The Esteli: Cigar Box instrument LM386N-based Amp from abram on Vimeo.

Here’s the latest in general purpose amplifiers made from reused parts. The enclosure is an old cigar box for which i have quite an affection as an enclosure. I really do love the sound of wood in both the recording process and amplifiers. In the video, you can really get an idea of how it treats the sound when i open the top.

As opposed to the LightBox, the Esteli has two knobs. The top is for volume and the bottom a 10k pot in the gain look between pins 1 and 8 on the IC. I’d probably recommend a 50k in this configuration, but it does make the amp really loud which i think is better for the instrument side of things. The gain of the amp then floats around 100-200 depending on where the gain is set. For more information, see the LM386 Datasheet.