Little Gem MK II speaker load

[krister]

I just finished a Little Gem MK II build and I was experimenting with speaker loads. This amp is loud. I have a Marshall 1936 2x12 with greenbacks. This is a stereo or mono cab so it has a 8 ohm input and a 16 ohm input or both inputs running at 16 ohms in stereo. This amp sounds really good with a 16 ohm greenback. In 8 ohm mode it is louder but it didn't sound as good. Not as focused. Adding the second LM386-1 gave me what the little gem didn't. The extra power gives the low notes the kind of crack I was missing with the single IC model. Even though there are no controls on the amp, the knobs on the guitar work fine. I was thinking about a tone stack and then I thought a 7 band eq in front of the amp would get the job done better if I wanted something different.

What speaker load is your favorite with Little Gem/MK II?

[petemoore]

  I'm using a 10'' 'medium-light' I got from a two way driversystem a console I scavvenged.
  I change my text on FF's into SS amps, the Jfet-LM386 amp can sound pretty darn good with just a FF, adding reberb...different, but good !!!
  Sounds deeper through 2x12'' greenback cab @ 8 ohms...of course turning the volume down changes the load on the amp, and like all amps it has it's 'power band' or 'sweet spot' range, volume levels that sound 'right'.

[TheBigMan]

I'm using mine with an 8ohm 2x12" loaded with Celestion G12H30s.  As you say it is very loud, as is my Ruby through the same cab.  I'm thinking about adding a dual ganged 5K lin pot to control the gain.  The 3-band tone stack Aron has posted in the schematics and layouts forum looks like it would work well with the LGII as well.  Change the input buffer to a FET gain stage, add the tone stack in after it and possibly add a volume control if you need to limit how much of the signal hits the chips/

[krister]

Thanks for your input guys. I need to spend more time with this amp to figure out how I want to set it up. I'm going to build a couple of these for my kids to use as practice amps. They've been bugging me to have their own amps to jam on. This amp seems perfect for this purpose. I'll experiment a bit more and come up with a plan.

[Joecool85]

Here is my plan for testing some stuff/building a sweet little 1watt amp.

First, build a LBP-1 preamp, run that into aron's 3 tone passive eq, run that into a little gem MKII.  Control gain with a dual gang 5k pot.

The volume is the questionable thing.  You could have the volume on the LBP-1, or install a volume pot like on the ruby after the buffer.  Or, do both and have a preamp and master volume.