Latest thing you've built?

Recording Techniques, People Skills, Gear, Recording Spaces, Computers, and DIY

Moderators: drumsound, tomb

dfuruta
re-cappin' neve
Posts: 697
Joined: Fri May 08, 2009 11:01 am

Post by dfuruta » Thu Apr 14, 2016 5:56 pm

ashcat_lt wrote:Before that the last time I warmed up the iron was to take half the cables from a 8 channel TRSM>XLRM snake and convert them to pseudo-balanced. Unfortunately, all of those buzz really badly with every source I've tried so far. Not sure what the deal is there, but I haven't bothered to try to sort it out because the four I didn't fuck with have been working well enough.
something going on with the shields?


made a guitar di box using the pcbs for a low power guitar amp i built. the topology is like the twin reverb's preamp section but with jfets instead of tubes. sounds ok to me, but i'm not too big on "tone".

User avatar
A.David.MacKinnon
ears didn't survive the freeze
Posts: 3819
Joined: Wed May 07, 2003 5:57 am
Location: Toronto
Contact:

Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Thu Apr 14, 2016 6:06 pm

Image

Gutted the electronics in this Anjo Bullet copy and installed the pick-up from a 60's Teisco. Ditched the switch, tone knob and moved the volume to the tone spot (as I always hit the switch and volume on any Fender style guitar I try to play). The Anjo is a cool guitar with crappy pick-ups , the Teisco was a crappy guitar with a great pick-up.
I'm pretty happy with it but the pick-guard is a total hack job. Gotta find someone to cut a new one. It says something about the Anjo or about Fender that the copy is a much better guitar than the original that I used to own.

User avatar
Drone
re-cappin' neve
Posts: 678
Joined: Fri Dec 18, 2009 4:01 pm
Location: Uranus

Post by Drone » Thu Apr 14, 2016 6:21 pm

That bridge position is just crying out for a cheap, nasty, humbucker blade. :mrgreen:

http://m.newfrog.com/item_detail/46566- ... atocaster-
The previous statement is from a guy who records his own, and other projects for fun. No money is made.

User avatar
A.David.MacKinnon
ears didn't survive the freeze
Posts: 3819
Joined: Wed May 07, 2003 5:57 am
Location: Toronto
Contact:

Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Thu Apr 14, 2016 7:11 pm

Funny you should say that because that's what I pulled out of there earlier today.
I'm going to stay single pick-up with this I think. the simplicity is pretty nice an the neck pick-up sounds huge.

ashcat_lt
tinnitus
Posts: 1094
Joined: Thu Jan 04, 2007 1:54 pm
Location: Duluth, MN
Contact:

Post by ashcat_lt » Fri Apr 15, 2016 1:02 pm

dfuruta wrote:something going on with the shields?
Yeah, probably. I lifted them at the 1/4" side thinking it would be better not to tie the shield to either of the signal wires, but I guess maybe it'll be better terminating the shield at the Low-Z end. Easy enough to try, but just haven't gotten around to it.

dfuruta
re-cappin' neve
Posts: 697
Joined: Fri May 08, 2009 11:01 am

Post by dfuruta » Wed Apr 27, 2016 8:41 pm

Image

My first successful DIY pickup (don't laugh, ubertar!)
Wound it on a 1/4-20 bolt on the drill press, potted it with candle wax. Seems to work OK. Going to be building some instruments and this is for one of them.

User avatar
Drone
re-cappin' neve
Posts: 678
Joined: Fri Dec 18, 2009 4:01 pm
Location: Uranus

Post by Drone » Thu Apr 28, 2016 6:46 am

More pics from a different angle?

Did you wind it straight onto the bolt, or did you use paper or something? What gauge wire did you use?

I got some old motors and transformers, I could probably try salvaging the copper from.
The previous statement is from a guy who records his own, and other projects for fun. No money is made.

User avatar
ubertar
ears didn't survive the freeze
Posts: 3775
Joined: Wed Feb 18, 2004 7:20 pm
Location: mid-Atlantic US
Contact:

Post by ubertar » Thu Apr 28, 2016 12:10 pm

dfuruta wrote:(don't laugh, ubertar!)
No, I think this is really cool. Gotta start somewhere. Who cares what it looks like if it sounds good?

dfuruta
re-cappin' neve
Posts: 697
Joined: Fri May 08, 2009 11:01 am

Post by dfuruta » Thu Apr 28, 2016 6:15 pm

Drone: not too much more to see! It's a standard bolt with a couple 1" fender washers held in place by nuts. Before winding it I coated the bolt/washers/nuts in wax, to avoid scraping/snagging the magnet wire. There's a neodymium ring magnet right next to that bottom bolt. My wax melter, as it is, is part of a candle in a stainless steel mug on a hot plate set for low temperature...

