$2.99 Fuzz Face - Playtape Machine Becomes KILLER Cigar Box Guitar Amp

[@paulcargo4233]

Next you should turn a 1965 Princeton reverb into an actual cigar box.

[@matieupizil424]

I think that using your surroundings to your advantage shows an element of wisdom and preparedness. Dude, you rocked that killer ginzu fret saw. This is a great build, thanks for the vid.

[@outanet]

I love this type of conversion. so many old but working radios just get junked nowadays.

[@whatyoumakeofit6635]

The video outtro demo jam......hands down your most entertaining yet. Great job Brad

[@MaxStax1]

One of my favorite videos you've made, very imaginative, interesting and fun to watch as it came together. Turned out looking and sounding fantastic. I'd be pretty proud if I made that out of a $3 thrift shop throw away tape player.

[@TheGuitologist]

Thanks, buddy. I appreciate that.

[@jonnybeck6723]

Thanx for being such an all around nut... I really dig the way you retained the "Ashton" logo... classy Sounds quite remarkable (largely due to your guitar skills) cheers

[@DrRussPhd]

It's almost a Deacy amp that Brian May has used . . .great demo . .thanks for posting.

[@stuffandjunkanduhh5049]

Damn that thing sounds great

[@mrjah603]

I'm having a great time just listening to you play at the end of the video. Sounds great.

[@flyinUtah]

I really didn't know this was a thing, I thought I was the only one trying to re-purpose everything I find at the thrift store. Excellent.

[@gngng5626]

OMG. A footstrap on the front. Instant Organic Wah Wah...Nice tone!

[@Jah_Rastafari_ORIG]

Wow. Distortion/Fuzz AND Comedy, all in one box! I like it.

[@brentmoore3778]

Mad scientists, does it again. IT LIVES !!

[@FOHFILMS]

That lead tone!!!! WOW!

[@ocljtc]

You play a mean guitar my friend. Love it.

[@akc5150]

Nice to see ya cuttin loose and doing something a bit more fun and less stressful than sorting someone elses amp out for a change!! Might even try something like this for my self! Cheers bud, and keep doing what ya do!

[@davemassie3726]

Wah Wha Amp! Nice Brad!

[@bmorr6734]

Sounds awesome. Your playing is great too!

[@isaactrujillo2988]

WOW! for a $2.99 thrift store purchase. This is why I subscribed and follow your channel. Very impressive. Thank you Brad.

[@Jjosh1358]

Nice. I did something similar with a Danelectro Honeytone and an old hi-fi speaker that lost its mate. I also have a Sanyo tape deck/recorder that makes a nice fuzz "pedal". Plugging a guitar directly into a tape recorder can get nasty (in a good way). Thats how they got that raspy sound for the single version of Revolution by The Beatles.

[@audiotechlabs4650]

It makes me feel all warm and "fuzzy" inside! Sounds like a LM386 chip. Pretty good Jimi! Thankz

[@Cristofre]

I've made a few LM386 guitar amps over the years! It's an easy way to amplify lots of things.

[@dannyd.8860]

Dude, that sounds gnarly! Nice job.

[@leesbassment6393]

Love the mad scientist aspect of this!! Bonus points for the variable capacitor in the AM tuner.

[@zeerust2000]

That sounds awesome.

[@SteeringSteel]

With a 1967 build date I thought for sure we’d hear Hendrix playing Purple Haze when you powered it up man. Ugh, one can always dream 😔

[@Dubnot]

P.S. this is fantastic. Why we keep coming back Brother. Thanks

[@TheGuitologist]

Thanks for being a glutton for punishment, Bill. :D

[@ringostarr4520]

I was pleasantly surprised of how good this sounds. Nice low mids for such a small speaker. You so gotta use that for a solo on studio recording. As usual my hat off too ya!! Seems your channel is really taking off and getting popular.

[@JohnIainMcFarlanewaspfactor]

You the man bruh,amazing project,killer tone.Thanks for sharin Brad.

[@TheGuitologist]

Thanks for watchin', John.

[@thats2kewl]

LOL...that "wah" was awesome!!

[@1961jscofield]

That thing is spectacular!

[@anthonywatson754]

Only thing I would do is add a line out so you can use it as an effect without the speaker. Awesome little project, though. Thanks for sharing!

