Upgradeing the Opamps in My guitar Amp!! Will it help??

[Minion]

Hi folks, I am pretty much a Electronix newbie and I was thinking of changeing the Opamps in my Crappy Traynor practice amp....

I opened up the Amp and it uses a single BA4558 Dual opamp which from looking on the net is a extremely cheapo opamp at about 0.30c each and I was thinking of throwing in a dual Opamp like a OPA2107 which from looking at the specs has the same Power requirements and Pin configuration.....

So my first question is will this Opamp work in my Guitar amp??

And my second question is will there be any really sound differance as my amp is pretty crappy....

Thanx a Lot Folks...

 

[hejsan]

Hi, there are so many different things that define the sound of guitar amps, the caps, the preampstage, the outputstage, the drivers (speakers).. I think you would be better off building a tube-screamer or some other nice effect depending on what sound you're looking for and connect to your amp through that.

There are plenty resources on the net with effects projects, and when you've practiced making those, you could even move on to DIY tube-amps, but those are definetly NOT for beginners though!

Check out the ca. third post in this thread for effects-links:
http://www.groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=16041

good luck!
hejsan

 

[Minion]

Well my Amps design is very simple and it does use Polly Caps and 1% resistors but it just sounds awefull and no amount of effects that I have tried help at all.....

I am just trying to get a Guitar sound, Not even a very good one just better that what it does...The amp has No sustain and has way too much Bottom end with absolutly no Top end and....I get a Much better sound Not plugging my guitar in at all....

What is strange is that the amp sounds quite good when Playing Bass through it...

I guess i will just Give it a Try and see how it works out, It is a Simple job switching out Opamps and If I fry the whole amp out then at least I can start Fresh....

Cheers

 

[hejsan]

Well, if you post a schemo people here might suggest good mods, but the opamp alone does probably not contribute a lot to the sound.

But on that topic, the opamp opa2604 is by many considered very good for preamps.

hejsan

EDIT: what size speaker are you using?

 

[fucanay]

What traynor amp is this?. I have one too, but I can't remember the model off the top of my head. It also sounds like crap, but I use it for the rare occasions that I need a crappy guitar sound.

I've also considered doing something to the guts of it, but haven't got any further than the thought of doing it.

Matt

 

[nacho459]

I don't want to sound like a tube snob, but hot-rodding a solid state amp seems to be a waste when you can get an old Fender or Sovtek amp for a few hundred bucks. I mean if you want to mess around go ahead but typically changing one component doesn't make an amp go from crap to awesome. I'm not trying to come down on you or anything, or discourage you from experimenting. I usually like Traynors because they sound like crap.

 

[Kit]

It probably wont make that big of a difference. But dont take my word for it.
Since your saying you are a newbie, i encoruage you to try it out and see for yourself that there are more to a circuit´s "sound" than just opamps. Live and learn. :thumb:

 

[Mendelt]

If there's not enough high end and too much bass it might be the imput impedance of the amp is too low. If i'm not mistaken this will make more of an impact on most guitar pickups than bass pickups (is your bass active by any chance ? )

Maybe you can improve this by building a buffer circuit (look on http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/ for two examples ) these are really inexpensive to build and might have a bigger effect on your sound than just using a more expensive opamp in a bad circuit.

If you want to inprove sustain you're probably better off using external overdrive and distortion effects. (and you can build these yourself too. great fun! )

 

[Gus]

the 1st thing I would try would be a new 12" speaker.

Cheaper amp often don't have speakers I like for guitar amps. Good speakers might cost more than a lot of the parts in a solid state amp.

If you have an external speaker like a marshall 4X12 try the circuit with that.
If the sound improves a lot then the circuit might be worth working on or it might be fine as it is.

Yes the opamp is cheap but 4558s are often fine in effects and guitar amps and you might like the cheaper opamp over a "better" opamp in effects and amps.

If the sound does not improve with a better speaker the circuit would need to be adjusted things like tone tack,HP,LP gain in the stages etc......

