|
Post by b4nj0 on Mar 1, 2021 4:29:27 GMT -5
Coming together well and a nice looker Tradg. You are doing some great stuff with all these basket case bottle banks.
I know just what you mean about wasted switch locations, I have a sweet little Tech21 Trademark10 amplifier and one of the three cabinet/loudspeaker emulation switches does nothing that I can hear. I queried Tech21 and they replied to the effect that "it's subtle". Ha!
e&oe ...
|
|
|
Post by b4nj0 on Feb 8, 2021 6:20:21 GMT -5
Even after close on to fifty years of soldering (sodderring!) there are sone useful tips there which explain some of the difficulties I had just grown to accept. Cheers P.
e&oe ...
|
|
|
Post by b4nj0 on Jan 28, 2021 4:15:46 GMT -5
Many thanks to those that do this but I don't see any ads with the Proboards Android app anyway, and what you are not aware of doesn't remind you to chip in. I made a one month ad-free contribution once for another forum. Proboards took my money soon enough, but the ads kept a-coming. Upon investigation it turned out that only staff could actually implement what I'd paid for (OK that may have changed, but that was the case back then.) I suppose I could have contacted the staff and given a heads-up, but that would have defeated the altruistic purpose. Moreover the Proboards team have never once responded to any of my few polite enquiries. Hey-ho, s'life I guess.
e&oe ...
|
|
|
Post by b4nj0 on Jan 18, 2021 3:41:21 GMT -5
Good tip frets. Here's one I put in the oven earlier(!) It's a three way eight pole for selecting 8-pin DIN sockets to allow multiple connections to a single outlet and the Eddystone box is about four inches long. I couldn't visualise using anything other than silicone insulated flex for that, especially with all the tiny bits of polyolefin over the tag contacts. It was a labour of love just ringing it out afterwards! e&oe ...
|
|
|
Post by b4nj0 on Jan 4, 2021 7:45:41 GMT -5
Nice work rT. Awareness and vigilance. Good karma. Both thumbs-up.
e&oe ...
|
|
|
Post by b4nj0 on Dec 24, 2020 14:34:14 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by b4nj0 on Dec 22, 2020 8:31:58 GMT -5
Coming together real fine Trag. I hope it's appreciated?
What method do you use / intend to use to bond on the Tolex? I have an extremely long overdue project to finish that needs new Tolex. I have a large aerosol of "Super77" which I think is like a contact adhesive, but it's donkey's use old now ...
e&oe ...
|
|
|
Post by b4nj0 on Dec 16, 2020 4:21:24 GMT -5
Nice. Unless it reduces the power handling too much, how about 2x7.5 ohm in series all in parallel with the third 7.5 ohm? That would give around 5 ohms which is a bit more to kick into than 2.5 ohms for all three in parallel?* (Going up is OK but going too low is a no-no?)
e&oe ...
|
|
|
Post by b4nj0 on Nov 17, 2020 3:50:41 GMT -5
Looks like an SMD capacitor Frets.
e&oe ...
|
|
|
Post by b4nj0 on Nov 15, 2020 10:50:10 GMT -5
The onlyest time I went to a Guitar Centre was back in 2009 when I enjoyed three working visits to Seattle. Fact is I'm not certain any more, but it was more likely in Renton if there is/was one located there because I was working in Renton near to the Boeing plant and staying at The Holiday Inn. As a Limey I was chopsmacked by the sheer size of it, and you could park right outside too.
My Zebrawood Firebird is one of the G.O.T.M. "limited" issues that they did back in 2007. It's a beast and something of a statement strapped on, but against all expectations it has the most amazing chimey unamplified sound going on. I instinctively think that bigger is not necessarily better, but GC does provide the competition that acts in our favour, and I'd be a little disappointed if it disappeared from the market.
I have vivid and fond memories of "Billie's" roadhouse located on the parking lot between the hotel and where I was "working", although it closed down after my second trip. A guy I had a lot to do with tried his hardest to get the owner to take a leaf out of the Hooters business model to increase footfall but he refused. Wonderful people and happy days folks.
Sorry to go on but I sure miss those trips ...
e&oe ...
|
|
|
Post by b4nj0 on Oct 8, 2020 3:59:59 GMT -5
Or this ...
e&oe ...
|
|
|
Post by b4nj0 on Oct 7, 2020 18:21:28 GMT -5
Trag that has to be regional. Over here we have PME (protective multiple earthing) Everything metallic in a building should be bonded to neutral and find its true "ground" back at the substation. Due to the potential length of conductors involved, there is a literal potential difference (however slight) between earth stakes at the premises and neutral. This is not a happy situation.
Personally I have to take RF "ground" into consideration too which has similar implications for PME. So far as I'm aware, it's not illegal for me to disconnect PME and install my own earth stakes, but I wouldn't want that responsibility. I stick to balanced antennas for that reason but I'm swerving way OT. Next up I'll be on about lightning "protection" so I'll get me coat now!
e&oe ...
|
|
|
Post by b4nj0 on Oct 7, 2020 11:51:46 GMT -5
My RCA AR88d general coverage receiver (spine crumbler!) has a standby position on the rotary power switch which therefore obviously cannot be bypassed other than at the wall socket. That article suggests that RCA didn't know what they were doing? Hmm. Open verdict on that one. My AR88 dates from the second great war and I've been custodian for the last forty years. It is still going strong but I did have to substitute an audio output transformer about a year after I got it.
