Re: LM380 2.5W Amp (Request)

Posted by Heath on Mar 13, 2014; 1:26am
URL: http://guitar-fx-layouts.238.s1.nabble.com/LM380-2-5W-Amp-Request-tp8307p8534.html

I upgraded the 470uf caps to 35v and powered the amp at 18 volts.

It's pretty loud, for sure.  The 18volts REALLY opens it up.. it gets a small but significant volume boost, but what is most pronounced is the tone/color/whatever you want to call it.  It goes from kind of dull sounding at 9v to bright and open at 18v.  I think it has a nice "personality."

However, it's almost impossible to get a clean sound out of it.  At about 3 on Vol it's verging on dirt but is mostly clean.  At about 5-6 it dirties up like a mild overdrive.  It increases from there up to a pretty aggressive OD at 10.  With my testing setup it sounds pretty good, better than some pedals I've heard.

I've got a 6" Gretsch speaker on the way so we'll see how this all sounds through a smaller speaker as well.  

As far as mini amps go, this is more like a Marshall, with it's intended overdrive and the Chime Amp is more like a Fender Amp with it's extended cleans.  

All in all I prefer the Chime Amp with whatever OD/Distortion I want added via pedal.  It just has so much sweet clean sound on tap.  

That said, the LM380 amp is pretty damn ballsy for such a tiny thing.  I'll bet someone smarter than me could tweak that circuit and optimize it for more/better range of clean before it starts dirtying up.  I would be a monster then.  I just don't feel this circuit is taking full advantage of the amp chip.  Then again, what do I know? :p