[@thePsychoDuddy]

This one had me by the short and curlies. Totally thought you were gonna fuck it up but, that worked out well. Kudos bro ham.

[@riansettles2506]

My favorite video so far. You are a great player.

[@philhardy18]

Well this is handy , I've just been given an old radio that I was going to turn into a guitar amp , what a fortuitous circumstance Mary poppins. Cheers Brad , thanks for posting

[@CJ_YT.]

That static while you’re tuning the radio would sound cool as an intro sound to your videos

[@AdamRainStopper]

I am pretty sure I'm the one who gave you the idea for this, specifically that putting a guitar signal direct to any input that was designed for s tape head would result in FUZZZZZZZ!!!!! I used to do this with the old boomboxes when I was a wee lad, even ripped apart a walkman for use as a very dirty headphone amp.

[@1980bwc]

The good old Walkman's! It was a big deal around here back in the day when you were able to get one of those.

[@captainsnarge2668]

Interestingly, I just converted an all tube 1959 Fujiya FL-351 tape recorder to an amp, expecting fuzz, and for the first time it's just a clean sounding tube amp - you need a boost pedal to overdrive it.

[@AdamRainStopper]

@@captainsnarge2668 Did you change something about the input other than removing the tape head and replacing it with a jack? It should overdrive A LOT. The tape head is just a magnetic pickup, but a comparatively tiny, low output one. A guitar pickup is way hotter. I'd triple-check everything to make sure there aren't any bad connections, either to or from where the tape head was. If you put the input somewhere else, like to what used to be a mic input, that would explain why it's clean.

[@captainsnarge2668]

@@AdamRainStopper I agree that this was indeed the expected outcome because having done this with a dozen or more cassette decks over the last 30 years, with every single one of them a firebreathing monster of gain, I stopped to consider why it didn't in this case. This was the first reel-to-reel I converted. The 1/4" inch mono tape head has a much bigger physical sized coil than the 1/8" stereo cassette head with two separate coils crammed into a much smaller headshell. The cassette head simply can't equal the output of the big 1950s tape head. The amp is working fine, but with only two 12AV6 triodes in the preamp (each equivalent to one half 12AX7) and a 30A5 in the power amp that is essentially Fender Champ levels of gain. It would be impossible to get that to fuzz like a cassette preamp - there aren't enough stages of gain to get it to happen.

[@AdamRainStopper]

@@captainsnarge2668 So 12AV6s and a 30A5 sounds familiar, though I may be mixing it up with a different one that had a 35C5 output, and while it's true that it's a larger head and just one pickup (one mono channel) I would still have imagined the output of guitar pickups would be enough to overdrive it. The fuzz tone isn't necessarily from a lot of gain stages, in fact you need more stages to get a clearer gain sound. It's overdriving the hell out of one stage that usually causes a fuzzy sound. That's why you get a more refined and modern type of tight chugging sound from an amp with a four or five or six stage preamp section. You DO have to drive that one gain stage really hard. It's just surprises me that it runs clean. Given that it's built for the output of a much larger tape head, it wouldn't be a shock to find out it didn't do the fuzz thing, I'm just surprised it isn't even crunchy. I bet you could change the values of a couple components on the input stage to make it crunchy though. Like far more than a Champ, something akin to a pushed Bassman, but in a much smaller and lower output package. ALL THAT SAID, I am partly speaking on my own anecdotal experience with one particular Ampex 1/4 inch machine I got at a flea market back when flea markets existed. The guy broke it while he was trying to demo it for me, he got his sleeve caught in the reels and a belt audibly snapped. He said "I broke it" and I said I could probably fix it and he gave it to me free. The amp I pulled out of that thing was actually quite sensitive. The night I got at home, I started off by jumpering a quarter inch cable directly on the terminals still attached to tape head and then hit play and pause, hugged in a guitar and got a sound that was very dirty. I wouldn't call it fuzz, but a little sludgey, maybe like a late 70s doom metal type sound? It definitely wasn't clean. I'd say experiment with it more. Especially if you like the way it responds when you boost it, that means it likes to be pushed and if you can make it so that it pushes itself, you're good to go.

[@lroy730]

You can use Tape Heads for a Loop Delay !

[@jackhubbard4234]

that little thing sounds amazing. I need one for recording haha

[@TheGuitologist]

I was genuinely surprised. I mean, I knew that a tape deck with germanium transistors of this vintage SHOULD sound pretty decent with guitar, but I had no idea it would Muff up like that.

