Latest gear you've acquired.....

FollowFarnsworth · Post by **FollowFarnsworth** » Thu Jul 24, 2014 4:21 pm

Hahaha, you know, everyone has been saying that it might be cursed... Maybe I should watch my back?

Darlington Pair · Post by **Darlington Pair** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 6:16 am

Got a Korg Poly 800 from a coworker for $130 and a DBX 119 + $30 for fixing a dude's Ampeg V-4.

That DBX sure sounds great!! I can't believe it took me this long to get one. It had some issues with what turned out to be a blown LM301 in one of the channels and I replaced the outputs with LM318s and caps to keep them from oscillating. I also added huge supply caps and 15v zeners to the unregulated +/-15v rails that were sitting around 16v.

I've had a 117 for a while, but it's just a basket case and they go for so cheap that I wasn't sure it was worth putting the time and money into, guess I'll have to start replacing parts in that.

floid · Post by **floid** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 9:47 am

A cool mod for the 118 that I think prolly also applies to its brother and sister: reduce the size of the detector input's coupling cap to 1/10th the original value (high passing the sidechain). I added a switch to select between stock and mod values; when using it on overheads and operating in Linear mode I've found that I can get some fairly subtle differences in tone that I flip between in different sections of the song.

Darlington Pair · Post by **Darlington Pair** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 10:37 am

floid wrote:A cool mod for the 118 that I think prolly also applies to its brother and sister: reduce the size of the detector input's coupling cap to 1/10th the original value (high passing the sidechain). I added a switch to select between stock and mod values; when using it on overheads and operating in Linear mode I've found that I can get some fairly subtle differences in tone that I flip between in different sections of the song.

The 117/119 service manual has the detector cap mod in it and I was curious about the sound. I'll have to put in a switch like you did, that's a great idea. The 117 and 119 are the exact same thing with a few different values and the switch on the front does different things. From the picture I saw of the 118's guts the VCAs looked more like the ones in my 3BX, but from the schematics they all look pretty much the same.

floid · Post by **floid** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 6:09 pm

IIRC the 119 (117?) has more desirable VCA's, tho that might just be internet lore. does the service manual include their schems? i've only a copy of the user manual, which doesn't detail the vca.

adding that switch really helped me understand the 118's linear mode as moving the threshold thru the meat of the sound rather than descending upon it from above - more 'squeeze' than 'press'. Flipping the hipass in and out can change how far an element like the snare sits from that 'center'.

drumsound · Post by **drumsound** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 10:17 pm

Today I recieved a Gretsch 6.5x14 Bell Brass snare. Holy Jeebus that thing is heavy and COOL!

kslight · Post by **kslight** » Sat Jul 26, 2014 8:09 am

Picked up a 3 pack of Digitech iStomp pedals for $100 on MF's SDOD last week?just got to plug them in now? Pretty cool, actually?it certainly has its limitations?and kind of annoying to have to connect the iPhone to load a new effect?but on the plus side, all but one of the effects are free for download now (formerly in-App purchases) since Digitech has abandoned this product. Not using them on guitar right now, using them to destroy drums? Sound wise pretty good, not flawless interpretations, I don't have real life counterparts of all of these pedals but at least compared to the FX25B and Rodent I am able to get near the same sounds (not exactly the same settings, but could be just a variation in the original unit that I have)?close enough for rock and roll. I can't see paying the original asking price for these?but at $100 for 3 it was definitely worth it just for some more toys, and for 3 effects that have stereo I/O. Also, delays have tap tempo built-in, which isn't obvious until you look into their parameter info on the iPhone?but a nice touch. Would have loved to see an expression pedal input too?but oh well. Also would have liked to see a noise gate?not that these pedals are noisy themselves, but as an effect, since running old drum machines and such can build up a decent amount of noise.

Darlington Pair · Post by **Darlington Pair** » Mon Jul 28, 2014 10:10 am

floid wrote:IIRC the 119 (117?) has more desirable VCA's, tho that might just be internet lore. does the service manual include their schems? i've only a copy of the user manual, which doesn't detail the vca.

adding that switch really helped me understand the 118's linear mode as moving the threshold thru the meat of the sound rather than descending upon it from above - more 'squeeze' than 'press'. Flipping the hipass in and out can change how far an element like the snare sits from that 'center'.

Google search for the schematics turns them right up, but in all the models they treat the RMS detector and VCAs as ICs instead of the discrete components they actually are. Somewhere I saw the schems for all the various RMS detectors and VCAs, maybe GroupDIY's 160VU clone thread? I'll see if I can dig it up. The board they have for the 160VU clone actually has room to either built the discrete VCA or use a THAT VCA.