 

[Minion]

Thanx for the Tips Guys, The Amp is a Small Traynor Guitar Mate 10, It is worth about $50 New....I"m going to try it and see if it helps but if it doesn"t help very much i doubt it will hurt and if I fry it I will use the Body of the Amp for a DIY Guitar Amp project.....

When i do it I will post back with the Results but i won"t do it till next week or so as I am waiting for some IC sockets and a New Digital Multimeter to show up in the Mail .....

Cheers

 

[fucanay]

Well, since we are talking solid state traynor amps, maybe somebody can tell me what could be improved in mine. It is a TS-15 from the late 70's or early 80's. The schem shows 79'.

The Schem: http://fucanay.fischerworks.com/diy/TS15.gif

Anything obvious you would change, besides the crappy original pioneer speakers? :green:

Matt

 

[Gus]

circuit looks OK

I would try a good speaker with the circuit first.

 

[rodabod]

Although solid-state amps are not all crap, there are a few things which in my opinion are generally worse about them compared to valve amps.

For a start, they tend to cost less and as a result often have crap speakers. Crap speakers sound crap. Try an extension cabinet to hear the difference. Next, they don't have the same compression effect that valves have which makes them usually sound hard and "spiky" to my ears. Finally, the distortion offered is often crap - not many of them can get that "on the verge of breaking-up sound" and don't really respond when you dig in.

Some people won't like me saying this, but I think if you want a really good guitar sound then you should try using a valve amp.

I suppose a valve distortion pedal / preamp like something made by Mesa could be a good upgrade. I personally wouldn't bother messing about with opamps - the difference would be subtle compared to changing speaker, etc.

 

[12afael]

on small and cheap amps the worst things are the power supply and the speaker.

if the power supply is bad you will have problems with bass and volume.

if you turn the volumen up, the bass is poor. that is problem of the current capacity of the supply. a big transformer and big filtering caps will help on that point.

the preamp look good for me , the tone stack is easy to mod if is a problem of tone.

 

[Kit]

Hmmm....i think we need a schematics.
Makes it a lot easier to spot what needs improvement.

Edit: Stupid me....just saw the schem above, sorry.

I cant spot anything major...you could try to increase the 220k input R with a higher value.

 

[fucanay]

wow, lots of replies when a schematic is posted.

I know solid state is the devil. I don't use this as my main amp or anything. I have a 4 x 12AX7 and 4 x EL84 Crate VC50 tube amp that's my main amp.

I just wanted to see if this freebie SS amp "could" sound better. It came as a combo amp with 2 x 8" speakers. They are crap, I know it. Maybe that'll be my first thing to try and maybe a recap job after that. If you all think the TL071 is fine for this, then i won't touch it.

Any suggestions one speakers for this thing, in the original 8" size?

Matt

 

[CJ]

limit your slew, roll it off with an OP 90.

 

[Minion]

Well Folks I just Finnished upgradeing the Opamp in My Crappy Traynor Guitar amp.....

I ended up destroying the original opamp trying to get it out so i really needed this to work out....

i installed a Dip socket so i could try different opamps in the future...

Well How did it work out?? Well it worked pretty Damn good!! It sounds MUCH clearer with the Gain cracked up the Overdrive is Much better than before and it has a LOT of sustain that it didn"t have before and it now has a Lot of High end ....The new opamp didn"t however get rid of the Bad hum and the general cheap sound of the Amp but it is definately a BIG Improovement....

I ended up switching it for Burr Brown OPA2107 but I might also try a TL072 or a NE5534...I also noticed that the resistors are 5% carbon Resostors not Metal Film 1% so i might try switching them out for 1% Metal Film types and getting a New Speaker, Maybe even just a Good Car stereo speaker and see if that sounds better.....

ThanX Guys....

 

[OldHouseScott]

[quote author="fucanay"]Any suggestions one speakers for this thing, in the original 8" size?[/quote]

Check out what Ted Weber has to offer. His Signature series are cheaper, but still sound good. For totally over-the-top, check out the Vintage series. Lots of choices in both ceramic and AlNiCo.