Which amp should I make?

[Ell]

I have layouts for a:
Standard ROG Ruby
Bassman mod Ruby
Fetzer Ruby (drawn by Andrew Silkebakken, no idea if it's verified)
and a Little Gem MK I and MK II (by Andrew again)

Can anyone recommend me which ones are the best sounding. I know that the Bassman Ruby and Fetzer Ruby are mods of the original, but do they sound better than a stock Ruby?

Thanks, I really don't know what to build with the parts I have.

[Ripthorn]

Whenever asking which sounds best, tell us what aspects you find most desireable, otherwise it's like trying to tell you which candy bar is best when you don't tell us whether you like chocolate better than fruit flavors, etc.

[Ell]

Well, what characteristics do each of the amps have?

I'd like a fair bit of distortion available in one of them, and I'd prefer it if they were louder rather than quieter.

On ROG they say the Little Gem is quite Marshally. Is the MK II similar? Also, the MK II doesn't have ANY knobs apparently, does this mean that I have one fixed setting and I just change the volume on my guitar?

What kind of differences are there between the regular Ruby and the Fetzer Ruby?

[km-r]

well, these circuits are very easy to assemble... just throw up any circuit and see if it sounds good.

in my experience, these amps are good for headphone playing or through a decent passive speaker.
ive built one[the lm386 one, dont know the name] into a stompbox format and put it last on my signal chain as a line driver or for headphone playing.
i use my pedals through them most of the time. fairly nice crunch on its own...

[hubble]

i opened this thread wanting to say "DC30!" or something similar...oh well.  i guess i'll suggest the noisy cricket or the tube cricket! ive always wanted to build those.  ruby is always good though

[Ripthorn]

With the 386 amps, loud is not a word to really describe them, but I know a lot of people like the grace/big daddy.  I haven't built any of them, but if you did the fetzer ruby, you would get a more complete amp sound, i would think (having a preamp stage and "power" amp).

[petemoore]

Can anyone recommend me which ones are the best sounding.
Yes,
I know that the Bassman Ruby and Fetzer Ruby are mods of the original, but do they sound better than a stock Ruby?
  I could better answer this by knowing the power supply voltage.

Thanks, I really don't know what to build with the parts I have.
  I don't know what parts you have, I guess an LM386, take a look at it's data sheet.
  It can be tweeked this way and that...lower volume/more bass, it will run into power supply limitations quickly if asked to exceed it's own abilities, and 9vdc supplied amp does that though.
  Roll the bass off a little more I guess...what's left should sound a touch louder and more well defined.

[anchovie]

The Little Gem MKII uses two chips for higher output. It doesn't have any controls as this would involve dual-gang pots and would go against the idea of a simple build. I suspect it would sound similar to a MKI. The original Little Gem needs a 25 ohm rheostat for a volume control, which perhaps isn't as common as the pots we normally use in stompboxes.

The Ruby is the successor to the Little Gem and that's the one I'd recommend. I built one a couple of years ago and ran it at 9 volts and it was able to drive a Marshall 4x12 cab, and you had to raise your voice a little to have a conversation over it at max volume. Gave a decent crunch with the gain maxed too.

[jefe]

I played around with the noisy cricket, but settled back on a stock ruby as my bench amp. Simple, and sounds great.

A breadboard is your friend in this case. They're all relatively simple builds, so try them all.

[nico13]

I played around with the noisy cricket, but settled back on a stock ruby as my bench amp. Simple, and sounds great.

What did you dislike in the Noisy Cricket?

[jefe]

What did you dislike in the Noisy Cricket?

lol... good question, I'm trying to remember. I think I had trouble getting the Tone knob to do much of anything, didn't see it as worthwhile. The grit mod worked well, but I just didn't need it - I needed a clean bench amp for testing pedals. For my purposes, the Ruby was just fine. Don't get me wrong, I love the stuff that Beavis does, but for me, the Noisy Cricket was overkill - many other people like it.

[Ell]

Thanks for the responses guys. I went ahead and made the Ruby today and I've VERY pleased with how sparkly it sounds and just the general overdrive that it gives you when you turn it up.

On the ROG website he suggests putting a 220pf cap between lugs 3 and 2 on the volume pot. Have any of you got any idea how this will effect the sound? I just tried it and couldn't hear ANY change at all. What's it meant to do?