# Advise needed for a ampless rig build



## JoostD (Mar 25, 2022)

Hi All!

I’m thinking of building an ampless rig. I have a spark amp. While I like the amp it is a bit limiting in options on pedals.

I am a fanatic diy’er. I’m in the last stages of my strat build. Just have to pot the pickups and finish the electronics 🥳. So building my own rig sounds absolutely fantastic.
I was hoping you could give me some help selecting the right pedals to build. I’m looking for clean sounds like Mayer, to SRV light overdriven sound. The pedals will go in to a cab.

What pedal setup would you recommend I built?

Thanks in advance!!
Joost


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## swelchy (Mar 26, 2022)

I'd build two kliche' mini's and put into one enclosure and then some sort of digital delay... then you would have a decent little setup that could be mic'd up if you ever gig it. Use one side as clean boost and the others as your drive...


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## JamieJ (Mar 26, 2022)

If you are after Mayer tones you’ll need to have a look at - blues driver, blues breaker style pedal, klon, tube screamer and katana boost. They are his main drive choices.

PedalPCB has option for all of these circuits.


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## Feral Feline (Mar 26, 2022)

I'll pitch in with some more SRV suggestions once I get my HD from my old computer back. Meanwhile, obvious pedal choices for the Texan:
Tube Screamer,
Dumble Clone,
Fuzz Face w/ Cesar Diaz mods,
Diaz Tremodillo tremolo,
Fender Amp Sim.

Should be able to work out the above from PedalPCB boards.


Not so obvious:
A secret studio sauce of Vaughn's was the Dimension D, which you can get the pedal version of from AionFX called the BlueShift.


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## JoostD (Mar 27, 2022)

Thanks for the suggestions!!

Wouldn’t this setup get me the basic tone?
Klon Drive 
Humble Overdrive (pcbguitarmania) or SSS from pedalpcb
Spirit box Reverb
Caesar Chorus 

For the SRV tone would the SuperStevie work in this setup? Or is the SSS enough?
Do I need an ampsim too? Like the emu amp or pcbguitarmania tweed twin emu.

Sorry if these all obvious pedal choices. I’m still figuring it out 😁


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## JamieJ (Mar 27, 2022)

The emu is more of a amp/cab sim pedal which does seem like it will be able to drive a cab. What you would need would be a pre amp and power amp. You could use the emu as a preamp. 

There is the TPA3118 - there’s loads of details in this thread: https://forum.pedalpcb.com/threads/tpa3118-60w-power-amp-module.2015/

There are loads of powers out there. Have a look at the ruby amp too: http://www.runoffgroove.com/ruby.html


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## JoostD (Mar 27, 2022)

Sorry should have mentioned that I’m planning a cab powered with a tpa3118
I’ll have a look at the ruby thanks for the tip!!


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## JamieJ (Mar 27, 2022)

JoostD said:


> Sorry should have mentioned that I’m planning a cab powered with a tpa3118
> I’ll have a look at the ruby thanks for the tip!!


You could use the TPA3118 or the Ruby. You definitely don’t need both. The ruby is so simple it’s worth trying both.

From memory @fig used a tube screamer as preamp before his power amp chip/PCB.


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## JoostD (Mar 27, 2022)

JamieJ said:


> You could use the TPA3118 or the Ruby. You definitely don’t need both. The ruby is so simple it’s worth trying both.
> 
> From memory @fig used a tube screamer as preamp before his power amp chip/PCB.


Is the Ruby powerful enough to go trough a 12" speaker cabinet?


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## fig (Mar 27, 2022)

Cool project!


JoostD said:


> Is the Ruby powerful enough to go trough a 12" speaker cabinet?



Yes, the Ruby _can_ drive an 8Ω 12"speaker. The TPA3118 modules I've seen are designed specifically to do just that.
In essence, what you are creating is a powered speaker _using_ an amplifier. 

Are you planning to house and power the effect _with_ the cab?


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## JoostD (Mar 27, 2022)

fig said:


> Cool project!
> 
> 
> Yes, the Ruby _can_ drive an 8Ω 12"speaker. The TPA3118 modules I've seen are designed specifically to do just that.
> ...


I'm not completely sure if I understand you're question correctly (sorry, English is not my first language)

I want to make a pedal board that goes to the power amp build into to cab. But that's not a must. I can build the power amp in a pedal as well.


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## fig (Mar 27, 2022)

Understood, and no apology necessary. If I phrase something that doesn't come through...please let me know and I will rephrase it. Language need not be a barrier if a little patience is practiced/observed. 

It's really up to you which direction to take. 

