What are YOU up to, DIY/projectwise? Ask for help?

[Corey Y]

I finally finished assembling my pine body P bass that I started building a long time ago. It's all setup, playing and sounding great.

[Lumpy]

Looks awesome - I love black/black/maple. A#1.

[showdown]

Nice P-bass! How does it sound compared to a non-pine body?

[Corey Y]

Nice P-bass! How does it sound compared to a non-pine body?

Doesn't sound any different. All the tone is really in the pickup and strings, sounds the same as the MIM P that I had that was alder and had a rosewood fingerboard, just looks and feels different (better IMO). Dimarzio Model P and DR Nickel Lo-Riders. Any P I've loaded with those nails a certain tone that I love.

[jibberish]

very nice work. 


----------------
I have been playing with my PC 12v power supply.

for the quality per $, PC supplies are really clean. they are really cheap actually vs a lab bench supply, and just as clean.

so, I have been making adapters with hard drive connectors for my 12v stuff. I have made one with 2 bare wires for my 12v car stuff, and will make more when I need to use my eq.  I made another one with a 12v power jack for my multitrack recorder and will convert a few wall wart 12v items over also with appropriate connectors.

NOW, here is the cool thing I will do next

*disclaimer: sorry, I have to slap some electrical theory on y'all, but I think you will find this of actual use.

ok, I want to get my 9v clean pedal supply going from this 12v PC supply so I have one power center for all that low power dc horseshit, and I have a ton. I can only imagine the immense tangle of power wires alone rager has.

I need to step 12v down to 9v obviously but here were my concerns:
1) nothing transformer because that HAS to involve AC=noise, so fuck anything but pure dc
2) boost/buck pucks chop voltage and stuff caps etc to monkey with the voltage at the output = noise.
fwiw, those boost/buck pucks are a godsend for engineers of small doodads.  you decide on the starting voltage and the ending voltage and make a phone call. that's it. custom power supply shit with zero engineering time.
3) I was kicking around a Ni-Cad battery deal where it switched to pure battery when you plugged something in and then back to charger when you unplugged(heyyy we all know how to kill a brand new battery in a pedal and hate ourselves for a few minutes)  BUT, I don't want to mess with batteries and some kind of charger bullshit.

here is the key fact to what I will do: a forward biased semiconductor junction has an initial voltage to overcome to get the electrons jumping across the junction.
a diode typically has a 0.7 volt hump to push through. once you have exceeded 0.7volts, the rest flows like a wire, minus the 0.7V junction drop.

zener diodes can pass decent current. you usually hook them up REVERSE biased and they have various voltage humps to exceed to make them break down and conduct in reverse.
but if you fuck up and hook it up forward, all it does is drop 0.7V like a regular diode.

if anyone has/those of you who have, horsed around in old amps you may have found a big 4-diode bridge rectifier, or maybe someone has zeners laying around.
I guess regular diodes can be used but they cant pass the same amount of energy as power diodes or zener diodes. just look at one . that itsy hair in there is supposed to take it all?? heh. eeeeee.

anyway, if you run 4 diodes in a string , all forward biased, you magically make 2.8 volts disappear, leaving a very healthy 9.2 volts. the pedal is the load, so nothing shorts out just as if it were a 9v supply.

just a thought if someone wants to hack an ultra-clean power supply that rivals anything out there made specifically for pedal boards.  any old PC like a win xp or 98 or junker with a working power supply will work. or drop $40 for a new one = still very cheap for hi-end supply.

but 3'll getcha 5 that anyone can find the pieces parts for free.

take it further: put it in a box. home depot sells a "case" of 10 on/off light switches for $4.89 or something stupid cheap. you could put 10 taps in, each with a switch.

HTH

[spookstrickland]

Have you thought about using one of those small if voltage regulators?  I've used them and really like them....you add a couple filter caps and you get a very clean stable power supply.  Just my two cents.

Cheers

very nice work. 


----------------
I have been playing with my PC 12v power supply.

for the quality per $, PC supplies are really clean. they are really cheap actually vs a lab bench supply, and just as clean.

so, I have been making adapters with hard drive connectors for my 12v stuff. I have made one with 2 bare wires for my 12v car stuff, and will make more when I need to use my eq.  I made another one with a 12v power jack for my multitrack recorder and will convert a few wall wart 12v items over also with appropriate connectors.

