The Stella Amp!

I'm a definite novice, but just finished wiring my Stella amp. Yeah. I was hoping you could provide some information on what speakers are appropriate. I wired it to a few I had around and noticed big differences. First, I wired it into a 4 inch 10 watt 16 ohm speaker from an old television. To keep it clean, it had to be almost inaudibly quiet. Otherwise it was extremely distorted. Then I wired it into a 4 inch 10 watt 8 ohm speaker I have in a different cigar box amp kit. It sounded good. Then, for fun, I clipped it to the 8 inch 10 watt 4 ohm speaker in a Fender Champ replica.

Why so many filter caps on Vcc? There are C2, C8, and C10, some seem redundant.

Also, what is C3 doing on the output? Is it affected by speaker impedance or supply voltage.

Just wondering, still fiddling around, not an EE.

Thanks

I have the speaker output wired to a jack, which I use to experiment with plugging into various size/shape cabinets. (Cardboard boxes!) If I use the Hacks! output to plug into some other amp, and leave the Stella's speaker jack unplugged, am I going to do any damage to anything on the Stella?

Finished my build. I installed a power switch and put the LED in the case. I had no choice on that really as I damaged the LED holes in the PCB and had to relocate it anyway.

I ended up wiring in the loop after the switch. I used a LED with a build in resistor so that seemed to work. Looks nice and bright.

So far, I've found it very useable for electric guitar. Clean tone is not quite as loud as I hoped, but it has a ton of crunch when you turn it up. Very fun.

hey john, i read ur blogs for awhile and i decided i will make one(just ordered) and yea, im looking for some info on making a cab for it, im a bass player, and sometime i just want to play around with a small portable , like bag portable. if u could recommend size of the cab, speaker and other infos let me know, im just a college student, dont have much info on building stuff like this in my head.

Hey all, just finished wiring up my Stella. Took a few hours longer than it should doing some poor soldering technique I'm still working on. Filled a few PCB holes accidentally and it was hell getting the leads in there once that happened. Even partially melted the PCB around the LED a tad but was able to build a solder bridge of sorts and it works now.

I couldnt find a "contact me" button anywhere.

Anyone know if the vendor accepts paypal?

I want to order a kit, and would LIKE to use ppl but dont HAVE to, I just hate to muck up his system by starting a sale to "see" and then cancel it if he doesnt.

thought this might be easier

sorry about the mispost

J

Love what you're doing here!

The input jack has three tabs for two wires. One tab is the tip, does it matter which of the other tabs is selected?

What about adding a similar output jack for an external speaker cabinet?
Is there a way to set it up where the output would go directly to self-contained speaker, unless the jack was in use, in which case output would go through the jack? Should this be hard to do? Any thoughts on how?

Similarly, on the power supply, is there a way to put in automatic switching between a wall wart and the AA battery box?

Hi, just curious, what changes are necessary to make this work with a cigar box guitar? What types of pickups do they use?

I'm having trouble getting sound out of my Stella. After lots of testing I can confirm an audio signal coming out of lug 2 on the 10k level potentiometer and going into the TBA820M on pin 3, but no signal comes out of the TBA820M on pin 5. I do have voltage on the positive side of each of the electrolytic caps.