@JamieJ is correct that you would likely want a pre-amp/boost circuit just prior to the power-amp. The pre amp board I picked had a TMB stage that modeled the tone directly prior to the power-amp. It also had a gain adjustment and the clipping stage could be bypassed if you simply wanted a clean circuit. It works well, but I'd probably use a booster and EQ if I were building another.

Of course, you can just build and house all of the circuits separately and send the output to the power-amp/cab.


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## JoostD (Mar 27, 2022)

fig said:


> Understood, and no apology necessary. If I phrase something that doesn't come through...please let me know and I will rephrase it. Language need not be a barrier if a little patience is practiced/observed.
> 
> It's really up to you which direction to take.
> 
> ...


Thank you for your explanation!

What I was thinking is a basic clean boost to power amp to cab. 
Then add in effects to get tones like SRV

So maybe for the "basic" setup
 Humble overdrive (advantage of this pcb that it has 2 channels and tone shaping) - power amp - cab
Add in effects for different styles 
Super Stevie / or SSS
Chorus 
Vibrato 
Reverb etc.... 

Problem is... There are so many choices 😂. 
EQ I a good one too...

The ruby looks like a good start to try stripboards... Even more choices now 😊


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## fig (Mar 27, 2022)

The TPA3118 module/board will provide much more headroom and overall amplification than the (standard) Ruby build, but requires a higher voltage. It _can_ run @ 9VDC but the output is somewhat compromised...thinner and noisier. 16VDC seemed to be a sweet spot.

If you choose this route, bear in mind that the output will need to be isolated from the enclosure. On the prebuilt boards, there _is_ reverse-polarity protection but it's a one-shot deal and is not 100%. I managed to fry, bake, smoke, burn a half-dozen of these in the process by neglecting one or more nuances involved with these. Once built though, they work as they should.

It also gives you more flexibility via preamp control, BUT removes the volume / gain controls from the amp circuit. Another reason maybe to have that pre-amp permanent rather than a separate device?

I recently breadboarded a Ruby as part of a contest entry. I haven't finished the other parts of the build, but I did add bluetooth input. This is the schematic I used to base the build. I added a tone control.





My advice? Build both and choose which you prefer.


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## jeffwhitfield (Mar 27, 2022)

When it comes to ampless, it’s really all about amp modeling at that point. You can go in three directions: 

1) Use a dedicated amp sim pedal like the Strymon Iridium. 

2) Use a guitar processor like an HX Stomp or similar unit. 

3) Forget amp modeling altogether and just covert the signal to line level and call it a day. 

I personally use the HX Stomo. I like the flexibility of using different amp models and IR’s. Just have to think about the approach to how you want to build your rig and what you want out of it.


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## jjjimi84 (Mar 27, 2022)

I use a different approach that i really love and am working in a video for. 

I go into whatever pedals i want into a pedalpcb mammal (clean ish amp sim) into the unicab (speaker sim) into my interface. 

With those two pedals it has opened my eyes to using pedals in different ways.


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## JoostD (Mar 28, 2022)

jeffwhitfield said:


> When it comes to ampless, it’s really all about amp modeling at that point. You can go in three directions:
> 
> 1) Use a dedicated amp sim pedal like the Strymon Iridium.
> 
> ...


I agree that for the best tone I popbably have to buy a modeler of sorts. And maybe I will go down that route eventually. 
I use bias fx on my iPad and headphones and sounds very good. Maybe with a powered cab I can even use bias fx. 

But I would also have a better understanding of the signal chain and electronics. And building my own pedals will help me understand everything better. And it gives me something to tinker with 😂


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## jeffwhitfield (Mar 28, 2022)

JoostD said:


> I agree that for the best tone I popbably have to buy a modeler of sorts. And maybe I will go down that route eventually.
> I use bias fx on my iPad and headphones and sounds very good. Maybe with a powered cab I can even use bias fx.
> 
> But I would also have a better understanding of the signal chain and electronics. And building my own pedals will help me understand everything better. And it gives me something to tinker with 😂


You can get the amp itself from a pedal. The hard part is the cabinet. Can’t get that really out of a DIY pedal. One way that’s relatively inexpensive is a cab emulator. TC Ekectronic just released one that looks to be pretty good.






						TC Electronic | Product | IMPULSE IR LOADER
					






					tcelectronic.com


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## JoostD (Mar 28, 2022)

jeffwhitfield said:


> You can get the amp itself from a pedal. The hard part is the cabinet. Can’t get that really out of a DIY pedal. One way that’s relatively inexpensive is a cab emulator. TC Ekectronic just released one that looks to be pretty good.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thanks for the tip. I am planning on using a cab with a 12" celestion speaker. Stil doubting wich one 😂 maybe the neo creamback. 

I guess I'll just have too try 😊👍


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