What have you DIYed lately?

dfuruta · Post by **dfuruta** » Mon Oct 22, 2012 9:50 am

What have you done lately? Any little projects that don't deserve their own thread?

I rewired a double-neck guitar/bass for a friend by replacing the neck selecting toggle switch with a rotary one. Previously, only one neck at a time could be active; now, either or both can be active, and he can also split the necks to the two channels of a stereo cable.

E-money · Post by **E-money** » Mon Oct 22, 2012 3:47 pm

I just finished up a plate reverb that I built in the crawlspace. I haven't really put it through its paces yet, but so far I like what I'm hearing.

vvv · Post by **vvv** » Mon Oct 22, 2012 3:49 pm

A cuppla weeks ago I built a new (1-spot powered) pedal board.

I fixed a little 1st Act S/S amp what sounds great as a noise-machine (on the lead guitar, here and rhythm guitars, here.)

I cleaned the basement grit and jizz offa cuppla amps that were stored at my former drummer's house - hey, maintenance is counts, right?

Snarl 12/8 · Post by **Snarl 12/8** » Mon Oct 22, 2012 4:08 pm

Funny. I logged on to update an old thread that I had started asking advice on wah mods. I finished up my wah last night (I think I've been tweaking it for over a year?!) and I'm super psyched. I'm really glad I went the direction I did with it, but I feel like I should update the other thread in case people find it via a search or something.

Oh, I also stuck a quieter fan in my mx-2424. I'm not exactly sure how much quieter it is. I can still totally hear it when I turn it on. I think it's much quieter, but I also think it's a much less annoying frequency, which I find is a huge factor in computer fan noise.

I'm still trying to fix an intermittent problem with the mx-2424 not booting on the first try. Anyone got good advice on fixing intermittent problems? I'm the kind of DIY'er who knows how to remove the charred component and put a new one in its place, but when everything looks fine on a complicated circuit board I don't know what to do. [/b]

Edit: http://messageboard.tapeop.com/viewtopi ... 268#669268

ashcat_lt · Post by **ashcat_lt** » Mon Oct 22, 2012 9:04 pm

Finally built the boost pedal I've been intending for over a year.

Started working on hacking a consumer subwoofer and a pair of computer speakers into a low-watt guitar amp.

Also built a little prototyping interface board with a filtered power supply and two buffers. Not super exciting, but it'll save space on the breaeboard if I don't have to rebuild these common blocks every time I want to try something.

vvv · Post by **vvv** » Mon Oct 22, 2012 10:18 pm

Oh yep, and I re-installed my XP Pro OS and progs after getting a root kit.

Snarl, the only thing that ever works for me in that circumstance is the chop-stick test.

You might have to try while it's working, and while it's not, but tap parts on the board with a chopstick - sometimes you can find a intermittent connection that way. Sometimes - careful! - flexing the board can help, as well as looking for hot spots - careful! - by feeling the board, when it's unplugged, and ya know yer not touching caps - careful! (The latter hot spot touching is more for failed components and shorts than connection prob's.)

dfuruta · Post by **dfuruta** » Tue Oct 23, 2012 10:35 am

ashcat_lt wrote:Finally built the boost pedal I've been intending for over a year.

Very cool! Just wanted to comment on this:

3) Added 1K in and out resistors (R4 and R6) for "best practice" reasons. Not sure exactly what R4 does, but the R6 will limit the current demand and help keep the opamp form destroying itself in the unlikely event that the output is shorted.

The 1k resistor on the opamp input is to limit the fault current flowing into the input pin. This might happen when the input exceeds the power rails, for example. More details are on pages 3 & 4 of this: http://www.analog.com/static/imported-f ... MT-036.pdf

mrc · Post by **mrc** » Tue Oct 23, 2012 7:59 pm

Swapped capsules on a pair of MXL 2010 mics, replaced the stock capsules with RK C12 type capsules a while back. I suppose other things could be done, but am pretty pleased with them at the moment. I want to see how they do tracking before I do more.
Picked up a pair of U87 boards over at prodigy, and have the BOM stock in hand. Just need to decide on the donor body, probably a B2 (I have one already) and order the capsules and transformers. Probably in the spring, I have a class to attend in Jan. and the usual christmas cash slam to deal with first, along with the 4th quarter push to complete projects before the new year.

