AMPLIFIER FOR GUITAR PRACTICE

Design by W.Teder even short overdrive peaks are tndt-

cated.
The lower threshold of the COID-
The amplifier described is intended as a practice unit for guitar parator is deterrruned by the value of
players. Its power output is not sufficient (in most cases) for R47, which may be adapted to per-
use during a (public) performance. In most other respects, it sonal requirements.
The design of the tnpu t stage as-
is, however, virtually identical to a standard amplifier, as sumes a signal input level of about
evinced by its variable clipper, extensive tone control and 50 mv r.m.s,
facilities for connecting various effect units. Moreover, the
Frequency correction
facility for setting the gain and master volume controls A satisfactory guitar sound cannot be
independently offers even more interesting possibilities. obtatned with tone control alone: the
frequency response curve of the
amplifier needs to be permanently
t a fact (weil, almost) that
is am-
in 'corrected'. In practrce. this means
I plifiers far musreal instruments
there ts a fixed relationship between
primarily selective amplification
high frequencies. In the present
of

the power output and the control fa- ampllfier, networks R3-C3 (JCI). R12-C9
ciltties provided. In other words, high- (IC2b). and R35-C21 (JC2a).ensure that
power amphfters are richly provided the high Irequencres are more highly
with knobs, swttchea and sockets, amplified than low ones in the zero
whereas lew-power versions (for prac- position of the tone controls.
tising) are invariably conspicuous by Moreover, filter Rs-C6-R9-C7 be-
the sparstty of such facilities. tween the diode Itmtter and the cor-.
Many guttartsts: quite rrghtly. are rection amplifier provides maximum
not happy with this state of affairs. In attenuation at about 700 Hz. Thls fil-
the first place. a practice amplifier ter corresponds roughly to the loud-
should, like its btgger brother. pro- ness function on a ht-It amplifier. At-
duce a good sound. Moreover, low- tenuation of the middle frequencies
power amplifiers are often used for has the same effect as ampltfying the
tape recording and this requires a va- low and high frequencies. In other
rtety of plugs and sockets. words, the bass response is also im-
The present amplifier is intended to proved, which is of beneflt in a small
rectify this anomaly. Although com- ampltüer. Readers who intend to use a
pact, it provides facilities that are nor- 30 cm loudspeaker in a large enclos-
mally found only on lugher power am- Input amplifier and Iimiter u re do not need the extra 'amplift-
plifiers. Designed for construction on The guitar ts connected to stereo jack canon' of the bass frequencies and
a stngle printed-circuit board. it 1S socket KI. Htgh-trnpedance input may replace ~-C7 by a 22 Q resistor.
fairly easy to build. Last but not least, amplifier ICI Is protected effectively Stnce extra amplification of the
it is designed with standard compo- agatust high input signals by RI and high frequencres inevitably means
nents, wbich makes it easy on the zener diodes 0, and D2. Most mu st- more noise, the amplification needs to
wallet. cians know that in the excitement of a be ltmited at some point. This is ef-
perforrnance it often happens that the fected, in the first instance, by net-
Inputs are erroneously connected to wcrks RIO-CS(IC2b)and R3TC20 (IC2a)·
Circuit description
the loudspea.ker outputs: most input However, the largest part of the com-
Although the ctrcult in Fig. 1 looks amphflers do not ltke that. The protec- pensation is provided by low-pass
fairly complex, it ts , in fact, qutte tton in the present amplifier ts. there- Bessel füter IC3a-IC3b.T'hls Illter has a
stratghtforward, since the 11 oper- fore, no superfluous luxury. beneftcial. pleasant effect on the pro-
ational amplifiers are contained in The ampliIication of the input duced sound, which retains its crtsp
just four tntegrated ctrcults. amplifier is set wtth PI. The output of character without becomtng too harsh
Brtefly, ICI is the In pu t amplifier, ICI drives diode ltrruter 03-04, window
whose gam is set with PI' Thts stage is comparator 1C2c-1C2d'which forms the
followed by cltppers 03 and 04. Op overdrive indicator circuit, and the
amps IC2c and IC2d form a~ accurate first Une out socket, K2. Some parameters
overdrrve tndtcator. Tbe gatn control may be set so that • corrected frequency response
The tone control circuit is based on DIS ughts only at high sound peaks to • presettable ltmiter with optical
IC3e, IC3d and IC4a. The amp!ifier gtve a 'clean' sound, or so that that indication
stages Iollowtng this circult are part of the threshold of the diode Iimiter is • noise filter
the frequency correcUon network. well exceeded to gtve a 'distorted' • four-fold tone control
Ctrcurts rC3a and IC3b form a notse sound (when DIS llghts ccnttnucuslyl.
• two sockets for effects untts
ftlter. while IC4b is an output buffer for All kinds of effect can be obtalned at
the symrnetrtc !ine output. setrings of PI between these two ex- • separate controls for gain and
The stgnal finally arrives at the out- tremes. master volume
put amplifter. le5, via master volume Capacitors C30 and C31 in the com- • symmetrtcal line output
control PB' para tor ctrcutt provide a slight length- • soft cltpping
ening of the time DIS lights so that

