><((((º> G-Had!

Grover's Garage

2009-02-11T20:18:00.003-06:00

Introducing the completed third work in the Blue Collar Muppets series.

It's been a while since I've been at it. To be honest, I got a new tabletPC (HP Elite Book) and it is the perfect size for digging into digital art again. The previous one was so huge it just wasn't fun.

I'm busy mocking up the next work, apparently Kermit is in a bar band or something. stay tuned...

What's going to work????!!!!

2008-11-05T19:55:00.004-06:00

TEAMwork!!

Okay, I admit that I get hooked on a random kids show every once in a while. I'm still mad that DirecTV does not add the Baby network to the regular line up. I'd probably watch that as often as I watch QVC or the Home Shopping Network selling knives, art, gems, or Esteban's guitars.

So, what show has my interest now? It's The Wonder Pets!, a new show on the Noggin channel. The animation is actually photo-motion stuff - which might come across as cheap. However, the voices and the music completely make up for it. Each episode is like an operetta. Seriously.

--gh

Thinking about a push-pull amp

2008-10-04T22:35:00.014-05:00

I am considering a push-pull amp for a small combo I want to build. I want to make a tight build, so I mocked some stuff together in Google Sketchup first. So far I think I like the way it might look. This is a small combo amp, only 16" by 16" by 8-1/2" deep. I think it might work with a 10" speaker.

I tried to see if a 12" speaker would work but the cage would be hitting the transformers, or be so tight that heat would be a problem. So, I shrunk the speaker size back to 10" and it looks like there is more than enough room for any buildup of heat and clearance for all components.

I am thinking of using an Eminence Lil'Buddy speaker for this. I think the "bud" part is a joke because the cone is made from hemp. I've heard good things about the Cannabis Rex speaker, but that is a 12" model. Maybe it will be full, clear, and punchy enough. Basically I want something small enough so that I can take it out of the house (in one hand, guitar in the other). I have this delusion that I'll get some kind of invitation and I won't have a simple amp to take without planning and taking apart a head and speaker cab setup.

I used Sketchup for another build, but I didn't go into much detail. But, because I almost ran into an issue on that build with the placement of the transformers, I put some effort into putting most of the components on the chassis that would stick out and interfere with things like the speaker. I haven't built an amp with the chassis in a transverse arrangement like this (tubes facing down), so that would be an interesting challenge.

It seems like everything will be fine except for the heat. Maybe I should put a vent or two on the top. This will be an open-back design, so maybe there will be enough ventilation so that the tubes and transformers don't heat up the cone too much (or warp the cabinet or something). I am really thinking about covering this amp with tweed (even though it is not a Fender Deluxe, I sure like that look). I'm also thinking about using 3/4" pine stock, but routing fluting lines from the inside to shave a few ounces off. I think there would still be more than enough strength.

This will be my first push-pull build. This means there will be to power tubes and a more efficient amplification scheme. I've heard they can be quieter too, especially with negative feedback suppressing extraneous noise. The downside might a loss of the even-order creamy harmonics that single-ended designs can do. I guess I will just have to build one and see, because I don't own any PP amps and I don't spend much time in guitar stores trying amps or guitars out.

--gh

New Guitar (for me)

2008-09-27T11:42:00.011-05:00

I just scored a 2003 Gibson ES-165 on eBay. This picture, without the flash, would have been awesome if it wasn't for my son's shoes and some bag in the background. Oh well, I take horrid pictures. I actually bought this guitar on August 22 (for $1,401.87). It took a month to ship from Canada (not the seller's fault - it sat in US Customs in Michigan for three weeks). I guess Customs finally figured out that a used guitar made in Memphis, TN doesn't need to pay duty. As for the odd dollar/cents amount on that price - that was my fault. If I am bidding against other people I end up sticking weird amounts on there. I don't know if it actually helps me to win (but it did beat a $1,400 even bid) - but I think it helps in the psych-out factor. Even with the $125 shipping, I still think this was a bargain.

I spent some time this morning setting this guitar up. I'm not sure what was going on with the setup - but I think this guitar was set-up for a rocker or something. There was a lot of relief in the neck - it took me three days to adjust (tighten) the truss rod (I'm thinking three whole turns of that nut). I might have a little more tweaking to do, but the fretboard is pretty flat now. (I may set it up with no relief, like my Les Paul, or with 0.0015" at the 8th fret like my acoustic). This took care of almost all the buzzing and issues on the high frets so I could lower the bridge to a reasonable height. I also put some Tomastik-Infeld flatwounds on (elevens). The guy at a guitar store kept trying to talk me out of these ($20 per set!) and into some round-wound strings. I bought both worrying that he might be right and I won't like the more dull-wooden sound of the flatwounds. But, I love them. There were some issues with the strings that came with the guitar (besides being rusted) that had me concerned, but all is fine now. I also polished and cleaned this thing up. I am not a guitar cleaner really, since I always keep them in cases they stay clean. It was nice, though, to have a fresh start here.

In case you're getting jealous - it took me three years to save up for this guitar. Most of the cash that I had set aside for this went to a transmission in early August. So, I put together what I had left and this auction fell into my lap. Since I plan on modifying this guitar a little bit, I don't mind that it is used (all my electrics were bought used).

I have to admit that I really like the mother of pearl holly inlay here. The earlier models didn't have this (or MOP at all for the name!) - so I wanted a 2002 or later guitar. I saw Herb Ellis play once. He was playing his one-pickup ES-175 at the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival in 1995. It was a brilliant performance. That guy is so classy.

I already have a rosewood bridge on order (rather than the ABR-style that is on wooden feet right now). Not only does that look more classic, but I think it balances the tone better. I am also thinking of removing the floating humbucker and installing a pickup in the body (yes, that means cutting it). I am thinking about Seymour Duncan's copy of the dogear P90, but in the stacked (noiseless) version. I tried a few 1950s ES-125 with wooden saddles and P90s and they sounded absolutely awesome. Having something like this in a humbucking version would be thrilling.

--gh

Building a Tubescreamer 3/3

2008-09-27T10:41:00.004-05:00

Well, here is the completed project. Some of the thread-lock solution is visible on this (the blue stuff) - but I think it is water soluble and should eventually come off.

So, I never really described this thing, so here goes. This effects pedal is a clone of the Ibanez TS-9 and TS-808 Tube Screamer - an overdrive effect. This is not a distortion box, but there is some distortion and clipping that goes on. It adds enough gain to drive the preamp stage of the amplifier into a higher gain area so that it starts to break up, clip, and get that warm overdriven sound. It tends to accentuate the midrange quite a bit, adding to the warmth and smoothness that is often desired.

I was going to fix the extra ink that spilled into the "R" on the "OVERDRIVE" title, but I forgot to. The true-bypass means that when this is switched off, the signal goes straight through the device without interacting with the circuit. This is possible with a 3PDT (three-pole double-throw) switch that is now easier to obtain. (Before a high-quality foot switch was available DIY people had to go through interesting hoops to get a pedal to by-pass like this.)

The TS-808 is the original Tube Screamer, and the TS-9 was the early 1980s update to it (what SRV used). Since the only difference between the two circuits is two resistors in the output buffer, a popular mod is to make it switch between the two. In fact, I did this with two switches on this first build (labeled "Shunt Resistor" and "Series Resistor" due to their topology in the schematic.) Putting this on two switches allows me to get a hybrid. Oddly enough, I forgot to actually label which side of the switches is the TS-808 side, and which is the TS-9 side - so I wrote "8" and "9" on their with a sharpie. The clipping switch selects an extra diode, or a jumper, to have asymetrical and symetrical clipping. I can hear the difference between them. (Clipping symetrically means the waveform is cut off at the top and the bottom equally, asymetrically means it would appear somewhat lopsided on a scope.)

I can also hear the difference between the 808 (a little more raw) and the TS-9 (more smoothed out, I think) settings. I don't know if I care that I can get half-and-half between them.

Review:
Playing through this is the first effects pedal I have used in years. I am used to playing a more cleaner sound, or relying on the amp for overdrive/bite. This lets me do that at a somewhat lower volume which is great - it also has that cool mid-rangey SRV sound that I like with single-coil pickups through these things. I haven't tried it with my Les Paul yet.

I can hear more noise when this thing is switched on (and the true-bypass works - so it is noiseless when off). This might be typical behavior but since I am used to noiseless pickups and my own amplifier builds - I don't like any noise. In the next build, I will see if shielding the runs between the pots and the board helps. I will definitely build another one (I already have the parts).

Mistakes:
I think "Bob Saget" came out reasonably recognizeable. I kept sketching him in pencil over and over again and I wasn't getting it right. I just crossed my fingers and did it and it is passable for me. I hurried through the other lettering on this thing, though, and it shows. I also could have laid out the switches a bit better - they aren't lined up too well.

I forgot that this thing was going to have a battery before I drilled the footswitch hole. I would have liked to put that thing under that location a bit and it changed the location of the circuit board and the switches. I also did not measure how much of the pot shafts I needed to cut before I wired this thing up. I was cutting, grinding, and filing them afterwards with the cuts of this thing in my hand. (I guess I could have unsoldered them completely but I was being too lazy for that.

I am glad I got this larger chassis to build this thing in. My mistakes in layout would have ruined the build. Luckily, I have everything in there and it is fine.

One more mistake - I used solid core hookup wire and not stranded. I don't know why I did that, but now that it is made it's fine. If I had to do a lot of debugging (it worked 100% the first time I tried it), then moving things around a lot with solid wire might have caused a problem (stranded is more flexible and forgiving in this area).

--gh

The TNH Amp - 3.0 Final assembly

2008-09-21T18:59:00.011-05:00

I never put up pictures of the completed build of Tyler's TNH guitar amp. I guess stuff got in the way. Here is a picture of the variable bias. The power tube (here an EL34) is in a configuration called "fixed bias" which means that you determine the proper balance and insert a resistor in that matches the value needed to bias the tube for proper operation. Except that the resistor in this situation is a high-wattage rheostat pot. (The other bias option, called cathode-bias, self-biases itself and is not variable.)

Next to the power and preamp tubes are some plastic goats that we screwed in through the chassis. Tyler said that this was very important. The goat theme has received praise as well. I guess it is the little things that matter. You can also see the massive power transformer in the background.

Since the amp has speaker jacks for the 4-8-16 ohm taps so we build the speaker cabinet to be just as versatile. The switch will select each speaker separately (8 ohms), or both speakers in parallel (4-ohms) or in series (16-ohms). Most of the time I like the sound of both speakers in series. But, to make things quieter, 1 speaker is good sometimes.

He really wanted Mystery Science Theater 3000 to be on this amp somewhere, and right here in the back corner seemed the right place. That took a lot of ink to fill that area in! I like this even more than the goats! It's a nice tag at the end of a great project.

This is the final product, speaker cabinet with the amp. The speaker cab is a 2x12 open back. The two 12" speakers are Eminence ToneSpotters (from their Redcoat, or British-sounding series). This thing, even at a modest 11-12 watts, can get very loud. This speaker cabinet is up in Tyler's room. The amp head can move between that speaker cab and a closed-back 2x10 that I built.

I'm going to be honest and say that I don't like the sound of this cabinet really. I am going to give it some time, maybe when the speakers break in a little I might like it more. It may be the speakers, or it may be the closed-back design. It is more focused (directional), and definitely not as loud as an open-back design. If I still don't like it after a few months I don't know if I should change the speakers or cut a big hole in the back to make it an open-cab.

Below is the final picture of this build, with Tyler enjoying the fruit of his labor over several months.
--gh

Building a tubescreamer 2/3

2008-09-21T18:15:00.010-05:00

Here's the part that I said was harder than building a tube amp - the size! This little chassis (the size is called BB) will have three knobs, a foot switch, a power indicator, an input jack, output jack, external power supply, and three switches (popular mods to the TubeScreamer model). Oh, and I almost forgot that I need room for a battery on the inside! This is not as many holes as an amp chassis - but I bet the number of holes per surface area is more than double that of a tube amp!

Since everything is so cramped, I would drill a few holes, load up the components, test things for fit, and then remove everything to drill a few holes. I really love drilling out this kind of stuff. Knowing that the controls will be exactly where I put them requiring a lot of layout is a fun challenge. Besides, I never took metal shop in the eighth grade like the other guys (I think I took Spanish I). Here's making up for lost time!

I had to change my soldering iron to a needle-like tip for this close work. I think the next time I do this I will get one of those hobby items that has a magnifyng glass and something to hold your work up - I can definitely feel my eyes getting older doing this kind of close work. To do this part, you feed a component up from the top, and solder it here on the back. It's pretty straight forward (unless you lose yourself, which only happened 2-3 times). This probably took about 30 minutes to populate the circuit board - not too bad.

Here you can see that I started with some of the larger components first. I have seen recommendations to put the smaller stuff on first - but I follow this advice. The IC socket just has to go where its supposed to - and the larger capacitors also claim their own geography first. Here's one thing that bugs me about these little circuits - if I make a mistake it seems like it would be so hard to trace. With an amp you can really visualize how things are laid out in the larger chassis and the turretboard. You can trace the circuit by following the wires. Here, there are no wires, just circuit traces, and they are on the back. I just better get this right the first time because I don't feel like debugging something like this. (But, I have to admit, making a mistake, debugging, and finding it later is still a fun process and part of the whole experience.)

Okay, this looks horrible, and is a little deceiving. I built this fx pedal before I painted it (not what I do with tube amps). I guess I wanted to know if this thing actually worked before I spent time painting up a fancy box before chucking the whole project in the trash (and never blogging about it!). So, I had a working effects pedal and then took it apart to paint it. This is all the components taken out of the chassis and it gives the false illusion that I built it this way. This is close work, and hard (but not that hard!).

Here is the the chassis after being primed and painted with a flat white. As you can see, I have decided on a Bob Saget theme for this little guy. I am planning to give this one to my son after I'm done so he will be stuck with God's gift to comedy permanently adorned to his TubeScreamer. Of course, I have already tested this thing and it sounds absolutely awesome. So, I don't think he will mind. Drawing Bob Saget from my template may be a challenge. My first attempt on scratch paper looked like a young Bill Clinton.

I will then build a second one, after I work out the layout kinks. Of course I will need to pick another celebrity or image for that build.

--gh

Building a Tubescreamer 1/3

2008-09-21T17:32:00.011-05:00

I got it in my head that I wanted to build a tubescreamer foot pedal. I used a layout and schematic found on TonePad.com. I have heard that someone should attempt to build an FX pedal before attempting a guitar amplifier. I'm not sure that I agree with that. Sure, the build is faster, but everything is so tiny!

I have never messed with circuit boards, and definitely have never etched anything. So, this was all pretty new to me. But, what better way to learn than to just dive in and do it.

I bought most of the stuff from Mouser and Small Bear Electronics. I get most of my electronics stuff from Mouser, but Small Bear did have more reasonable shipping costs for such a small order. Of course, it wasn't too small of an order because I ordered enough to make two, bought some etching supplies, and two high-quality pliers. The weird looking blue stuff that I taped to a piece of paper and printed on is called Press-n-Peel. Using the clothes-iron, I am affixing the image that I printed (borrowed from Tonepad, but heavily edited and re-done in Illustrator).

I cut the board first. It is a fiberglass circuit board with a layer of copper on it. The idea is to cover the traces with toner (and fill in any planks with a Sharpie or other pen). Then, etch all the other copper away. I'm going to be honest and mention that I did not get a good transfer on the edges. I read about 5-6 tutorials on this and they all mentioned that the edges were the hardest part. Luckily, I was able to draw back what was missing.

Here you can see the board about to be etched with a bottle of etchant (ferric chloride). By placing the board into a small amount of the etchant and gently rocking it for about 15-20 minutes, all the copper that you don't want is removed. The plastic tub is nothing special, the etchant doesn't bother it any. I had visions of the ferric chloride eating the entire thing up (including the fiberglass, lol) and having to start over. As it turns out, this part of the process is just as easy as described. Except for the waiting part - that was a little brutal.

Here about 1/2 of the copper has been removed. The traces are protected by the material that the Press-n-Peel left behind (and my pen marks). Apparently this ferric chloride can really stain your hands and rubber gloves are recommended. I didn't do this, but lucked out somehow. The copper etches off from the outside in, so the center part of this board still has a bit of copper all over. The edges are etched perfectly up to the traces.

This process really did take the full 20 minutes or so. But, eventually the board was etched and I ran it under cool water for a while to stop the etching process.

Next, a tiny drill bit was used to drill the holes that the component leads will fit through. Before I etched the board, I did make sure that the components would fit (which is why I re-made my own board layout entirely in Adobe Illustrator). Some of the items just didn't fit right, and I moved some of the things around. This little drill bit looks like something a jeweler would use, I was afraid I would snap it off.

This is such a horrible out-of-focus picture, but here is the finished product. The traces worked perfectly (and I double-checked continuity on quite a few of them with the multimeter). This is easily 1/3 done at this stage. The next step is to start populating the circuit board with components.

--gh

The TNH Amp - Chassis 2.1

2008-07-16T19:14:00.006-05:00

Here is the front panel, all inked up. I have blogged on this process before (Mr. French, and HNB) - but basically I am just using the old pen-and-ink technology with Leroy lettering tools.

TNH are my son's initials, and it is an homage to the HNB, (based on his grandfather's initials). They share a middle name.

If you can't read the front inscription, it says:

"Put silk on a goat and it is still a goat."

Tyler found great meaning in that Irish proverb, or wherever it came from. Of course there is a goat next to the input jack, and there will be two plastic goats on the top. We even remembered to mark and drill the locations for their feet, so that it can be screwed in permanently. (So, the 51 holes I wrote about last time could have been just 47...)

This picture looks pretty good, but there are some issues with the finish. He really wanted something that was more of an off-white, and an ivory spray paint looked great. However, the store did not have this in a flat finish and I thought that satin would be fine to hold up to the lettering. Well, it did, perfectly. However, there must be something in the satin part of the finish that interacted with the lacquer clear-coat. We got some orange peel going on. A bad spot is on the side, and it will be hidden in the cabinet. Another bad spot is on the top, mostly under the output transformer. As things go, that's not so bad either. There's a small spot on the back, near some wording, that does look more on the obvious side.

If any of the front had been damaged, I would have scraped the paint off and started over. The lettering is only about 2 hours of work and it would have been worth it. But, luckily, the finish looks mostly okay, and what you will see when it is in the cabinet won't even be noticeable. So, we'll leave it as is and I have learned to ONLY put a flat paint under any kind of clear. (I need to sandwich the lettering in between the color and the lacquer, so I always will put a clear coat on my builds with this kind of lettering.)

However, I'm looking at it right now, from across the room, and it looks fantastic. The controls and transformers aren't hooked up to anything, the guts are empty. Next step, preparing the turret board.

--gh

P.S. The GAIN and master VOLUME go to 11.

The TNH Amp, 2.0 - Chassis

2008-07-13T17:30:00.004-05:00

...maybe it was just the school year, and the home renovation, and spring/summer yard/garden work - but we FINALLY got back to working on the TNH amp. My goal is to finish it before August 1 - because that will be 1 year!

Today we began by drilling the chassis. I like to use a standard Hammond 2x8x16 aluminum chassis. The aluminum drills well and takes paint (and Bondo) well. We counted that this simple piece of metal will have 51 holes in it! That's a lot of drilling. Of course, every hole needs to be double checked with the parts to see that they are the right diameter. All of the holes are circular, drilled, except for the mains power entry. That has to be an odd shape to accept the IEC power connector (that's the style that you find on the back of some appliances like computers). I like IEC connectors, but it is a pain to use nibblers to nip the metal out little by little.

Here is the chassis with every hole punched in it. The two big ones on the top are for the preamp and output tube mounts. I have to use a unibit (stepper) because they are so huge (the largest one is a full inch). I've heard of some people doing this with hand-drills and spade bits and it's incredible that they have success. Nothing makes amp building nicer than the $99 drill press that we use.

Tyler wanted to move the controls around so that there is a reasonable gap between the input jack and the first knob (gain). That is where some artwork, or lettering, etc., will go. That will be shown next, after it is painted. (It's in the basement with a primer coat now - no need to take a picture of that, though.)

