‘Smokey’ Amp
‘Smokey’ Amp Veroboard Project
1/2 Watt Practice Amp
Here is a design based on a schematic of the old Smoky Amps you used to get in cigarette packets. I changed capacitor values to allow for extra bass signal to come through as I turned mine into a small practice combo amp that was to drive a six inch speaker.
Here is a video of how it sounds. It is pretty good and can go from clean to crunchy to fuzzy by controlling it with your guitar’s volume knob. It pumps out about 1/2 a watt so it is still reasonably loud and makes for a great little practice amp. Also, it actually takes pedals pretty well as shown in the video.
And here is a Verboard layout I made in DIY Layout Creator. It can be powered from a nine volt battery, or wired up to a nine volt DC jack as I have done.
NOTE – This is a POWERAMP design designed to drive a speaker or similar load.
That’s all guys, a really simple, reasonably quick build, and you get a great little practice amp out of it. Experiment with cap values to allow more or less bass to come through.
09 May 2012, 8:12 pm
Can I use lm386 instead IC1
17 Mar 2012, 8:16 pm
Hello! I would like to do this, is seems very useful and it have a very good sound. But I have some questions…
1. Can I use LM386 instead of JRC386?
2. Schematic is really simple, but I wanna ask, where to connect negative pole of battery? In a GROUND? And the second input contact is connected to the GROUND too? And directly to the negative battery contact?
Thank you for answer, btw. you play really good!
04 Mar 2012, 5:53 pm
Hi Derek. TBH any speaker should work in this circuit. I think I used a 6 ohm speaker in the test build.
04 Mar 2012, 12:39 pm
hello, what kind of speaker should i use for this, 8 ohm? im trying to make a small toy that will have a beeping sound come from it.
20 Nov 2011, 6:12 pm
Hi Alice, I’m far from an expert on the subject but the reason it distorts at low volume is because there is very little headroom in this design. It puts out around 1/2 a watt and at even very quiet volumes there is some slight breakup. The caps are actually more geared towards EQing the circuit, allowing or restricting low end.
Unfortunately it is what it is and is not designed to be a hi-fi poweramp of any kind.
18 Nov 2011, 11:16 am
hi, how would you mod this to work with an ipod? the gain is awesome for a guitar input but the sound quality doesnt cut it for media input. i’ve tried messing about with the cap values but not having much luck, signal is still very distorted even at low volumes. any suggestions would be awesome. thanks!
18 Feb 2011, 6:58 pm
Yep its cool indeed. I raised the value of the caps to 220 just because I had a six inch speaker, the original smokies with the smaller speakers had small values I believe.
16 Feb 2011, 10:19 am
Really good,and very simple to build.and you get a great little practice amp out of it. Experiment with cap values to allow more or less bass to come through.
22 Aug 2010, 4:41 pm
Oh really? Ah well, now you can make one for fun!
22 Aug 2010, 1:53 am
they DO still make those things
http://www.smokeyamps.com/