ELEKTOR ELECTRONICS DECEMBER 1995

 AMPLIFIER FOR GUlTAR PRACTICE

Fig. 1. The circuit of the practice amplifier has separate controls for the gain and master volume,
which enables ltmtttng effects to be used even at low sound levels.

ELEKTOR ELECTRONICS DECEMßER 1995

 AUDIOIVIDEO
as happens in some amplifiers.
Tone control
A somewhat unusual four-fold tone
control is provided by IC3c. IC3d and
IC4a- The variable band pass filters for
the low middle (LO-MID) and high
middle (HI-MIO) frequencies are not
syrnmetrical. Potentiometers P2 and P3
provide attenuaüon instead of amplifi-
cation of these two frequency ranges.
Although this would be absurd in a
hi-fi amplifier, it Is not only common,
but also desirable, in an ampüfter for
musical instruments. In a guitar
amplifier adjusted Ior fatrly neutral
operation, the level of the middle Ire-
quencies will always be apprectably
lower than that of the remainder of
the frequency range.
The bass contral, P4 is also asyrn-
metrtcal, but the fixed bass correction
provided by R9-C7 ensures that the ••
bass frequerictes are amplified to a
satisfactory degree.
.~
·wm
The design of the tone contral
makes possible a great vartery of the .,,,
produced sound. If greater dtverstty is
required, expertmcnt with the values
·10m
• ,.
of the reststors in series with the po-
tentiometers. such as R13 and Rl4 in Ftg. 2. Frequency response of tbe
ease of the HI-MIO controL tone control circutt with
P2 and P3 set to maximum and BASS
and TREBELE to neutral (top curve].
The curve dipping at 200 Hz results
when P2 is set to miniInum, and the
third curve when P2 and P3 are set to
mtntmum (BASS and TREBLE
retained at neutral).
The response curves of the tone
control are shown in Fig. 2 and
Fig. 4. Ftgur-e 2 shows the response
with P2 and P3 set to maximum and
BASS and TREBLE to neutral (curve Al.
Curve B shows what happens when P2
is t.hen set to minimum, and Curve c
when P2 and P3 are at minimum (BASS
and TREBLE retained at neutral).
Ftgure 4 shows the response when
P2 and P3 are set to maxtrnum and
BASS and TREBLE at maximum (upper
curve) and at minimum (lower curve).
The five curves show that the dif-
Ierence between the extreme position
is some 30 dB and th is typtfies the
operation of the amplifier. Also, they
illustrate that this sort of tone control
cannot be obtained with a standard
ctrcutt.
Connectors
The tone control circuit is followed by
sockets K3 (send) and K4 (return). to
which spectal effect unlts may be con-
nected.
The Signal at K3 is always available
via R32-CI7, When thorc is no plug in-
serted into ~' the stgnal is connected
to tbe input of IC2a'
The return input is protected
agatrist spunous radio frequency sig-
nals by low-pass filter R33-C1S. while
D7 and Ds afford proteetion against
high input levels.
Socket K3 may be used as a line
output: wtth tape recordings, this 0[-
Iers the advantage of thc tone control
having influenced the signal. However,
the correction provided by ff lter
F'ig. 3. Component layout of tbe
prtnted-circuit board for the practice
amplifier; the track side is shown on
tbe opposite page (scale 1:1).
ELEKTOR ELECTRONICS DECEMBER 1995

Fig. 4. Frequency response of the
tone control circuit with
P2 and P3 set to maximum and BASS
and TREBLE at maximum (upper curve)
and and at minimum (lower curve)
toroidal type is recommended.
The secondary voltage is rectified
by 013-016 and smoothed by C40 and
C41.Diode 0J7 functions as the orr/off
indicator.
The symmetrical output voltage, UI,
is used to power the output amplifier.
Output U2 is the supply for the tone
control and filter circuits, and U3 is
the supply voltage for the input ampli-
fier.
Construction
The amplifier is intended to be built
on the printed-circuit board shown in
AMPLIFIER FOR GUiTAR PRACTICE
I
Fig. 3; only the mains transformer is
not fitted on the board.
The destgn ensures that all con-
trols, input socket KI, overdrive indi-
cator 018, and on/off indicator 0J7'
are at the front of the board. The line
out socket, effect-unit sockets, sym-
metrical output and loudspeaker out-
put, are at the rear of the board.
The output amplifier is purposely
situated at the rear edge of the board,
to ensure sufficient space for tts heat
sink-see Fig. 7. Note that the rc
must be Isolated from the heat sink
wtth the aid of an appropriate washer
and heat conducting paste.