We used dish soap to get it cleaned up, and put some Bondo (car repair filler) in some of the corners to make the chassis look more consistent. When it is painted up, it will look nice.

I'm getting excited about lettering this amp, it should be fun.

--gh

Playing Court sketch artist for a day...

2008-05-25T21:50:00.004-05:00

I happened to be in the Fairfax County Courthouse on the day of a capital offense sentencing hearing. I was just hanging out with my brother, who came up to me in one courtroom and said "hey Greg, you're going to want to see this other hearing - it will be more interesting." I asked, "what is it?" "The Prieto hearing," he answered. I knew that a jury had already found Alfredo R. Prieto guilty of rape and double murder a few months back. I walked into the courtroom and waited.

The first thing that struck me was that the room was fairly packed, but not as much as the other room I had been in. This is due to the fact that 20 lawyers were on the docket in that other room handling routine motions and hearings for their clients. The next thing that struck me was that this courtroom had other business to attend to before the capital one. The hearing right before was actually one with a classmate of mine from high school. He was defending a kid who kept getting into trouble and had reached the point where he would now be handled as an adult. Luckily he had a lot of family there, and the judge allowed his grandfather (a retired police sergeant) to speak. It looked like things might go well with that kid if he stays away from some of his friends. After that hearing, the judge tried to get another hearing off his docket, but that lawyer was out of the room on another case (with permission, of course).

So, the capital offense sentencing began. It took a few minutes to get the offender into the courtroom. Obviously he was not in some general holding cell. He was seated right in front of me, 12 feet away. Judge Randy Bellows did not explain anything, he did not discuss the severity of the situation, he just began the hearing. The Commonwealth spoke first, represented by a prosecutor named Horan that was brought out of retirement to try the original case. He discussed the elements of the case that the defending attorneys might bring up (mental situation of the defendant, years of good behavior while on a life sentence in California, and whether the first 16 years of the defendant's life has any bearing on the sentencing).

At this point, I took out my notebook and started sketching the courtroom from my corner position. The picture you see below (not scanned, but a phone pic of my notebook) was drawn in that courtroom. On the left is Prieto. His hands and feet were shackled, and I could see his feet shuffling and changing position like a restless student. Right behind him, and a little to his right is a Fairfax County Sheriff's Deputy. In the back is Judge Bellows, with his hand on his cheek for most of the hearing. If this was a photo, I could have also captured one of the defending attorneys, but I chose to not draw him due to time (and I liked the isolation look that I had).

The attorneys did bring up his mental capacity (IQ of 70 - but for some reason I could not buy that). They also brought up his rough life between 0 and 16 years of age. They said he was innocent until he was 16 (but this may only mean he was not caught for anything until that time). They brought up that the crime detectives captured some hairs and body fluid from the scene. The DNA in the body fluid is what tied the case to Prieto as he was held in California. The hairs, however, could not be identified because they were misplaced. This could bring in doubt that Prieto is only guilty of rape, but another person may have pulled the trigger. (The hairs could very well be Prieto's. His defense team didn't even offer who this other "person" could be.) The defense team mentioned that he was a model prisoner for the last 18 years (in isolation) and this should be weighed in for his sentencing. Finally, they mentioned that he was committed to religion now. The judge asked "what religion?" and the attorney went to Prieto and whispered back and forth for ten seconds before saying "Catholic, your honor." At the end he asked if Prieto had anything he wanted to say. Prieto said "Nothing, your honor, at the advise of my representation." (70 IQ?)

After the Commonwealth briefly rebutted the points raised by the defense, Judge Bellows was ready to deliver the sentence. He explained his duty to abide by the Virginia Constitution. He discussed that this was a rape and double murder, and fit the death penalty. He discussed what pain the family members (who were in the room) had gone through and what was taken from them. At this point, Judge Bellows was holding back tears. He then said "I hereby sentence you to death..." for both murders. Oddly, the judge then gave jail sentences on top of the two death penalties for the rape, the gun discharge, and grand larceny (stealing the vehicle). He was compelled to do this, but it was a strange addition to the climax of this hearing.

As Prieto was being led out of the courtroom, the brother of the female victim said "Hey Prieto!" Prieto turned himself all the way around and stared into the eyes of the man. The brother yelled "go to your room." What an odd thing to say (...and later I read that he was showing that Prieto had no control over his situation, and had to go to his room just like he was told to). The bailiffs urged the small crowd to stop interacting with Prieto. At that point, another person said "Adios, pendejo!"

...and then it was over. The crowd moved out into the hallway, and Prieto was led back into his holding cell. Twenty minutes later, after I finally watched the other hearing that morning with my brother, I could see that the family was still in the hallway outside that courtroom.

It was an odd trip. The day before I was shaking hands with Senator Brownback (Kansas) in his office - and this day I was watching the formal process of a man condemned to capital punishment. I have no editorial on the death penalty itself, because it is something that I do not hold strong opinions on. It will be an experience I will remember for a long time.

--gh

The TNH Amp, 1.3

2008-01-01T14:39:00.000-06:00

After a two-month hiatus, the amp project is back in progress. The two 1/2" thick pieces here serve to strengthen the amp as well as provide a kick plate (the bottom one). The top plate will house the jack to plug in from the amplifier. If you look closely, you can see that these pieces are sitting in a dado for a tight fit. My goal is to use no fasteners (screws or bolts) to keep this together. Integrating things like this help make it strong enough to never worry about. The speaker cabinet could get more messed up than the chassis cabinet, because it is bigger and heavier. So, using dado slots ensures a strong tight fit. If you look even closer, you can see the dado on the front of the cabinet. This is for the speaker baffle.

I learned the hard way that you should cut out the speaker holes from the baffle before you assemble the whole cabinet. Well, it seems obvious now. Here is Tyler cutting out the first hole. This is an 11" diameter hole, to house a 12" speaker. The hole speaker diameter thing is a bit of a ripoff, because there is only 11" of cone diameter, the extra inch is for the speaker cage. This is Tyler's first time with the jig saw. He seemed to figure that out pretty quick.

We ended up putting so many marks on that speaker baffle before cutting it to size and popping this hole out. We spent some extra time with the sander taking those marks off before gluing it up. That's another lesson that I learned - sand off any marks or rough spots on interior pieces before you assemble the cabinet. It is so hard to get inside something like that later on. I hope things go smooth on the next step - because it's gone pretty well so far. I'm proud of myself for having him wear shop glasses in these pictures. It's a good habit. When we were sanding, he even learned that sawdust can still get in your eyes, even with the glasses on - so I think he understands how important that is now.

Here is the cabinet all glued up. I drilled out the holes for that will hold the speakers in before putting this together (yeah, another lesson I learned from other builds). Even from this horrible little phone camera picture, I can see my glaring mistake. One of the holes is too close to the speaker hole. It really bugs me looking at it, even though I don't think it will even show later on. The mounting holes are all counter sunk (forstner bit) because I will put t-nuts in there to receive the bolts that hold the speaker in. The speaker will be loaded in from the back, which is easy because it is an open-back cabinet. The other cabinet that I am building, a closed-back design, will have to have the speakers mounted on the front.

The next stage will be sanding, conditioning, staining, and finishing. Should be fun.

--gh

I are teh FAIL?

2007-09-20T20:12:00.000-05:00

Check out the 60-question American History and Civics quiz.

At least I got a 90%, which is a College A. It would be a B in High School. I can't believe that I missed the last three questions! Duh!

--gh

The TNH Amp, 1.2

2007-09-16T15:46:00.000-05:00

Okay, I picked up some glasses for him to wear today, but this table saw pic was from yesterday. After cutting the sides of the cabinets to length, and routing dovetail joints, the next step was to rip the boards to dimension. We settled on a head cabinet and speaker cabinet (open back) with a 10" depth. This ripped about 1-1/2" to 2" from the boards and usually involved ripping both sides. This is so that the dovetail joints ended up nicely on the corners. It is incredible how much lighter this thing is with that little bit of wood removed. You can see the little push stick (black/yellow tape on the end) that I use for ripping smaller pieces. He learned to hold the wood against the fence and not bind the blade. Actually, he did very well at this stage and ripped 80% of the boards.

I learned on my other builds that any hardware connections that mount through the wood should be drilled before glueing the cabinets together. On my first build, I must have spent 45 minutes trying to line up where the holes should come up through the bottom to meet the receiving threads in the chassis. It turned out just fine, but it was a headache. With the piece unassembled, it is a 45 second job. The bottom has four holes where socket cap screws mount the chassis to the cabinet. The top has two holes where the handle is mounted though the wood. I don't trust wood screws for stuff like that. I will screw the feet on with screws, though, as well as all of the corner protectors.

Here is a picture of the amp chassis bolted to the bottom of the cabinet. Note that I have a t-nut counter-sunk (3/4" forstner bit) for a solid connection. I use 1-1/2" or 2" hex socket cap screws for this (10-32 thread). The mistake that I made on my first build was to leave the threads in the t-nut. This means that the screw has to thread the t-nut as well as the thread-sert in the chassis. While I like that I can back out the cap screws and have them hold in place, it is better for them to just fall down. This makes mounting the chassis a lot easier because you can feel just the threads of the chassis, and not the chassis and the t-nut. It was very hard drilling out those little t-nuts. I should have used a larger size and not worried about the threads at all. However, now they look and feel fine.

I like to use these hex cap screws for this, but I don't care to use an allen wrench. There are these little plastic thumb knobs that stretch perfectly over the tops of these guys so that you don't need tools at all to remove the chassis from the cabinet. Judging from this pic, that screw is at least 1-3/4", and possibly 2" (the dimension of the chassis side). Sorry for the bad picture here, but you can see that the bolts meet up with the chassis using the nut-sert or thread-sert that is mounted to a hole drilled in the lip. This makes such a positive match to the cabinet and I am very pleased with it. It is a little detail that I think makes the whole project a little higher quality. The quick and dirty way that some builders use is to mount an angle bracket on the outside. However, this means the whole cabinet needs to be wider, and then you have to hide the edges. This method is one way to have the cabinet inside dimension match the chassis.

--gh

The TNH Amp, 1.1

2007-09-13T22:09:00.000-05:00

Continuing with the power tool introduction, this is his first chance with the router. The template that you see there is the Keller 1500 dovetail jig. This is my third of fourth project with it, so I am glad that I invested in it. I am also glad that it is holding up well. This is not really the best picture of Tyler routing (minimal dust spraying back), but it is the only one that I have with him wearing ear protection. I think the router is 90-105db, so this is a good idea. You can get fairly precise with this dovetail jig, but I don't choose to. I'll build the boxes for the cabinets, then mark lines to rip the front and back nice and even.

He did not do all of these cuts, but he did enough to get a feel for it. Here are all the pieces for an amplifier cabinet, and two speaker cabinets. I would like to have some kind of portable work bench, but as it is I just mount half my work to my table saw. Later on, I bet you'll see us using this for gluing, finishing, etc. Looking at all those pieces at once is sort of impressive - it's about an hour of work (setting up, clamping, etc.). Of course, by hand that would be a lot longer.

The cabinets were measured very well. I slapped them together dry to get a feel for size and note that the amp chassis slides very well. It will have a bit of paint and lacquer on it, and the cabinet will have a finish. I hope it isn't too tight! I'll check the other side first, and if it is then it can be opened up a tad with some judicious sanding. Note that the chassis is just a Hammond chassis (#1444-26). We'll drill that out down the road. I like that part too. Inside are various capacitors, resistors, potentiometers, and transformers. Might be a tube or two.

I slapped these together to get a feel for size. Also, because the lumber was slightly cupped, I thought this would straighten them out a little. It could get pretty messed up, but tapping the dovetails together would straighten anything. The cabinet on the left will be the 2x10 sealed speaker cabinet. I will probably keep it pretty deep, based on some calculations using data from the speaker company. On the right is Tyler's quarter stack. This will have an EL34-based tube amp on the top, and a 2x12 speaker cabinet. I am planning on trimming the front and back a little. This is 11.5", and we could lose an inch and a half, perhaps. They stand up just fine without glue. That's a pretty good test of the integrity of these joints. I will not use any screws to hold this together. The speaker cabinet will be strenghtened by the baffle on the front, which will be glued into a dado. On the back I'll incorporate a kick plate, and that will also help make it sturdy.

Here is a dry-fit of the dovetails. Note that the exposed ends are just proud of the joint. Those will get sanded, and all the corners will be rounded over as well. I am starting to get excited about this. Tyler's quarter stack will be up in his room by early October, I bet. Then the noise will begin. I am glad that he is putting as much sweat equity into this as I am - because a 14-year-old barely deserves something this nice otherwise!

I am a little embarassed to say that I never had the chance to play through a tube amp until early 2006. I was looking at Telecasters and the nice folks at the guitar store put me in a little room by myself. They showed me a bunch of complicated amps, and I plugged into a little Epiphone Valve Junior. I loved it. When the sales guy came back, he looked at me like I was crazy and plugged me into a very complicated amp. After he left, I went back to the simple 5-watt Epiphone amp! I had no idea.

--gh

The TNH Amp, 1.0

2007-09-13T21:43:00.000-05:00

Our next project is building an amplifier and speaker cabinet. We chose the P1-Extreme plan from the amplifier building community AX84.com. We'll start on the cabinet first, because I like to make sure that the speakers and the amp chassis fit well. Also, I'm afraid if we build the amp first, we'd be playing it from a table into speakers mounted in a cardboard box or something. It is more satisfying to finish wiring things up and then to slide them into a cabinet like we ordered it custom made. The design will be similar to my first build. (Measure twice, cut once!) It is a lot of fun taking pictures when I'm not doing this alone. This does have the amusing effect of looking like he is totally solo in this build. Maybe he should get his own blog going and describe it from his perspective.

I think this is Tyler's first real experience with power tools. When I was his age, I had already taken shop in junior high, so it seems to be about right. We started with a battery-powered circular saw. It kind of wimped out on us, though, and we had to go to the SkilSaw. Tyler is using a square clamped to the board to guide the saw. Don't worry, his hand is not as close to that blade as the picture suggests. The lumber we are using is some decent looking poplar from the lumber yard. I still haven't done anything that involves joining - but I still see a joiner in my future. I think this poplar will be dyed fairly dark, so I hope it looks even.

If you into counting these pieces, you may notice four extra sides. I decided to use some speakers that I got last year but never used. I learned that they were meant to be in a closed cabinet only, and not open backed. So, I will build an sealed speaker cabinet to try out. I bought the wood almost a month before cutting it. Even though I think I stored it pretty well, it still cupped a little. That's okay, this will be fixed in the next stage.

--gh

Tylercaster complete

2007-09-02T18:15:00.000-05:00

Side-by-side with my Telecaster, the Strat is definitely a cousin. I felt like I was taking family portraits or something. I finished 90% of the setup today. The intonation, action, and relief are all very close to my ideal. It plays beautifully, but I think I need to raise the bridge pickup a little. I will have to take the pickguard off to do it because I need to cut the rubber sleeve that holds it in place a little. The other issue is that the neck is still a little sticky. It is a nitrocellulose neck, made earlier this year, so that it to be expected.

Here you can see some carpet, paint, and trim work from our renovated bedroom. Cousins in the bedroom!

--gh

Tylercaster C

2007-09-02T00:01:00.000-05:00

There are not too many shots of us working on the inner electronics. To be honest, I had to help out a lot there so I didn't grab the camera. Here's a quick pick of Tyler soldering up the output jack. This is his first effort in soldering, so I thought he couldn't mess up a jack. (I had a spare handy just in case.) The worst thing we'd need to do would be to cut a half inch off the wires and start this part over. As it turns out, he did just fine. Note that the jack is sitting on top of a small can of solder flux. This kept the mat we are using here safe.

Here's one of the final assembly steps, the installation of the output jack escutcheon. This is probably the only thing we messed up, I never knew a Strat had a particular angle that the jack tip had to be at for things to work. We had this thing on and off about three times. Tyler got comfortable with this step.

Taking off the protective plastic from the pickguard must have been his favorite step of all. At first you don't really notice the plastic. However, with each component that you add, the plastic gets blistered up and pushed aside. Some guitars come from the factory with components mounted OVER the pickguard plastic protective layer. This is madness because you have to unscrew a lot of things to get that plastic out. I taught him to push the plastic aside, but keep it on as long as possible.

All of a sudden, the major part of this build was over! I strung up the guitar and it was even in decent condition for intonation and setup. Look at that dining room table! It took me 15 minutes to clean that up this evening. The guitar, as you can see, is pretty complete. I through all five tremolo block springs in the back and the bridge plate is resting on the body even with the six strings on there. It will take me some time to figure out what needs to happen with the setup. The springs are there to balance the string tension, and you can adjust the number of springs (3-5), as well as the tension on the springs. The bridge can rest on the body (as it is now), or "float" up a little, perfectly balanced between the springs and the strings. Of course, the neck's relief will need to be looked at (truss rod), in about a week. The microtilt might be the next adjustment. Then, the saddles will be moved to match the neck profile and set the intonation as well as the string height (action). My goal is 4/64" or so.

This thing really is a knockout. I need to take some daylight pictures, because this is a guitar that would stop me in my tracks if I saw it hanging on the wall. It was built as the cousin to my Telecaster. Specifically, it has the following in common: alder body, 3-tone sunburst, American Deluxe body, parchment pickguard, full cavity shielding, Seymour Duncan stack pickups, a vintage feeling and looking tinted neck, and a vintage shoulder strap with Schaller straplocks. There's probably more. I played around with it for ten minutes or so and I can tell that this thing will be a dream guitar in a few months. The neck is a little sticky (it is a 2007 nitrocellulose finish), but the feel of it is great. The neck radius is like a Les Paul, and the frets feel like Dunlop medium-jumbo. With absolutely no setup it feels better than a lot of guitars hanging on the shelf at many music stores. I don't think this is the store's fault, it's probably due to people misusing them. (Of course, it is the store's job to keep up with that stuff.)

I've already gone over the set up issues that need to happen next. I don't think I will document that process. However, it is the important last step of any parts build. The other thing that we need to start working on is the amplifier. There is a couple of board feet of poplar in the basement, as well as some transformers, tubes, and other various parts that will slowly turn into a tiny terror of 11-15 watts.

--gh

Tylercaster B

2007-09-01T23:31:00.000-05:00

I like this step. The neck needs a solid metal surface to receive the microtilt bolt that comes through the American Deluxe neck plate area. Since this is a more vintage style neck, I improvised with a couple of Forstner bits and a metal plug used for electrical boxes. It works great, and I did a much better job on this than my Telecaster earlier this year. I used this adjustment to tweak the Telecaster into a perfect neck angle so that my saddle and pickup heights were easy to get into line. It's good to have this on the Stratocaster because there will be a lot of setup as soon as the neck adjusts to having strings on it again.

Next goes some copper shielding. Shielding a guitar can be controversial because it can attenuate some high frequencies. However, I like to err on the side of quiet. I think 60-cycle hum is not acceptable. This guitar will be very quiet due to the cautious shielding and the Seymour Duncan stack pickups. Classic Stacks, STK-4s, are technically humbucking pickups made to look, fit, and sound like single coil pickups. The trade-off from true single coil sound is worth it to me. We are using copper foil tape for the cavity shielding. Here you can see Tyler soldering together the taped seams. This is not necessary for continuity, perhaps, but it also helps to lock things in very tight. I think this copper foil will still be hanging on in 50 years. The solder stiffens things, that's for sure. I also think the heat from the soldering station makes the glue on the tape adhere very securely.

Tyler is finishing up the layout of the wiring here. The controls are loaded onto the pickguard. Note that there is some shielding on this pickguard - that is from Fender. I think we changed things around a little bit after routing the wires this way. The 4-conductor wire that Seymour Duncan uses appears delicate, so this can be a little nerve wracking. The carpet on the dining room table here is what we now have in our stairway and upstairs hall. It's on the shaggy side which took some getting used to, especially on the
stairs. it does feel plush, though.

