As I member of the student IEEE chapter here, we get to see and do a few neat things every now and then. A couple of months ago, the chair presented his guitar amplifier in an aluminum can (like soup or vegatable) . It was kind of cool actually and sounded decent. It's at least some amplifier, since playing electric guitars without an amp doesn't have a good sound, but I don't necessarily want to use a large amp everytime if I'm just messing around for 5-10 minutes.
All it used was a LM386 op amp, a small, full-range speaker (he got one from Durango), and a resistor or two to control the gain, a few caps, and I can't remember if he used a pot for volume or if it was just on/off. But very simple... only a few $ in parts, best if you can get the speaker free.
I'm unsure of what op amp characteristics are important in this application. The guy said that he used a gain of 50, which produced a very slightly distorted sound. He had tried 200 but it was very noisy/thrashy. I was thinking maybe 100 might suit my style more.
Has anyone done one of these before? Or would know what op amp would be best for this? Or, what could I do to make it even better if possible? Like he just said from the LM386 datasheet, the example gain schematic was all there was to it. Like I was considering adding a switch for higher gain and lower gain, or perhaps a pot to for that, etc. Ideas?
All it used was a LM386 op amp, a small, full-range speaker (he got one from Durango), and a resistor or two to control the gain, a few caps, and I can't remember if he used a pot for volume or if it was just on/off. But very simple... only a few $ in parts, best if you can get the speaker free.
I'm unsure of what op amp characteristics are important in this application. The guy said that he used a gain of 50, which produced a very slightly distorted sound. He had tried 200 but it was very noisy/thrashy. I was thinking maybe 100 might suit my style more.
Has anyone done one of these before? Or would know what op amp would be best for this? Or, what could I do to make it even better if possible? Like he just said from the LM386 datasheet, the example gain schematic was all there was to it. Like I was considering adding a switch for higher gain and lower gain, or perhaps a pot to for that, etc. Ideas?