Wire is 40awg. Not too expensive on eBay - since the coil is so small in diameter, it doesn't take much wire. The trick to winding these, I found after screwing up three of them, is to put the spool of wire so the axis is pointing at the winding, about 5 feet away. Otherwise the wire just snaps trying to pull the spool around. I tensioned it with a finger, and counted turns by time elapsed multiplied by the rpm setting on the drill.

I got most of the idea from watching videos by the Anarchestra guy.

Ubertar: thanks! Ain't fancy, but :D
I am trying to build a movable-key electric "hurdy gurdy" to go with that guitar I'm getting from you. I feel like I've got a real musical direction for the first time in years.

I'll hopefully have a few instruments to post in the next month or two, should this board stay alive long enough...

User avatar
Snarl 12/8
cryogenically thawing
Posts: 3510
Joined: Sat Dec 20, 2008 5:01 pm
Location: Right Cheer
Contact:

Post by Snarl 12/8 » Thu Apr 28, 2016 9:40 pm

Don't you need a source of magnetism too?
Carl Keil

Almost forgot: Please steal my drum tracks. and more.

dfuruta
re-cappin' neve
Posts: 697
Joined: Fri May 08, 2009 11:01 am

Post by dfuruta » Fri Apr 29, 2016 5:17 am

Yeah, that disc by the nut on the end is a neodymium ring-shaped magnet.

User avatar
Drone
re-cappin' neve
Posts: 678
Joined: Fri Dec 18, 2009 4:01 pm
Location: Uranus

Post by Drone » Fri Apr 29, 2016 6:05 am

If anyone has ever dissected one of those cheap magnetic soundhole pickups, back in the day I dismantled a JHS one, it was simply a hank of wire, in wax paper, with a piece of ceramic bar magnet loose in the centre.

There was no bobbin, the coil of wire was just in the wax paper and the magnet didn't fit it was just in there. Yet they were passable pickups, if a tad microphonic.
The previous statement is from a guy who records his own, and other projects for fun. No money is made.

User avatar
A.David.MacKinnon
ears didn't survive the freeze
Posts: 3819
Joined: Wed May 07, 2003 5:57 am
Location: Toronto
Contact:

Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Fri Apr 29, 2016 6:29 am

The pick-up in the photo I posted earlier in this thread is basically that exactly. It surface mounts to the guitar and used to have pole pieces/screws. When I opened it up I discovered that the poles were off to one side of the pick-up and really have no impact on the sound whatsoever.
It's just a coil of wire in wax paper with a magnet crudely jammed into the middle. Yet, it sounds amazing.

User avatar
Drone
re-cappin' neve
Posts: 678
Joined: Fri Dec 18, 2009 4:01 pm
Location: Uranus

Post by Drone » Fri Apr 29, 2016 6:34 am

The sought after sounds of the Teisco are much the same, I have some of those weird 60's machines. My favourite is a dutch one, and Egmond, the pickups are on a paper former with a metal centre and a magnet stuck underneath, and have little grub screws on it, then the pickup cover is two pieces of tin plate, one mounted on the pickguard, the other floating on the top. It's so, so, so, awfully microphonic and you have to be careful playing it, but it has one of the roundest dubbiest bass tones I have heard.
The previous statement is from a guy who records his own, and other projects for fun. No money is made.

ashcat_lt
tinnitus
Posts: 1094
Joined: Thu Jan 04, 2007 1:54 pm
Location: Duluth, MN
Contact:

Post by ashcat_lt » Fri Apr 29, 2016 1:23 pm

ashcat_lt wrote:
dfuruta wrote:something going on with the shields?
Yeah, probably. I lifted them at the 1/4" side thinking it would be better not to tie the shield to either of the signal wires, but I guess maybe it'll be better terminating the shield at the Low-Z end. Easy enough to try, but just haven't gotten around to it.
Turns out to be some quirk of the preamps in the Tascam US1641 that I use for my live rig. They work well enough on the studio machine. I took one and reconnected the shield at the 1/4" inch end. Both the R and S wire were connected to the S, and the ring itself was N/C. Lifted the shield at the XLR end. It still buzzed like a bitch, so I just put them back to full balanced all the way through. I haven't tried shorting R and S at both ends yet. Seems that should be quieter than leaving that wire connected to the negative input of preamp with the other end waving in the cosmic wind, but it works well enough now, and I'm not sure what might happen if I accidentally turned on phantom power, so I'm just going to leave it.


Edit - re: pickups.

Anybody got any ideas how I might DIY a reasonably cheap and easy magnetic pickup for my autoharp? It's not really worth springing for the Oscar Schmidts, and I really would like it to sound like an electric guitar. I could fuck around with piezos and EQ, but that ain't the same thing.

How 'bout the cello? I was thinking of using the P-style pickup from an old broken bass. Seems I should be able to mount in something like a shallow inverted V and it should work well enough with the curved bridge. The question then becomes: how to mount the damn thing without getting in the way, affecting the resonance of the body too much, or looking too terribly stupid.

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 47 guests