One of the things that Tyler wanted for this build was to have American parts (when available). So, when we stared talking about the bridge, tremolo, saddles, and block, I told him that what we needed was from Callaham Guitar parts in Winchester, Va. I have a lot of fond childhood memories of Winchester, so it's nice to know a piece of his guitar came from there. Oddly, they do not make a 2-pivot style bridge plate, so I needed to get that from another source. The trem-bar feels VERY secure in the block. It is the best I have ever felt. Thanks, Callaham. It may look like there is not much left. For the parts assembly, this is true. There will be a lot of setup issues over the next month, though.

--gh

Tylercaster A

2007-08-22T23:39:00.000-05:00

Ever since I put my Telecaster together, Tyler's been itching for his own build. We settled on a plan to build a Stratocaster cousin. He wanted as many features to be the same as my Telecaster, including:

a vintage tinted and shaped neck,
3-tone sunburst alder body,
parchment pickguard,
aftermarket bridge (non stock),
a deluxe body with the sculpted heel,
non-standard wiring,
and Seymour Duncan pickups.

We got him the neck and the case and he saved up for the rest of the build. The neck is an amazing quartersawn and slightly flamey piece from an Eric Johnson model Stratocaster. It came with the vintage staggered tuners, so I guess he won't be learning about installing those. Here you can see him removing the hunk of wood that I attached before we gave it to him. I wanted him to open up a light case, possibly thinking it was empty. However, I didn't want a costly neck banging around in there. The case is a standard, but classic style. He was probably relieved we got that for him since no one really likes buying a case when saving for a guitar (but it is necessary).

I don't know what to be more excited about, the neck or this body. I'll start with the neck. The Eric Johnson model neck is one of the few truly quartersawn necks that you can get on a USA Stratocaster, before you go Custom Shop. There are many great "Crafted in Japan" necks that look great, but this one is even more special. The maple has a slight flame to it, and it is tinted. It looks like some of the 1957 ReIssue necks, and even has a soft-V profile (that moves towards a "C" as you move up the neck). The fretboard radius is not like a 1957, though. It is actually 12", just like a Gibson. This thing will be able to shred, (some day). To top it off, the neck has a nitrocellulose finish, just like the old days.

The body is a 3-tone sunburst, just like my Telecaster. The model it came from was an American Deluxe model. In addition to the sculpted heel (note the funky neck plate in the top picture), it also has the 2-point tremolo bridge. The vintage models, and many of the American Standards have the 6-screw bridge, but this one is simpler. With no string trees (due to the staggered tuners), the only place that the string can bind is at the nut and the bridge. When properly set up, it should be great for all kinds of trem-bar playing. Of course, I have never set one of these up (never had a tremolo, actually), so I am about to be educated! One more thing about this body. The wood looks selected (not really something Fender gets into), and it is more than one piece but it is hard to tell. Finally, at 3lb-11oz, it is extremely light.

The parchment pickguard is just like my Tele and looks classic. I just couldn't go mint, and he thinks I'm crazy for ever suggesting it. Here he is loading the Seymour Duncan Classic Stack (STK-4) pickups. My telecaster has the vintage stacks for the neck and bridge, and the identical Classic Stack for the middle pickup. If the pickguard looks bubbly, that's because I am having him keep the plastic on as long as possible. I had him peel it up wherever a screw goes, because I find it annoying when a guitar has plastic sheets protecting the pickguard that goes under controls and screws. It was hard standing back and just giving him guidance. I swear I want to build this whole thing myself and then take it apart and have him do it. Restraint.

Yeah, it will take restraint, but it's the best thing because he will learn so much doing this himself. We'll have a lot to work on together because this will only take a week at the most. After that, we'll dive headfirst into an amp project. I'll save that for another time, though.
Up next will be wiring up the controls. A nice thing about the Stratocaster is that you can build up the pickups and controls on to he pickguard, and then drop it in place. This was genius for the factory process because it saves so much time. Of course, to adjust things, you have to take the pickguard off and take of the strings. At least with a 21-fret neck we won't have to loosen those neck bolts, though. The controls are based on the blender control from AcmeGuitars, so it will have some pickup combinations that most standard Stratocasters can't get (like Neck and Bridge at the same time). But, more on that later.

--gh

Wilco-Tango...

2007-07-18T00:13:00.000-05:00

Here's a little slice of heaven brought to you by the Smithsonian Natural History Museum and my Motorola camera phone. There wasn't an explanation or anything for this at all, just a dude skeleton pulling on a stubborn goat skeleton.

--gh

"Art" by Greg

2007-06-19T02:15:00.000-05:00

I really cheated on this one. The source art wasn't even a photo, it was already a vector-friendly drawing.

With the television off for the summer, I keep going back to youtube.com for entertainment. I stumbled into Reh Dogg's "Why Must I Cry." I don't want to turn this sordid blog into a 'look what I found on youtube,' but this guy is about to break out. ...or not. Here's a second song called "You Say I'm Ugly" featuring a hook that I have been singing for a few days ('you say I'm ugly who say I'm ugly don't wanna say'). Bonus, both videos feature Reh Dogg soaping up in the shower, for some odd, unexplained, and interestingly non-sexual reason. His rap style is a little uninspired, but his singing is like a disturbed Tom Waits (and yes, I know what I mean when I write that).

--gh

"Art" by Mike

2007-03-31T23:08:00.000-05:00

Okay, I was looking for an image of a big-horn sheep. I wanted to stylize it in Adobe Illustrator for a project I was working for. This is something that I don't mind doing because I am not an artist, nor do I try to make a living (or a buck) taking credit for it. There are two images on the first page of a Google image search that just looked a little too similar.

One of them is from a site called Art by Mike. I thought, cool, he did a good job copying that picture! However, the quote from his website says:

This is another first for me. I finally have a drawing of a big horn sheep. This is another image that I have had a bunch of requests for. This drawing took me quite a while to do because of the amount of detail I put in. I tried to make this fellow look as regal as possible.

Since this appears to be stock USDA footage, there probably isn't a copyright concern. A framed print is $335, and there appears to be nothing on his website describing his technique, except that he is "best know [sic] for his ability to grab a moment in time." He seems like a nice guy.

I've read that camera obscura(black box, before film could capture an image permanently) was the secret weapon in the 17th and 18th century. However, no one really wanted to fess up to it. I guess copying images off the web is the new thing, and I am an active participant.

--gh

Swapping a pickup magnet

2007-03-31T13:44:00.000-05:00

So, I decided to swap out the magnet on the neck pickup of my Les Paul Custom. This picture shows the magnet, which I labeled "Seymour Duncan AlNiCo 2" in case I use it in the future. The pickups on this guitar were changed out in the mid-nineties to the Seth Lover model (SH-55) which is a basic, no-thrills pickup with medium strength magnets. New metal music probably requires ceramic magnets, or at least something stronger than the alnico variety that has been used since the 1950s, and more. This particular pickup model is based on the original design that ultimately was used in the late 1950s P.A.F. pickups. His design called for AlNiCo 5 magnets (a little stronger), but economics dictated that AlNiCo 2 would be used.

As it turns out, this is about perfect for the bridge pickup. With the turn of the GAIN knob on my single-ended 5-watt amplifier, I can go from vintage rock to Van Halen. (EVH uses only one pickup, usually a real 1950's PAF, in the bridge pickup.) Both pickups at the same time usually sounds good - and when I play clean I often end up here. However, the neck pickup was always a little too muddy for me. I don't mind mids, but I want them to be clear. So, I bought another magnet from StewMac and jumped in with wild abandon.

Above, you can the guitar in my workshop, ready for the procedure. Swapping a magnet is the electrical equivalent to open-heart surgery. You literally take the pickup apart to get the old magnet out. First, you have to loosen and remove the strings. It's easiest to just take the stopbar off and push everything to the side. This photo does a good job of showing the economics of 1979 Gibson, the Norlin days. The top is not a fancy book-matched maple, it is actually three pieces that are not really lined up well.

Next, the metal cover needs to be removed. I like the look of covered pickups, but a lot of the purists remove these for more top end or something. They are better shielded this way anyhow, and I hate noise - so the covers stay on.
I perform this kind of work with the pickup still connected to the guitar, so I throw a rag on top to keep the top from getting scratched, or melting the finish or something. I probably don't deserve a guitar any nicer, if this is how I treat them. To remove the cover, I first cut through the solder with a cut-wheel on a Dremel tool.

After cutting the solder, I heat it up with the soldering station and use a combination of braid and a solder sucker to get the rest out. This is a little tricky, and I would not be comfortable working on a vintage pickup. I overheated the cover and blistered a little of the gold plating in a previous procedure. That would make me sick if this was a 50-year-old pickup. However, it's never seen since only the top comes up through the pickup rings. The whole thing heats up, which could be dangerous if you melt any of the varnish that surrounds any of the pickup wires (there are hundreds, or even thousands, of turns of this fine wire). I am using a soldering tip that looks a little like a screw driver, so I wedge that a little to separate the cover and slip a screwdriver in there. In about one second, the solder should cool and the cover should be separated. If it isn't I try a little pressure to snap the solder, but not too much. If I can't get it undone, I heat it up again and try to remove more solder.

I picked this little tool up from StewMac. It is a polarity tester to make sure I know the difference between N and S. If you get this wrong, you would end up with a popular modification called the Peter Green mod. This is how to get the two pickups in a Les Paul out of phase, but still quiet (shielded from hum). I like that sound, but only if the gain is up. Also, I am too much of a fan of the middle position (both pickups on), and I would hate to miss out on this. So, I'll make sure to get this right (took a second try, btw). The new magnet is nearby, sitting on the pickguard.

Sorry that I haven't figured out the macro-setting of this camera. Actually, it is from work - I don't own a camera. The screwdriver shaft is in focus, though. To get at the magnet, loosen these four screws. Nothing else needs to be messed with. I guess you have questions about the writing on this pickup. They are just stamped or screened on there - they are not autographs. Believe me, if I got Seth Lover's autograph, I never would have asked him to sign the bottom of a pickup... The pickup plate is starting to look a little haggard, isn't it? As I mentioned, I have been in here before, reversing the magnet, and then putting it back to normal. Maybe, just maybe, if I had two Les Pauls, I would keep one of them like Peter Green's guitar.

Action shot! I am proud of this picture. With those four screws loosened under the plate, I use some pliers to pull out the old magnet. With my other hand, I was holding the camera! You need to keep things pretty flat here, there are two wooden spacers (Seymour Duncan's fidelity to the original design, like it matters if it were plastic or not). In fact, I just noticed that an 1/8th of an inch of one of these spacers is exposed in this picture. I think if you go to Seymour Duncan's website, you will see that they even mention that the tape used to wrap the wire is authentic. Whatever. They are, however, very good pickups - so I do recommend them (with this mod, perhaps).

So, I lined up the magnets, and even used the tester, but I still got this wrong. For about 5 minutes, I played my guitar with the out-of-phase sound and debated if this was meant to be. However, I told myself that I would not be happy unless I went back in, loosend the strings, cut the solder, heated it up, snapped off the cover, swapped the magnet, and then put it all right. So, that is what I did. Funny how I hate having stuff ahead of me, but I really don't mind doing the work. The entire operation can be done in less than 5 minutes, really. So, I'm glad I went back in.

You probably don't want me working on your guitar. Here is the last stage (before re-stringing). A little bit of solder needs to be replaced here. It sort of locks in the cover (keeps it from becoming microphonic) as well as electrically connecting it to ground to complete the shielding. I have cut and soldered/unsoldered this cover about 5 times now, and it kind of shows. Of course, as I mentioned before, it's not something that you would ever see from outside. You may have noticed that there was no wax in any of these steps. That is what would double the time here. Theoretically, the pickup can be microphonic at high volume and gain settings. I never play like this, and the old pickups were not wax potted anyhow.

Review:
Okay, basically this whole operation was done to swap out the AlNiCo-2 magnet, and replace it with the AlNiCo-5. The difference is a little on the subtle side (which I am pleased with). However, I can tell that the neck pickup has more clarity, and even sounds good dirty (higher gain). I am now wholly satisfied with the pickups in this guitar and am not tempted to swap them out for anything else in the near future.

Can you hear the difference?*
Original alnico-2:

Replaced with alnico-5:

--gh

*disclaimer: I don't really have access to real audio editing tools or microphones. I used a laptop's internal speaker near the amplifier, on moderate settings. I did, however, keep the amp's settings, and the laptop's recording settings, exactly the same during the magnet change. Also, I kind of forgot what I played the first time (a CM7-Am9-Dm9-G13 progression, and some noodling in C major) but I tried to make it the same the next time. Also, sorry about the hiss, I don't have any editors with filters, normalizers, etc.

Haddo-caster 7.0 - Complete

2007-03-24T12:47:00.000-05:00

Well, I can now report that I am pretty much done with the Telecaster put-together project. I am glad that I added the little metal plate under the neck, because I did use the micro-tilt feature to set up the angle of the neck. I think the action is a hair (literally) on the high side, but it feels just about right.

I had to adjust the truss rod, because I think there was too much relief in it. Now it seems okay. Raising the neck angle with the micro-tilt allowed me to bring up the saddles on the bridge. This is good because the bridge pickup was too close to the strings. Believe it or not, this affected the vibration of the string, since the oscillations had to compete with the magnetic pull. I think the technical term for this is Strat-itis as it is a common occurance on Stratocasters. Anyhow, it seems fine now.

Now that the height of the strings is set, I may have just a little more pickup adjustment to make. I think to balance things out, I need to raise the neck pickup a tad, and maybe bring down the middle pickup. The bridge pickup now seems fine. I ended up with a standard Telecaster-style output cup here. I was not able to secure the Electro-socket. It's on back order, or something - so, I picked this up for $5 in Jefferson City.

Man, I wish I could walk into a store in this town and buy a part like that! Funny story about that, I tried to buy this part from Guitar Center in Independence. I have such trouble there, but it is on the way. As I approached the store, I noted that there were 4-5 guys standing outside the door on their smoking break. I know that this is their right, but if I managed that store I would ask them to do this out back. It just flaunts that no one will be inside to help.

I go directly to the counter to request this part, and it takes several minutes for someone to assist me. Finally a young woman asks me what I want and I tell her that I am looking for a cup for the output jack of a Telecaster. She points to a control knob on the wall and says "like this?" "No," I tell her, I need the part that goes on the output of the guitar. "Hmmm," she says, without looking further "I don't think we have those." I couldn't believe it. Maybe they did, or maybe they didn't carry this simple product (I saw output covers for Les Pauls and Stratocasters, but the place where I thought these would be were obscured by some other products). However, she had no interest in finding out, or at least pretending to "look in the back." I promptly left and drove the rest of the way on my trip getting to West Music in Jefferson City 1/2-hour before closing. Not only did they have this simple item, but I bought strings and a Redd Volkert DVD. I spent $50 at a real customer-oriented music store. Sometimes I wonder how Guitar Center stays in business. But, I keep going back for this treatment.

Review:
Oh man, this thing plays well. The Fender body and neck allowed for a near-perfect setup. The Glendale 3-barrel saddles gives a vintage look and sound, but also allows dead-on intonation. The 7-position pickup selection gives every sound that I was searching for. So far, I don't have a favorite, but I do gravitate towards #2 (middle and bridge) for that bubbly spank sound similar to a Strat. I can definitely handle the 7-1/4" radius fretboard, which is good because it looks outstanding. The neck feels fine, too. I don't have a hang-up about needing the exact same feel on every guitar I play, I believe the player needs to get everything he can from guitar that sounds right.

The American Deluxe body here has a carved back to make it easier to play. Also, the heel is carved where the neck meets the body. This makes it a lot easier to access some of those higher notes. I can't get over how much better a tinted vintage-looking neck with 21 frets looks, compared to the 22-fret pale look that would normally come with this model. Fender really does do great work, though - because that neck from the other model fit in here so nicely (well, except for drilling the hole offset neck bolt.) The wood grain (alder) really shows through the 3-tone sunburst finish. Also, I like the top binding on these things.

I modified the leather strap per my usual method, Schaller locking straps, and a "tail" at the other side to put the instrument cable through. This keeps the cable from being pulled out accidentally if I step on it. This is something that I did to my strap for the Les Paul. The strap is all stiff and not broken in at all. It will probably take a year. It is that vintage thin style, because this guitar only weighs 8 lbs. If I used this strap on my Les Paul (over 10lbs. maybe?) it would cut right through my shoulder.

The reversed control plate is very comfortable to me. If you played Telectasters for a few decades, I could see this being a minor problem. In short, this is a simple guitar style, with the minor complexity of a middle pickup added. It sounds absolutely amazing through a tube amp.

--gh

Haddo-caster 6.0 final wiring

2007-03-20T00:00:00.000-05:00

I would say that I am about 90% done. These pictures won't show it, but a critcal piece is not on this guitar. When I was ordering parts, everyone was out of the Electrosocket output jack holder. This is an improvement over the old cup-style jack piece, which used friction and the internal output jack plate in the side hole. The Electrosocket screws in, and the Switchcraft jack screws into that socket. Right now, the output jack is a little precarious, mounted to the little plate about an inch inside the output jack's hole. When I get an electrosocket, I will be all ready to tear that hunk of metal out, screw in the Electrosocket, drill two holes, and screw it in.

At "design stage," this is pretty much the exact guitar I pictured. I do not see myself ever owning a Strat. I like them, but I don't want to be surrounded by too many guitars. Also, I don't use a trembar, and why own a Strat with a hardtail, or a trem that I never use? So, borrowing the middle pickup design of a Stratocaster (with a real Strat middle pickup), and a five-way switch, I have the best of both worlds. I bought a vintage looking strap, and one of those older looking tweed cases. I love that look. The strap is fine because these guitars are so light. I haven't weighed it yet, but it is several pounds lighter than my Les Paul.

This is a look that I really like. It might not be a big deal to you, but I really wanted the pickups mounted to the body, and not the pickguard. The pickguard lifts right out and slides out from under the strings, because it has no pickups on it. It also is not pinched down by those new 22-fret necks that Fender makes. The 21-fret design in 1952 was right the first time. Maybe because Gibson has 22 frets, they thought they couldn't compete. Anyhow, if I had an American Deluxe neck, I would have to remove it just to take off the pickguard! I think that is silly. Note that I went with the 3-barrel saddle design, just like the 1950s.

This is the guitar that I wanted, and it has the features I desire (except the output jack). I haven't listened to it for real yet (through a tube amp), but all of the selections work (5-way switch and toggle). I only got two wires wrong, and it took about 2 minutes to correct. Not bad, since I don't remember wiring an electric guitar before. I really like the yellowy look of the neck, and not the pale color of the American Deluxe. (Those AmDlx necks are sure fine to play, though!) I took a gamble and went with a 1952 reissue neck. It has the sharp radius fretboard (7.25" v. 9.5" of more modern designs, and the 12" radius of my Gibson). Even though it is no where near set up yet, I can tell that it will play just fine.

Setup will involve adjusting the neck angle (microtilt!), the truss rod (neck relief), the saddle height, saddle intonation, and last, pickup height. Oddly enough, this is something that I am apprehensive of.

--gh

Haddo-caster 5.0 - Controls

2007-03-19T23:35:00.001-05:00

The control plate that I ordered off of eBay ($7 for a chunk of stainless steel) did not have the right sized holes. For nice, clean holes, through a thick piece of hard steel like this, the only solution is a unibit. This is a Greenlee stepper bit, with a little electrical tape on there to tell me how far to go. Note the 3-in-1 oil in the lower right - I used this for some lubrication and cooling. The last thing I would want to do is to have that bluish off-color look of overheated steel!

The nice thing about a unibit is that it cuts such small pieces. A regular bit might make those spirally sharp pieces of metal spin off, and scratch the surface. Many Telecasters use a chrome plated control plate, for that extra shine. However, my Glendale bridge is not really shiny, and has a similar brushed stainless steel look to it. This picture does not show it, but I needed to place a hole between the volume and tone controls. This is to add a little toggle switch that turns the bridge pickup on and off in the 1st and 2nd positions. The first position could be the neck only, or the neck and bridge combination, depending on the toggle switch. The neck+bridge is a standard Telecaster combination, and it would be a shame to miss out on it.

Here you can see the controls loaded. The toggle switch can also make all three pickups on at the same time. Basically, if you know the Stratocaster 5-way pickup selections, this is that plus two more (neck+bridge, and neck+middle+bridge). For you Telecaster purists, sorry - you are probably cringing now. (The middle pickup might be enough to turn you off.)

