytone , and hack it into a nicer cabinet / box with a 6 inch speaker . but i am not sure if it would be much louder . i would really like to get a mico compressor circuit to add to these things , hmmm .
i recently had that solder station open , it has a large resistor for a temp control (craig anderton) , i had failed to ground the box . so when it was open i grounded it . a while later i pulled the solder and it snagged on the ac plug pin and grounded on the chassis. it exploded , hot liquid solder flew all over , melting into both of my lens on my glass' . the solder bits ricocheted all over . so i guess that was one were the proper safety measures turned out to be a hazard . actually , bad design !
so i made a wood bracket to cover the outlet , it looked very gilliganed , so i used some aluminum tubing on 2 lil L brackets as a guide tube to feed the solder thru a highr path , avoiding the plugs hot zone .
i like the fan grille too ! and that gem light really pulls it all together , doesn't it ?
i wish i had time to test it , too much shit goin on today . . .
thanks guys , feedback makes my day , specially when its too nice !
i am gonna take more pics here very soon , today i will be busy , adrian belew is going to be streaming for 2 hours on dutch radio . so if you read this within the hour , tune in !
i have 5 amps i made now , so i will be doing some videos soon , that stuff takes me forever , and then i get like 3 views and they are all me . but i am going to do this soon . they are all pretty sweet in there own ways , these amps , and they all have built in effects , the one has 3 !
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I picked up a set of forstener bits for 8 bucks from the cheep tool / cigarette store . that helped for the dc jack . those are always a challenge , but i found a different model jack at frys that is round and threaded with a decent length of thread so i bought an extra ! i had time to try a test today . it has a great clean tone , the fx are really nice , i can get it to fuzz with the gain knob cranked . i tried it with a boss ce-2 eh freq analyzer , foxx tone clone , TS clone , and an electric mistress . i should have a vid series on these amps soon . i want to see how they all stack up , comparing the differences in the amps / speakers / cabinets / fx . i cant say its the loudest one ive made for sure , but i think it is . the metal amp has an od and a metal distotion . it screams so ... it seems where these mini amps fall short most of the time is a good clean tone . this one has a fantastic clean sound . the first problem is the stock ones have such tiny speakers .
i would say an honest upgraded alternative to a ruby or gem kit would be to get a honeytone , and hack it into a nicer cabinet / box with a 6 inch speaker . but i am not sure if it would be much louder . i would really like to get a mico compressor circuit to add to these things , hmmm .
yeah there just way too big , but it really looks perfect .
loud front end thump on the volvo showed up this morning . taking the car to my brothers . . .
dang i really wanted to test this thing ! also take some pics .
Just glad you were wearing glasses!
And I am definitely going to keep an eye out for fan cages like that - it's a great look!
so i made a wood bracket to cover the outlet , it looked very gilliganed , so i used some aluminum tubing on 2 lil L brackets as a guide tube to feed the solder thru a highr path , avoiding the plugs hot zone .
i like the fan grille too ! and that gem light really pulls it all together , doesn't it ?
i wish i had time to test it , too much shit goin on today . . .
gizzard pics and test video soon .
thanks guys , feedback makes my day , specially when its too nice !
i am gonna take more pics here very soon , today i will be busy , adrian belew is going to be streaming for 2 hours on dutch radio . so if you read this within the hour , tune in !
http://tinyurl.com/48qu2pl
i have 5 amps i made now , so i will be doing some videos soon , that stuff takes me forever , and then i get like 3 views and they are all me . but i am going to do this soon . they are all pretty sweet in there own ways , these amps , and they all have built in effects , the one has 3 !
That's stupid-cool. Do you have a picture of it's gizzards?
thanks,
Sam