Construction of A Guitar Amplifier

1/21/23, 2:54 PM Construction of a Guitar Amplifier - Projects
Project
Construction of a Guitar Amplifier

November 29, 2020 by Teja Sai Marellapudi
This article explains the theory and the construction of the circuit of a
10W practice guitar amplifier.
A guitar amplifier is an audio electronic device that can be used to amplify the signal of a pickup attached to a
guitar. By altering the tone frequencies of the instrument through an amp, the musician can control its distortion,
tone, and volume.
In this article, we'll discuss how to build a homemade 10W guitar amplifier. Please note that this circuit is not
meant to replace your guitar amp—a professionally-built amp will always be best for sound quality. This article
is meant to serve as an educational guide to the concepts behind guitar amps and as a tutorial if you'd like to
follow along building a simple amp.
Before we begin, there are a few crucial points we must discuss:
Exercise caution before plugging in your project—make sure it's fully assembled.
Be sure to solder an IC socket to your board so you can plug in your TL072 chip rather than soldering it
directly onto the board.
Polarity matters! The ‘tip’ of your ¼” input audio jack is the positive end and the ‘sleeve’ is negative end.
Make sure you solder it correctly or you'll introduce unnecessary noise.
You can avoid shorting the pins of your op-amp by breaking the connection of the metal strips under your
TL072 chip. You can do this by scratching away the metal with the sharp tip of a pin. In order to avoid
shorting the pins of the op-amp, it will be necessary to break the connection of the metal strips under the
chip.
How Does a Guitar Amp Work?
The input signal input for the amplifier comes initially through a ¼” audio jack that produces a mono audio jack
(meaning it doesn't differentiate between the left and right speakers audio input). The input to the audio jack
comes from an electromagnetic pickup, which is made of hundreds of coils, each of which consists of resistors
and inductors connected in series with one another. These resistors and inductors are, in turn, connected to a
capacitor in parallel.
The guitar pickup works on the basis of Lenz’s law, which states that the direction of induced current is always
opposed to the change in magnetic flux produced by the circuit. When the guitar strings of an electric guitar get
magnetized by the coil, the movement of the strings produces a source voltage (Vs) which supplies an electric
signal (V) to the audio jack according to Lenz’s law.
Any guitar amplifier consists of three main circuits, which we will discuss below:
Volume
Distortion
Tone
https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/projects/construction-of-a-guitar-amplifier/ 1/13
Guitar Amplifier Schematic and Circuits
Figure 1. Guitar amplifier schematics
The Tone Circuit
The first stage of the amp is the tone circuit, which uses a dual JFET-input op-amp IC, the TL072.
As you'll see in the schematic, we have a sliding capacitor. This forms a potentiometer on the feedback loop of
the op-amp.
To increase the base tone of the guitar, you can slide the capacitor to the very left position of the potentiometer.
This amplifies the lower frequencies in the pickup signal.
Conversely, to increase the treble, you can slide the capacitor to the very right position of the potentiometer.
This is accomplished by short-circuiting the resistor placed on the feedback loop, removing the capacitor
completely. This results in the amplification of the higher frequencies in the pickup signal.
The Distortion Circuit
Distortion is an effect a musician can use to add a "fuzzy" tone to their guitar's sound, typically by increasing
their gain.
In our project here, we'll create a clipping circuit by using two diodes. First, it's important to note that there are
actually two types of clipping: hard and soft. Soft clipping, sometimes called overdrive, occurs when the gain
and the input signal level are inversely proportional to each other. Hard clipping, on the other hand, denotes
restricting the signal level within a given range. This is also known as distortion.
In the clipping process, we'll produce new frequencies that weren't part of the original audio signal. Such
frequencies can be harmonics or inharmonics where the former denotes whole number multiples of the original
signal's frequencies and the latter denotes more complex scenario where newer subharmonics are produced via
intermodulation.
The Volume Circuit
For the volume circuit, we'll need a low-frequency class AB power amplifier, the TDA2030.
Project Construction
You may choose to use either perf board or a printed circuit board for this project. For each of the three major
stages, we'll verify the guitar amplifier output. We'll use the same TL072 IC in both the tone and distortion
circuits.
The ideal power input for VDD (power supply of the adapter) is 12V.
The Tone Stage
As we discussed above, the following circuit for the tone stage uses a TL072 op-amp and a 50Kohm
potentiometer.
Figure 2(a). The input and tone circuit schematics
You can see the input and output of the circuit displayed on the CRO below.
Figure 2(b). Input signal and tone circuit output
Channel-A (red) = input signal form the guitar
Channel-B (yellow) = output signal of the tone circuit taken at resistor R5
Scroll to continue with content
The Distortion Stage
In the distortion stage, we'll need to clip the output waveform that comes from the TL072 op-amp's pin 1. As
we've already covered earlier, this circuit requires two 1N4001 diodes in the clipping circuit. We'll also use a
10Kohm linear potentiometer.
Figure 3a. Distortion circuit schematics
You can see the TL072 distorted output below.
Figure 3(b). Input signal and distortion circuit output
Channel A (red): Input signal
Channel B (yellow): Distorted output signal
The Volume Stage
All we have left to do here is to amplify the distortion of the circuit output. We'll use the audio amp ICs
TDA2030/TDA2050/LM386 for this final portion of the project, which connects to the speaker.
You'll notice in the schematic below that we're including an LED so we can indicate when the amp is on or off.
Here's the schematic at hand:
Figure 4(a). Volume circuit schematics
And here's the corresponding CRO output:
Figure 4(b). Input signal and volume circuit output
Channel A (red): input signal from the guitar
Channel B (yellow): Amplifier output
Note: Take a minute to check out the difference between the input signal from the beginning and the output
signal above. Note the distortion and also the fact that the output voltage is double the input voltage.
BOM
Table1: List of required components