I got this from an older version of Fender's American Deluxe. In 1998, they came out with a three-pickup version that has a 5-way switch and a toggle switch. Many of their diagrams, like this one, can be downloaded from the Fender Support pages.

This took a little finangling to get the control plate to fit right. I had to take some of my perfectly cut control holes and file them a little to move things around. It is actually a tight fit in that cavity! The controls cover this up, but it bugs me that I had to do it. Before you wire this up, make sure the controls fit the cavity without modification of the plate. Here is a nearly complete image. Note the nasty finger prints, grime, and dust all over this thing! I had a little try out this evening, and things turned out quite nicely, more on that next post...

--gh

Haddo-caster 4.0 - Shielding

2007-03-19T12:14:00.000-05:00

In a previous post, you may have seen some rolled up copper foil. I have no tolerance for buzzing and hum in my guitars and amps. Shielding a guitar like this is a $10 affair, but it does involve taking it apart. So, it makes sense to do it at this stage. I am following most of the instructions from the Guitar Nuts website. That guy is great.

Here's the breakdown. Guitars with humbucking pickups have two single coils side-by-side, and wired to cancel out hum from electrical interference, namely the 60hz beast within our homes. The humbuckers are known for a slightly higher output (two coils), but at the expense of an upper high bite that single coil pickups are known for. The orignal Gibson P-90 (soapbar) pickups, and your standard Fender pickups are single coil - and retain a lovely chimey high-end. The cost? They do not cancel out hum and noise. All is not lost, though. You can shield the guitar's pickup and control cavitities and knock out 95% of outside hum.

Shielding a guitar is not just something that should be done to single-coil guitars, though. My 1979 Les Paul is amazingly shielded. The control cavity, pickup-selector, and even output jack, are all enclosed in metal cases. Only shielded wire goes from one area to the next. It is amazingly quiet. So much so that when I pick up someone else's guitar, and hear the hum, I think "how can they stand that?" So, why don't all guitars, especially single-coil guitars, have this shielding done at the factory? Two reasons: tone, and cost. Some people claim that they lose a tiny bit of top-end chime on their guitars when shielded. As for cost, well, you know the standard business model - find that price point, and sell it.

As for tone, I grant that people trust their ears and do hear a slight difference. To some people, a slight difference is huge. Eric Johnson makes statements about what battery brand he puts in his guitar effects (and note that he thinks the batteries sound better when they are "worn in" a bit). I would hate to be that guy's guitar tech. He's the type of player that is amazingly brilliant when playing, and has no clue what he is talking about when he is not playing. (I like the guy, and his music, but he claims that a different electrical cord powering his amps will have an effect on his tone --> audiophool!).

From this angle, you can see that I shielded the control cavity, and the neck and middle pickup cavities. You can't see this, but underneath the bridge is another cavity that is totally shielded. I bought a roll of copper foil from StewMac and took my time to not have too many pieces, or creases, in my shielding. For one reason, I don't want this to look like garbage, even though anyone would rarely even see this part of the guitar. The second reason is that the edges of the foil will be soldered to make sure that there is complete continuity in the ground here. Basically, I want to make sure that there is little resistance across any point in this grounding scheme (as close to 0-ohms as possible). If there is a gap, or not a good connection between two pieces of foil, then you could create a separate potential for voltage. In short, you just created a ground loop! It would sound as bad, or worse, than if you hadn't messed with it at all.

In this shot you can see the soldered edges a little better. Soldering has a second advantage as well. Heating up the copper foil to make a good connection also makes the adhesive back hold a little more, since it is kind of cool this time of year in my workshop. Note, following GuitarNuts's advice, the shielding of the cavities lips over the edge. This is because a big strip of shielding will be placed on the underside of the pickup cover and will encapsulate all of this as one connection. You can also barely see that there is a small bit of shielding from the control cavity that comes up just shy of the screw hole. That will connect the shielding to the metal control plate and have everything shielded as much as possible.

Some notes on this build that I don't have pictures of:

I did not show this, but I have already mounted the neck and middle pickups to the body of this guitar for fit. This is not easy, because the placement of the neck pickup is determined by the hole in the pickguard. Some pickups are mounted to the pickguard (easy) and some to the body (harder). I want mine mounted to the body because it looks cleaner (less holes in the pickguard) and it allows the pickguard to come off to adjust the pickup height and the neck's truss rod.
I took a bit of time cutting the middle pickup hole in the pickguard. I did not photo-document this process at all. Basically, with the pickups set in the body, it was a matter of laying the pickguard on the body and pickups repeatedly, and filing the hole for this middle pickup. The result is such a good job that many may not believe I did it. I guess that is the effect I was going for...
Okay, now is the time that I need come clean about these pickups. I chickened out on the single-coil hum. If you buy an American Deluxe Telecaster or Stratocaster, they will come with some Fender SCN noiseless pickups. This is done by stacking pickups up, and using rare-earth magnets (samarian cobolt). Some people complain that these are not true single-coils and that they don't sound like single-coils. Well, I went another route, and chose Seymour Duncan vintage stack pickups for the neck and bridge, and a Strat classic stack pickup for the middle. In short, stacked means a hybrid humbucking pickup, stacked on top of each other to get characteristics of single-coil pickups. A tone hound will be able to tell that these are not true single-coil pickups.
Tone-hounds who love single coils often state that the hum doesn't matter as soon as the song starts. Well, I agree with that, but the hum bugs me so much the rest of the time. Besides, I counter that statement that your pure guitar sound will be lost in the mix once you play with other instruments, and your amplifier is mic'ed through the PA system. So, I chose noiseless, get over it.

--gh

Haddo-caster 3.0 - Routing!

2007-03-19T10:59:00.000-05:00

If routing and cutting into hundreds of dollars worth of guitar makes you queezy, then read no more. The next step involves some minor modifications to the body of the guitar, and the neck.

First, the neck. The neck pocket of this American Deluxe telectaster body has a neck angle adjustment called microtilt. There is a small hole in the neck plate that gives access to a hex screw that is mounted through the neck pocket with a simple t-nut. However, the 1952 re-issue neck that I am using does not have this feature, and screwing that hex bolt up would just damage the wood on the neck, and possibly crack it since maple is so hard.

I walked all over the hardware store yesterday looking for something that I could mount to the neck that would make contact with the microtilt screw. I found these simple electrical plugs that are about 3/4" in diameter. It is meant to screw into a hole in some kind of electrical panel, and was actually too tall. I ground down the underside of one of these plugs on my bench grinder and came up with a little thread that could grip a 3/4" hole. I like this picture, it shows several elements in my shop. Note the Seymour Duncan pickup logo in the back, the roll of copper foil on the left (for shielding), and the 1-lb Kester 66/44 solder. Man, thanks to RoHS, that stuff may be outlawed some day. Gotta stock up on it. Oh, and this is all sitting on one of those Stewart-McDonald guitar mats. That thing has come in handy.

You would think that cutting into a $400 neck with a forstner bit would be terrifying. Well, maybe I have the stomach for it, because it really didn't bother me. Note that I took this picture with one hand holding the camera, and the other holding the neck, with the drill press turned on. I am using a tee-shirt to "protect" the neck. The hole here is offset from the location of the microtilt hole. That is because I want a flat surface to make that connection, without fear of the groove on my metal plug. First, I drilled a 1" hole about 3/32" deep. Then, I drilled out a deeper hole with a 3/4" forstner bit. The next picture will show why I needed to drill two holes.

Here you can see the finished product. I now have a metal receiving surface for the microtilt bolt to screw up against. I was able to turn the screw 3/4 of a turn, so the threads locked into this rock hard maple. Dang, that stuff is tough! I was almost afraid of splitting it with just the little bit of pressure I was applying to get this plug's threads screwed in. I don't know how I got it to line up so perfectly. I decided not to back it out and apply carpenter's glue because it seemed sturdy enough, and I didn't think I would ever get it looking this good again! Note that I didn't really need a 1" hole to receive the minor "lip" of this plug. But, I did not have a 13/16th bit, and didn't feel like modifying (ruining) a spade bit to make this cut. If this was an exposed item, I would have ground the point off of an exactly sized spade bit, though. But, remember, this will always be hidden in the neck pocket.

Here you can see that we are almost on the two-year birthday of this neck. The date, stamped in two places, says "April 5, 2005." (The body is 2006, and a different model - that's why this is called a partscaster, but my parts are all Fender parts.) Also note the workman's name stamped here. "F. Perez" should be proud, this neck is beautiful. It is as close to one-piece quarter-sawn as an American neck can get. But wait, wouldn't the name indicate that this neck was made in the Mexican factory in Ensenada? Well, no. The American factory in Corona, California has many Mexican-American tradesmen working there.

The next modification was not as scary. I needed to remove some more wood from the control cavity of this guitar. This could have been done with a router, but I went ahead and used the 1" forstner bit shown here to deepen the cavity along the whole portion to the same depth. I need to deepen the back part of the cavity beause I will reverse the controls from the standard method and have the pickup selector switch in the back, and not the front. I want to do this modification because I sometimes accidentally hit the switch when playing on Stratocasters and Telecasters. It drives me nuts! On many guitars, the cavity is not deep enough along the whole distance, though, so you can't just swap things around without this mod.

Here's what the bit looks like down in the cavity. I just cut about 20 times to create the same effect as a router. I would say that the slot is about 1-1/16th" so the 1-inch bit fit very well in there. All I needed to do was to clean up the sides with a chisel and then that's it. Hey, note that I didn't bother to take the bridge and pickup off when I did this. If this was someone else's guitar, I would take more care of stuff like this. But, a little flying wood chips never hurt anyone.

The last body modification (I think) was to carve out this slice of heaven right here. The screw at the end of the neck is to adjust the truss rod. This is not something that really has to be done that often. But taking the neck off of the guitar to do it is too much, I think. To access this, all I would need to do is remove the pickguard. I should have shown the process of cutting that pickguard. It came with one hole routed for the neck pickup, and I needed to add the middle pickup hole. I did not see too many hints on this out there in the web, so I improvised. I drilled a small hole over the middle pickup, then I enlarged it with files until it was pickup sized. It almost looks professional, I can't believe it. However, it took an hour, which is probably why I did not take any pictures - it was such a pain!

The next time you see these cavities, it will be with copper foil in them, for shielding.

--gh

Haddo-caster 2.0

2007-02-22T20:41:00.000-06:00

Got some more parts to talk about. Today I got the neck in the mail. It came in a mailer that I might send a map in. It is in perfect condition, I am pretty excited. This is not the neck that would normally go with an American Deluxe guitar. It actually came from a 2005 '52 reissue model. Those are pricey as well. I like that it is 21-frets, black clay dots, and that vintage tint. Okay, the vintage tint is a big thing for me, the American Deluxe necks are awesome, with abalone inlays, and 22-frets. (But they are so pale, almost pastey.)

Okay, I have to admit that I was worried about ending up with the same model neck and body. Maybe some day I will get a '52 reissue body and put an American Deluxe neck on it. So, now I have a 2006 body, 2005 neck, and 2007 bridge. It's a real partscaster!

I have some work to do on the neck. First, the bolt holes of the different bodies don't line up. The fourth hole is offset, because the American Deluxe body has a carved heel, and a special neck plate. The bolt that is sticking up marks the new location, so this is a one-minute job. There is another tiny hole in that neck plate, if you look close enough. It is for a modern feature called microtilt that adjusts the neck angle. It needs a metal receiving plate in the base of the neck. So, should I route out a little circle and glue a nickle on there or something? The old way was to shim the neck with a piece of wood, or a business card. Idunno, we'll see.

The look is great. I have a Fender tweed case which I have always liked the looks of. I sure hope I like the way this thing sounds, because it will look great. Here you can see the 3-barrel bridge from Glendale - it is compensated so it will be intonated well. The newer bridges have six adjustable saddles for each string. I like that as well, but the look of the older bridge is too cool not to try. There is some mojo in there as well, I think - but I am not too good at determining that. I should also mention that I will mount the neck and middle pickups right on the body, so the pickguard will drop right in. Due to the 21-fret neck, I won't have to do anything else to move the pickguard.

So, here are some goodies close up. The neck pickup will be the standard metal covered small style that Telecasters are known for. The bridge pickup is pretty standard as well. The middle pickup is a real Stratocaster middle pickup, which I hope blends well. The neck and bridge are Seymour Duncan Vintage stack models, and the middle pickup is a Seymour Dncan Strat Classic stack. The stack is a fancy small humbucker pickup, stacked on top of itself, for a noise-free sound.

I think I wished that the bridge was polished and shiny. But, it is a satin finished stainless steel. When I was looking at a black painted neck, I considered sending this to a jeweler to gold plate! It's funny all the thought processes I go through. Instead, I ordered a brushed stainless steel control plate to somewhat match the bridge. I hope that works.

On deck is the tuners, controls, output jack, and pickguard.

--gh

Popular name?

2007-02-15T10:39:00.000-06:00

No wonder I am so easy to google...

HowManyOfMe.com

There are:
15
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

--gh

The Haddo-caster one-point-oh

2007-02-08T20:47:00.000-06:00

Here begins my next project. I have always liked the clean straightforward looks of the Fender Telecaster. A few weeks ago, I scored this on eBay! It is the body of a 2006 American Deluxe model. The body is made of alder, and it has a nice sunburst finish on it. There is not one scratch on it. Notice that Fender routes out a middle pickup cavity - I will be putting a Stratocaster middle pickup in there. In Tele-land, that is considered the "Nashville mod."

I will order some copper shielding tape and line all of those cavities before I start putting pickups in there. Not that I have any pickups, or a bridge, or control plate, or controls, or a neck, tuners...

Okay, I almost had a bridge, here's a picture I took this morning. Glendale makes some fine parts (since I had a few brief moments to inspect the craftsmanship). However, the part I accidentally ordered was for a more vintage layout, and I needed something for the standard American layout. Duh. I had to learn a big lesson on my second part! Well, luckily Dale Clark is more than a solid artisan, he is also a fair businessman.

The part is on the way back to be exchanged, and he'll probably have me set up with the right sized part by the end of next week. I'll probably have a picture of that on the body in a week or so. Note that I went with the vintage look, three brass saddles. Note that these saddles are "compensated." They are built with an angle so the intonation can be a much more accurate.

--gh

...an old email - I changed the Names to I.N.I.T.I.A.L.S.

2007-01-19T21:39:00.000-06:00

From: G.H.
To: M.F, C.J., J.F., M.A., B.W., J.M.
Date: Feb 23 2001 - 10:36am

In the grand tradition of my disturbing but true stories: Oh Man, this morning was BAD. Terra got away from A. and was gone for a few hours. When she came back she was covered with crap and stunk like crazy. She proceeded to go upstairs and then vomit what looked like a mixture of burnt hamburger, cat poop, and oatmeal. My stomach is getting kind of churny just thinking about it. It gets worse now. In order to clean this stuff up, I had to grab some bread bag and a metal serving spoon and scoop the mess into the bag. It stunk so bad and looked like someone threw up and then took a crap in the mess. The foaming saliva formed these long strands as I was spooning it into the bag and then I JUST LOST IT. I started to vomit myself. I am not talking about a regular "I can taste the bile in my throat" type of vomiting. I am talking about nearly violent projectile vomiting. I did not make it to the toilet in time, so I now had even MORE to clean up. Also, I had just finished my breakfast of eggs, so it was a real mess. I went back to cleaning up the mess and started to vomit again, this time I was smart and vomited into the same bread bag that I was scooping Terra's vomit into, so I guess the worst of our essences are now mixed. Eventually, I was able to clean up her mess and MY mess and get it downstairs. The bread bag was tossed into the center of my front lawn, not without one splat hitting the corner of the front porch. Then I went to go clean up THE SPOON. I had no idea how to get the bulk of the mess off of it, so I stuck it into the toilet to swish most of it off. And then, you guessed it, I lost it all over again. Luckily, this time I was next to the toilet so I did not make a mess again. Eventually I got that spoon cleaned off for a future table setting. (I think it was the same spoon that we served Cherry Cobbler to M.A. last week.) In all, I must have vomited at least four times, but I think it felt like five. I am still feeling a little woozy. After nearly 10 years of kids, and four years of dogs, I have no idea what happened to me. I used to think I had a strong stomach.

Incidentally, I am overhearing a student talking to T.G. about the possibility of the Missouri Academy of Science meeting interfering with his viewing of the show "Survivor." It actually seemed like a genuine concern to him. I think that is going to make me puke.

--gh

...and this is why

2007-01-13T21:01:00.000-06:00

You should NOT do drugs, Acid trip.

--gh

Is Duh-dar a word? It should be. Duhdar!

2006-12-01T22:29:00.000-06:00

In an email to M, I was trying to think of a word for the ability to detect stupidity. I can see that Dumbdar is in pretty good use. But, for some reason I don't care for it.

How about "Duh," rather than dumb? I give you --> Duhdar

So, I think I have a really well-developed duhdar. But recently I was talking with Amy about someone that I only just realized was dense. This person has an interesting personality that could be described as insincere and abrasive. This might be cynical, but I usually associate those types of personality traits with smarter people.

Honestly, most of my dumber acquaintences are less sophisticated, but usually affable. So, if you want to fly under my duhdar, just act impertinent, impudent, and impetuous. (Actually, I think those are mostly synonyms, but if you are on my duhdar, you don't know that.)

--gh

...when I was a kid.

2006-11-25T10:55:00.000-06:00

I am middle aged, quickly approaching the top of the hill in 18 months. After that, I will be "over the hill" and be able to spout off tidbits of wisdom about my experience that know one cares about. So, I will describe some of the things that were different "when I was a kid."

Number one, as I tell my IntroGeog class, there was broken glass every where. Bits of glass from discarded bottles were strewn across our gutters, streets, creeks, and even the beach. I loved finding bits of colored glass worn down by the seashore. Each summer I would get at least one bad cut on a bare foot from broken glass.

Next, I am absolutely sure that there were a lot more bees when I was little. I would usually get stung 2-3 times each year! I can't remember the last time I heard someone talk about being stung by a honeybee. Something is wrong with the bees.

Finally, and I am not kidding, there used to be a lot more white dog poo. As a kid, I was fascinated by the process of how a dog mird changes into a crumbly white substance. Due to its ubiquitous nature, we even had a word for it: PURVY. (There is no "e" in that word.) My cousin Bradly told me that the Egyptians used it to make the blocks of the great pyramids to stick together. When I was a kid, there was purvy in every yard. I can't remember the last time I saw purvy...

--gh

By request

2006-11-21T17:49:00.000-06:00

There was a request to put the Multicultural Revolution on a shirt, so here is one for the ladies...

...and one for the dudes.

--gh

Phases

2006-11-11T12:21:00.000-06:00

One of the things I like about the Fender Stratocaster is when the pickups are out of phase in positions 2 and 4. This hollowed out nasal sound sounds good clean and dirty. This is an electrical change by switching the leads. But if you switch the leads on a PAF-style humbucking pickup, you will make the cover hot, and add a lot of noise. Kind of defeats the whole humbucking point.

The closest that you can get to that sound is to take one pickup apart and flip the magnet around. No need to post pictures, you can read all about that process here. Also, no need to try and record what this sounds like, because you can see a demonstration here.

What I am hearing is very similar to what he has. The slight difference could be his 1965 BFDR! Man, I could be jealous of that amp. Thinking positively, since those designs are in the public domain now, I think I will just build one.

This pickup modification is usually called the Peter Green mod. Peter Green was in the original Fleetwood Mac lineup, you know, when they were a real rock band. The modification is partly apocryphal, did he just flip the neck pickup, or did he flip the magnet in the pickup. Was this deliberate, or a serendipitous accident? Since he went on an LSD trip and failed to return fully, the world may never know. Oh, but subsequent analysis of his guitar proved that the magnet was indeed reversed...

--gh

HNB 10.0 The final product

2006-10-28T20:16:00.000-05:00

Finally, I am about 99% done with this build. I still need to protect the corners will metal covers. They will be black. This was a lot of fun to put together because I sourced none of the work out. In contrast, on my first amp the chassis was punched and drilled and the turret board was drilled and loaded with eyelets. Bought as a "kit" meant that all of the components were purchased together. Here, I had to use 3 different online sources.