CraigS63 · Post by **CraigS63** » Sun Aug 03, 2014 1:13 pm

Kala "sopranino" uke, 11" scale, $125. Tuning cFAD for now. I don't have Andre the Giant hands, this thing is just really small. That's what she said

http://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/h ... 249e607c0e

Darlington Pair · Post by **Darlington Pair** » Tue Aug 19, 2014 11:49 am

Got a CAD Trion 8000, 2 SE5000s, 3 SM57s, and some mic stands in trade for a moving coil cartridge and some pedals.

This should be pretty fun!

Randyman... · Post by **Randyman...** » Tue Aug 19, 2014 4:09 pm

I'm loving what the DIY-RE Pallete/Color modules are doing for me, so I purchased 3 more Pallette kits and 3 more 15IPS modules. Also need to assemble the TM79 Modules I purchased last month (by Eisen Audio / also does design work for Purple and AwTAC!)

I also just got the email notification that the Louder than Liftoff "RGB" Colour modules are up for pre-order (Holy shit those look cool!!!), so I pre-ordered the set of all 3 modules. Will likely buy a second set once I confirm they are as cool as they seem to be

Check the link and be prepared to be blown away IMO!!! World's smallest 1176 (all the components from a Rev F) among other goodies...

Peterson Goodwyn's Palette/Colour Module concept is taking the 500 series to a whole 'nother level of expansion while being stupidly cheap IMO, and some big-name heavy hitters are already pushing the form-factor to incredible feats (and the format is less than a year old!)...

T-rex · Post by **T-rex** » Tue Aug 19, 2014 5:56 pm

drumsound wrote:Today I recieved a Gretsch 6.5x14 Bell Brass snare. Holy Jeebus that thing is heavy and COOL!

Love brass snares. Amazing!

Darlington Pair · Post by **Darlington Pair** » Wed Aug 20, 2014 6:25 am

Randyman... wrote:I'm loving what the DIY-RE Pallete/Color modules are doing for me, so I purchased 3 more Pallette kits and 3 more 15IPS modules. Also need to assemble the TM79 Modules I purchased last month (by Eisen Audio / also does design work for Purple and AwTAC!)

I also just got the email notification that the Louder than Liftoff "RGB" Colour modules are up for pre-order (Holy shit those look cool!!!), so I pre-ordered the set of all 3 modules. Will likely buy a second set once I confirm they are as cool as they seem to be

Check the link and be prepared to be blown away IMO!!! World's smallest 1176 (all the components from a Rev F) among other goodies...

Peterson Goodwyn's Palette/Colour Module concept is taking the 500 series to a whole 'nother level of expansion while being stupidly cheap IMO, and some big-name heavy hitters are already pushing the form-factor to incredible feats (and the format is less than a year old!)...

I got the email for the RGB palette modules too, they look really cool.

That Peterson Goodwyn is an awesome guy, I won a set of 312 PCBs a while back in a DIYrecordingequipment contest and her was super nice about checking in with me and making sure I had all the proper documentation and whatnot. One of these days I'll get around to ordering the transformers and finish building them, I ended up with an Altec 1628b filled with 1588c modules that I modded which kinda slowed down the need for the APIs.

Randyman... · Post by **Randyman...** » Wed Aug 20, 2014 2:19 pm

Darlington Pair wrote: That Peterson Goodwyn is an awesome guy,

Agreed! Too cool about winning DIY PCB's! I love DIY 312 type pre's (DIY'd 12 and counting

)

Update - The Louder than Liftoff "RGB" Colour modules pre-order and build schedule has been accelerated! I guess they are taking off like wildfire since they've only been available for pre-order for like 2 days now! I decided to pre-order a second Pentode Colour Module as I'm certain it will come in handy

Brad McGowan · Post by **Brad McGowan** » Wed Aug 20, 2014 6:07 pm

Hi Randy,

I'm really stoked to see all the enthusiasm for the RGB Series modules. It's true--we are indeed accelerating the build schedule. If you know anyone that has pre-ordered already be sure to remind them to check their email so that we can get our parts on order sooner rather than later.

Technically our pre-order campaign started August 1st when we launched the three modules at PotLuckCon. However, Peterson from DIYRE just sent out a newsletter alerting his subscribers about the modules the other day. It's sounds like that's how you may have heard about what we've been upto.

The response has been better than we imagined for all three modules. Lots of love for Pentode out there. Implode (mini 1176!) is pretty killer, if I may say so. It almost didn't happen actually. I was on my fourth prototype and was facing some rather frustrating design challenges. However, we rolled our sleeves up, got the A-game out of the closet, and it all came together quite nicely in the end. It sounds scary close to the real thing even though it doesn't have any transformers or big knobs.

Anyway, if anyone has any questions feel free to ask!

thanks,

Brad
Mission Commander
Louder Than Liftoff

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