NOW, here is the cool thing I will do next

*disclaimer: sorry, I have to slap some electrical theory on y'all, but I think you will find this of actual use.

ok, I want to get my 9v clean pedal supply going from this 12v PC supply so I have one power center for all that low power dc horseshit, and I have a ton. I can only imagine the immense tangle of power wires alone rager has.

I need to step 12v down to 9v obviously but here were my concerns:
1) nothing transformer because that HAS to involve AC=noise, so fuck anything but pure dc
2) boost/buck pucks chop voltage and stuff caps etc to monkey with the voltage at the output = noise.
fwiw, those boost/buck pucks are a godsend for engineers of small doodads.  you decide on the starting voltage and the ending voltage and make a phone call. that's it. custom power supply shit with zero engineering time.
3) I was kicking around a Ni-Cad battery deal where it switched to pure battery when you plugged something in and then back to charger when you unplugged(heyyy we all know how to kill a brand new battery in a pedal and hate ourselves for a few minutes)  BUT, I don't want to mess with batteries and some kind of charger bullshit.

here is the key fact to what I will do: a forward biased semiconductor junction has an initial voltage to overcome to get the electrons jumping across the junction.
a diode typically has a 0.7 volt hump to push through. once you have exceeded 0.7volts, the rest flows like a wire, minus the 0.7V junction drop.

zener diodes can pass decent current. you usually hook them up REVERSE biased and they have various voltage humps to exceed to make them break down and conduct in reverse.
but if you fuck up and hook it up forward, all it does is drop 0.7V like a regular diode.

if anyone has/those of you who have, horsed around in old amps you may have found a big 4-diode bridge rectifier, or maybe someone has zeners laying around.
I guess regular diodes can be used but they cant pass the same amount of energy as power diodes or zener diodes. just look at one . that itsy hair in there is supposed to take it all?? heh. eeeeee.

anyway, if you run 4 diodes in a string , all forward biased, you magically make 2.8 volts disappear, leaving a very healthy 9.2 volts. the pedal is the load, so nothing shorts out just as if it were a 9v supply.

just a thought if someone wants to hack an ultra-clean power supply that rivals anything out there made specifically for pedal boards.  any old PC like a win xp or 98 or junker with a working power supply will work. or drop $40 for a new one = still very cheap for hi-end supply.

but 3'll getcha 5 that anyone can find the pieces parts for free.

take it further: put it in a box. home depot sells a "case" of 10 on/off light switches for $4.89 or something stupid cheap. you could put 10 taps in, each with a switch.

HTH

[moose23]

Yep 9V regs will handle the 12V easy and give you a regulated 9V supply.

[jibberish]

Yep 9V regs will handle the 12V easy and give you a regulated 9V supply.

4 of those 1N4007 rectifier diodes does the trick too. each one drops 0.7V for a total of 2.8V

[jibberish]

ok, I tested my hypothesis: "Can I run a ton of shit from one source?"

here is my problem: too many power cords and power supplies when I try to hook my whole rig up.
so I made a video to demonstrate better than typing 2 volumes instead of just one, heh.
I decided to make a complete little PA system with a synth and guitar for the demo.

Here is the background info on the specific pieces-parts which the video also goes through and shows piece-by-piece

I found a nice 550w supply in my junk. it read dead on 12V. OFF TO THE RACES!!!

here is what I rigged:

1) made a 5V connector(red wire in pc power connectors) for the Arturia Beatstep sequencer which runs from a 5v USB wall wart.
2) I made a 12V center negative power connector for the Kawaii K4-r synth module for the beatstep to play.
3) I hacked a string of LED xmas lights and made a 12v power tap for that rig
4) and 5) I used my 4 diode 9v deal to power the malekko delay and the super pharaoh. I will build diodes into each connector, but I didn't get to it at this point, so both pedal taps are from the breadboard which shows the diodes better anyway
6) dug out thee olde concorde car deck. that hasn't seen daylight since who the hell knows, but but it had an aux input(best deck available at the time, even better than alpine's finest) so it got elected to help with this demo. I made a 12v power connector for it

the kawaii synth goes right into the car stero on one channel and the pedals go right into the other channel. i'm sure the impedance match wasn't ideal, but it actually got reasonably loud through those Jensen 6.25" coax's on the chairs (ignore the subs, not used)

I recorded the video at dusk so the lights would show up. that part worked ok. what sucked was the mosquitos. I was trying to ad lib something onto the sequence and I was being swarmed. the ones in the eyes were a serious distraction, so the guitar work shows lack of trve focus lol.  but I was able to try different sounds, which was more the goal vs actually performing a song.

edit: video deleted

edit: ok, it works. had to publish the video derp... canon vixia Hr500 was the camcorder fyi. basically 1st time using it.