This works well as an open back cabinet. The speaker is an Eminence Copperhead which has a very clear sound and is very efficient (99db sensitivity, I think). For one speaker, this little 10" really cranks. Considering the amp is only 5 watts, it amazes me how loud this thing gets. It is too loud for home use if you crank it up all the way. If I lived in an apartment, the neighbors would be complaining.

The light on my first amp is a bluish purple. I got to choose this one, so I came up with a goldish yellowy brown color. The first time that little lamp glows is a major victory. It glows when you turn on the power switch. The next switch is standby, which heats the tubes but gives no power (B+) to the rest of the circuit. The last switch is called "MUTE" but it really just makes the high gain setting work at lower volumes. Maybe I should have labeled that something different. At least it wasn't a mispelling!

The heavy inked area for the name of this amp looks cracked from a certain angle. Straight on it seems fine, though. There are minor imperfections all over this build - in the wood work, the lettering, and of course the finish (I am heavy handed at spray paint and lacquer). However, it is 100% my own work, and sounds absolutely amazing. Family members have sent checks to offset my costs, do this will be a family gift to my father-in-law.

The tone controls are actually very responsive. The thing really sings if you leave them full on, but turning down the treble, mids, and bass help balance the sound for the different guitar setup. My favorite clean sound is with the GAIN setting on 3, and the master VOLUME on 6-7. With my Les Paul, I can get some nice jazz like sounds. I would love to hear a real archtop through it, though. Because it is a low-power amp, you can get some great distortion at a sound pressure that doesn't split your ears. I don't think I ever need to go above 20-30 watts in this lifetime. (In case this stuff is new to you, a 50watt amp would be twice as loud as a 5watt amp.)

I may post one or more times about this build, maybe showing the corners and stuff. But for now, we can pretty much consider it done. Aww, look at it.

--gh

HNB 9.0 Final soldering

2006-10-28T19:37:00.000-05:00

Here is the amp nearly done, from the front. As mentioned earlier, this would be the time that I would debug the amp for possible problems. Well, on this build I had no appreciable B+ voltage, even though the rectifier was working fine. Those silly electrolytic capacitors were all in there backward. Usually the marking is very clear as to which side is negative. The black stripe with no arrow wasn't helpful for me. I wrongfully guessed that the black stripe corresponded with the black end cap, marking that as negative. Duh, that black cover was on the crimped side, and usually it is there to insulate it from the casing. The casing is usually grounded, and the negative side is silvery. Well, it could have been worse for debugging, and luckily I did not destroy these four capacitors ($2.50 each!).

Here you can see that I sketched a part of the schematic on the back of the amp. It is the preamp stage. I wrote that this was "BlackLine Amp Serial Number: 00002," except that I mispelled it "BlachLine." Oh well. Look in the back of the workbench, I installed a permanent 1/4" audio jack for my amp building projects. It is connected to a speaker only for this purpose.

...and that speaker is mounted to the ceiling of my workshop! This is a nice 12" speaker from an old Dean Markley amp from the 1980s. I can sort of use it for some hi-fi stuff as well for basic debugging. The sound is weird coming from the ceiling! Behind that you can see the workshop clock mounted on my little data closet. Inside that small room is the nerve center for all the phone, cable, satellite, and ethernet connections.

--gh

HNB 8.0 Loading the turret board

2006-10-28T19:11:00.000-05:00

I love absolutely every stage of building this amp. I began a few months back by drilling holes and mounting turrets in this fiberglass board (called garolite). Now I finally get to load some of the electrical components like these electrolytic capacitors. If there was a stage of building that I was apprehensive about, it would probably be the debugging stage. (That's when I found out that I mounted all of these power filtering capacitors reversed!) The little red handled doohickey is used as a heat sink. When soldering capacitors and diodes, you clamp this on the leads to absorb the heat. Resistors can handle a lot of thermal abuse, so I might skip using the heat sink on that. Sometimes I use a hemastat that I have laying around, but that sort of makes me feel like a stoner.

Here is the turret board fully loaded. I could only solder about half of the turrets because some of the wires from the tone and volume controls or the tube sockets will also connect to this board. In this picture you can see my Weller soldering station. It is not the fanciest, but it is a big improvement over soldering with one of those cheap irons. In the back you can see the wire that I used for 80% of this build. It is 22 gauge solid core. It is fairly skinny stuff, and very easy to work with. The last time I used 18 gauge stranded and it got sort of messy.

Actually, it was messy because I used eyelets, and not turrets. Also, I made the mistake of soldering everything 100% on. After putting it in the chassis, I had to desolder about 20 connections to hook up the wire. Being thicker and stranded it got messy fast. Solid core wire stays, which makes debugging hums and squeals nice. If you move it too much, it could break on the inside (almost impossible to find at first) which is why stranded has its advantages. I still used the 18-gauge stranded wire for the primary electrical connection to the power transformer, and for the heater circuit (higher current that actually makes the tubes glow). But the 22 gauge stuff was really a pleasure to work with.

--gh

HNB 7.0 - Mounting stuff on

2006-10-21T13:53:00.000-05:00

I couldn't wait to mount those components. Most of these things will stay on the chassis, and I will solder and wire them up in place. The only thing I think I will remove to wire up is the input jack - but I couldn't get a feel for how this thing will look without that in there! In this image you can see the thread lock fluid that I use for all of the bolts. It tastes sweet, really sweet - like in a saccharine sort of way. When I monitored weather stations on the side of mountains in Montana, I used to taste the propylene glycol when I was bored. (We used that as an environmentally friendly antifreeze.) I eventually know what most hobbies that I work on taste like.

From the outside, the thing really looks done. It is all an illusion, though. I hope to be hearing something out of this within the week, though. The transformers will hang down from the chassis, so that is why everything looks upside down when I turn the chassis like this. For a second, after I lettered up the whole face of this thing, I thought that I had forgotten this detail and did everything upside down. I was just messing with myself - it was fine. I really wish that output transformer had some bells on it, it's a little on the ugly side.

I'll try to refrain taking whole image shots until I am really done with it. However, you can see what one little corner might look like. I knew that this would be a tight fit, but it was a little too tight. Before I painted it, I mounted threadserts so that I can screw the chassis to the cabinet. It bumps out about a quarter of a millimeter, but this was within the tolerance of my fit. Also, before painting I put some Bondo on the corners and on some rough spots. So, the chassis was tight enough that it didn't fit! I had to file out a place for the threadserts to glide on the little shelf, and use some candle wax to make it slide in and out better. I won't refinish that part, because it is never meant to be seen with the chassis properly mounted.

Here's a little view from the back. I am using Amy's new digital camera, and I don't know how to put the flash on! I know that those tubes look close to that shelf in the front, but it is over an inch away. I am not worried about heat, in case you are curious. The preamp tube (12AX7) never gets too warm, but that power tube (EL84) can cook flesh. So, I guess I am glad it is way up in there.

The next thing I will do is to solder some components to the turret board. That should be fun because I did not use turrets last time.

--gh

HNB 6.0 - Lettering the Chassis

2006-10-21T09:09:00.000-05:00

Putting the markings on the chassis happens to be one of my favorite parts of building an amp. Of course, the H.N.B. amp is serial number 00002 (heh), so what do I know. To bring everyone up to speed, I am using rapidograph technical drawing pens, Leroy lettering sets, and good old-fashioned India ink. The chassis has been primed and then painted with a flat white canvas for me to work on.

The flat paint is key, if it was too slick (satin, medium glossy), then the pens wouldn't work right on the surface. It feels like a decent polyester film sheet (what you might call Mylar if you worked for DuPont, and you might call it "polyethylene terephthalate polyester film" if you were in my Introduction to Geography class). Here you can see that I am using a stool as a work surface, and a blank of 2" oak to clamp the chassis to. This gives me a little table to work on, so that the lettering system has a stable place to move across.

I will let you in on a little secret, for the whole words and sentences, I am using a CADLiner 950 autoscriber. This makes things move much faster. However, with 20 years of manual cartographic and cadastral mapping experience, I can do it all with a Leroy set if that was all I had available. Having said this, I do have to use the manual Leroy set for the numbers on the dial. Basically, the first thing I do is cut a template out of a piece of card-stock. The general shape is a dodecagon, or 12-sided polygon. A potentiometer usually sweeps 300 degrees, so I only use 10 vertices. You can barely make out the pencil line on the face of the front here. I need to see the thing, but I also have to erase it later.

What? Did I really just write erase? Yes, believe it or not, this is the magic of 100% India ink. India ink is a very old technology, but basically it draws on the surface rather than dyeing or coloring the surface. The black carbon sort of sits on top of the surface, and all you need is a nylon eraser and some spit to remove it. If you have ink laid out, and need to erase pencil marks around it, just go lightly and use no moisture at all. This is a very flexible process, even though drawing ink on top of paint sounds more permanent. (This is why I use lacquer at the end, it has to be sealed in.) In this photo, you can see I am laying out the "fives." From this angle, it just looks like I have mad skills for laying things out. Just remember that there is a polygon drawn lightly in pencil, and I am laying the numbers out on 10 little vertex locations based on a template that I created in Adobe Illustrator. You can probably see that template in the lower left of this photo. Note that I have used this before, you can see how I drew Mr. French on my last build (in 3-4 stages).

In this photo you can see the eraser under my right wrist, and a mechnical pencil under my left. Also, note the card stock template. The template shows me where to put the intersection of the "four" as it lines up with the vertex of the polygon. They all may be off up to a millimeter or so, but it still comes off as passable. Here I have drawn out almost all of the numbers. It might seem frightening, but I have to go in and erase the little pencil marks around the numbers before I am done. You can never tell that some of these numbers were erased and re-drawn. In fact, with 5 controls, I have 50 numbers to place on those dials - and I probably messed up about 5 of them. As long as I am careful about erasing it, you won't see it was ever "moved."

I am almost done with the lettering here. The last thing I did was draw out my father-in-law's initials, just like he signs them. There is a lot of "writing" on this amp, and I even included a hand-drawn partial schematic on the back (just filling in space). You will probably see that later, I hope that was a good idea. Next comes the scary part. To lock everything in, I have to put a clear-coat of lacquer on the surface. But, I also know that moisture is used to erase the ink off of the surface. The first time I did this, I imagined spending a half-hour drawing ink on the chassis, and then watching it melt right off when I spray-painted the wet lacquer over it.

Luckily, the lacquer seems to have the opposite effect. Instead of messing up the lettering, it actually darkens it slightly! If I like the way it looks after applying the ink, then it will look twice as good with the finish coat. I think the lacquer is slightly mixing with the shellac that is found in India ink, and it really brings out the contrast between the white background and black letters.

This leaves me with a final product that looks completely original, completely customized, and somewhat professional-ish. The standard "Arial" font that is used in cadastral mapping comes out well for these projects. When I look at it, it just screams to have dimensions, parcel numbers, and acreage calculations on it. One of these days I will create a "Cadastral Mapping" themed amp with north arrows, roads, blocks, lots, etc. That may be a little project that will sit in my office because the next amp I need to build is one that I will play weekly at church. It will not be based on the same schematic as these two, either. I want something like a Fender reverb sound for that.

However, I need to finish my father-in-law's Christmas present. The next step is to wire up the turret board. After that, I will mount the components (transformers, tube sockets, input jacks, potentiometers) on the chassis. Then, all that is needed is the final wiring. All will end with testing, trouble-shooting, and sound checks.

--gh

Astronomy Schashtronomy

2006-10-15T08:44:00.000-05:00

I think I figured out why I don't really care about astronomy. In my family you cannot suggest an axiom or a rule without three reasons, so I guess I will present three reasons why I don't like astronomy. By the way, I will not split hairs with the field of astronomy. Since I know so little, I claim the author's prerogative to lump into astronomy everything from astrophysics, cosmology, quantum physics, etc.

First, astronomers just don't know squat about our universe. I am officially assigning the technical definition of "squat" as 10^-9. Astronomy is arguably the oldest accept discipline, and yet they only know one billionth about what goes on outside our world. Oh, and I don't want to hear anything about early astronomy being astrology either. It was an accepted lifestyle for a chosen few to sit out all night somewhere in the Arabian desert and try to understand the movement of those points of light. They may have assigned mystical principles guiding them, but they were still trying to figure out the cycles and patterns of the sun, moon, planets, stars, and occasional comet.

Some try to dismiss early "astronomy" because of it's superstitious roots. In the same breath they may mention how well the ancients could accurately predict solar and lunar eclipses and comets that skip a few generations. Well, you can't have that both ways - it was all a form of astronomy, regardless of the motivation. It took about 2,000 years to predict the patterns of the planets accurately, and then another 1,500 to explain why and how it works. So, astronomy will interest me more when the knowledge rate gets up to a respectable percentage, like 10%. (I think Physics and Chemistry are there. Biology is probably at 5%, and Geology may have reached 20-30%.)

The second reason for disassociating myself from an interest in astronomy is equally unfair. Basically, because astronomers know so little about the universe, theories just seem to come and go like fashion styles. It does not matter how silly it sounds (the universe is made up of little strings right now) - astronomers will defend the currently accepted and applied theories as if they had a total lock on the knowledge. If you don't like String Theory, just wait a few decades and the astronomers will catch up with you. In fact, we really don't even know why gravity works. We know how it works, thanks to a few principles outlined by Newton, Kepler, and others, most of the universe seems to follow along nicely (unless a black hole is involved, which somehow bends or writes its own rules). I do respect that astronomers usually admit when they are wrong (S. Hawking's losing a famous bet recently comes to mind), but their dignity and respect are preserved because the general public does not know the difference between the dismissed theory and its successor.

So, with a few of those bricks soundly planted in the cathedral of knowledge regarding gravity, astronomers are at a loss to explain what keeps the galaxy together. The galaxy should be denser or something, so someone invents dark matter that must be out there throwing the scales off, but keeping things together. I cry foul, but this is a seemingly accepted practice in astronomy. Imagine a molecular biologist trying to explain genetic mutation thus: 'Genes in a cell mutate on a slow but almost predictable rate. Nearly 99.99999% of the time, the Doosies and the Launchies say "NO" to mutation. However, once every 100,000 cell divisions, the Doosies and the Launchies say "YES" and the genes mutate.'

Third, and finally, I dislike the field because of our fixed perspective. Now, I admit that this is totally unfair, but astronomy will be more interesting when we can see the universe, or even our galaxy, from a different location. Imagine that we are in a cell of a human body, somewhere around the elbow. It takes a while to recognize that there are other cells, and then a theory comes along to suggest that we are on the wing of a collective "body" of cells. Later, someone notices that if we look outside of our "body," we can even see other human bodies walking around. Every picture of the human body is seen through a perspective of looking along the arm and around organs in the chest cavity, etc. You can see how difficult it is for astronomers, and they have done a phenomenal job with what they have. But, give them a spaceship that travels at hyper-light speeds and give us a picture of our galaxy from another angle! We think we know what parts of our galaxy look like, but they are ALL from a tiny point.

As you can see, my objections are really not fair. I don't begrudge astronomers and their currently published theories mostly because they know they have very little of the knowledge down. An astronomer who claims to know how the universe works is probably a shaman, and not an astronomer at all.

My last observation did not need to make my "three reasons" clause, but may be worth noting. Something that really tickles me about this field is the divergent mix of both left- and right-brained people. Maybe the right-brainers are held captive by the limited knowledge and react by calling items "red giants" and "white dwarfs." The left-brain inventory of astronomical designations like M275 and NGC2863 causes the right-brain brethren in the field to suggest names like "horse-head nebula" and "running man nebula." Oh, and then we had that whole "eye of god" image that went around the web a few years back - but I will not blame this on astronomy.

--gh

HNB 5.0 Chassis Painting

2006-10-14T17:01:00.000-05:00

Well, over a month ago, I said that I would attend to painting and designing the chassis. I changed gears and designed/built the cabinet first. I only needed to add a few more holes before I put a coat or two of primer on.

I counted 46 holes that I drilled in this chassis! Every control, switch, wire, or bolt that mounts to and through this thing has it's own hole. This amp is about as simple as it gets, so you can see how complicated the whole process gets. After primer, I applied white paint. I am using non-fancy spray paint from the hardware store, or maybe even Wal-Mart. The white layer is actually a flat finish, not satin or glossy. I think I will put another coat of flat white on just to make sure I have good coverage.

The next stage will be to mount the white chassis onto a huge plank of oak to create a drawing surface. I will use some of my old-school cartography skills (and tools) to layout the faceplate design on the chassis. This will use technical drawing pens and regular old-fashioned India ink. Then, I will put a clear coat of lacquer to lock in that design and make it shiny. It should work out well, but - I am getting nervous again. Well, it worked out okay last time.

--gh

Name 25 Cities of the USA

2006-10-10T22:39:00.000-05:00

Heh, when I first saw the 25 Cities of the USA, I misread the directions. I didn't push the start button, I just went and mentally named all of the cities. So, I guess I cheated a little - but I knew where each city was.

Got it in less than a minute, luckily.

--gh

Stuff that we learn

2006-10-08T13:45:00.000-05:00

Okay, I have experienced theThe Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon personally, and am waiting to have it occur regarding my knowledge of that occurrence. (I guess Baader-Meinhof is usually recursive in nature.) Basically, when you learn a word, phrase, or piece of knowledge for the first time - you are destined to have it come up again within a day or so. That is the essence of Baader-Meinhof.

So, you will probably experience the word "Baader-Meinhoff" in the next week. If this is happening more often - perhaps the Internet is really to blame. I mean, I read about this from a link from Digg. Within a day or so, it will be copy-catted on Fark. Eventually, SomethingCool (does that even exist?) will link it - and eventually someone else will bring it up.

Not that it is bad - I think it is an interesting phenomenon - and will try to remember it. File that next to Godwin's Law...

--gh

N.B. I found out how hard it was to type an apostrophe in HTML. Basically, you have to type "'" to get it to look right. Of course, can you imagine what I had to type to make the code in the last sentence work? This N.B. is to state that apostrophes should be avoided in web addresses...

HNB 4.4 Assemble, Glue, Sand, Stain...

2006-10-04T09:17:00.000-05:00

With all of the cabinetry cut and assembled, it is now time to apply the glue. You may see a little blue painting tape hanging off the edge - I put that on to collect the excess glue, because removing it after it dries can be difficult in inside corners. I use a bunch of clamps while the Elmer's glue (carpentry glue) is drying. Elmer's works just fine, no need for weird and fancy polyurethane foamy glues (very messy). I have to trust that the joints (dovetail, dado, and mortise&tenon) will hold with the glue only.

With the dovetail joint making router template that I have, a little bit of sanding is needed to knock down the edge. This is fine, because the end result looks very tight. If there is a gap, I will fill it with some wood filler - but very little of this is needed. The Keller dovetail system is a good solution. Also, I will round over the edges fully, making it look pretty amazing, actually.

I cannot remember the name of the stain, but my son picked it out. My first amp was light in color, and he wanted to see something darker. I think it is called "early american" from MinWax, possibly. I only applied one coat of stain, because the poplar was sucking it up pretty well. Oh, I also use some wood conditioner (MinWax) as well, because it makes it more even reception of this stain. This is important for the end of the grain which is seen in the dovetails. A little light-dark-light is okay, but I don't want too much contrast.

Okay, see how the speaker grille cloth really tightens up the look! This is the first time I have dealt with this material. It is acoustic grille cloth, and is meant to protect the speaker, hide the front, and permit sound to pass through. Looks dang tight is what I say.

I put a board across the bottom of the back to keep a foot from kicking out the back of the speaker. You may be tempted to say I am breaking my rule about not using fasteners, because there are two obvious screws holding this in. However, this needs to be removable, in case the speaker needs replacing or something. Yes, it probably makes the cabinet a little stronger, but it would have been fine without it. Technically, if you remove it to take out the speaker, then I am confident that the amp won't fall apart.

The speakers are mounted from the back. The baffle has t-nuts on the front, and the screws go right through and mount this. This means that you don't have to take the grille off the front to mess with the speaker. Of course, we hope that this never needs to be messed with anyhow - but I want this to be as close to a professional job as possible.