I also have an HRO which doesn't have a standby switch, but of course that receiver has a separate power supply. I have no issue with the waterfall of information within that online article, partly because I admit I skimmed it and partly because it's beyond my pay scale, but just as with my 30 watts "Session" combo valve guitar amp, I'll stick with deploying the standby switch because it hasn't let me down so far. Hardly a scientific approach but I'm not about to reinvent the wheel with an extremely tried and tested technology. I thought my AC30 had a standby switch which reveals how the passage of over three decades can dim one's wits. I still mourn trading on my VOX (for that Session amp as it happens).
e&oe ...
|
|
|
Post by b4nj0 on Oct 5, 2020 2:58:06 GMT -5
When I was a slip of a lad in the 1970s, I decided that the mains lead on my AC30 had withered too far and decided to replace it. The recalcitrant brute had been turned off and disconnected from the mains for a good eight hours. In I went and Pow! Threw me nine feet across the room where (happily) I landed on a sofa situated inside an alcove. I reckon that was the main electrolytic(s) and I was the crowbar, so I figured out that they probably didn't need replacing too. I could go on listing my "accidents" but I've stuck at this relevant example. Of course if Jennings had stumped up for the bleed resistor(s) it wouldn't have occurred, but something else would have eventually! And thus began a lifetime's fascination with Coulombs.
e&oe ...
|
|
|
Post by b4nj0 on Sept 17, 2020 18:14:35 GMT -5
High carbon stainless-steel. Better for knife edges than the non-ferrous variety. I'm not sure what the benefits for pickups are though.
e&oe ...
|
|
|
Post by b4nj0 on Sept 11, 2020 13:15:39 GMT -5
Coil(s)/magnet(s)/reciprocity.
A loudspeaker can be persuaded to deliver an amplifiable output if you scream into it. A pickup will transduce the audio from a loudspeaker if you bring the two close enough together. It boils down to the degree of mutual coupling in each case. A good pickup should minimise microphony but it's always going to be there to some degree just the same.
I'm sure that others on here could be more eloquent than that?
e&oe ...
|
|
|
Post by b4nj0 on Sept 11, 2020 3:18:26 GMT -5
Lists, lists, Lists!
1/, None 2/, None 3/, None 4/, N/A (obviously!) 5/, DR.
e&oe ...
|
|
|
Post by b4nj0 on Sept 11, 2020 3:14:22 GMT -5
AFAIK, Danny's belt was picked up by someone at the posthumous Accokeek garage sale, but I forget by whom. It might have been Jay Monterose- someone that would have recognised the significance (or perhaps had a hand in its making?)
I wanted to install a CC on my Heritage Sweet16- seemed like an obvious choice to me with the various booteek winders getting on the bandwagon, but it has a matching bound figured timber floating pickguard, and I've learned my lesson about gouging guitars on a whim.
Could be another case of chasing rainbows ...
e&oe ...
|
|
|
Post by b4nj0 on Sept 7, 2020 10:13:13 GMT -5
Within the context of this thread it is almost trivial to observe that Danny Gatton thought highly enough of the CC pickup to have one at the neck in one of his Teles, and once he had camped in the Joe Barden field, he repurposed an old CC pickup as a belt buckle, which is way cool in my view. I reckon that the CC pickup ought to be considered in a similar fashion as the P90 / P15 pickups?
P15?
e&oe ...
|
|
|
Post by b4nj0 on Sept 4, 2020 12:37:08 GMT -5
Lists, lists, lists ...
As ashcatlt says, I'm pretty much sorted.
1. Stefan Sobel "New World" Acoustic. 2. Firebird V (or VII) with a Vibrola. 3. Heritage Sweet16. 4. Yamaha SA2000s. 5. Fender Danny Gatton Telecaster.
My 'Bird doesn't have a Vibrola. My Yamaha isn't the "S" suffix variant. My Gatton Tele is self assembled around a Warmoth neck and a brace of old production Bardens, but looking at that list I'm counting my blessings, so I reckon I must be pretty lucky.
e&oe ...
|
|
|
Post by b4nj0 on Aug 24, 2020 2:47:30 GMT -5
Thinking it through- it certainly saves on the potential for galvanic corrosion Frets. (No irony ontended). I opened up my 1973 Strat last year and the 3-way switch and pot covers all sported a healthy "fur"!
