Right before a big birthday bash, I got the itch to get one of those cigar box amps - since there’s always some 3AM jamming on the back deck.

After searching the interwebs, I found the above kit on eBay, from a company called Guitar Fuel. They sell some cool guitar mods and kits - check ‘em out at this link. You can see the video I made with the amp at this link.

I’m no circuits & solder expert by any means, but this kit looked easy - and it was. The circuit board itself is pre-soldered, the instructions are crystal clear - if you’ve ever changed pickups or a pot, you can build it in a half hour. If you’ve never soldered, it could make a nice “first kit”.

I LOVE a little ambience (hell, a lot of ambience) so I found a Danelectro “Fab Echo” pedal for $15 (new!), took it apart and hacked it into the circuit (not a big deal - it comes “before” the amp so it was pretty simple to add). The only other “mod” I did was cosmetic - I took some diamond lath (sort of a heavy steel mesh), rusted it with some acid stain, and put it between the face and the grill cloth for an “old TV speaker” look.

The results were pretty cool - a bunch of half-drunk guys (and one or two over-the-top-drunk) playing some cool tunes into the wee hours while the ladies squealed in delight.

So, it’s a cool little beach-toy, right? Well, yeah, but… try sticking a microphone on the thing. It gets a nice “clean” tone with lots of character. With a good overdrive box, you can play the Beatles’ “Revolution” all day long. Stick a tremolo pedal before it and you can almost see the rattlesnakes & tumbelweeds rolling by. A good compressor on the track and some deep reverb, and damn - it’s sweet. It won’t be your go-to amp, but damned if there’s sounds you can get from it that you just won’t get with plugins.

For the video linked above, here’s how I got some of the sounds:

(All mics for this video were Sure 57s, right up in the cone, through an Apogee Preamp & Converter, into ProTools):

The intro to the video:

Just had the little amp dimed, with an 80’s MIJ Boss Compressor before it. Really got that “squished” stompbox comp sound.

Also, there’s a few strums and notes with the same setup; I don’t have a tremolo pedal so I used a tremolo (vibrato) plugin. Reverb on both tracks was the amazing (and cheap) RedLine Reverb from 112DB.

The intro to the song:

This is the amp with just a touch of overdrive from a Tim Jauernig “Diabolical Gristle” overdrive pedal. I tracked it twice, panned a bit left & right for a fatter sound, with the Fab Echo dialed in a bit.

The main backing tracks:

Pretty much the same - there’s two tracks, in some spots it’s doubled, in others there’s more of a chording vs. notes thing going on.

The solos:

The overdrive is kicked up a notch or four here - and damned if I wasn’t amazed at the great mix of dirt-plus-tone. It’s got some of that “screwdriver through the cone” thing that early bands used to use. There’s a buzzy-ness that I toned down with some parametric reverb, and then…

I stuck Digidesign’s SMACK! on the track. SMACK is great for treating drums, and can sound great on bass - but it really kicked the little amp up a notch. Which shows where the little guy can really shine - stick a vintage or vintage-feeling compressor on the track, and damn - it gets big.

The slide solo:

The slide, and the solo before it, were just single-tracked, with a bit of delay mixed in. I’m not much of a slide player, but that slide sounds massive - like a 10-foot buzzsaw. I was shocked. Again, single tracked.

The after-slide solo:

I had been recording and mixing the song as I animated my way through it, scene by scene. The animation was grueling, and I had plenty of ideas for this section, but decided to just cut it “live” and film it. I did multiple takes of the solo, to the point I had “written” a solo, and could play it again and again. So, I double-tracked it - you can hear it’s not perfect, but I like how it’s vaguely out of tune. The little amp really hops out of the speakers when it’s doubled like that. (I use a Panasonic DVX which has XLR inputs; I can have a backing track playing, stick a 57 on an amp and plug it right into the DVX, and transfer the actual DVX audio into ProTools - it sounds great).

So - what’s not to love?

For forty bucks - not much! At full volume with any kind of boost before the amp (compressor, overdrive, etc.) I had the sense the speaker was really working too hard, and speaker excursion was worrying me. I’d be curious to build one of these with, say, a big, quality car stereo speaker (but where do you find just one?) Even better (and easier) would be to add a speaker out jack and try it through a nice 12″ cabinet. Best would be BOTH - you’d have a fuller speaker out & about, and be able to try different cabs in your playing space. But again, for the price, it’s a bargain, and you could certainly do all sorts of mods to it.

What’s next?

Drinkin’ scotch and playin’ guitar, man! Out on the porch with some friends, food, the wood fire going and the beer ice cold - it’s a just-right volume to bring out the acoustics and still have some twang (or some shred).

And, I’ll pull it out when I need certain sounds, fast & easy. If you see my other vids, you’ll note I’m not really a blues or classic rock guy - I like spacey-yet-hard sounds. But, I want to hear a harp through it. I want to record it hooked up to one of my mighty EVM12L speakers. I want to stick a big ribbon mic on it and see what that does for the low end. I think I’ll have some fun.