Here you can see how the dovetail joint looks rounded over. This is with two coats of clear polyurethane finish, so it is nice and shiny. I must have pushed that chassis in and out of the cabinet one hundred times during this build, because it was going to be a nice and tight fit. Here I can see that it will all pay off. I put rubber feet on the bottom, mounted the speaker, and put a handle on the top. I am very tempted to put metal corner protectors on this. I have some, but they will need modification. Of course, it looks awesome without it. But, the corners are the most vulnerable with this cabinet, and it is meant to be portable. Because I rounded the edges, there are some parts of the dovetail that are a 1/4" which might just pop right off (?) if it is struck to hard against a door, or car, or whatever.

So, now I need to get back to the electronics of this thing. There are a few more holes to drill in the chassis, and then it needs to be painted (and designed!). Then, there is the soldering, then testing.

--gh

HNB 4.3 Chassis shelf

2006-10-04T08:33:00.000-05:00

With the dovetails routed out, now I need to build a shelf to hold the amp chassis. Here you can see my thumb holding the chassis inside the empty shell that will become the combo amp. My desire is to build a cabinet that is structurally solid without fasteners. Building a shelf right in will make it very solid.

In furniture-land, I think this would be called a mortise and tenon joint. I do not think I have an interest in building furniture - but I can really get into the allure that it holds. Of course, I would be the type of hobbyist that uses a router to do such things, since my real hero is Norm Abrams (and not Roy Underhill). Now you can see how integrating dovetails, mortise/tenon, and dado joints makes a strong structure for such a small little box.

I like this picture, it really shows how rough my carpentry skills are. Note that the front of the cabinet does not really line up on the corners. The funny thing is that some 60-grit sandpaper will clean that right up. I have been told by more hardcore enthusiasts that sandpaper should never really touch fine furniture. Well, luckily a guitar amp could not be considered "fine." Anyhow, here you can see how the shelf will hold the chassis.

Okay, maybe building some furniture would be fun. Here is my combo amp serving as an end table with a drawer! I will actually need to cut a bit of the shelf out, though, because some components of the amp (important stuff like transformers and tubes!) will hang down. That is what the picture below shows.

Luckily, I remembered to cut a dado joint near the front of the shelf to receive the speaker baffle. It would have been harder because the cut on the dado into such a delicate piece later. Here you can see the backside of the cabinet starting to look like my "plans." The speaker baffle is sitting within a groove (dado) cut into three of the cabinet sides, and the bottom of the shelf. The speaker baffle is just 1/2" pine plywood. This would be a no-no if I were building a larger (louder) amp because regular pine plywood has thick veneers, and possible voids within it. The real amp-makers try to use birch plywood that cabinet makers use. If I build anything louder than 5-6 watts, then I will keep that in mind.

--gh

Random thoughts

2006-09-24T21:53:00.000-05:00

So, how many blog posts begin with the title "random thoughts?" Probably more than I would like to imagine.

So, I was thinking. I have never worn a pair of cargo pants. Except for the back pockets of denim blue jeans, I own no pants that have pockets sewn on to the outside. Tomorrow I will be at an event where college students are asked to dress up. No doubt, there will be about 5-7 cargo pants in the group of 30+ guys. Shirt, tie, big weird shoes, and cargo pants. I don't think I will be getting a pair of cargo pants any time soon.

I am teaching guitar to a woman who has to drive 20 miles to this rinky-dink town. Luckily, she will do her grocery shopping after the lesson, so it groups her errands. I am surprised that there are so few guitar teachers, and players for that matter, in this part of the Midwest. I swear, in Virginia you couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting a guy offering guitar lessons.

I have to go to Jefferson City this week. I don't mind the drive, but I get tired of hotel life - I would have been a bad salesman. This trip is only once every 2 months, and for one night! I remember staying in a hotel room with my father about 4-5 years ago. He tried to watch porn. Yup, you read that right. I had to tell him that sitting in a hotel room watching porn was not something that two straight guys do. Daddy.

--gh

Last Weekend, Homeland Security, Moulage, Kansas City...

2006-09-22T20:57:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday started out strange. I assisted one of my colleages in coordinating student involvement in a Homeland Security training. Basically, student actors were asked to pretend to protest something, and this went all kinds of wrong. Part of the action play was people getting shot, which you can see being prepared here. They called it moulage, or moulaging the actors - which I am sure is just some made up word. My colleague told me that the trainees did not do so well, a few SWAT folk got "shot," even though only a few Kansas City cops and some protestors were the only ones that should have gotten "shot."

I left before things got hinky. I do not care for physical performance, it makes me feel awkward. This includes actors, clowns, circuses, rodeos. They make me feel really wrong. Add photographers to that, and street performers, and you have the septa-fecta, or whatever that would be. Surely I am freaked out by more than this. So, I left and prepared to go to an air show.

Here you can see the B2 stealth plane thing. These things may be deployed all over the world, but they take off and land in Whiteman AFB in central Missouri. This is about 70 miles from Kansas City, so it is not a big trek. Oh, except that they told us it was over the Bronx an hour or two earlier (Yankee Stadium flyover). ...and, you can see my finger also!

Taking pictures with a cheap camera phone is kind of fun. You have to hold down the "shutter" and be still for about a second. Somewhere in 1/2 to 3/4 second it will snap. This means for action shots you have to "take the picture" about a half second early. So, it is more fun and kind of like sharpshooting.

--gh

HNB 4.2 Ripped Potential

2006-09-22T17:44:00.000-05:00

I just love how the cabinet starts out as a board with so much potential. Remember that this is some 1x12 popular. I like to put dovetails on the whole width, and then rip it to the proper dimension later. This is because I don't think I could rip it and then make dovetails that would line up very well. I mark a front and back on the cabinet as a huge 12-inch deep box first. Then I disassemble it for ripping.

I really have to get a new table saw some day. Fairly has been talking up better table saws and has got me thinking. I did not do such a good job of ripping these pieces. Part of it is the table's fault, and of course some of it is mine. Well, I guess I would like it to be all my fault, with no tooling errors working against me. No worries, though, I can sand most of what does not line up anyway.

Here is a benefit of routing the dovetails and then ripping. You end up with cool looking left-overs! I have some of these from my first amp, in pine. I think I would like to route a slot near the bottom inside and put some 1/4" plywood in to make a tray. Not sure what I would put in it, but it might be good for something. If you can think of something better to do with it, please comment.

Now it is starting to look more like a combo amp! The chassis is really held in there by my hand, you can barely make out my thumb at the top of the photo. Luckily, I have enough wiggle room for some paint on the chassis, and finish on the cabinet. It is going to be so tight that it will look like I planned it that way. Yeah, that's right, I think I planned a tolerance of 1/100th inch!

--gh

HNB 4.1 dovetails!

2006-09-19T22:13:00.000-05:00

I'm a cheater, here is my router and dovetail joint jig (KELLER). Someone once suggested getting a dovetail saw just to overcut some of the cuts to make it look home-made. Well, that would be a little excessive. I am using my table saw as a work table. I think I know why some people say that they would like a real workshop when they build a house. However, I can't complain, I really can't.

Here are the top and sides, routed for the dovetail joints. This only takes about 10-15 minutes, so it is really convenient. The joints are tight enough that I will not use any screws, or corner bracing. It frightens me a little when I put the edges together. I am always afraid I will break one of the pins.

I was a little concerned about this. I cut the width of the cabinet so that I only had about 1/20th of an inch wiggle room for the chassis. Kind of a dopey thing to do, but with careful measurement and routing, this thing will fit extremely well. Add a little paint on both sides of the chassis, and some finish on the cabinet, and it will be a tight fit. The kind of tight that looks good, I hope.

The cabinet has not been ripped yet, so you are not looking at the real edge. Still, this gives you a feeling for what the final product might look like. Remember that this project will mount the chassis upside down in the cabinet. The tubes and stuff will hang down. Come to think of it, I need to make sure that the transformers and tubes do not get in the way of the speaker. This is why some combo amps have the speaker off center. Not that it would be too noticeable, with the grille cloth and all.

Here's a little preview of what things will look like some day. If it seems like the pins are a little long, that is because they will be sanded down. Once this thing is done, I will glue it up and then sand everything to make it nice and tidy. I like working with wood. I really, really, really like it.

The next step is to fit a shelf that the chassis will sit on. This is also how I will fasten the chassis, rather than screws poking up through the top. After that, I will route a channel to contain the speaker baffle. This hunk of 1/2" plywood that will hold the speaker is another reason why I can hold the thing together with glue only. I'll show you later.

--gh

Screw Mexican Sovereignty

2006-09-14T21:13:00.000-05:00

News flash, Dog the Bounty Hunter (Duane Chapman) was arrested today. I remember when that serial rapist was tracked down in Mexico (heir of Max Factor enterprise), but I had not remembered that it was Dog the Bounty Hunter who tracked down and brought this guy in. Stupid Mexican government, bounty hunting is illegal there.

I can't believe the United States would even consider extradition this guy. He's cool! The Mexican government does not care about U.S. laws, so I think the U.S. Marshals should just let this one go.

They should claim they lost him, and then snicker every time he airs his'elf on his show each week.

--gh

HNB 4 ...some wood

2006-09-12T20:35:00.000-05:00

I was at the hardware store the other day picking up the wood for the cabinet. I can't remember why, but I wanted to have the cabinet assembled before finishing the chassis and painting it. Maybe I will remember why. Anyhow, I was set on pine again, but this is a gift. So, I spent twice as much and bought a length of poplar. Here you can see a bit of my workshop in the basement. It's nice to not have to do this type of stuff in the garage. It's still a bit chilly in the winter, though. My workroom is a small room that was formerly storage space for coal. I even have a coal door which is nice for bringing long things in and out of there. Yeah, coal... my house is old.

The poplar is 1x12, even though it will end up a little over 9 inches wide. I will rip these after I cut the dovetails. Right now I can't make the dovetail joint work by measuring first. The edges are off anywhere from a 1/16th to 1/8th inch. So, I will route the dovetail, mark the real edge, and then rip the final piece. This will leave a box shape 2-3 inches deep that has dovetail joints - I won't discard them. I think I will make some trays or something out of them. This is hard to describe without a picture. This room is right next to my workroom. It is just empty space in the basement next to the water heater and furnace. Our basement isn't filled with books or boxes or whatever. We are not packrats.

There is something very satisfying about having this project come from one single 8-foot board. Only 11 inches was left, which is why I went up in quality for the wood. Since it was only one board, it wasn't going to break the bank. I don't even know what poplar looks like as a finished product, maybe I should look into that and stuff. This is really going to be a step up from my first project. I am going to take this slow and do it right.

I even got some grille cloth for the speaker this time. There are several ways to do that, and I haven't made my mind up. I think I will permanently mount the speaker baffle to make the cabinet stiffer and stronger. I plan to use no fasteners whatsoever on the main cabinet. It will be glue only, and of course the dovetails. Integrating the speaker baffle will make it that much stronger, as well as the shelf for the cabinet. Once glued together, this will take a sledgehammer to take apart again.
--gh

HNB 3.1 Drilling 95% done

2006-09-09T17:56:00.000-05:00

I mounted the transformers and ran the primaries and secondaries through the chassis to check for fit. This gave me the opportunity to measure where the turret board will sit. I am varying the layout a little from the design I downloaded. I guess it makes it a little more mine. My first project had the parts ordered from one place and the chassis drilled and punched. I had no idea how big a part this actually was! It might surprise you that I had to order stuff from three different sources.

Heh, it didn't take long before I peeled off the plastic stuff that protects the chassis. I am going to sand it before I prime and paint it - so there isn't much to protect. After drilling almost all of the holes, I mounted some hardware to check for fit. This gave me an opportunity to see how much room I have for designing the faceplate. You might have guessed that the "name" of this amp is 'HNB.' This is the initials of my father-in-law, and this is the whacky way he writes it sometimes. I will get too creative with his faceplate, because it is a family gift. It would not be appropriate to have my taint all over it.

Well, I call it a faceplate, but actually I will draw right on the chassis. This is kind of a fun part of the project, I look forward to working on that in a few days. There isn't any step that I haven't enjoyed, it is all fun to me. Kind of a relaxing hobby. Something tells me that I will have this thing done by Christmas!

--gh

HNB 3.0 Drilling the Chassis

2006-09-09T17:54:00.000-05:00

The headphone trick helped determine where to place the power and output transformer. Marking the mounting holes, it is time to drill. The small (3/16") holes are for mounting the transformers. The larger holes will be used to feed the primary and secondary wires through the chassis. I forgot to order grommets with my order - but this is something that should be found at the hardware store. I like the harware selection at Woodruff-Arnold, which is also where I buy the nuts, bolts, and various parts that make everything fasten together. A guy came to ask if I needed help, and I asked him if they carried rubber grommets. He didn't even think about it, he just said "no." About 30 seconds later, I was standing in the electrical hardware aisle right in front of a drawer that said "Grommets - Rubber." People.

Drilling stuff like this screams for a stepper bit. Irwin sells one called "Unibit," but I ended up buying one from Greenlee. Actually, it came from Lowes. This one drills very neat holes from 3/16" to 7/8" in 1/16" steps. When drilling metal, be sure to clamp it down! For the big holes (like for the vacuum tubes), I spray WD-40 to keep the bit and the metal cool.

In case you are curious, the chassis is made of aluminum. This makes drilling very easy. The chassis will be mounted upside down, and if I was dealing with a larger amp aluminum might not work so well. The higher the output, the larger the transformers. The cooling black transformer is the power tranny. The ugly-ish one in the middle is the output transformer. They are both from Hammond.

--gh

HNB 2.1 The Headphone Trick

2006-09-06T21:21:00.000-05:00

You can read about the "headphone trick" here. Basically, I need to orient the power and output transformers to minimize a sympathetic 60-cycle hum. What happens is that the wildly swinging wall voltage is creating magnetic havoc in the PT. This can be sensed in the OT, even though it it is not plugged in. It seems kind of scary, but you have to wire up a power cord to the primaries on the PT, and then hook up some headphones to the secondary of the OT. Then screw around with the locations of the two transformers until you don't hear the disturbing hum.

If this is not taken care of at this stage, then the small hum will never be removed from the amp. This is a magnet thing, and unless I wanted to get into mu-shielding, I would be stuck. Oddly enough, the hum was smallest when they were aligned parallel to each other. Every thing I read says to try it perpendicular. Well, that hummed!

Now the chassis is marked for drilling the mounting holes and the holes for the primaries and secondaries of each transformer. I might have gotten excited and drilled these holes. However, I just realized that I did not have the rubber grommets that protect the wires from the chassis. I didn't want to cut 1/2" holes, and then realize I couldn't find grommets that fit this! Luckily, our hardware stores carry these.

--gh

Every time a balloon pops, a clown dies.

2006-09-06T00:37:00.000-05:00

I came up with this saying about 20 years ago.

It's time it was promoted to popular culture with fashion! Uh... click to, like, enter a store and stuff. I think I sold a mug in the last year, so that store is really hoppin'!

--gh

HNB 2.0 Sketching the cabinet

2006-09-05T21:15:00.000-05:00

Thanks to M for telling me about Google Sketchup. I didn't think I would use it at all, then I remembered I liked to sketch out amps before building them. (I also like to talk in absolutes about something that I have only limited experience in, like building my very second amplifier!)

Okay, so, I found a use for SketchUp!

Here you can see that I have not finished it yet, and the chassis is not loaded in the cabinet.
I even went through the hassle of adding some components to the underside of the chassis. You know, because that is important and stuff. Well, actually, I think I want to build in these rails to support the chassis, so this will show me to push the transformer in a bit for room.

Okay, time to stop screwing around and to get back to building this thing!

HNB 1.0 Parts gathered, start drilling stuff!

2006-09-03T16:07:00.000-05:00

I have the pleasure of building another guitar amplifier. This will be based on the P1 project at the AX84.com website/community. This is exactly what I built last spring, but I am sourcing all the parts and get to drill the chassis and turret board myself this time. That's right, I got myself a drill press!

This amp will be a 1x10 combo for my father-in-law this Christmas. I sure hope he does not read my blog. For his 75th birthday, last month, his family gave him an electric guitar. Right now he is playing through a solid state practice amp - so this would be a vast improvement (5 watts of tube sounds plenty loud). The title of this post are his initials, and I will put that on the faceplate, among other things.

Here is the chassis and a few switchs and pots. Drilling the chassis is definitely what I am most nervous about. Then again, if I really screw it up, $20 gets me another one. The dimensions of this is 16x8x2 inches. When I do drill it, I will have to remember that it will be the reverse of my last effort, since a typical combo amp mounts the chassis upside down.

This is my drill press, a typical bench top 10" model that goes for $100. In front is the electrical grade fiberglass that will serve as the turret board. Many of the passive electrical components will mount on this board. Here is a capacitor and resistor as well.

In the foreground you can see my turret staking set up. I am using the drill press to flare the turret ends on the board. This is done by pressure only, you don't actually turn the drill on for this. After drilling a bunch of holes in the turret board with a #33 drill bit, it is ready for the Keystone 1509-4 double turrets. In the mid-ground, you can see the turret board with one turret loaded. Apparently people mess this up often by doing the whole thing upside down. I must have checked and re-checked 20 times. The turret staking tool cost $11 which is kind of a ripoff. I built the holder with the set screw in it, someone online wanted $25 for that. I built it out of parts I had laying around, and if I did have to buy them they would cost about 35 cents.

Here is the completed turret board.

--gh

One of those photo blog entries.

2006-08-26T21:45:00.000-05:00

Lately I have taken some pics and meant to blog on them. However, now that I have so many, I thought I would fit them all in one entry. So, they are reduced, and you know what to do to make them big again...

First, we have a picture from my father's house. He has a statue in a wall alcove with it's own lamp. I think it is hilarious, but my sister complains that it looks like a museum.

Next, we have a local picture. It may be hard to see, but this is a special plant that grows on the side of the road here in Northwest Missouri.

Here we can see the confusing statements written on the personal hygeine products in the Holiday Inn Express in Jefferson City. I think I have used "soften" as a conditioner at least twice. Behind is a haircap, and it says something stupid as well - I will have to check later to remind myself what it says ("keep dry?").

Ah, here is a Nodaway County original! I call this the Used Food Store because they have a lot of "repackaged" boxes of cereal in it. I think Terra had something to say about its products once. The cereal boxes have expiration dates on them that a are a few months old, and most of them looked like they have been opened and then taped shut again. Very weird. If the Amish family that runs this store is offended by my statements, just comment below and I will rectify this entry.

--gh

I was there! Honest! Here's proof...

2006-08-14T10:58:00.000-05:00

Okay, thanks to the online Concert Ticket Generator, I will never have to admit again that I missed this show:

--gh

Eico 667 issues

2006-08-04T11:51:00.000-05:00

I thought I would share my success of bringing a 40-year-old piece of bench test equipment back into calibration. I just got an Eico 667 from eBay earlier this week and was not surprised that it needed a little help.

First, there is some great instructions here, at the Tone-Lizard site. It suggests replacing two rectifiers, two capacitors, and two potentiometers. That was easy.

There was still a problem with the MERIT test, however. I realized that the potentiometer behind the PLATE knob was not working at all. Since it is a 3K-ohm 4-watt pot, it is actually a rheostat. I took the back off and noticed a lot of buildup and gunk in there. I sprayed some CAIG deox-it in there and cleaned it with some swabs. I think I got it back up to spec which is good because I don't know if I can find a replacement for that. The GRID pot is similarly constructed, but with a switch and higher rating, so luckily that was fine.

--gh

The eBays... (...plus Andy46477)

2006-07-25T23:20:00.000-05:00

Getting a new project started has meant resorting to eBay for 40 year old electronic manuals. I am not a power seller, as I only had 2 transactions before this month - spread over a 5 year period! In case you are interested, it was a fishing reel (Abu) and a CD (Village Stompers).

This was before PayPal was as big as it now is. But I do remember that the feedback system of eBay seemed much simpler. As soon as a money order cleared, I got positive feedback and I was excited about what the mail brought me. Then, when I was happy I left positive feedback.