Edit: Sorry- meant to write "no pun intended". D'oh ...
e&oe ...
|
|
|
Post by b4nj0 on Aug 23, 2020 16:50:45 GMT -5
I'm curious; why is there a copper foil screen on a metal plate?
e&oe ...
|
|
|
Post by b4nj0 on Aug 23, 2020 12:30:14 GMT -5
That's why it's in inverted commas!
e&oe ...
|
|
|
Post by b4nj0 on Aug 23, 2020 7:50:43 GMT -5
A "four way" would only have three clicks? Four positions sure but only three "haptic" feedbacks?
e&oe ...
|
|
|
Post by b4nj0 on Aug 23, 2020 2:58:19 GMT -5
Impressively neat soldering. I can't even see the soldering terminals on the tiniest SMDs Frets let alone waggle a hot iron at them! I tried to make some SMA mounted calibration loads for a two port analyser using SMD resistors to minimise stray inductance in the loads, and it was an epic failure for me. I fell back on using through hole components! SWMBO bought me some magnifying spectacles for my birthday this year. Yikes!
The Varitone without the the inductance is just another way of rolling off the highs, this time in discrete steps rather than the normal variable voltage divider approach, but the result is the same? The Varitone with the inductor is a switchable selection of series tuned circuits. Series tuned circuits are low impedance at resonance so each position deploys a tuned circuit at different resonant frequency. It is like a variable band stop filter that notches out different sections of the audio and dumps them to ground. I read somewhere a long time ago that Gibson obfuscated the value of the coil in their Varitone circuit diagram to put potential plagiarisers off the scent, but compensation is possible in the selection of capacitor values to achieve the same resonant frequencies so it was a pretty pointless excercise. Only the "Q" changes when you vary the L & C at any given resonant frequency, and that I believe is kind of irrelevant at audio frequencies?
I love your work BTW. Always interesting, I wish I still had your commitment. Keep on keeping on.
e&oe ...
|
|
|
Post by b4nj0 on Aug 12, 2020 17:55:56 GMT -5
Decades ago I used to use Guild "Sidebenders" on electrics and acoustics, principally because I have always been hard on strings and the Guilds didn't break as readily,but they seemed to become unobtanium. I use round cored strings 11-52 now when I can, specifically "Newtone" (used to be called 'Nickel Masters" or 'Electric Masters" but DR do round cored nickel wound too and I'm sure they're not alone.) Bending is no problem for me- second nature in fact, but I used to be a sheet metal worker a long time ago and you develop really strong arms, hands and fingers! Round cored strings tune up to pitch at lower tension, so they're good for vintage instruments. It is verboten to cut round cored strings until on and up to pitch. I wish DR would proclaim that on the packaging instead of printing it inside the cardboard sleeve cases. Dumb.
I like D'Addario 12-52 coated strings on the acoustics and oddly on my Heritage Sweet16 too. Bending is easy. Marmite I know but I like coated strings. I have "Newtone" Monel Resonator strings on my Resonator. 15-58 gauge (and yes I can still bend them but I try not to do that due to lateral stress on the biscuit bridge.)
I bought a dozen packs of really cheap 11-52 'Olympic" strings off eBay with a wound third for electric (and I've also developed a taste for those wound thirds) but all the low "E"s were faulty on intonation and I replaced them with a dozen Rotosounds, again from eBay so they're a mix and match.
I suppose it's obvious I like heavier strings than normal. It's character building and something you get used to, and then 8s, 9s and even 10s seem too floppy, rather like nylon strings do when you're used to steel. It must also be apparent that I have quite a few guitars, so my family know to buy me strings at Christmas and birthdays. Sure beats socks or aftershave! Win win for both parties!
e&oe ...
|
|
|
Post by b4nj0 on Aug 4, 2020 2:45:59 GMT -5
At least the Oirish pipes are chromatic ...
e&oe ...
|
|
|
Post by b4nj0 on Aug 2, 2020 8:21:01 GMT -5
Regarding the OP, my old Dad (when I worked for him ...) used to say "Son, if the customer wants it sky blue-pink with yellow polka dots, paint it and charge them accordingly". That is the Chinese mantra too. Clearly the Chinese build some superb equipment but they also churn out abject trash (the new Hong Kong if you will for those of us of a certain vintage!) I have encountered a failure rate of at least two out of three with panel mount 3.5mm TRS sockets (tighten the facia nuts and collapso) yet there is no question about the quality of the sockets on a good piece of Chinese equipment.
The trick is how to assess quality from carp using only an online image? It's a viper's nest. To some degree, you get what you pay for, and if like me you routinely filter the eBay hits as priced low to high, like me you get what you deserve. Paying extra is no guarantee of good quality, but low-balling it is a good bet on receiving junk. The novelty soon wears off paying bargain bucket prices and eating it, but I still do it every time.
e&oe ...
|
|
|
Post by b4nj0 on Aug 2, 2020 2:55:29 GMT -5
Yep. I have an amp input socket used as an output socket on a British made double cut (Gordon Smith Gypsy- it's a real doozy.) I converted the guitar from in-house manufactured humbucker to a late 1960s Gibson P90 (long story) and it caught me out on rewiring- the circuit rang out fine until I put a plug in and then no sound. I had wired to the switching contact by mistake because the correct contact was out of sight beneath the wood rout. Some of my hair went on that one!
e&oe ...
|
|
|
Post by b4nj0 on Jul 28, 2020 16:33:08 GMT -5
Ah- a square wheel ...
Y'all must lose sleep over B9A "valve" bases then?
Agreed- feldegarbe,but at five bucks a throw they're not fixing to rob anyone.
e&oe ...
|
|