Let’s see your bench rig

blackhatboojum

blackhatboojum

Well-known member
I thought this would be kind of fun one. What are you guys using on your bench for testing out a build? A cheap practice amp? Headphone amp? Your pop’s old stereo? Also, do you have any pedals that stay on your work bench? I’m curious as to what everyone is using.

My bench rig is a Ruby I built on vero, going into a Blackstar fly extension cab. I’ve also been keeping my Rat on the bench. It’s been a great bench rig for testing builds but, is also fun to just jam on every now and then.

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Typically I use my MacBook and go direct into GarageBand since I don’t really have anything else that conducive to benchtop placement. But to avoid accidental damage via an inevitable tangle of wires knocking things into each other, I’ve temporarily put my homemade 1x8 and noisy cricket on the bench, but that’s too big and gets into the way too.

Nothing else that’s a mainstay on the bench, though I’ve been planning for a while to eventually build a sorta interesting playback unit that’s sorta like a looper but different, so I can test circuits and stuff on the breadboard without having to maneuver a guitar around the cramped workspace
 
I bench test with my Hitachi o-scope and then move to the living room for listening tests. This is my current test rig:

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That's an AudioKinesis TC118AF cab and a DIY amp that does ~350 watts @ 8 ohms. I'm currently building a new 100 watt tube rig for guitar, haven't decided on cab format yet though. I typically don't do breadboarding, I just model things in LTspice and get PCBs made for testing, making the first revision as rework friendly as feasible.
 
I should have participated in this thread yesterday... I almost went to snap a pic of my bench amp but never got around to it.

Last night around 11pm I was unboxing some PCBs and a little red light caught the corner of my eye...

Yes.... that's right. My little Princeton had been chugging along under the bench since Thursday afternoon. :ROFLMAO:
 
Robert said:
I should have participated in this thread yesterday... I almost went to snap a pic of my bench amp but never got around to it.

Last night around 11pm I was unboxing some PCBs and a little red light caught the corner of my eye...

Yes.... that's right. My little Princeton had been chugging along under the bench since Thursday afternoon. :ROFLMAO:
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You should add that service to the store website. “Tube burn in” 😜
 
It's not the first time that has happened. My Twin got left on for at least a week one time, possibly longer.

The pilot light was loose in the socket so it looked like it was off... I kept hearing this very low 60hz hum... What the hell is that?

Then I felt the heat coming from the cab. Oh no! :ROFLMAO:


It was fine though, still working great to this day on the same tubes and that was nearly 10 years ago.
 
Did someone say “Pignose”? An 80’s original that I snagged from my father in law. Just needed a new input jack.
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Used to be this: 815151A2-F23E-49EE-B026-94E7A51744A7.jpeg
Until it crapped out for the second time. Didn’t feel like f*ing with it anymore.
Edit: for clarity, the Pignose is my current test rig.
 
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szukalski said:
Am i the only one who has to share his build room with his play room?

Plug it into the main rig! No risk, no fun!
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Same, my test rig is my main rig. I have a couch rig though. A Pyle battery powered busking amp a friend left here 8 years ago. Y'all are jealous. I can hear it. "How has this friend gone so long without this amp???"

An older iteration of this.
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Sounds way worse than you think it does.
 
Mentaltossflycoon said:
Same, my test rig is my main rig. I have a couch rig though. A Pyle battery powered busking amp a friend left here 8 years ago. Y'all are jealous. I can hear it. "How has this friend gone so long without this amp???"

An older iteration of this.
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Sounds way worse than you think it does.
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For a brief period in my youth, my rig was a boss metal zone into Kustom kpa4 PA system. It also sounded pretty bad.
 
Well it's a pyle of something...

I'm another whose test rig is my usual amp. I have an office at the front of the house which has all of my guitar stuff, including the workbench where I build pedals and amps. It also has my work computer. And record collection, olde stereo, books and a Marshall fridge for beer. It's a bit crowded in there.
 
I've just been moving my pedals over to my practice amp for testing. I have been thinking about my Orange Micro Crush though, it's perfect for this role. And now you've inspired me to get it out of its box, so now I have a proper desktop amp that sort-of cost me nothing because I bought it on a whim about a decade ago and have barely used it.

It sounds pretty decent for a 4-inch speaker. Sadly this is the older model without an external speaker output, so I can't hook it up to a cab. Has a headphone out, though. But it's a small one. But I have an adaptor for that.
 

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DAJE said:
I've just been moving my pedals over to my practice amp for testing. I have been thinking about my Orange Micro Crush though, it's perfect for this role. And now you've inspired me to get it out of its box, so now I have a proper desktop amp that sort-of cost me nothing because I bought it on a whim about a decade ago and have barely used it.

It sounds pretty decent for a 4-ich speaker. Sadly this is the older model without an external speaker output, so I can't hook it up to a cab. Has a headphone out, though. But it's a small one. But I have an adaptor for that.
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You might could add a speaker out. I did that to my vox ac2 battery amp, and put a switch for the internal speaker or the jack
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Anyone got a schematic for a decent power amp? Something with a bit more clean headroom than a Ruby/noisy cricket, but still has some character to it? Otherwise I’ll rig something up with a boring old TPA board instead. I’ve got a cool little enclosure for a mini head that would be perfect for a workbench amp, and I’ve got a few preamp circuits in mind— just a matter of the power section now
 
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