I haven't been keeping up with eBay, and I am sad to see that sellers no longer leave feedback when payment clears. Surely this is a problem. I am dealing with 5 sellers right now, so this is more than a trend - it appears to be the rule now. For each transaction, I paid immediately (PayPal), within 5 minutes actually. As a buyer, I fulfilled my obligation (payment) so I deserve feedback (he paid, duh!). What are they waiting for? They are waiting for me to leave a positive comment -THEN they leave a positive reply, hopefully.

I read up on this and it is an active discussion off-site. The seller is holding the positive feedback as some kind of ransom, and will retaliate if they even get a neutral. This is a crap way to do a transaction.

My solution is for a PayPal/eBay feature that says average time for payment. If I was a seller, I would be very impressed with someone who always pays in less than a day (or within the hour). As a buyer, it is frustrating that they don't feel pressured to get the item into shipping as soon as possible. (This wouldn't be the case if they were more worried about feedback.)

Clearly, the system doesn't work right now. I am tempted to not leave feedback for any of these five sellers. None at all. But, I probably will. Then I will hope and pray that they also leave positive feedback. Stupid, simply stupid. How can something as big as eBay screw something like this up.

Speaking of which, meet Andy46477. Somehow, he leaves comments on other people's feedback area. Since it is all positive, he doesn't have any negatives. But, a few people are confused (and a few get it and leave funny replies). Most of them are plays on the member's name, but some are completely random. Here are some of my favorites:

When I open boxes of cereal, you should be inside. Yes, you're THAT GOOD! (membername is "toy")
Has INTEGRITY! Refuses to live on the MOON! Retains his SANITY! (membername is "earthbaby")
I have cancer so I bid low. I cry when I'm outbid. My dog died yesterday. (a little dark, but the membername is "happy")
I would like to shake your hand. I do not have any arms, though. I'm sad now.
Wow! This has to be the ROUNDEST coin I've EVER seen! Quite impressed. Thanks.
Great seller! Who cared for me when I was sick? You got it - jazztime did.
Has intestinal FORTITUDE!!! Eats PORTIONED meals!!! Enjoys NOURISHMENT!!!
Fast shipping. Polite responses. Has all his teeth. Doesn't beat his wife.

Nice. It shows how meaningful the feedback system on eBay is.

--gh

New Project (Thy name is Fisher)

2006-07-24T23:34:00.000-05:00

I am excited to begin my next project. It is now time to restore a 43-year old piece of audio history, a Fisher X-1000 amplifier!

My father bought this in 1963 and had it in regular use for over 30 years. It has been sitting in the basement of my brother's house for the last decade. I am nearly certain that it has not seen the mains in that period, which is good and bad. (The bad part is that capacitors can deteriorate when unused. The good part is that no one plugged it in to try it out slamming it with instant 120V of wall current.)

Amazingly, I don't have much to clean up here. I took off the bottom and inspected the circuitry. It did not appear that anything was wrong (no burnt parts or anything). I think it just got marginalized, and then replaced with new equipment and put away. It had a little bit of dust on it, which I blew off with the air compressor. I will clean it up quite a bit, because I have seen some amazing pictures of shiny equipment.

As you can see, it is already pretty sharp looking. The X-1000 is an integrated stereo amplifier (preamp and amp together) capable of over 50 watts per channel (I think it is technically 110w total). I also have the Fisher K-10 Spacexpander, which is just a pan reverb unit. Ordinarily, I would not really care to bring this back - but there is a control for it on the front of the X-1000! I sort of have to, don't I?

I do have tubes, and the tube shields. I removed the tubes to transport this, because it drove 1,200 miles in my trunk a few weeks ago! If you think you are seeing tubes, they are actually cap cans.

I also got my hands on the Fisher FM 200-B receiver. I will start on that after I get the amp going. Tube receivers can be very complicated because of the oscillating tube, and the tuning of the circuit.

As you can see, I do not have a cabinet for this amp. I will build my own out of something silly like walnut or something. Hopefully it won't be too heavy - because the amp by itself weighs 44 lbs. I talked to my father yesterday about it. He was surprised that I could get over $1,000 for just the amp as it is right now. Restored, tuned up, and in a cabinet, it could fetch $1,500. The tuner could easily go for half that! The reverb unit goes for a few hundred...

What is weird is that I don't have decent speakers. I mean, any speakers I have laying around truly suck. I can't have a high-quality stereo system with sluttish speakers, so I will have to see about that this winter. (I think the speakers that were used with this unit were Wharfedale. I can only dream.)

Here is a short list of what I will do:

Finish cleaning the outside.
Get the schematic and identify the coupling capacitors and order replacements.
Buy a variac (variable transformer).
Replace some capacitors, and the diodes if they are not silicon.
Hook it up to the variac and slowly bring up the voltage. (Folks at AudioKarma suggest 1 hour for every 10 volts until 90, then leave it for a night. Next, put the output tubes in and slowly bring it up to full voltage.)
Measure the voltages and compare it to specs.
Bias the output tubes (there is an external trimpot for this!).
Adjust the negative feedback (DC adjusted with trimpot again).

--gh

P.S. The agreement for removing this from my brother's basement is that I won't sell it. He doesn't have to worry about that!

Free Guitar Riff Lessons

2006-06-13T09:41:00.000-05:00

Check out Marcos Farhat's website: www.farhat.name. I usually don't put the name of the link in the link, but I just love that web-page name.

Anyhow, Mr., er, Señor Farhat is an Argentinian guitarist who has a few dozen classic rock intros, riffs, and solos in multiple camera angles. Twenty-five years ago, I would have been all over this (that's how old most of the songs are, hah!).

For now, the site is not riddled with popups (but it is available in multiple languages, which is cool). He is trying to make the site supported by advertising, donations, and the sale of his videos (which if you are dying to learn Metallica and Iron Maiden licks in higher resolution - it looks like a must).

Anyhow, if I ever go to Argentina, I would want to meet Marcos. From his C.V., it looks like he is about my age - and has impressive experience in music.

I wish I had the ability and the time to create a website to teach like that. My angle would be on teaching guitarists how to read music (a massive VOID in the music world). Sadly, the education of most guitarists is from chords to tabs. I'm not helping out yet, either...

--gh

Pot Transplant...

2006-06-12T18:05:00.000-05:00

No, the title is not talking about getting the tomatoes out.

For such a cool guitar, the Gibson Les Paul really has some issues. Earlier this year I wrote about having the fingerboard planed correctly (it was an issue all along, and not due to time or warping). Well, on Friday I performed surgery on my 1979 Custom and replaced the volume and tone pots, as well as the tone caps. Here is what things looked like before (note the anemic looking caps).

I replaced everything with the wiring kit from RS GuitarWorks. I just measured the pots and they were:
Volume: 327k ohms & 217 k ohms
Tone: 87k ohms & 91k ohms

Those tone pots were probably fine, but those Vol pots were replaced with 500k pots, a BIG improvement. Also, check out this stock photo of the kit - I sure hope those $15 caps were worth it! (Hovland musicaps, lol.)

The thing is, the sound is vastly improved. I never liked using the tone pots on this thing (anything less than 10 sounded muddy). The volume control was dark as well when that was rolled back. A lot of people that make this modification also change out the pickups, replace the bridge and maybe even the tailpiece. When someone asks "was it improved" they say "yes, but I cannot tell how much the improvement is from the new components, or the pickups, or..."

I only made the changes in the wiring this time. I can honestly say that this improvement is only matched by getting new pickups. The difference is that striking. The sound is clear at all levels, and the tone knobs are now fun to use for the first time (in 27 years!).

So, if you have a guitar with questionable componentry - may I suggest this upgrade.

Here's a cool picture with all the wiring removed. You can see the date (Jan 9, 1978) as well as the color scheme ("NATURAL"). It's not really rare or anything, but I have always liked the fact that this guitar has no fancy paint job on it. Just a clear finish (no flame or quilt-top either, just boring maple). Neck is maple too, and not mahogoney. (The guitar's serial number says that it was completed on January 11, 1979[!] in Nashville TN - so you can see that things moved quickly in that plant then.)

Oh, and if guitar talk bores you, here's a picture I took on the way to work. Yes, that is a purple toilet with flowers in it. The sign says RELAY FOR LIFE on it, but I thought they do that in September around here...

--gh

Tubes and such...

2006-06-09T11:50:00.000-05:00

Just screwin' around with Illustrator...

Make a Comic

2006-05-08T23:25:00.000-05:00

I used the Witty Comics site to make my own comic strip. (I copied the image from the screen rather than signing in and whatever else the site wants me to do.)

I kind of had this idea rolling around in my mind as a SNL skit or something because I watched two crime shows in a row that had the chief telling the technicians and medical staff to translate their jargon into English.

Not too funny, probably.

--gh

P.S. Do you bevelie taht olny the fisrt and lsat letrets in a wrod are neaescrsy to udatnsenrd meixd up txet? I rebmemer sneieg taht eimal a few yreas ago and it azaemd me taht I cuold raed taht meessd up wnitirg. Oh, I betetr sotp now bucease Sfraond and Son is on. Taht sohw relus. (Altered text courtesy of Scrambled Text Generator.)

Why I don't care for Andrea Bocelli

2006-04-27T23:05:00.000-05:00

I try not to be too opinionated, but I can't sit still and take this anymore. I don't care for Andrea Bocelli. Who is Andrea Bocelli, you ask? Well you are obviously not a woman, and you aren't dating.

This is him:

From now on, I will try to recreate an image from the Internet, rather than outright stealing it. It also lets me take more freedom with how I see things. This, by the way, is how I see Mr. Bocelli:

Already someone is crying fowl, I am sure of it. "You can't say anything bad about Andrea Bocelli, he sings so beautifully and he is blind!" I have to admit that in that statement lies part of my problem. When I first started hearing about him a few years ago, I kept hearing the familiar tagline "and did you know that he's blind?" I don't understand why that matters anyway. It would be a real statement if it went something like this: "Andrea Bocelli paints such beautiful pictures, can you believe he is blind?" See? That would really *be* something.

But his visual skills have no bearing on my assessment of him. It's just something that bugs me about his followers. My problem with Bocelli is that he really is not that outstanding of a vocalist. I could walk over to the fine arts building on campus, swing a dead cat, and hit a few vocal music majors that could match (and exceed) his capability.

What's worse is that he seems to get the same popular respect that Plácido Domingo or José Carreras gets. He is no where near these guys. Want to know how to figure this out? One word: microphone. A true vocalist doesn't need one of these in every venue. I know that microphones are a staple of recording, and are nearly ubiquitous in performance entertainment. However, I have never seen this guy singing without a microphone two inches from his face.

Simply put, he does not have a big enough voice. Axl Rose can outsing this guy (or at least he could between 1987 and 1992).

I cannot sing better, though - so I will hand him that. Next time I hear something about him, it better be "Andrea Bocelli is such a wonderful singer, he sings much better than Greg." Yeah, that sounds more appropriate.

--gh

My weakness

2006-04-24T23:27:00.000-05:00

I have a major weakness to confess. Is it just me, or is Women's Billiards about the freakin' hottest thing on television. What is it about these athletes?

ESPN had a semi-final on this evening between Allison Fisher and Jeanette Lee at the Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut. You only have to do a Google Image search for Ms. Fisher or the Black Widow to know what I am talking about.

I was a little worried about just posting copyrighted photos, so I took two of them and worked them into one piece here.

I think it must be their arms. I have always been an arm-man. I am feeling filthy...

--gh

LASIK@Home... uh.... UHHHHH......

2006-04-12T16:27:00.000-05:00

Is this a joke? Surely a web page called LASIK@Home is meant to provide some kind of social commentary. I mean, it does have a funny picture and all:

However, usually the joke pages are obviously written to provide humor. I see nothing funny on Lasik at Home that makes me think it is a spoof or anything.

I think I will try it out on the dog first.

--gh

Squared Circle

2006-04-10T12:17:00.000-05:00

I was trying to find the relationship between the circumference and area of a circle for a maps exercise utilizing Miller's C. This is the ratio of a shape to a circle who's circumference equals the perimeter of said shape. I never could find out how to calculate the area of a circle given it's circumference, and had to work it out on my own:

It took me 28 seconds to derrive this simple relationship (equation) based on Pi-R^2. But I spent about 20 minutes idly searching for it. The first search I found , however, led me to proof that Jesus did indeed create everything, which works out good enough. I think I need to read the links from that page, they look interesting...

--gh

Further proof that I are sucked

2006-04-08T10:14:00.000-05:00

I saw a great one-time only blog entry idea on Livejournal. What you do is enter your birthday (no year) in Wikipedia and share three events, three other births, and three deaths that happened on your birthday. Not a bad idea for filling the web with more links to useless information.

Except nothing really happens on my birthday. I have to limit my event-birth-death to just one each:

Event: 1887 - Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show opens in London.
Birth: 1949 - Billy Joel, American musician
Death: 1903 - Paul Gauguin, French painter (b. 1848)

Not really much to comment on. Sorry. Under deaths, Schiller was the only other name I even recognized. I don't read poetry in German, so I thought it would be pretentious to even include that. I did notice that an Afghani singer, one year younger than me, died last year on my birthday. Wait, I just looked him up and the wiki entry says he died a day earlier. (Errors on Wiki? No way!)

--gh

To being, or not to being.

2006-04-04T22:08:00.000-05:00

--gh

Woulda-coulda-shoulda...

2006-04-02T21:09:00.000-05:00

Oh man, my amp would have turned out much better if I used these knobs for my volume and tone controls. Lets see, I have 5 knobs on my amp, so that would be... $2,425.

Yes, in case you think there is more to it, it is just beech wood, with a nice lacquer. And no, it is not a joke. And if you can afford components like that, then you may be interested in some $30,000 speaker cables.

--gh

Project completed

2006-03-23T23:44:00.000-06:00

Okay, here it is...

I am really glad that I got that dovetail template. I used no fasteners to put these cabinets together, and only used Elmer's carpenters glue.

If you are looking for amp porn, you will have to read an earlier post. This is the most I will give you.

In case you think the Sears Tower and Mr. French mean anything - they don't. Think of it as a postmodern flair. I did it because I can.

A few hours ago, this was just a sheet of expanded metal and an length of aluminum angle-bar. Fabrication is something that I have never done in my previous lives. I think I would have enjoyed it. I loved building custom plenum for a plumbing and heating company I worked for.

I think that's why I like those shows where they build motorcycles from scratch. I don't want to build motorcycles - I just want to play with the fabrication tools.
I am not proud of the jack plate on the speaker cabinet. It is the only thing that did not arrive before I started building (Musicians Friend!)

The speaker cabinet is a 2x10, and the switch below gives me all options (just A, just B, both in series, both parallel). I was going to put that cool looking metal jack plate in, using a nibbling tool to make room for the switch. Right now it is a horrid plastic deal from the shack. Here's the wiring diagram in case you missed that before.

This is a lot more satisfying than finishing the upstairs hallway and starting on remodeling the master bedroom. I think I can start those things now that I got this out of my system.

Oh yeah, it sounds great too.

--gh

Slight 120hz hum

2006-03-21T20:35:00.000-06:00

When I got back from Chicago, I had no time to put into the amplifier. It took me a week to get the board soldered up.

I was very nervous about wiring the components. Some things can be destroyed if they are wired incorrectly - and this was the first time I ever attempted something like this.

If I blew a transformer or damaged a fuse - then I would be sunk. I doubt I can find some of these components any where around here. Here is the final build with the tubes installed. I do not plan to modify this into another amp, so I finally filled the extra tube socket hole with a little Sears Tower souvenir. (Note that it will protect the tubes if I do something dopey like turn it upside down to work on it!)

I did not have much free time last week, but this week is different. It is Spring Break, and this is what it looked like outside on the first day of Spring.

Now it is time to build the cabinets for the amp head and the speakers. Right now they are downstairs being glued up. Here is what they looked like this afternoon, before glue.

The mini speaker cab is going to be cute.

Oh man, I didn't talk about the amp. Luckily I have a sad amp with an 8ohm speaker in it. I pulled the cable so that I could plug my new amp into it. I will fix that amp some day, but I didn't mind using its speaker as a test.

So, I fired it up at just before midnight, Sunday night and it worked! There was a fairly strong 120hz hum. On Monday morning I moved one of the filament wires on the output tube and knocked most of this hum out. It is still a little too much for my taste, so I will keep playing around with some of the lead dressing until I find the culprit. I might test some of the filter caps, I should have picked one up today when I was at Radio Shack. The 120hz might be some ripple from the power stage.

But, I will keep working on the cabinets and make it easy to take the amp in and out of the head to make adjustments and poke around. The sound is incredible - I cannot believe I went this long without a tube amp.

--gh

Chicago, Day 2

2006-03-09T08:23:00.000-06:00

Playing Peek-a-boo!

Our second day in Chicago was pretty full. If I had to guess, I would say that we hiked 8-10 miles yesterday. We walked to the Sears Tower twice, because the sky deck wasn't open the first time.

I was taking a picture of this advertisement when the owner flipped the closed sign on the door to "open." He came out and asked us questions such as whether Grills like these were popular in our town.

The kids got a big laugh out of that.

Today, we'll have the Art Institute, I have a chairs lunch -- oh yeah, and my presentation is this afternoon. Should be enough for a day.

--gh

Chicago got in the way of amp building...

2006-03-08T07:31:00.000-06:00

Well, my amp project will be put on hold this week because of this trip to Chicago. Both kids are with me, and we are at the Palmer House downtown. This is an amazing old-style hotel.

Chicago Skyline:

Deep dish pizza from Pizanos:

I am glad that parking is only $25 / day. I expected 50-60% more. I am a little hacked that I had to purchase internet access at $10 / day, though. That is an outdated price structure that most hotels now offer for free.

I should take a few pictures of the kids today, they really are with me.

--gh

Primary components loaded

2006-03-05T09:42:00.000-06:00

It is hard to believe that 48 hours ago, my amp was just a bunch of parts and a blank aluminum chassis. Here it is with the pots, knobs, switches, input jacks, transformers, and lamp loaded:

The clearcoat did a great job of covering up the white paint (flat) and my ink drawings, it is about twice as good as anything I *thought* I could make.

I will put more effort into this step on my next amp (wishful thinking, huh) because to be honest I had no idea it would even work. I really imagined spending an hour penning the faceplate and then seeing it melt when I sprayed it with lacquer. (If that happened, it probably would have looked cool!)

You may think that the lettering looks fancy, but to me all I see is tax maps, with wording that looks like this:

4.01
80 Ac.
79.59 Ac.(c)

Maybe some time I will create an amp that is stylistically based on such maps, with lines, parcels, roads, North arrows and stuff on it. I would not put it in a cabinet, but leave it out for that cool effect. That would be my office amp!

The clear coat did not drip as bad as I thought - but it is VERY noticeable. I have to learn to be more patient with spray painting.

Notice how optimistic I am about my date of completion.

Well, I have to get on the actual guts of this amp, but first I have a business trip in Chicago. I am going to be thinking about soldering this thing up for a week! Oh well, I know I will finish it before Spring Break is over. (I am 37 years old, and I still get to say 'Spring Break' like someone 20 years younger than me.)

--gh

Mr. French's Chassis

2006-03-04T17:30:00.000-06:00

I mentioned last time that I needed to design and paint the chassis of the amp first. Unless you don't mind junk, amp building really needs to be planned, designed, and layed out with good preparation.

Here is a picture of what the amp chassis looks like:

In case you are wondering, I paid an amp parts service to punch and drill the chassis. If this one works out well, then my next tool will be a drill press and I will do that on my own.

I did settle on calling this first amp build "Mr. French," which comes from the 60s TV show Family Affair. Here you can see that I simplified a layout template and cut out critical areas with an X-acto knife.

Some of my Geo-Tech students may recognize how I will layout the front plate. Instead of Mylar, I will draft directly onto the front of the chassis. I had a huge block of oak leftover from a previous project, and I just clamped the chassis on at the same level. (Sorry for the picture quality. My motorola phone only has VGA-quality pictures, and no flash. Some day I will get a digital camera.)

