Ruby amp with integrated thunderbird?

[JacktheRiffer]

Has anybody done something like this? I would like a small practice amp and like the idea of a ruby with the thunderbird pedal as a preamp. Would this work?

[Elijah-Baley]

I built the Noisy Cricket Amp, but I never did something like that.
Maybe in the Ruby amp you can replace the input buffer with the thunderbird.
It can be useful: http://www.electrosmash.com/ruby-amp-analysis

[jimilee]

Daaammn, that sounds awesome.


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[JacktheRiffer]

I built the Noisy Cricket Amp, but I never did something like that.
Maybe in the Ruby amp you can replace the input buffer with the thunderbird.
It can be useful: http://www.electrosmash.com/ruby-amp-analysis

Think it would work well?

[slashandburn]

I think it would work fine.  It's a hell of a lot of work for 1 watt novelty amp but if you're up for it, go for it.   

I've paired up the 386 with all sorts of stuff and it usually plays nicely. I usually use a standard tubescreamer gain stage in most of my 386 builds, keeps the parts count low and saves me straying outwith my comfort zone.   

Something with a much lower parts count might give you results in the same ballpark, but don't let me discourage you.  Sounds like a good idea to me if you like high gain.

If you go ahead with this, just drop the Ruby input buffer and run the wiper of the Thunderbird volume pot (as per the RoG schematic) to the input of the 386.   Job done.

[Elijah-Baley]

Unfortunately, I can't say how it will work.

I guess you can build two separate boards, so you can try some preamp circuits before of join those together, tube Screamer or something else.
Did you never try the Thunderbird? If you think you like it, you can build it, and if it work bad as preamp for the Ruby I'm pretty sure it will work fine with your main amp. Then for the Ruby you could try something else.

[Ben Lyman]

I would suggest the Little Gem MKII because you will get more headroom and the TB preamp stage might sound better, it uses 2x lm386 bridged.

I also made a little amp from a TDA2233 (or something?) so I could just use one single 8 pin stereo IC and bridge it... instead of the 2x LM386 in the Ruby MKII.

Both my amps, Little Gem MKII and "TDA creation" handle pedals great and I'm sure either would be fine with a TB preamp built into it.

It is kinda a lot of work for a 1/2w or 1w amp, that's why I recommend the Little Gem MKII, both of mine are loud enough to play with my drummer and very clean at low volumes.

[cab42]

You could Include a send Jack after the TB. Then you can use the TB+Ruby as a stand alone amp or
The TB on its own into something else.

I have built several Rubys and I really like them but Bens advice using a TDAXXX is good. I built an amp  with a tda2822, and it is very good (and loud) as well,  even running on 6V.



Carsten

[anotherjim]

With a chip amp that has enough gain you might find it clips easily and masks the distortion of the Thunderbird. You might find the TB output level control needs to be turned down a fair bit to avoid this.

[Elijah-Baley]

Maybe anotherjim is right. If you want to use LM386 with a dirty preamp you have to disconnect pin 1 and 8, or the gain is high.
Another alternative is the Punch Amp. Search in the forum. It is a pretty clean amp.

[slashandburn]

For what its worth, most of the LM386 based distortion pedals (like the Purple Plexi and the Sonic Titan) are just slight variations on the ruby amp.

The Krank Distortus Maximus is another, that uses the Marshall style 3 pot tone stack.  If your looking to add a little more Marshall flavour to a LM386 amp it might be worth looking at, or the schematic might give you some ideas.

[Ben Lyman]

I found the thread with my demo of the Little Gem MKII and demo of my own "bridged amp" with a little tone stack preamp thing. It was a TDA2822, and MUCH help from anotherjim, thanks again! 
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=114995.msg1068808#msg1068808

[JacktheRiffer]

Im looking for something to just practice with that has a good marshall style tone. Would it work better if I built them seperate?

[slashandburn]

Im looking for something to just practice with that has a good marshall style tone. Would it work better if I built them seperate?

Have you built just the basic ruby/little gem?  It's already pretty dirty sounding and sort of bordering on marshall territory already (for what it is).  It won't really do clean, by the way.   The 386 is the sole component in some really dirty distortion pedals.  IF you haven't built either circuit already yet, I say build them separate. Maybe builld the Ruby first and then add a high gain preamp later if you feel it needs it?

Bens design looks great if you have a 2822. It might be able to put out a better clean tone than the 386. I might have a look at that myself, cheers Ben!

[rutabaga bob]

Do a search for the Marsha Ruby...has a little different front end and uses an NTE458 jfet.  I will tell you up front it's good for the overdriven lead stuff, but doesn't do clean.

[Elijah-Baley]

Here my Smokey Amp modified:
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=107060.msg1058988#msg1058988
It sounds really fine. Take a look.