I found the kids' toy acoustic guitar last month and started playing it. One thing led to another, and before I knew it, I was hanging out in Guitar Center (just around the corner!) looking at fancy electric guitars. I figured that I know so little about guitars, I would be better off learning how to play before dropping $600 on something that might not suit me. I found a nice used Ibanez for under $100 and have been having fun playing with it (except for a weird shoulder pain that sent me to the Dr. and is going to end up in physical therapy).
The problem with electric guitars is that you really need some electricity in order to make them sound right. With a $2 chip and some parts from a speakerphone I salvaged, I made a 200-miliwatt amplifier that runs off a 9-volt battery.
This is my corner workshop in the basement. It's actually worse than it looks with wires and junk everywhere. I need to spend a few hours cleaning up now that I have an amplifier built. The new Ibanez is standing up. The guitar on the floor is a toy that produces sound, but is unplayable. The 12th-fret is almost a full note off of an octave of the open string.
The mini-amp is OK, but as the tool guy says: "more power!" I built a pre-amp using a normal $0.39 op-amp and piped that into an integrated circuit chip that gives me 2 channels of 12 watts of pure acoustic power pumped into some old surround speakers. As Borat would say, "Niice!" I am on may way to being a rock star. All I need now is some talent.
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