IC3a-IC3b is then not available. The

symmetrical output at K5, buffered by
IC4b' which has passed through this
Bessel filter, is, therefore, immeasur-
ably better than that at K3.
Op arnp IC4b provides an average
output level of 0 dBV (l V r.m.s.),
which may be used to drive a high-
power amplifier.

Output amplifier
The power amplifier, which consists of
IC5' provides an undistorted output of
about 10 W into 8 n or 15 W into 4 n,
which is adequate for the present pur-
poses.
The master volume control, P6' is a
stereo potentiometer arranged as a
quasi-Iogarithmic control. Compared
with a logarithmic potentiometer, this
offers several advantages. For in-
stance, the control curve is more
easily reproduced since the manufac-
tu ring tolerances in linear poten-
tiometers are much smaller than in
logarithmic types. Moreover, it en-
sures a pleasant differential control at
low volumes.
The volume control is followed by
peak Iimiter R55-09-01O'This network
provides a measure of soft clipping in
the output circuit. Transistor ampli-
fiers limit fairly abruptly when they
are overdriven, which results in an
unpleasant grinding noise that few
people appreciate. In the present
amplifier, the diode limiter begins to
operate just before the transistors in
the IC start to limit. This results in a
rounding off of the reetangular signals
that are otherwtse produced by the
transistors. If the soft clipping is not
needed or wanted, 09 and 010 may, of
course, be omitted.

Power supply 0-0

The power supply has been kept as 0-0
simple and economical as feasible.
The only relatively expensive item is
the mains transformer. Where posst-
ble, the use of a 2x12 V, 30 VA

ELEKTOR ELECTRONICS DECEMBER 1995

I AUDlOIVIDEO

The bui!ding up of the board is

pretty stratghtforward if Ftg. 4 and the
parts list are consulted regularly. Fig-
ure 5 shows the completed (prototype)
board.
Most readers will have th etr own
ideas as to how to fmish the arnplifier.
Not many will bui!d the amplifier in a
dedicated enclosure. The norm will
probably be to fit the board at right
angles to a front panel and fix it,
together wtth a loudspeaker. into a
suttable enc1osure.

1;
2:
~
:2: ~ Fig. 5. The Ilrushed (prototype) board.

~
'8~
~

c
EB
(j)
The shape and layout of the front
panel will depend on the application.
It must at any rate contain the poten-
tiometers and the input socket. but, tf
much use of effects untts ts expected,
R!, ~' R30, R31 = 3.3 kQ
R5, R12, R15, R18, R21, R24, R25, R29,
R38-R!1 = 4.7 kQ
R7, R51 = 2.2 kQ
R8, R13, R19, R28, R37, R53 = 22 kQ

- c::
.)....
It would seem advisable that it also
carries the tWQ sockets for these.
RIO=47kQ
R14, R20, R27 = I kQ

:3
.... However, it 1S realized that a number R16, R!7, R22, R23, R52 = 220 kQ
0 of purists will want as few controls on R26 = 15 kQ
:tI the front panel as posstble. R!2-R!5, R48, R!9 = 10.0 kQ, 10/0
~ ). Ftgure 7 shows how the prototype R!7 = 100 kQ, 10/0
s:"1J was finalized as a slot-In module. The
layout of the front panel is gtven in
R50, Rt;5 = 100 kQ
R57 = 180 kQ
....

