I’m Barry Dorr, an Electrical Engineering professor at San Diego State University and not-so-great studio trombone player in San Diego, CA. I’ve also given lectures for industry, academia and professional organizations describing the fascinating connections between music and engineering. After spending years playing alongside excellent guitar players, it was clear that I wanted to incorporate a guitar amplifier in my course material and provide a lab project that allowed students to reinforce their understanding of Electrical Engineering through music. I quickly found that the students were captivated by how all of these little circuit components could work together and allow guitarists to craft a wide variety of beautiful sounds. The amplifier soon spread to multiple senior capstone projects, and a variant of the design even ended up as a part of SDSU’s senior microelectronics lab. As more and more students volunteered, the project gained momentum and support.
Watching our student volunteers, I noticed that many of our engineering students had little to no experience working with their hands, and they had a hard time working with hand tools. But after building one or two amplifiers, they got quite proficient. By watching them, I realized where they had difficulty and began writing instructions to help them through the hard parts. These are the basis of the instructions you can download from this site. I also realized that, for students, learning craftsmanship skills is just as important as learning about electronics.
The SEA-310 is a balance of conflicting requirements, and it took many iterations to make it what it is today. The design was shaped by feedback from professional guitarists, music teachers, mechanical design experts, CAD experts, and other creative and smart people. We believe we are providing a high quality and musically useful product that will beneficially affect the lives of the students and hobbyists who build it.
– Barry