No idea how this guy wrote this article and didn't come across DIY Audio (or he just didn't mention it in the article). There is a tonne of information here: https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/class-d/
3e Audio has a nice board using that as well.
Is the amp in this article the same kind of amp that you could plug an electric guitar into? I know nothing about music or instruments, but I do know about electronics so I was thinking it might be fun to build an amp with my son.
I went to the diyaudio link you suggested, but I didn't immediately see information like in the article (buy this, this, this and this to build the amp). Can you point to where I could find a similar purchase list and assembly instructions on diyaudio? Thanks!
But obviously a new player isn't going to want to drop $1500 on a rig like that.
I'm no expert, but as far as I understand, this is a power amp, which takes an input at line level (~1 volt) up to a level that can power a speaker. Guitar pickups produce a signal around 100 mV, and typically need a "pre-amp" stage before the power amp to amplify this signal to line level.
Now if you wanted to make a PA system, I don't see why you couldn't use an amplifier like this with some modifications.
Nowadays, there exist units that provide complete signal processing for guitar: simulating guitar pre-amplifiers, amplifiers and speaker cabinets digitally. You plug your guitar into this, and then it can go straight into a PA system, or your recording console. Something like that can be used with an amplifier like the one being built here.
My rig consists of a 6U portable rack case with a few pieces of gear. The guitar goes into an ADA MP-1 MIDI-programmable tube pre-amp (built in 1987, revamped by me). This goes into a splitter-mixer (called the SMF-1 that I built myself) which bifurcates the signal through a digital effect unit that provides reverb, and then mixes it again. The dry signal remains analog. Then it goes into a 31 band equalizer, and from there to the power amplifier, an Alesis RA-100, which feeds a guitar "4x12" speaker cabinet (four 12" speakers). I could take out the amplifier and drop-in replace it with any rack-mountable amp, provided it doesn't require more than 3U spaces. QSC, Yamaha, Yorkville, whatever.
There also exist dedicated rack-mounted power amplifiers intended for guitar, like the Rocktron Velocity or Marshall Valvestate 8008 (both of these examples are stereo). Many of these kinds of ampls have been produced. These are just power amps; they can't produce any overdrive tones and have only minimal tone control or none at all. The 8008 has a switch on the back for "tube like" behavior, which just means current feedback. That will give it more of a mid-scooped frequency response, induced by the reactive speaker load. I can do something like that with my equalizer.
The amplifier project we see here could be turned into a guitar amp by adding a preamp circuit board into the chassis, fed by a guitar input jack, and exposing some tone and gain controls. The stereo function of the amp could be useful if we add jacks for an external effect loop and make it stereo (mono out, stereo in). Then we need a stereo guitar cabinet: minimally a 2x10 or 2x12 wired for stereo.
Yes, this amp can work — experimental musicians run instruments through much weirder things — but it'll sound strange.
Whether you build an amp or not, you should definitely buy a standard guitar amp, so that he can focus on his guitar playing. A standard guitar amp (solid state or tube, to taste) will let him hear how his playing compares to other musicians (who also use standard guitar amps), helping him gain a critical ear. He'll learn what parts of the tone come from his fingers.
When he's ready to go experimental, then he can start playing with (say) ripping pickups out of guitars and wiring them up to headphones as portable EM detectors. When he gets to that phase, that's the time to start using line amplifiers like the one in this article instead of instrument amplifiers. And drilling hundreds of screws into his guitar.
* Get a standard amp/cab combo.
* DIY something, I'm sure there are guides and such you can follow, but this is only practical in so far as it's a fun project.
* Use your computer. You can get inexpensive cables that plug into your computer USB and there's a variety of software to emulate amps.
1. Preamp with hi-Z input from guitar to line level
2. Ability to drive into distortion
3. EQ of some sort
4. (Sometimes) reverb
5. Amplify line to speaker level (this article)
6. Midrangey speaker+cabinet that sounds nothing like a normal flat speaker cabinet used for HiFi/PA/keyboard/etc.
However, as others have said, you can use a guitar modeler which performs steps 1-4 outright and simulates step 6 leaving only a need for step 5 and a "normal" speaker.
It's extremely versatile and sounds great.
https://www.boss.info/us/products/katana-air/
I'm but an amateur guitarist. I can't detect any latency caused by the radio communication. But I have not been able to find pro muscicians trying out the Katana Air and complaining on the latency. It really works. Over quite long distances too.
The only thing I would have wanted in the Katana Air is rechargable batteries in the Amp itself (the transmitter is charged by the amp). But that is not a major issue.
I'm not a musician and this confused me for some time. I'd see electric guitars with their own amp & speakers then a microphone for the the PA system in front of said speaker. I couldn't understand why the electric guitar wasn't just plugged in, something I read a few years ago was a light-bulb moment.
Depending on your budget, I'd get a Vox Pathfinder, AC4, or AC10, and then take him to get a pedal or two after Christmas. You can usually find an AC4 used easily. Some of the digital amps are fun, but if he really gets into it, he's more likely to keep one of the amps I mentioned and buy pedals anyway. An AC4 (especially an AC10) will be something which usually sounds really good on it's own.
Maybe take him to a store so he can find out which guitar/amp combo he likes most.
I don't quite get the aggressiveness of your second point: surely just leaving whatever your first association to a topic is out cannot warrant such outrage? It's not like they present this article as groundbreaking innovation. Not only do they cite other DIY efforts. The whole premise of the article is that the author himself already did this ten years ago,.
I imagine this guy must have found the components of a site similar to DIY Audio. It would have been a nice addition to steer people in the direction of more information if they are interested in the topic (which a lot of the comments here seem to be asking about).