Playstation 2 Guitar Amp

by jeoncs

12K4912

Intro: Playstation 2 Guitar Amp

I made this for a couple reasons. This would fit on an entertainment center easier than a normal amp, and the second reason was I had the parts and figured why not. Overall I wish I had a better amp to use but for a cheap walmart amp it works.

STEP 1: PS2 Disassembly

first thing we need to do is a major gutting of the PS2 unit.

Once you remove all of the bottom screws the top will come off. There should be a few screws holding the cdrom in place which will need to be removed. You will have to pry a little bit to get it to come loose. Underneath the cdrom you'll find the motherboard. Once exposed disconnect the power switch/plug and set it aside for later use.

STEP 2: CD-Rom Disassembly

Now we need to gut the cdrom for the pick storage drawer.
The top of the drive comes off very easy and exposes the laser and such. You will have to slide the tray around a little bit to get at all of the screws. Basically if you see a screw anywhere take it out. The pictures will show the various spots to pry or unscrew.

STEP 3: Tray Assembly

The tray as is will not work so you need to put something in it. There is a piece of insulating plastic from inside that when cut works perfectly. Just cut to size like shown in the picture and glue in place. After its all set just put the top back on to keep the tray from coming all the way out and its finished.

STEP 4: Amp Disassembly

This amp was very easy to take apart and for any other projects very easy to mod. Remove the screws shown and the amp head will be able to slide right out. Before I did this I desoldered the speaker wires. To get the board out of the metal casing you need to pull the knobs off then use pliers to unscrew the nuts off the toggles. I bypassed the amp's power switch because I am going to use the ps2's switch. After that I removed the input jack so it could be placed further from the knobs.

STEP 5: The Marriage of the PS2 and Amp

I had to make a quickie washer to get the input jack to tighten good enough. I put the input jack where the usb ports were on the ps2. I removed the LED in the middle then extended it with a piece of wire so it could light up in the front. I had to remove the middle piece of plastic so the board would fit in. It's very easy to see where to put the holes for the knobs with the grating in the front. You can go ahead and put all the knobs together and it will help keep the board in place.

The speaker is easy to lay out. Just mark for the screw holes (stupid me only had 2 screws that had nuts with them) then drill in a pattern for sound holes in between.

STEP 6: I Have the Power!

I HATE AC adapters. So my idea was to wire the ac adapter internally to the ps2 switch so that there was no need to lug it around. This worked AWESOME. I can use the original ps2 power cable and switch like this. I bent the plug on the ac adapter to get it to fit right. Then placed it on its back up next to the input jack.

STEP 7: Closure

After you've checked your connections close up the case. You might have to cut out small amounts of plastic but nothing major. One thing I forgot to take a picture of was LED placement. Its easy enough you just put some hot glue on it and stick it to the reset button back and it will light through it.

STEP 8: Guitar Zero to Guitar Hero

Everything is done grab a pick out of the handy dandy storage drawer and rock out!

12 Comments

CemarcusB 9 years ago

Send me a video of how u did that

jeoncs 9 years ago

This was made 6 years ago so I don't have any way to do that since I only did stills.

Glockenator 14 years ago

now i see how you did that.good idea

badmemrys 14 years ago

thats awesome, if I can get my hands on an extra amp I might try this

Glockenator 14 years ago

you can get tiny marshall amps for 10 bucks at alot of stores.where i live at least

jeoncs 14 years ago

I think walmart has the First Act ones still which aren't really anything special but they have minimal electronics and fit well into this. Thats what I used it was like 30$ or so and if you already have the old ps2 imo 30$ for a ps2 guitar amp is worth it haha. Try it for sure if I get another one I am gonna see if I can get a NES for cheap and try to keep the plugs in the cartridge lid

badmemrys 14 years ago

you can find a nes easy in a lot of flea markets and little out of the way game stores, i happen to own 2 myself

tukk04 15 years ago

Really cool project! my friend has that crappy little first act amp, i'll have to show him this, great idea!

jeoncs 15 years ago

Yea for sure this would work with any non working system. I even contemplated a VCR at first but this PS2 has been dead for a long time and was getting close to being trashed.

Aqueous_Snake 15 years ago

Do you have to use the big clunky PS2? Is there a way to use the slim version?