[jibberish]

I just had a really random thought, but this could be cool:

I was pondering op amp circuits and power rails and how to do that quickly.
then I thought of a piece of train track as nyuk nyuk nyuk "rails"
then I thought again..


waitaminute..ez2solder rails; massive insulated supports for attaching stuff between; made for carrying juice in the 1st place.....

this could be a handy proto-board platform.
you can get entire boxes of train tracks at garage sales for $10.

just a thought.....

[jibberish]

I finished the connector setup for the 9v pedal power.

I wanted to use the 12v supply easily, but also, go back to any 9v supply and NOT have to solder etc.
so I left the straight 2.5mm 9v jacks-to-wire-to-connector rigs alone.
I put a PC power connector on the 9v wall warts
and for in-between, the 4-diode voltage dropper module which I would use on the 12v supply and leave it off the 9v supplies.
I left extension stubs for adding more connectors for more pedals since those diodes can flow some serious power easily.

[jibberish]

Greta Mod progress (since half of that 2W greta amp is showing in the pedal power picture)

I first just soldered a 20w 8 ohm resistor in place of the speaker because it always plays and that was no good.

now I am going to add a switch and do it right. so the speaker can be turned on or off.
the pic above shows the pile of double throw switches I was able to scavenge. the SPDT in the middle looks like the others on the greta.

below is a gut shot. the wires from the meter point to about exactly the spot I will install the switch: between the aux input 1/8" jack and the ext speaker jack like below the "7" in the serial number sticker.   bonus: speaker leads are right there due to ext speaker jack and no hi-voltage tube stuff anywhere near= go for it.



**************************************************************************************************
edit:

here is first mod before I took it all apart:

[jibberish]

did the dirty drilling deed. I was super freak level careful and basically only chipped the metal away very slowly.  went great. much thanks to really lame ass cheap soft Chinese steel heh.



I used pieces of insulation from another wire for my ghetto red shrink tubing on the 8ohm power resistor. if you have ever bought shrink tube, you will understand. shit is not cheap.

I also busted a next level soldering maneuver which is only possible with a really hot iron:  I nipped a bit of insulation off the black speaker return wire to use as a common.
I turned the iron way up and got a speck of solder on the tip, then jammed it onto the sliver of exposed wire with the solder. I tinned a couple mm of wire INSIDE the insulation without melting it off the wire because it happened so fast. it was smooth as silk tacking on the other wire to this well tinned dot heh.



all taped up and tied and funky cap nut jammed on. if I get sick of that, I can put a regular bezel on.it is just more shaped like the 1/4" jacks.


no trace of mod from outside of circuit box

[HP-KEEF-MAKER]

I've had an eqd HOOF clone on the works for months, just haven't had time and when I've had it just been too lazy to get around to finish it  Maybe some night I'll have a couple of beers and finish it off.

[jibberish]

a) get beer
b) get busy
c) all of the above

-------------------------------------------------

I plugged the old Yamaha dx-7 set to a crappy organ patch in thru the greta into the mixer->main stereo
the greta was set to be silent so it doesn't play that shit 4" speaker

here is a dicking around video of just how fugly little miss greta can get. I maxxed it all at the end.

edit: video deleted

[jibberish]

I have been planning a small outdoor project called "the secret hidden chamber orchestra". part of the plan is speakers all around like up in the trees and eventually a realtime quadrophonic mixing capability to literally send sounds in a 360 around the listeners.  but first I will fake it with spacious stereo effects.

so I need to play with speaker positioning, listeners, me, monitor issues, etc etc.

coincidentally I cleared about 3 dozen smallish ash trees out of the yard and ended up with a heap of big kid tinker toys.
so I built a pair of 8 foot siege towers for speaker and rigging setups, or string a hammock if I give up on all the other crap.
hopefully I can figure out how I want to set things up, then set up a proper rig once I have direction. tripods always sit firmly so I went with that.