[@williamknell864]

Raise the roof Wah action! Faaarrrr out, man!!

[@scramblesthedeathdealer]

Such a cool project, Brad! I just finished breadboarding my first pedal, a Fuzz Face clone kit from Copper Sound Pedals. It's my first real soldering project, aside from making "audio test probes" out of Brian Wampler's e-book How To Modify Your DS1. I'm working on putting it in an old Boss RV-5 pedal enclosure, but it is a little more complicated than i first thought it would be. I'll get through it, though, and videos like yours have taught me so much, thank you!

[@whatyoumakeofit6635]

You were having way to much fun at the end of the video playing with the box lid.

[@jettramel]

Sounds pretty damn good, making me think differently, I've got an old Halicrater shortwave Radio, all tubes, been wonder if it's possible to turn it into an amp. This video opens up possibilities, I can't get more than 10 to 20 bucks for it, use if for something else.

[@83roadstar]

Great Vid Brad,you are very resourceful,between you and Terry from D Lab,you're both great! Thanks for all that you do!

[@junkyardvinyl4811]

Hey Brad, Just a thought, you could probably mount the control knobs on a plastic/metal plate (inside) then put standoffs inside to offset so as suck the knobs in closer to the case.

[@nevillegoddard4966]

@@junkyardvinyl4811 Dang it! I was guuna say that! Lol! Ya beat me to it! - Only by 5 years!

[@Zargon314]

Those playtapes can be modified to fit into the old univox tape echos. Pretty good alternative if you can ever get one of them working!

[@Pugsley_addams7]

Made one myself. Thanks for the idea and instructional video.

[@liberty5565]

This really makes me want to hit up every antique shop and flea market. I also have an electronics store, more like warehouse of vintage electronics. Sadly, I have no idea of what I'm doing. LOL This build seems not so bad for a beginner though. Sounds like a great little amp for my living room and back porch. I bet it would sound great with an old arch top and a slide. Awesome video. Very inspiring.

[@RickP654]

Cool video Brad. That thing would make a killer pedal. I really like what you did with it.

[@5thGradeHumor]

Great job, sound's like Brian May's Deacy amp!

[@jgrimsley2000]

For a "not really a solid state guy," you do alright! I've built a few cigar box amps, but wouldn't have thought about leaving the logo across the speaker hole. Looks really vintage. It sounds pretty cool, too!

[@kevinrandall-e2y]

Killer! love the wah effect towards the end.

[@Electricsunsets]

I’d buy that in a heartbeat

[@leftoverking]

you could put a spring under the lid that can flip up, and hold it open. then if you play with it on the ground you can close the lid with your foot like a wah pedal. that thing turned out awesome!

[@instructormaint8423]

The 'wa-wa' is brilliant! Bravo!

[@sirnigelcogs]

That thing makes some sweet sounds.

[@DeadKoby]

Fun... I wonder if the tape could be made into a short delay.... It's possible, but would likely be a "Yuge" challenge. The "Wah" is pretty fun. Now to automate that.

[@SuperHeliboy]

Very cool project. Love it from start to finish.

[@francisskundaliny1295]

great tone -mr. brad,you are a genius!-rockn-rolly!

[@TheGuitologist]

Be sure to tell my wife.

[@motorrebell]

Awesome job ! Love that "Art Deco- Steampunk" cigar amp ! ;-D

[@Nickpaflas]

I can't decide if you cutting that plastic box with a StewMac fretsaw would make Dan Erlewine smile or cry. I loved it.

[@TheGuitologist]

I like to think he cries. Erlewine doesn't cry nearly enough.

[@wingracer1614]

Would that be Dan Earlyswine that likes to eat more stewmac and cheese?

[@coolhanddruid]

Has a dremel, breaks out the fret saw instead. So painful.

[@handmadeindustrial]

Japanese saw for a Japanese amp. I get it.

[@ringostarr4520]

I had to thumbs up all these comments. Each one got me laughing a little bit more as I read along. 😜

[@hbbishopjr]

I'll be damn.....that thing sounds good! Good job man!

[@stevenmgyori3826]

Thanks brother, always enjoy your efforts and insight. Inspiring imagination, well done!

[@TheGuitologist]

Fun times. I had a stopping point where I needed to order some parts on other projects, so this happened.

