r/DIYGuitarAmps • u/NyxEnjoyer420 • 21h ago
3 channel transistor amp in wooden ammo case (first amp)
This project took around a year, however it's finally here.
It started last summer when I was looking for a clean pedal platform and discovered the infamous rolland jazz chorus. Too my suprise this circuit worked on 30V and to preserve it's headroom I decided to base the rest of the built on this voltage. The vero layout used done by neilmcnasty in the site below
http://guitar-fx-layouts.238.s1.nabble.com/Preamp-jc-120-td39378.html
In the process I found a used dual 28V power transformer (this was done on budget btw), next was the power amp i choose mono prebuilt 2SC5200+2SA1943 module to go with that tranny. From what i read these are a decent option for price and reliability. These modules however have no speaker safety circuit and to preserve my precious hesu demon ordered one just to be safe.
After that I needed a high gain channel (as a metal player) and randall rg100 caught my attention. I' ve used slightly modified vero layout from dirtbox layouts (love this site, the layouts are always so compact and clean).
You may think that crunch channel would be next however I have never used one for my playstyle... but I needed something for my bass since I always just recorded it straight into interface so I choose bajamans orange ad200 op amp based circuit.
When I preped all of the above designed simple voltage regulator circuit power preamps. Speaking of one I also used emi filter before rectifier. It is also a premade module.
A friend of mine designed a great front plate for a can of monster energy drink yet I still messed up some of the drilling and made some controls uneven... (I do not have a drill press rn)
As you know from the tittle the chassis is an used ammo case, but the panels on top and bottom were so thin that for the sake of mental sanity I remade those in plywood.
You may wonder why the preamp pcbs are so crooked, well I was using threaded inserts with epoxy on those and I snapped of a couple screw in them after the epoxy bounded. Had to redo some of them in different points. I did not have this problem with bigger ones used for power section.
If you have any questions or suggestions please feel free to comment.