[jibberish]

this started as a car stereo. now it is a yard stereo.
the 4 chipboard boxes on top have Jensen 6-1/4 coax's. these are the satellites to the bi-amped part of the system and get 100w/ch from a receiver(actually more like 50-60watts due to 16 ohm series load)

the kicker subs just have to stay in a sub box. they are the "solo=baric" wtf they call them made for small enclosures to use as an air spring. Mr foxxen will dig it. lets you put retarded power into the speakers without bottoming out the basket. those are 4 ohms and get the up to 500w/ch from the QSC rmx1450 amp. I set the amp's 30hz sub filter on.
This is the sub half of the bi-amped part of the system. I have an mtx active 2-way crossover to split the bands. I also have a tri-amp blaupunkt crossover for if I want to get really schmancy.

the bottom dual 6" 2-ways were phillips home speakers before I melted all the drivers (120w/ch technics receiver and a Madonna cd heh)
now it has kicker 100watt long throw woofers and GM car phillips style tweeters and I put limiting resistors on them too.
the problem with these frankenspeakers is they are now 2 ohm. so I had to get a 2 ohm stable amp. those QSC rmx's are stable into 2 ohms so I got an rmx800 especially for these speakers. it can put up to 400w/ch into 2 ohms stable. these are full range with the amp sub filter set at 50hz.

so round 1 will be this mess and 2000 watts rms. if this isn't loud enough, I have essentially a duplicate of this with even bigger amps to double it up.

[jibberish]

so WTF is all this speakers and jungle towers and mutant power supply stuff for?
for the mutant rack made from a pile of scrap wood and 6 oddball cans of mostly automotive touch-up spray paint, of course.
it can either ride on a furniture mover or stand alone for stability.

this is most of the front.
beatstep sequencer sits on top
under the lid are some LED's to light up the alesis drum machine and boss general-MIDI module.
in the upper 19" rack is the kawaii synth module and the 2 lexicon reverbs.
slung under that are more LED's to light the mixer and an alesis nano compressor for analog compression if I need it on a hot channel
the mixer is a behringer 16ch 4-buss
the PC universal power supply is under the right corner of the mixer. wires are all over now but there is a whole tray under there for the pc supply spaghetti


below the mixer is the car stereo active crossover for the bi-amp system, an individually switched power center and below in the lower rack are the 2 QSC amps and the pioneer 100w receiver


most of the spaghetti in back


final list of what all will run from the PC power supply:
kawaii synth module, car stereo crossover, car stereo hi-end EQ, 2 sets of LED's, beatstep sequencer, korg synth, Tascam multitrack deck, 12-step MIDI foot controller and 2 pedals at the moment.

next installment is when I get this whole clusterfuck rigged and making sound. I tested the speakers and amps before just to be sure I don't have any nasty surprises waiting.

[spookstrickland]

Here is a vw valve cover I painted.  Im turning unto a feedback looper that will make two pedals interactive... With controls for Feedback, Volume and Phase.

[showdown]

This thread needs a little:


Aah, that's better.

Well then. After endless coats of shellac and Tru-oil, loud swearing, apathy, moving house, gigging, more tru-oil, more swearing and finally polishing, my Tele looks something like this:



And I'm pretty happy with it. Neck is next.

[spookstrickland]

Very nice, deep rich color.

[spookstrickland]

Built a proco Rat for my bass player so he could get that Krist Novoselic tone hes been chasing....sounds really good now.

Oh ya I put in an NOS Lm308 it really does make a difference.

[Pissy]

Last week I was in Michigan and raided my grandfather's wood pile. He had timbers in there that were cut down 50 + years ago. Mostly Cherry and mostly the heart. Making bowl#3 out of his material. Walnut and Cherry.




Edit:  wrong thread.. Oh well.

[jibberish]

any thread has room for that.  just the blanks sitting there looks awesome already heh.

[Pissy]

Thread Resurrection.

Feeling inspired, I dug in to the Tele-castor ®. New nut, fret dress, neck straight and intonation.  Got a prewired electronics kit coming for it.  When I decide I want to learn how to paint, I start with this.



Taped it off, Straightened the neck first, and I have a billet of aluminum bar that I wrapped in 180 grit to file the frets flat. Topped the frets with a sharpie to mark progress. 


Flattened


A fret crowning file I bought in a kit from Stew Mac years ago. Use this until the marks are gone from the previous operation. 


This is a file card. It's used to clean out file teeth when they fill with metal.  My local Ace hardware had one.  Pretty essential for this. 


Crowned and buffed with steel wool.


Polished on a buffing wheel that I have on an old bench grinder with no guarding. 


The big piece of bone is the size I started with.  Cut it down on the bandsaw and started shaping it with a sanding block.   




Here is where I am now.  Laying out the slots.  To me this is the scariest part because of how terrible it feels when it's wrong.  So i lay it out using these calipers because it's the most accurate way I know of.  Better even than using the previous as a pattern, which works too, just a little more room for error.