Direction
Type Value Qty Markings Directional
Indicated
Direction
Type Value Qty Markings Directional
Indicated
brown black
1 Mohm 3
green
5.6 kOhm 1 green blue red
brown black
1 kOhm 1
red
22 kOhm 3 red red orange
yellow violet
Resistors 4.7 kOhm 1 NO
red
2.2 kOhm 1 red red red
brown black
100 kOhm 1
yellow
brown black
10 kOhm 1
orange
1 Ohm 1
50KB pot 1 B50K (linear)
10KB pot 1 B10K (linear)
Potentiometers NO*
A10K
10KA pot 1
(logarithmic)
47nF 1 473
100nF 1 104
FIlm Capacitors NO
10nF 1 103
0.22 uF 1
100uF 1
Stripe on
Aluminum 1000uF 1 negative side
Capacitors 1uF 4
(shorter lead)
10uF 1
Integrated TL072 1
See diagrams
Circuits TDA2030 1 YES
Silver stripe =
Diodes 1N4001 2
negative end
flat edge/short er
LED red LED 1
lead is negative
IC socket 1
switch 1
wall power NO
1
plug
Miscellaneous power jack 1
¼” Phono sleeve is
1 YES
plug negative
speaker 1
perfboard 1
Pin Diagrams
TL072
Figure 6. Tl072 IC and pin diagram
TDA2030
Figure 7. TDA2030 IC and pin diagram
That concludes this guitar amplifier project! Share your builds and branching projects in the comments to tell us
how it went.
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1/21/23, 2:54 PM Construction of a Guitar Amplifier - Projects

Before we begin, there are a few crucial points we must discuss:

How Does a Guitar Amp Work?

Guitar Amplifier Schematic and Circuits

Figure 1. Guitar amplifier schematics

The Tone Circuit

The Distortion Circuit

The Volume Circuit

The Tone Stage

Figure 2(a). The input and tone circuit schematics

Figure 2(b). Input signal and tone circuit output

Channel-A (red) = input signal form the guitar

Channel-B (yellow) = output signal of the tone circuit taken at resistor R5

Scroll to continue with content

The Distortion Stage

Figure 3a. Distortion circuit schematics

You can see the TL072 distorted output below.

Figure 3(b). Input signal and distortion circuit output

Channel A (red): Input signal

Channel B (yellow): Distorted output signal

The Volume Stage

Here's the schematic at hand:

Figure 4(a). Volume circuit schematics

And here's the corresponding CRO output:

Figure 4(b). Input signal and volume circuit output

Channel A (red): input signal from the guitar

Channel B (yellow): Amplifier output

Table1: List of required components

Figure 6. Tl072 IC and pin diagram

Figure 7. TDA2030 IC and pin diagram

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