Replies

  • Scott aka Farmer Ted January 12, 2012 at 7:03am

    One possible remedy is to add an inexpensive 2-channel pre-amp (similar to one found on an acoustic/electric guitar)...which improves the signal from the piezo before it reaches the amp.

    As well, using two piezo discs rather than one improves the sound/tone too...wired in parallel.
     
    Michael Cuell said:

    So, I did some trouble shooting on this amp. It appears that it may not be able to tolerate input from a piezo. I hooked one up to the input and still got the rapid clicks. I think I'll try and build a little 386 amp, although my last attempt resulted in failure.

  • Hobo 63 January 11, 2012 at 1:26pm
    Mine work fine on electric and piezo guitars.Order two more...lets see how those work.
  • Michael Cuell January 11, 2012 at 12:19pm

    So, I did some trouble shooting on this amp. It appears that it may not be able to tolerate input from a piezo. I hooked one up to the input and still got the rapid clicks. I think I'll try and build a little 386 amp, although my last attempt resulted in failure.

  • Habanera Hal January 10, 2012 at 3:54pm

    Bob,

    Looking at the ebay link for the Hong Kong amp and the Qkit picture (FK602) they don't look the same.  Are you sure they are the same?  Does the qkit amp have a volume control?  I can't tell from the pictures.  If not, can you advise how/where to wire one in?  I'd like to order some of the qkits as it will get here sooner and I have a deadline to meet.

    Thanks!

    Bob Lumpkin said:

    Good little amp. No tone control, no LED (I rigged one without much trouble) Two internal gain settings (jumper), I used high & a 4" Realistic speaker, old ('91) faded & crappy looking but not torn or busted and got a cool very overdriven tube amp sound out of it (almost fuzz, but not quite). Decent volume for a Cigar Box amp. I paid $8.40 for mine. You can get it in a kit for around $5 or $6 from qkits.com in Canada. They have all kinds of neat stuff. Check them out, I just ordered a bunch of kits from them.

    ps: They have most kits assembled for a couple of bucks more. Also, their prices are in US dollars & shipping is resonable.

  • Bob Lumpkin January 10, 2012 at 1:48pm

    The first batch of these I bought worked fine. I bought three more a couple of weeks ago & every one had problems. Two had stiff, very scratchy pots & the other didn't work at all. Cleaning the pots didn't help so I'll stick with the kits I've been getting from Q-Kits, a little more work but better & cheaper.

  • Michael Cuell January 10, 2012 at 1:16pm

    Just got my example in the mail yesterday. Hooked it up no problem. It sounds good when I use my regular guitar, but when I use either of my piezo equipped CBG I get a rapid succession of clicks. I've tried reversing the connections from the input jack to no avail. Any ideas?

  • petey twofinger December 5, 2011 at 3:34am

    the kiddie guitars you see at goodwill / salvation army usually have a 386 amp on a seperate board . i got 2 of these this week , a dollar each . the barbie one had an echo circuit , a pt2399 chip , and an lm386 . i cut the timing and feedback resistors out , spliced in pots , housed it in a mini cigar box with in / out / power jack . right now its on my bench runnin along with my mp3's other speakers . i got some boston acoustics for 50 cents toady so those are running thru a kenwood delay / surround processor . i got an altec lansing sub for 3 bucks last week , so my bench has "5.1" sound system now !!!

     

    you have to tweak the delay for each song , some tunes like real short ambient reverb , but for pink floyd the long echos work very well ... 

     

    the second guitar had an lm386 amp on a tiny board , i rehoused it in this little tin with 1/4 inch and rca jacks . i figure i will use it on my bench , instead of grabbing something large / important . you never know when mr reverse polarity will show up ... 

  • Oane November 20, 2011 at 5:22am

    I ordered e few of those modules and made a little (11x11x13 cm) amp with one, it works like a charm. I also bought an amp from the bay with dual input that uses two of these modules, the modules are looped and connected to one 8 ohm 5 watt speaker. even though I can eke em cheaper myself the one I bought looks great and i love it. it is a definite plus that the modules are dirt cheap, and shipping took about one and a half week from china to the Netherlands.

     

    Edit:

     

    I almost forgot, I also bought this kit to test.

    Ebay TDA2003 /TDA2002 kit

     

    Haven't asambled it yet but will put some results here when I have.

  • Habanera Hal November 19, 2011 at 8:52pm



    Bob Lumpkin said:


    Hey Hal, looks like a First Act amp that takes 2 9v batteries. Trying to figure out what do with the one I have. Where did you get that cool looking grill thing. Very nice decals, I finally got mine to print.

     

     

    Hey Bob -

    The First Act amp gets along great with just a single 9V.  The grill is a piece of perforated aluminum you can get at Home Depot @ ~ $20 for a 12" x 24" sheet.  Thanks re the decals. I've been having mixed success with them.

  • Bob Lumpkin November 19, 2011 at 4:21pm

    Acid cigar boxes work great for amps.You can use the hinged cover as tilt back legs.

    Scott aka Farmer Ted said:

    I've made a few LM386 amps from scratch...hand soldered components...and they are great. Two items of importance: First, when choosing a box to house the amp and speaker, being able to easily open/close lid makes for an added effect (open=clean sound...closed=overdrive or fuzzy sound...Second, the LM386 circuit is best suited for an 8ohm speaker with a small magnet...larger magnets will drain the 9 volt battery in a flash. Of course you can set it up with an ac/dc adapter (wallwart), but even though the LM386 circuit works on 4-12volts, it sounds best in the 9v range.

     

    In either case, their lots of fun, portable, and go great with cbg's.305758834?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024

     

     

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