:3 -- Fig, 6. The board and front panel foi! R58 = 3.3 Q, 5 W

~ ..., are available ready made-see p. 70. R59, Rt;o = 680 Q

Rt;1, Rt;2 = 47 Q
~ Rt;3, %! = 100 Q
", Finally
:tI Rt;6 = 27 kQ

~3
In prtnctple, the present amplifier can PI = 50 kQ (47 kQ) linear. miniature
be used with any type of guttar loud- P2-Ps = 22 kQ, linear, miniature
speaker. In vtew of the low power out- PB = 10 kn, linear, stereo, miniature
~
m
....
put. a standard broadband speaker is
~ EB also eminently suttable. The only as- Capacitors:
'" pect that needs to be watched is that
the rattng of the loudspeaker is not
CI, C8, C18, C33 = 220 pF
C2, C3, C13, CI4 = 22 nF
lower than the amplifier power output. C4, C12, C17, C28, C29, C32, C34 = 1 I'F,
c This means, that an 8-ohm speaker polypropylene, pitch 5 mm
as:
....l> must be ra ted at not less than 10 W C5 = 68 pf
C::'" (continuous) and a 4-ohm type at C6=lOnF
s:i;1
",=ti ~ 15 W (continuous). Ln other words, a C7 = 68 nF
>< 100 W guitar loudspeaker is entirely C9;tCll, C21 = 4.7 nF
." suitable. C15, C38 = 150 nF
00 C16, C22 = 2.2 nF
~ C19 = 33 nF
:0 Parts list
<li C20, C23, C27 = 680 pF
8 Resistors: C24 = 2.7 nF
0:
.;, RI, Rt;, R]], R32, R33, R35, R36, R!6· Rs5, C25 = 1.5 nF
R56 = 10 kQ C26 = 3.3 nF
R2. R34 = 470 kQ C30 = 220 nF
Fig. 6. Suggested front panel layout. R3, R54 = 1.5 kQ C31, C35, C36 = 10 I'F, 63 V, radial

ELEKTOR ELECTRONlCS DECEMBER 1995

 SHORT-CIRCUIT PROTECTION
t is not always realized that, when a
I short-circuit occurs in a circutt sup-
plied via a Type 78xx regulator, this
ICI
TlP147 78XX
and similar types of regulator can not
suddenly cut off. When a short-circutt
(++4-------1-..----I:.~~1)
... • +:,
aCCUTS.a certain output current con- ,
tinues to flow. Although tts level ts R1 R5
D1
ltrruted, it can, nevertheless, cause ,
darnage in a few cases. This can be
prevented with the present ctrcuit. in
BAT8S
.. ,

which, when the output voltage of the

regulator is tao low. a bistable is actu-
ated that instantly disconnects t.he
Input voltage from the regulator via an
electronlc switch.
'00'
BC547B •
When the supply is switched on. RESET
the btstable. consisting of Tl and T2,
is actuated by the voltage across Cl:
Tl is off and T2 conducts. The poten- BC547B BC547B
tial at the collector of Tl, which is
thus high, is applied to the base of T3
via ~. Transistor T3 is then on, which
causes darlington T4. whicb functions
as a sertes swttch for lei, to conduct. in T4 betng disabled. This breaks the Design by H. Bonekarnp
The supply voltage ts thus applied to supply voltage La the regulator. This [954078J
the regulator. situation pertains until the short-cir-
When a short-ctrcutt accurs, diode cuit has been removed and rcsct
D1 causes the base voltage of T2 to switch SI is pressed. The bistable
drop to not more than 0.3 V. The tran- then changes state agam. whereupon
sistor then cuts off. whereupon the the circuit reverts to its normal cper-
bistable changes state, which results ating mode.

C37; 39 pF Fischer SK08/37.5 rnrn") Telephone (01243) 553 031. Trade

C3g; 100 nF laff pcs Order no. 950016 - see p. 70 only, but information as to your
C40, C41; 2200 I'F, 25 V, radial laff front panel foIl, Order no. nearest dealer will be given by tele-
C42' C43; 100 I'F, 25 V, radial 9500l6-F - see p. 70 phone.
C44,C45; 47 I'F, 25 V • Dau (UK)Ltd,70-75 Barnham Road, [950016J
Barnham, West Sussex P022 OES.
Semiconductors:
Dl' D2' D7' Ds; zener 3.3 V. 400 rnW
D3-DS' Dg, DIO; IN4148
DII-DIS; lN4003
D17' DIS; LED
TI; BC550C

Integrated circuits:
ICI ; TL071
IC2, IC3 ; TL074
IC4; TL072
IC5 ; TDA2030

Miscellaneous:
KJ-K4 = 6.3 rum mono audto socket
for pcg mcu nttng wtth switch con-
tact
K5 ; 3-way {Cannon) socket for PCS
mounting
KS-KS ; 3-way terminal block, prtch
5mm
Kg-Kli ; 2-way terminal block, pitch
5mm
F I. F2 ; fuse holder for PCS mounting
with glass fuse. I A, slow Ftg. 7. The complete guitar amplifier fitted in an enclosures (top panel
laff heat sink for IC5, 2.5 K W-I (e.g.. removed) which may be slotted Into the Ioudspeaker box.

ELEKTOR ELECTRONICS DECEMBER 1995