Many musicians enjoy to record their games and performances on concert venues with sound-drying equipment, especially those who play musical instruments with a relatively weak and short sound. These include all the rare exceptions of the label, especially the electric guitarists, whose tools without an amplifier can not be said, do not reproduce any sound. In the same position there are both musicians of other profiles playing electronic or electrical musical instruments.
Insufficiently strong sound is observed in small brass instruments (flute, lifting harmonica, sweater and other pipes). In large concert halls, even bayan and accordion will be heard quite weak. Of course, there is also an electrician, created not only for more effects, but also to compete with other tools even on such concert sites, like stadiums and low fields.
Consider in this article features of lamp guitar amplifiers for home and their installation on their own.
Peculiarities
For guitarists, especially those who perform at concerts or plays an electric guitar, it is very important to choose a good amplifier, issuing high-quality guitar sounds. However, not all novice musicians have the opportunity to acquire expensive equipment of well-known firms engaged in the issue of such audio engineering.
It has long been known that The most natural sound can produce lamp guitar amplifiers (Combians). This sound does not go to any comparison with modern amplifiers on chips and transistors - only the lamp can give sounds with absolutely clean, uniform and charming listener with bass or melodic high frequencies. But the cost of even unprofessional lamp amplifiers produced by world brands is an order of magnitude higher than any combination with semiconductors.
True, lamp amplifiers have some disadvantages that are absent in analog devices. These include:
- bulkiness and large mass of the finished product;
- Insufficient reliability of lamps compared with transistors;
- Strong heating of parts, which can lead to damage to the electrical chain and failure of some components;
- Labor deficiency of necessary lamps due to the widespread spread of electronic devices and gradually folding the production of parts for outdated audio equipment and equipment.
but These difficulties do not stop musicians on the way to getting the high-quality sound of their guitars. Therefore, often guitarists try to pick up the homemade amplifier suitable for the house, and then they collect it with their own hands, which will undoubtedly cost much cheaper than the factory device.
Finding out the best option for yourself, it is necessary to analyze it well, consulting if possible with experts, write down the list of necessary parts for both the electrical scheme of the amplifier and for its base (chassis), on which the entire set of parts is located and is made of the mounting chain between them.
Tools and materials
For domestic training on the guitar game or the record of individual works is quite suitable for a simple guitar amplifier on lamps and other details that provide output sound output within 1.5-3.0 W. It will be enough to successfully practice the technique of the game, make a high-quality record just an intertwined play or songs under your own accompaniment on an acoustic guitar and, of course, to slightly act on the nerves of the nearest neighbors. Therefore, you can choose the option of the self-made amplifier with such details for the electrical circuit:
- Lamp-triode 6N1P (or its analogues: 6N3P, 6N2P, 6N23P), necessary for a preliminary (input) cascade of the whole scheme;
- 6P14P lamp (penter), participating on the end (output) schema cascade;
- The output audio transformer TWZ-1-1, designed for a current load within 8 Ohm and the power of 3 W (can be replaced with an analogue of TWZ-1-9, which is only calculated on the load of not more than 4 Ohms, or non-specialized TCE type transformers, but they will not be able to qualitatively suppress the distortion of sounds);
- 560 kΩ entrance resistor;
- The resistor at the cathode of the lamp-trio is 0.5 W, on the anode - 0.5-1.0 W;
- capacitor in shunt with a cathode resistor lamp-trio with a maximum container and a voltage of about 10 V;
- The condenser on the communication line between the cascades should be voltage from 300 V, and the variable resistor on the same line can be with parameters from 100 com up to 1000 kΩ;
- The resistor at the cathode of the penter lamp must be more powerful than on the inlet lamp (order 2 W), with a resistance of 120 ohms, and the shunt condenser has a lower capacity compared to the shunt in the trigger circuit;
- The speaker is 8 ohms.
For the platform, you can apply a thick duralumin sheet as a material, bending it into a compact form, reminiscent of the box without the bottom side, or buy a finished product. Some users use an old computer case for the platform under the amplifting, sinking a part of the cover on the desired size.
In addition, the materials will need wires for mounting the electrical circuit of the amplifier, as well as cords and plug of the device to network 220 V. immediately need to take care of the sockets and cord to connect the tool to the amplifier.
From the mounting tools, solder equipment and solder should be prepared, the metal with a set of metal drills, appliances and sandpaper, taps, screws and screwdrivers, drapering material for subsequent finishing products, glue, measuring rules and markers for marking.
Production scheme
The proposed scheme for the manufacture of a low-power guitar amplifier is a two-stage system in which the phase converter cascade can enter. Its function lies in the separation of the signal at the inlet to the amplifier into two half-waves, which are opposite by phases. The phase inverter scheme is quite simple and gives good results to improve the work of the amplifier, but not always applicable, especially for high-quality equipment, as the sound is very distorted. But for low-power amplifiers, this device will definitely useful.
When installing the electrical scheme of the amplifier, experts advise the work order not from the first stage (entry), but from the second day.
First, collect the pento part of the scheme with a transformer, speaker, lamp and shunt, and then connect the transformer and the cathode part of the circuit to the electrical network. If everything is fine, then in the dynamics you can hear crackle or background when the lamp is touched by hand. After such a test, you can continue to work. Otherwise, you will need to look for a fault and eliminate it. After collecting the first stage, you should also check the operation of the scheme. Such a separation of mounting to the steps will determine which part of the scheme is a malfunction if an undesirable background appears in the dynamics.
Sometimes it falls by experiments to produce the final adjustment of the amplifier to get a better output sound of the musical instrument. For this, it may be possible to change some details on analogues with other parameters (the capacity of capacitors, another power of resistors, and so on). It happens that lamps have to change at the stage of setting the sound.
How to make a lamp guitar amplifier with your own hands, look in the video below.