Tavvish · Post by **Tavvish** » Tue Oct 23, 2012 10:17 pm

I don't know much about electronics but I like to tinker with things. I just gave my dbx 117 1/4" jacks. I also shorted a resistor to make the comp ratio go higher, I think I need to do some experimenting because this also seemed to bring a lot of unwanted distortion and boosted the volume along with the ratio (any help?). I was thinking about adding a switch that would slow down the release just for fun, maybe it could be useful.

Other than that I just make a little wooden box that I plan on putting a modified johnson echo pedal into. I'm also in the process of building a 2x12 cab out of scap wood (mainly press board) and some cheap alnico speakers I bought on ebay (I think they're Jensens). It will probably sound like shit!

dfuruta · Post by **dfuruta** » Wed Oct 24, 2012 10:08 am

E-money wrote:I just finished up a plate reverb that I built in the crawlspace. I haven't really put it through its paces yet, but so far I like what I'm hearing.

E-money: any chance of pictures? I'd really like to see how you did this (what sort of metal for the plate, etc).

Darlington Pair · Post by **Darlington Pair** » Wed Oct 24, 2012 1:19 pm

A few tweaks to some tube amps, some linear tracking turntable fixing, a few tweaks to my Shure M267 to make it a little more drum friendly, some Altec 1628a tweaks, modded an old Masco tube mixer to be a guitar preamp/buffer for my pedalboard, building a sub-mini tube amp in an old tabletop AM radio, and the most ambitious one... I started building a Ludwig Phase II Synthesizer clone, can't wait for the rest of the parts to get in.

E-money · Post by **E-money** » Wed Oct 24, 2012 3:51 pm

dfuruta wrote:
E-money wrote:I just finished up a plate reverb that I built in the crawlspace. I haven't really put it through its paces yet, but so far I like what I'm hearing.
E-money: any chance of pictures? I'd really like to see how you did this (what sort of metal for the plate, etc).

I would love to post some pics and MP3 samples, unfortunately I'm having a hell of a time remembering how to post stuff like this to the Comcast page that comes with my account. I'll try to figure it out tomorrow.

ubertar · Post by **ubertar** » Wed Oct 24, 2012 4:32 pm

Just made a (mono) guitar pickup with spider web thin wire, much thinner than the hair thin wire that's usually used. I've done this before, but not for a very long time-- it's really difficult to work with, but it sounds great and noise is very low. According to theory it should probably sound like crap or not work well but I don't put too much stock in theory when it comes to pickups-- I just try things out and see (hear) what works.

I've been doing a bunch of experiments lately, trying out different ideas, because I've been thinking about adding mono pickups to my product line, since it's a much bigger market than hex pickups. The experimentation is because I don't want to do it unless I have something unique or at least uncommon to offer-- there are so many pickups out there and there's no point in just making the usual stuff; there are big companies that can do that better, and cheaper. None of them will touch this spider web stuff. It has to be wound slowly or it'll break. It takes a lot of patience to work with. I'll post a sound sample once I've installed one if people are interested.

vvv · Post by **vvv** » Wed Oct 24, 2012 5:15 pm

Interested.

You know, I was thinkin' of gettin' out my Ubertaribbon this past weekend - gotta do that soon ...

A.David.MacKinnon · Post by **A.David.MacKinnon** » Thu Oct 25, 2012 2:55 pm

Working on stuff for the new room.
Wired snakes so we can use the pre's in the MCI console, wiring up the front hall/foyer/kitchen so it can be used as an iso booth, building gobos and a cloud for the live room, looking for extra doors to cut down on the leakage from the live room and the street.
Also thinking about treatments for the front hall/foyer/kitchen. It's probably a 12' x 8' room with a 20'+ ceiling. The walls are drywalled and the floor is tile. There are a few panels on the walls but thats about it. I'm thinking about putting in a carpet and lightly treating the ceiling. I may hang a few umbrellas upside down with insulation in them to create a ghetto cloud (and mask the ugly water marks on the ceiling). I may also build a few more wall panels to deaden things down a bit. The live room is REALLY live and sounds awesome but it would also be great to have a deader space available.

http://adavidmackinnon.blogspot.ca/p/6-nassau.html

Message Board

What have you DIYed lately?

What have you DIYed lately?

Who is online