[@wingracer1614]

Run a link from the drummer's pedal to the lid and your wah will always be in time.

[@jens8014]

wingracer 16 not if you have my drummer....

[@Kettletrigger]

Dude. That little bastard sounds SO MUCH better than I expected. It would be awesome to have a schematic of that circuit...what a great little solid state monster.

[@peteytwofinger]

when the pot threads are not long enough , one CAN employ a FOSTERNER bit , but i like to do it wrong so yeah "dont ever do what petey does" is the mantra . sounds good !

[@terencekaye9948]

Love it Brad,,, If you get one of your kids to operate the box lid,, you could have all sorts of fun.. I was gifted a Granada 5 inch reel to reel that the pullies and motors are shot in but the amplifier works great in. And I have a ton of Cigar Boxes lying around,, This could be Good! :)

[@glenchoitz9497]

60's garage bands...one of the members made a fuzz tone out of a pocket transistor radio, really had that 60's fuzz vibe sound. Wondering if you could do a tutorial on using one for the same thing...his had input/output to his amp (Vox Royal Guardsman) from his Gibson Firebird...I think it only had gain control and on/off with clean bypass. He had it attached to his guitar strap and used it by hand instead of foot controlled. Only one I have ever seen and would like to know the 'how' in building one....Thanks, great channel.

[@blazze2k8]

Smoke em if ya got em. Like that stogie sound! Hand wrapped! When is the Korg Nutube model coming out!? Any Cuban cigars boxes!? Epic manual wha/rotary effects.

[@michaelmerritt1722]

Nice tone! Sounds like Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimmy Hendrix combined. Cool FX Built in Wah! Great job!

[@flhusa1]

i took a sears silvertone reel to reel tube tape player/recorder and did the same thing for my nephew. i used the original case because one side is a speaker cabinet. i took the microphone in 1/4 jack and wired to the playback head. it already has a external speaker jack that disconnects the attached speaker and plays through any speaker you want. it has a hum in the output that i think is a filtering capacitor but i left the tape drive motor running. maybe i should kill the power to the motor. it has that warm tube sound that the solid state amps cannot reproduce.

[@MrBrymstond]

The Guitologist+ Very creative Brad. I love the cutout for the speaker and it sounds great. You probably already know this but you could do this with all of your lunch box and cigar box amps. Make the batteries rechargeable lithium ion 18650. Just 2 of them 8.4v idle and 7.4v with a load would out last 4 regular D Cell batteries by a landslide, but I would go 2 in parallel and a separate 2 in parallel and wire them in a series buy a BMS with balancing because lithium needs to be balanced if you use more than one which is 4.2v and you can use as many cells as you want because that will self balance, but as soon as you wire them in a series you need a BMS (Battery Management System) Only a couple bucks for a 2S which is 8.4v at a idle but as soon as you add a load it drops to 7.4v but this thing runs at 6v so you get a "buck converter" for less than a couple bucks and a special charging/power brick specifically for charging lithium CV/CC for $5 to 10. I can send links if interested.

[@GruntUltra]

Holy crap... The project was super cool and the cigar box amp sounded incredible. But Brad would tweak the knob a tad and find a whole new tone and just wail with each change. I swear you got more into jamming on this box than any other amp video I've seen! And then the freaking wah effect too? I stinkin' love this. Videos like THIS are why I subscribed (and I like all of the content you put up - but holy moley, man), this thing absolutely jams! I did something similar in the 90's when I took a car cassette player and used it as a separate component in my car and wired the guitar input to the tape heads - totally overdriving them. But the sound I had was like a horrible thrash-metal, no matter how I tuned it. Brad - you are the f'ing man!

[@Andoeriz]

I have a bunch of cigar boxes and other wooden boxes laying around. I want to try making a little amp now.

[@strangersound]

Great build/conversion as usual, Brad. I love how you cut the speaker hole. And driving those little speakers too hard always sounds good. :)

[@NewHopeAudio]

this is so cool lol. i think for the last part with the faux rotating speaker, a mini fan in front of it would be cool haha

[@Pusongmamon413]

you are genius man,how I wish I can covert my integrated stereo amplifier by pioneer into a guitar amps.

[@bengalvin9932]

HEY GUITOLOGIST! HOLY SHITBALLS THIS REALLY DOES SOUND KILLER!!! and it really has that FF sound to it when you roll back your guitars volume control! KILLER!!

