|
Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
OT-Cheap Maxi Mouse on Ebay
OT-Cheap Maxi Mouse on Ebay
Page:
1
Miles Dewar
1449 posts
Feb 23, 2013
9:54 PM
|
I'm surprised it sold for that. Most sellers start the price far higher. I remember a couple years ago there were a bunch selling for ~$50. Those were the days. Now everyone wants to get rich from one amp...
----------
---Go Chicago Bears!!!---
|
isaacullah
2337 posts
Feb 24, 2013
9:12 AM
|
Probably the low selling price had to do with the fact that there was no charger included. A quick google search finds one for $25 plus shipping, so the deal, while still pretty good, isn't quite as good as it seems...
Still, the price they are going for it pretty outrageous. The battery rig I've put together has cost me about $50, including battery and charger. It's essentially the same specs as a Mouse (~18 watts, fully portable, and great harp tone). I was able to do this through a combination of craigslist and junk-shop finds and my knowledge of electronics and soldering skills. I'm about to pull the trigger on a speaker swap, which will add some loudness and lowend umph for about $20 more...
----------
View my videos on YouTube!
Check out my songs on Soundcloud!
Visit my reverb nation page!
|
rogonzab
238 posts
Feb 24, 2013
11:39 AM
|
Isac, maybe you should sell one of those amp (maybe some kit, just the electronics and the buyer put any speaker in it). A portable amp whit good sound for less than $100 is a great deal, I would be interested in one.
|
isaacullah
2339 posts
Feb 24, 2013
1:59 PM
|
@rogonzab: Unfortunately, putting a kit together for sale is beyond my time limits these days. I'll be happy to share how I did it, however! I based everything off the battery. I managed to find this battery (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000N314J0/ref=cm_cr_ryp_prd_ttl_hst_24) on a deep discount at Amazon for $15. It's nice because it includes the charger, and has a good amp-hour rating, which is crucial for a battery amp. Unfortunately, I see that it is listed for a lot more money at the moment. Anyway, that's the basis of the amp, so I need a circuit that will produce a good sound at 12 volts. The key to this is the preamp, but I'll talk about that in a minute
Here is the power amp kit I used: http://www.electronics123.com/kits-and-modules/HA13118-18-W-BTL-Audio-Power-Amplifier-Power-IC.html. I don't remember if I got it there, but again, I think it was closer to $15 when I bought it. If I was doing this again, I'd look for a "class D" power amp kit. They are just a bit better on battery life than a class AB like the kit I used, and they also don't need heatsinks, which saves on weight. Probably this one would do nicely: https://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=320-322
Now, the preamp. Here is where I get the tone, and here is where I had to use a little bit of skill and electronics experience. You won't find a kit that will get you what you want... You have to build from scratch. I've experimented with a lot of preamp designs over the years, and I've found a couple that sound good for harp, both designs from runoffgroove.com: the professor tweed and the peppermill. If you want something simpler that will also sound good (but be a little less versatile), try the fetzer valve. It don't get any simpler than that one! Anyway, these circuits sound great because they are "clones" of tried and true classic amp circuits, just with the valves replaced by FET transistors (and the circuits updated to work at lower voltages and with those transistors). To get these to work at 12v, I just rebiased the transistors (I use trimpots there, so it's really easy). This is not the technically correct way to do it, but I'm too lazy to redesign the whole circuit, especially if it sounds good already! You have to build these from scratch, which is the toughest part of the job, but perfectly doable (especially the Fetzer Valve!). It's hard to evaluate the price here, because I acquired parts piecemeal over the years, and scavanged a lot of them too... But probably not more than $10 here.
Finally, and what has been the longest struggle for me, the chassis. I've used several chassis over the years for a variety of iterations of this amp (I've gone through a couple of different preamps and speaker combos with it too). But it all recently came together for me a couple of weeks ago. I found an old portable record player in a junk shop for $5. It's the perfect chassis for this amp, and had a decent speaker in it too. Here's what it looks like:
For me, the coolest thing is that it has a compartment that opens up where I can keep my pedals (with some velcro), so that it's an all in one busking solution. Just set it down, open it up, and my looper, delays, and stuff are all there. The amp is integrated, and so is the battery. It's a fully self contained solution:
Anyway, hope that helps!
Last Edited by isaacullah on Feb 24, 2013 2:10 PM
|
orphan
254 posts
Feb 24, 2013
2:08 PM
|
That is a slick set up you built isaacullah. Some good ideas there. Thanks for the post.
----------
|
isaacullah
2341 posts
Feb 24, 2013
2:22 PM
|
Thanks! You are quite welcome. FYI, this is what it looked like inside the compartment when I orignally bought the chassis:
You can see, I just gutted it, and set the amp down in the hole where the turntable used to be. Currently, it has a 6" ceramic speaker in it, with what looks like a really tiny magnet. It's got a great sound, actually, but I'm afraid it won't last too long. There is only enough space for a 6" speaker, but I'm thinking of getting an old 6"x9" ROLA or CTS speaker that you can find in old organs at garage sales and the like. Those speakers actually have GREAT sound (and HUGE magnets), and are dirt cheap because most guitarists wouldn't touch an elliptical speaker with a ten foot pole. Their loss will be my gain!!! :)
Oh, I should also say that the chassis is ported, so it actually has really great bass response. Unfortunately, I've got no video to post at the moment... I'm working on that though!
----------
View my videos on YouTube!
Check out my songs on Soundcloud!
Visit my reverb nation page!
|
Post a Message
|
