i need a prototype

I think the disconnect may be between "I've got a great concept for a guitar amplifier with features not currently out there" and "I'm no engineer, so doing it myself is not an option."

I frequently have great ideas about fields in which I only know the basic concepts. When I pursue them I am invariably surprised to discover that my ideas are stupid.

If you would like an honest objective analysis of your idea without fear of it being stolen (as I have zero interest in guitars) you can email me thru CR4 and I'll be happy to take a gander.

Quite right bhankiii, I was wondering the same thing, how do you know if your level of knowledge in that field is only touching the surface???

If you talk about features of the final sound, product or incorporation of new guitar related ideas, than maybe they ARE being thought of or are impossible, after all the original poster does not know enough about electronics to know if it IS possible. That seems a catch 22 to me.

More explanation is required I think.

Dude,

Like what kind of modifications are you talking about? Don't give away your ideas but at least put us in the ball park. Are you talking about the electronic features or the appearence? Also consider multiple search engines for checking to see if anyone has already thought of your idea. It happens to me a lot....

thanks everybody for your input. i should have made things a little more clear. i'm not trying to reinvent the wheel. all of the features i want are existing circuits, or at least possible. i'm not an engineer, true, but i do have some electronic knowledge. i just wouldn't trust myself to build the quality that i would need to put in front of an investor. also, the distinguishable features include circuitry and appearence. There isn't any science fiction technology bouncing around in my head, just a new approach to an old product that basically hasn't changed in decades. I have been looking for a similar product for years. It really, really isn't out there.

In that case what you need to do is to find a friend who can help you with making the first prototype as a sample which will serve you to find an investor who will than finance the proper building of the final product.

Sorry mate but hard graft is the only way through this predicament. Anybody who knows about your field who can help you with making you a prototype is a risk to you. They might run off with your good idea knowing you cannot produce it yourself.

A simple nondisclosure agreement (NDA) will provide some entanglement to prevent theft, and provide employment to a lawyer for a few hours.

Depending on where you are in the world, the NDA may not even be worth the paper it was written on.

Besides, do any of us have the money to take on the legal costs of battling anyone in courts or high courts that have broken an NDA, you may still loose even if you think you are right.

Patent laws are amongst the most difficult to work with for laymen. I would not even dream of exposing myself to unnecessary risks.

I understand your point of view but practise has shown us many times that it does not always follow the logic behind the initial idea. Too many unscrupulous corporate thieves about.

Yes, but it's the simplest way to get from here to there.

For instance, we're evaluating a power supply for space flight. It's a potted module so we can't see what's inside - we need the schematic. The schematic is proprietary to the manufacturer. So, we draft a simple NDA.

A co-worker of mine was asked to review an inventor's design - he signed an NDA beforehand. It's standard business procedure. Nothing will protect you from a crook, but an NDA will protect you from any honest man.

Unless you're going to design, manufacture, market, install and repair your product all by yourself, you've got to trust people. It usually works out.

The best way to get started is to build one yourself. That isn't easy if you have never done something like this before, but you will learn a lot. For the appearance you may have to go visit some nearby manufacturing facilities. They will want to be sure that you are not some kind of competitor "spy" but should otherwise be helpful. Seek out the engineering department for contacts. There is a lot of "how to" stuff in print and on the internet. Search for techniques, rest a day, and search again. Don't forget to check the public library. It can be a very rich resource.

For the electrical, if this idea consists of existing stuff, I assume that means that you have connected it together before. So, all you have to really do is to re-package the components into a single box. Maybe that means a new face plate or front panel where you determine the layout of the knobs, switches, and jacks. Expect to do that at least twice because you may think of something you want to change to make it look like you want it to look. Do a full scale drawing on paper first. Paper is cheap.

Do a full scale drawing on paper first. Paper is cheap.

If you have CAD capabilities or know somebody that would be easier.

Are the features available from modules usually found outside the amp? (Your meaning of existing circuits)

One big question is "Where are you??" If you were in Vancouver WA, I would be more than happy to look at your ideas. If you are in UK, the trip would be beyond my budget.

Bill

i'm located in northern kentucky, or basically cincinnati, ohio

Where are you located?

The southern US, particularly Texas has a lot of prototyping houses, mostly mechanical but a lot of electronic ones too. Off of the top of my head I can think of three folks in Houston who could help (one of whom may even be available). Of course, these folks need paying.

If you want to develop something you need to stump up the cash... Sorry but then's the facts.

For new ideas there are a lot of patent search engines and this may be the first place you need to look. Easiest to search is (IMHO) the European Patent Database (search on google for this). Start here and go from there.

Good luck.

I can do it, but like they're saying, it takes $$$. Prototypes are very time intensive, so it really pays to research your idea as much as possible before you hire anybody to do anything. See zolinvent.com.

I have a standard NDA, so you don't need to be blowing money on lawyers right away. Half the inventors who contact me have already been milked & bilked by patent attornys who don't care if the idea has any merit or not.