[@johngerson7335]

This reminded me that I have an old portable eight track player lying around that I picked out of a junk pile. It's one of the old self contained speaker/player units that'll run on batteries or DC. Btw, your built-in-manually-operated wah-wah rocks!

[@bobby9727]

Awesome,very talented dude and to me it actually sounds very cool.Maybe a gizmo to control the lids function? Blow tube,foot pedal ? just a thought.

[@TheGuitologist]

Totally. I think about half my subs joined the cosmic mind simultaneously on that one. Everyone has been like..."dude! automate that lid with the motor!" I had the exact same thought too. Should have followed through with it, the Universe would have imploded.

[@iggyfritz7150]

When I first started playing many years ago I bought a tube powered phonograph very low wattage and used that to drive my main amp sounded amazing 😂 I even used to experiment with transistor radios 8-track players the old cheap transistor radios make really good fuzz distortion.

[@sixstringsmith]

Nice I have an old tape deck I,m gonna copy your design give or take some details. Thanks for the smart Idea. I'll make a gift for my drummer!

[@wodenoftheangles3339]

Ahhww, the AM dial.. oh the memories. :-)

[@peetena1481]

The quasi wah effect at the end of the vid is hilarious and highly effective. Use the PT tape motor and mount a wooden lobe (like a cam lobe) onto the motor shaft to oscillate the lid and have it switched in with a simple foot switch/jack arrangement :)

[@rhythmace22]

If you’re feeling crazy you should make a little stomp box with a single knob that moves some kinda arm piece in the amp to shake the top to make that vibrato sound the knob could control the speed that the arm is moving might get some use out of that motor

[@skycarl]

That little guy kicks serious butt. WTG Brad. btw,,, I think the germanium transistors make a big difference. Shows why they are preferred in pedal building.

[@MulletTV]

fun watch. I have no skills to do this though

[@chordfinger1]

Build an internal bracket to mount the pots on and pull them in closer inside the box to make the knobs more flush to the outside. Just an idea.

[@JoelzombieThomas]

oh man, you find a way to rig up a modified kickdrum pedal, and the open lid wah feature would become mighty usable and tons of fun!!

[@ManelWoodcutterSong]

Love how you can make an amp out of almost anything!

[@ManelWoodcutterSong]

By the way, do you know Johan Segeborn? You guys should team up

[@bodegg2]

That sounds amazing! I was just going to suggest hooking up the salvaged motor to a lid opening mechanism but I see I've been soundly beaten to it! Never heard of that format before and a quick google threw up a youtube vid of that exact same model (1403?). Nice work.

[@mattfleming2287]

Great video! I was wondering if you could go over the different types of tubes-12AX7, 6V6, etc. Maybe you could go over why you would want to use certain tubes etc. Thanks!

[@LorSTApunk07]

That sounds amazing! Bet that would’ve made a cool pedal, too.

[@marviosantos]

Sick Wha man! :) Great work as always!

[@degrinder4505]

Sounds Vintage ! Great job !!

[@TrollToove]

That amp is gnarly!

[@Diggerdog2nd]

Cool. Back in 1983 I got into a band with 2 brothers . We were all broke teenagers & the guitar player tripped me out when I first practiced with them & his amp was a stereo he turned into guitar amp out of necessity.. It sounded ok with a distortion box.

[@MurrayMelander]

Pignose, eat your heart out! Sweet sound considering it's origins. Nice job. There seems to be some room left over inside. Maybe add a reverb tank? ;)

[@nevillegoddard4966]

A real fun project Brad! That's a tenon saw by the way! I would have got some matt black paint, or even just a black texta, to paint the ground edges of the speaker cut-out you made, just to make it look a little better. Ashton? Didn't they make guitar amps, or guitars? Neat job using the existing printed circle & logo for the speaker baffle! Did you put the guitar signal into the amp via one end of the volume control? - Or via the tape head connection? I was trying to remember if tape head amp circuits had equalisation or not. Although maybe using the tape head amp gave you the fuzz effect? Either way it sounds great mate you did a damn good job!

[@blkjckgtr3075]

Very Awesome Brad you are the maun!!Cheers

[@chisolm5]

I had an old, and very good, GE cassette tape recorder/player many years ago (even had an analog signal strength meter) that gave a very nice distorted sound similar to this when I plugged my guitar into the microphone jack. :-)