Feel free to ask me any questions you may have on the design of your idea. Ive being in the electronic industry for 23 years, most of them in the analogue. I'm a retired professional musician (i play just for fun now) I've built all of my own equipment from vacuum tube to MOSFET and a combination of them also. Exponential horns are a great interest to me and have templates for most of the frequency response down to 200Hz. 50 Hz is impractical to build for mobile purposes. I don't know where you want to go with your idea but enjoy the discovery. By the way is it for lead or bass guitar?

Craig
South Africa

Just reading-along, here...and couldn't help interjecting (go ahead: "Off Topic")~

if exponential horns are 'of interest to you', you've probably seen...this...(?)

http://www.passdiy.com/pdf/KleinHorn.pdf

I'm a Klipsch fan, myself (8 in living room, w/flanking K-Horns up front and 15" sub behind sofa...). Wish I had the time and resources to 'dig-into' building a tube amp for the horns.

Think we'll ever see an Audiophile-Specific forum here...? Best Regards!

Besides making the prototype you will have to market it, but you know all this. Why not save time and money and go straight to the father and originator of all this? Les Paul could possibly save you time and money, if you can get to talk to him. At almost 93 (this summer) he plays two shows each Monday at New York City's Iridium Jazz Club.

Short of this, contact colleges. EE's need to have a senior project in order to graduate so contacting the Dean could possibly get you this product developed at a far less of a cost than going straight into industry.

If you are not trying to re-invent the wheel, but simply putting a new twist on an old idea, why not take a Fender amp or Peavy or any of the multitude of amps that are there now and add your component to it to see if it works. If it does, then you have something to sell. If it doesn't, find out why and try again. The major components of most all amps are essentially the same, so use what's there now.

First off, in my opinion, there's nothing new under the sun. I'll bet five bucks your thinking of building an electronic tuner into the amp itself. Someone already did it (Crate I believe) and it didn't fly well as everyone has a $10 pocket tuner anyway. If this is your idea then it suffers from the "multi-function dilemma" in that combo units must be chucked or repaired, whereas individual components fail or need service on their own. I hope you indeed have something new. A couple of crafty college nerds ought to help, I was one. Good luck.

There is a market for "boutique" custom amps, and several small manufacturers. Google "LA amp show" -there is actually a trade show for this industry. So you could contact one of these small builders. If you want to read up on amp design and mods, Craig Anderton has written several books and a column for Guitar Player magazine.

That reminds me...That Amp Show is in Piscataway, NJ on 5/10/08 www.ampshow.com

The dingbat schedulers conflicted with the Saratoga Springs, NY Guitar show just like they did last year, so I've never been to it.

Once again, everybody you're awesome! great leads, fantastic suggestions. i'll try and hit all of the questions so far here: an internal tuner is one idea i had, but who goes to a show and wants to listen to a guitarist tuning between songs. anyway, most pedals have a bypass/kill switch while in tuner mode and putting one in an amp just adds (not only more stuff that could fail) more cost and doubles functions or gear a guitarist should already have anyway. yes i'm in the u.s., but sorry no cash for travel for trade shows, etc (family, mortgage...). i'm hoping to get together something that is flexible enough for guitar or bass. since most guitar folks typically create their sound with external processing anyway, and for the most part bass players only need EQ, a basic amp is all my target users need. i've got two or three tech schools in the immediate area. speaking with students?... duuu i really don't know why i hadn't thought of that. the boutique amp market is a little out of my league. these are usually hand wired to order or spec for crap-tons of money. my target is the "between a combo and a stack" crowd who never has that kind of dough.i've thought of using like velleman or similar type stuff for prototyping, but that opens up a whole can of trademark/patent worms. the reality is that i'm here because i finally gave up looking for existing products to chuck into my enclosure and decided to just get it built ground-up in a way that can be duplicated in quantity. finally, oh yes i plan on forking over loads of cash, but i also plan on a near finished, marketable prototype when i am ready to show real-deal investors. i'll probably put proto number 20 or something in front of these guys. i've got two already, but they look (sound ok) like someone threw a radio shack off a cliff, and couldn't possibly be duplicated practically or cost effectively. all they are is cheap (ish) gear torn up and wired together. so please folks keep suggestions coming if you've got 'em. i'm pursuing the ones you've given me now!

Hey rook 11, if you want to build an amp, you should investigate existing schematics. Pick the amp that you like the overall sound, and decide whether you want to go tube or solid state. I prefer tube all the way myself although it's a tooootally different animal.

check out

http://www.ax84.com/

http://www.knowledgehound.com/topics/guitar.htm

http://users.sa.chariot.net.au/~gmarts/ampbasic.htm

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread/t-47015.html

http://sound.westhost.com/project27.htm

http://homerecording.com/bbs/archive/index.php/t-10990.html

http://www.diycustomamps.com/

http://www.evatco.com.au/books2.htm

http://www.diyguitarist.com/AmpStuff.htm

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/

and http://www.smallbearelec.com/home.html

if you want a head start on circuitry you can use a pre made circuitboard (pad per hole ?) or create your own once you achieve your design as shown here:

http://www.smallbearelec.com/HowTos/DirectPCBoards/DirectPCBoards.htm

hope that helps, good luck and let me know how it goes !!!!

Oh... And don't forget to get a good desolderer, you will need it !!!! I know I use mine all the time !!