I really took a chance that this would work. I primed the chassis, and then painted it with a flat white. My hope was that I could draw with rapidograph pens directly onto the chassis with India ink. This is water soluble, so I can have a little play while I am working on it. Water soluble means that once the water leaves, there is nothing but dry ink (with a healthy dose of clay in India ink), which means that I should be able to clearcoat it afterwards. Here is the beginning of the layout. Check out the Leroy lettering system!

This is starting to look like I know what I am doing. Here is the back of the amp. It is very critical to have the speaker output labeled, so I wasn't just being fancy here. If you don't plug a speaker into a tube amp like this, you will fry your output transformer, and probably the tube as well. Mismatching impedances could be just about as bad. (For a visual image, imagine placing your screw driver right across the car battery - the battery wants a load and does not want to just short out to nothing like that.)

I am finished with the faceplate layout. I am impressed with how this will work (assuming the clearcoat doesn't mess things up). A lot of amp builders struggle with the face plate - sometimes paying $50 for someone to laser cut a decent design. This won't look as nice as that, but it only cost time (about an hour) and about three cents of ink.

Faceplate:

Mr. French closeup:

Input (blacklinefish name) closeup:

Issues - you may notice that the layout of the numbers is not perfect. I also hope that they are centered okay when the knobs are installed. Also, the "t" in the phrase 'The Gentleman's Gentleman" is darker - that was me trying to touch up something I already lettered by hand. It usually doesn't work so I wish I had left it alone.

I wrote "STANDBY" above the switch because the words for "MR. FRENCH" got in the way! Also, the reason I wrote "POWER-off" like that is because I only wanted to use the word "POWER" but I got lazy with the layout and it was no centered well under the hole for the switch. I did not feel like erasing the word because that would have taken 45 seconds or something. So, it permanently has this distinctive layout. (The hole on the farthest right is a lamp, in case you are wondering why it is not labeled.)

--gh

P.S. Here's the funniest thing so far. All those years of manual cartography and cadastral mapping really paid off with making this look more than amateur. But I haven't spent too much time with a can of spray paint. (No, I did not spend my youth tagging.) So, the clearcoat went on really nice, and all of the lettering really darkened up nicely. However, I was a little heavy on the first coat, and it may be a little drippy looking. Still, I think it will work out fine.

Sebastian Cabot

2006-03-03T23:36:00.000-06:00

I think I have almost everything I need to begin work on my amp. This has never occured to me, but the amp chassis has to be painted first, before assembling and mounting everything. It's probably a good thing so that you aren't throwing paint around and risking getting some components sprayed, causing heat dissipation problems.

Here's another reason this may be a good thing. If painting and lettering the chassis was done after it was assembled, then a lot of homemade amps would have bare metal and labeled with a Sharpie. (I know I would have a hard part decorating, when all I wanted to do was hear it!)

So, my chassis got a good dose of primer and flat white paint this evening. I will try to share some pictures later. My goal is to try and lay out something that looks like this in India ink tomorrow:

I have never attempted to letter anything other than a sheet of paper, and my skills are a little rusty. But, maybe I can still be successful. I also wonder if I can do a good job sketching Mr. French with a rapidograph pen. (Afterward, the flat white background and the black lettering will be encased in a clear lacquer.)

We will see tomorrow.

...

In other news, I finally got my guitar back. Leo did a great job on the fretboard planing. I can tell that he had to partially plane over 3/4 of the fretboard. (You can tell what was planed by the color of the binding, the yellowish binding is bright white where it was planed down.) There was a pretty good dip from the 7th to 12th fret, and a hump at the 16th fret. It is perfectly smooth now.

The frets feel great. With new frets, and an even fretboard, the guitar is playing like brand new. Because the previous frets were almost worn to the board, the new frets even make the notes sing out more. It's a little amazing how much I tolerated.

The neck was a little sticky, so I spent some time on it with 000 and 0000 steel wool. I almost have no finish at all on most of the neck, which I prefer. With the steel wool, I can make the neck feel like glass.

--gh

Breadboard mock-up

2006-02-27T20:51:00.000-06:00

Okay, parts are now pouring in for my amp project. I would like to finish this by the end of Spring Break. That includes a whole week off for a business trip (Chicago!) with the kids. Knowing me, I will be anxious about getting that trip over with so that I can come back and mess around with the amp.

Of course, my guitar is still being worked on.

Earlier, I told you that I wanted to build a 2x10 mini speaker cabinet that has switchable speaker combinations (A, A+B, A|B, B) and drew a diagram of the switch configuration. When I told an electronics friend that I wanted to do this, he asked incredulously "why wouldn't you want your amp and speakers to be operating at peak efficiency?" He deals with home and car audio, so I guess I understand his ignorance about how the guitar amp is part of the instrument.

My first speaker cabinet will have two different 10" speakers in it. (Okay, this is embarrassing, the model names are Ragin' Cajun and Delta Demon. I wish I could tell you that they were models E1121 and E1031 or something, but I suppose Eminence is appealing to a mentality slightly different than me.)

If you are freaking out about the 10 inchers, remember that this is for a 5 watt amp. I want to be able to crank this amp up a bit, but I really don't need the cone size of 2 12" speakers working for me.

So, it makes sense that I will want to have them able to play independently. In my switch, this is position 1 or 4. Then I want to hear what they sound like in series (8ohms + 8 ohms = 16 ohms). And, I might as well throw in parallel (8 ohm speakers in parallel is 4 ohms impedance).

I mocked up a breadboard configuration, because I found the switch at Mouser.com. The breadboard uses two lamps, and 24 gauge wire, but the real version will have speakers and speaker wire (duh).

Here is position 1, which will be one speaker:

In position 2, you can see that two lamps working in series doubles the resistance. The speaker corollary to this situation is that the impedance will be doubled. But, I think this gets the point across:

Here is position 2, parallel circuits. Notice that each lamp can pull the same full current through them. (If you are wondering what kind of light bulb works on 9v batteries without frying, they are 12v auto bulbs I had lying around. This would kill a typical flashlight bulb.)

And, to complete this presentation, we have speaker B, position 4:

My experiments with a boxjoint jig was not successful. I think the jig works fine, but it was set up to move in 1/32" and 1/16" increments, and my table saw has a little play in it. Okay, I will admit that the jig I made is a little "racked." I really wanted to make nice and strong box joints for my speaker and amp cabinet. I own a router, but not a router table. So, I bought a template. However, the template is for through-dovetail joints. Those used to be fancy, but anyone with a router and template can make them which is why I wanted regular finger joints - they seemed less pretentious (this is about speakers and amps, not wood working). In case you are figuring that dovetail joints are stronger than box joints, you are correct. However, I really didn't want to have to use them. (I could have bought a box joint template for 50% more! I would have to PAY MORE MONEY to APPEAR LESS UPPITY!)

So, I wimped out and bought a template. If I am brave enough, I will take a picture of my aborted effort at table-saw box joints. (I hope you like my crappy camera phone pictures! It's my only camera.)

--gh

My winter habit

2006-02-24T00:00:00.000-06:00

I have two new things that have been working for me.

First, every morning if the bathroom floor feels cold - I should put on moisturizing lotion. I know that doesn't sound very manly, but I am getting old. (Two more years until the 1/2-way point!)

Second, (...and I should have told you about this in November or something), every time I hear someone at work mention anything with the word "sick" in it, I clean my hands. I either use soap and water in the sink, or use Germ-X. They might be saying they were sick, or a friend was sick, or whatever, but it prompts me to clean my hands more than bathroom breaks and before eating.

That and my Flintstone's Chewables have kept me from even having a sniffle all winter long (and it seems like some horrid stuff has gone around).

--gh

Switchable Speakers

2006-02-23T23:07:00.000-06:00

I am building a speaker cabinet to accompany the amplifier that I am trying to put together. They will be matching designs, and make a tiny, tiny 1/2 stack. I guess here is my design and approximate size.

The 2x10 speaker cabinet is going to be cute! I already have the speakers downstairs and they are heavier than I thought they would be. They are Eminence brand, but should do fine.

I wanted to be able to switch the output around because I will use two different speakers. So, I wanted the most elegant way to switch Speaker A only, Speaker B only, and both speakers in series and parallel. I drew this in Illustrator to see if a 4-position switch will work. I ordered a CW Industry 1138s 2pole-4position switch, (from Mouser.com), so I hope this does work. (Uh, let me know if you see a problem.)

Our department secured copies of Photoshop to accompany Illustrator, but I haven't done anything "cool" with it yet to share with you here. The amplifier design has multiple outputs with 4-8-16 ohm impedences, so I wanted to mess around with that a little.

--gh

Just a dream...

2006-02-20T07:40:00.000-06:00

When you end someone's life, you have to wake up. I guess that is just one of those rules of dreaming.

I don't want to say any more about that.

--gh

New Project

2006-02-19T20:57:00.000-06:00

I have a new project... a single ended class A tube amplifier.

I have started amassing what I need to start my first home-made electronics device since junior high. I have turned to the The AX84 Project for the design and parts list. It is described as an open project - but it sure looks like everyone turns to one guy eventually.

This is not a kit affair, though. They do not sell parts and believe it or not - there are no instructions! We're not talking Heath Kit here, so I hope I am up to it. Then again, if it was Heath Kit, I would feel a little cheesy. That's probably not fair to all those champs out there that cut their teeth on building radios and signal generators from Heath Kit. But for me, having a company in between made it seem like you weren't really building on your own.

I never had a tube amplifier for my guitar. I am starting with this project, a "smaller" sized 5 watt amp. I am pretty sure that it will be plenty loud for home use!

So, if you don't know a little about tube amps, single-ended means that the signal runs through each component in the amp. (A push-pull amp splits the signal and handles each half separately.) Class A amps do this by running the tube wide open (figurately speaking, of course) which makes them inefficient and explains why hi-fidelity abandoned this technology over 50 years ago.

So, my hands are covered in dried glue. Why? Because I am trying to make a box-joint jig for my table saw. Why? Because I want to make my own box to hold the amplifier in. Also, I will make a speaker cabinet. I don't want to cover it with carpet or tolex, so I will just finish them like furniture.

Okay, I'll keep you posted.

--gh

Guitarded III

2006-01-27T21:01:00.000-06:00

I did spend about 40 minutes in the nicer guitar store before leaving Jefferson City yesterday. The same fellow helped me out. I think I will be getting a new guitar -- within the next 2-3 years, maybe. I think the salesman would prefer that I just buy something now.

Well, I drove 100 miles to drop off my guitar and have it refretted. M will probably be sore with me because I got the feeling I was practically in his backyard or something.

I played a few more guitars yesterday that I should probably comment on. I played an ES-137 Classic. Definitely not my guitar. I can get used to the neck (a little thicker than mine). But it did not sound that different from a Les Paul. Pretty strange given its outrageously hollowbody look. The pickups did not impress me.

ES-137 Classic

I also played an ES-335. This sounded nice (again, a fat neck), and the '57 Classic pickups might have played into that. If I get a new Gibson, it will have those pickups in it. (So, I need to try the ES-137 Custom, I guess).

ES-137 Custom

I really want to try a CS-356 (hard tail, of course).

CS-336
CS-356

I also need to go back and edit these posts adding a few pictures. I know that not everyone reads up on specific guitar models.

Finally, I played a few Fender Stratocasters. I will have to find the perfect one for me to consider getting one of those. I think I'd like a hard tail, (not really a strat decision), but I do like the out-of-phase sound of the 1st and 2nd pickups together. In fact, I love that sound.

Strat

--gh

Guitarded II

2006-01-25T22:20:00.000-06:00

Okay, so I have a guitar that some people only dream about. In high school I saved for over a year and was still only able to get a used Les Paul Custom. It was a good investment because it probably kept me from a lifetime of guitar acquisition.

However, I have always wanted something else to complement it. This means trying things out and it means dealing with music retailers. (For some reason, I want my next guitar to be new - not used.) I found a decent store in Jefferson City - only, I don't live in Jefferson City. I come here every two months and may or may not get a chance to visit if I am in a hurry to get home. The last time I was here, I asked to play a Fender American Deluxe Telecaster. Nice guitar. He asked me if I had an amp preference and I told him no overdrive, no reverb, no effects, and make it as clean as possible. He gave me a strange stare and said that this was the first time in 8 years that someone requested this. I began thinking I was in the wrong store. In case you are curious, the guitar played like a dream. I will go back there because the guitar was set up so well (a mark of a good store).

I also tried a Gibson CS-336. What an amazing guitar. If I ever got a semi-hollow body, it would be this one. The top is actually two bookmatched pieces of carved maple, like a real arch-top. For fifty years, Gibson has been making hollow and semi-hollow body guitars by laminating layers of wood for strength. (Gibson uses 3-ply, Epiphone uses 5.) Well, they call it laminate - I call it plywood. So the CS-336/356 is a big advancement for mass produced guitars. Oh, and the back and sides are routed out of one hunk of mahogony (thanks to modern technology no doubt). If the neck is one-piece, then the whole guitar is four pieces of wood (or three if you count the bookmatched top).

Then again, maybe the perfect antithesis of the Les Paul is the Stratocaster...

I went to two music stores on the way to Jeff City today. I don't mind telling you that one of them was the clearance center for Musician's Friend. Over $100 million goes through that place every year, so they are bound to get some returns, and not all of them are happy stories. It was kind of a sad place and I don't know if I will go back. They have a whole collection of broken guitars. There is nothing sadder than a Martin D-28 with a snapped neck. (It was still going for $300, even though it is useless in its present condition.) Some of the guitars that were in good shape were still stacked up like green beans in a can. After a while, I just left.

Then, I went to one of those guitar super-stores. You know, 20,000 square feet, and guitars all over the walls. There would have been a time when it would have impressed me, but I was somewhat apprehensive when I stepped in. I asked to play some Telecasters again and the guy starts tuning it using the 5th and 7th fret harmonics (big mistake with tempered tuning, you know, what we've been using for the last 250 years). He was acting like he had perfect pitch at first tuning it by ear (he was off). But, it was nice that I was in a sound-proof room to play, away from the 15-year-old noodling going on in the main room. None of the guitars that I played were decently set up, even the American Deluxe. What a shame. In fact, on that guitar the B-string kept going flat. He tried to blame this on my aggressive playing (which is a little offensive, also - I have a light touch). I don't have this problem with my Gibson or Martin (acoustic). This guy also tried to get me to play the guitars all distorted and with reverb. Duh....

I tried to play an ES-335, which was pretty, but useless. The action was so hign I could fit my pinky under them at the 12th fret. Also, the nut was not cut correctly or soemthing - just barely playing it made the string pop out! I left somewhat disoriented and confused by the fact that anyone could actually get a decent instrument from such a place. I must be really picky or something.

So, I must check out this music store in Jefferson City before I leave tomorrow. Otherwise I will be in a guitar-stupor for another month or so. Oh, that reminds me of a funny story. In November I had to stick around for an extra day because of an event at Osage Beach the next day. So, I spent about 4 hours in the store. I started feeling bad that I was leading this guy on - his manager kept calling him aside and giving him pointers. One of the times he came back from one of those conferences and said that if I gave him my address, he would write a letter to my wife and explain which guitar I needed for Christmas and why. It was pretty cute. Two hours later I walked back in to the store and spent 10 minutes with another salesman and bought a trumpet for several hundred dollars. (It wasn't for me.) I think the whole store thought I was schizophrenic or something.

I think I hate guitar stores...

--gh

Guitarded

2006-01-25T21:30:00.001-06:00

I have been thinking about a new guitar for almost a year now. I don't have an acquisition problem or anything -- I have the same electric for over two decades. I guess when you find something that works, you don't mess with it.

The problem is that the frets are worn out, seriously worn out. In the late fifties, Gibson put low flat frets on a black Les Paul Custom issuing two terms into the guitar vernacular: Black Beauty (the guitar), and Fretless Wonders (those frets). Twenty years later, they were still doing it. In 1985, when I bought the guitar (used, of course), there was slight wear on a few of the frets, no big deal.

Add twenty years of weekly playing and you have a guitar that is on the verge of being unplayable. It is on every fret between the 1st and 15th. I guess I am an equal opportunity player and don't stay in one location. (The fact is, due to a problem with the nut on the 4th and 3rd strings, I stopped playing in the "open" position a dozen years ago.) So, now you might be thinking that I am a neglectful player.

I am in the process of looking for a luthier for the refret job. I will also have this person (I should just say "he," they are all guys from what I have seen) cut a new nut - probably from bone. Finally, I need the fretboard planed around the 16th fret (a common problem with mass-produced guitars with set necks - a hump or spatula develops).

It is hard to find a luthier. Few have web pages, and the ones that do look like web pages from the mid-1990s. Many that are on the web seem a little proud of themselves. In fact, it is common for them to write things like "I have refretted 5,000 guitars in my life, so you might want to think that I know what I am talking about..." or "no one cuts fret slots like I do, in fact they don't even know that poor fret jobs can compress the fretboard and backbow the neck..." I saw stuff like that everywhere. Some say they put a dab of glue in the fret slot, and others say only ham-fisted luthiers do this. Others say that they retain the binding nubs on Les Paul necks, and others say that players who want this are "dips."

So, it might take a while to get a conversation going with an area luthier and work out a price. I hope it costs less than $500.

You might think that $500 goes an awful lot towards a new guitar. But this guitar turned 27 years old last week (January 11 - it was the 76th guitar off the line that day in Nashville). From the information in this paragraph only, some guitards could tell you the exact serial number of my instrument. I have after-market pickups (SH-55s) that are nice and understated (not DiMarzio or anything).

I have been playing other guitars because I am considering medium or medium-jumbo frets. So, this makes me think about adding a second guitar. But what do I get? That's another blog entry entirely.
--gh

Most used song titles

2006-01-21T10:36:00.000-06:00

My daughter started talking about a song title that was used by different bands and artists. After claiming that she knew 5 artists who used the title "Breathe," I said don't forget Pink Floyd. So, she was happy to make it six.

I had the same thought about 20 years ago, and concluded that "Round and Round" was the most used song title. So, after our brief comparative argument, I started searching for some proof to resolve this issue.

The songs need to be unique. This is not about the most covered song ("You Keep Me Hangin' On"?). So, point out any mistakes or duplicates and of course, ommissions.

Using searches like "Breathe lyrics," yields:

Fabolous
Michelle Branch
Faith Hill
Anna Nalick
Evanescence
Kylie Minogue
Disturbed
Sixpence None the Richer
Roxette
Avion
Maria McKee
Ignition
Nickelback
Killah Priest
Kitchie Nadal
and, Pink Floyd

For "Round and Round," I found:

Ratt
Aerosmith
Perry Como (yeah!)
Bonnie Raitt
The Fantasticks
Prince
Fabolous (again?)
The Cure
Lionel Richie
Tom Paxton
Kottonmouth Kings
Emma Bunton
Gil, Frozen Ghost, Nathan these sounds made up, so I'll list the together
Mary J Blige
Neil Young
Dokken
Olivia Newton John
Sugababes
Germs ok, this is a cover of Chuck Berry's "Around and Around," but retitled, does that count?
Spandau Ballet
Edgar Winter
Bodyrockers
Los Lobos
and of course, Van Halen (or make that Van Hagar)

Obviously, by this analysis, "Round and Round" is the clear winner. Please comment any additions or corrections, though...

--gh

Faeries!

2006-01-12T07:13:00.000-06:00

My wife woke up today and told me that she dreamed about faeries. In this dream, I was seeing them everywhere. I have always been afraid of faeries -- they are the heathen dead. She also dreamed that houses were blowing up all over town.

I saw a strange thing last night. I was in the dining room and was trying to adjust the action on my Les Paul and was frustrated that only a refret job will actualy fix my problems. Just then the entire house shook. It sounded like someone dropped a piano upstairs. I happened to look out the back window and saw a huge fireball 2,000 feet away. It must have been over 100 feet high and filled the night sky with light. I said to my wife "oh, you're going to have to see this."

Everyone will be talking about this because the entire town could feel that house exploding. Also, as we took our evening walk, we could confirm what our daughter had told us. She said that the parents of several friends jumped into their cars and drove to the scene. From the park, we could see that hundreds of cars were driving around that area over a period of one hour.

Back to faeries, I think I will listen to Ozzy sing about them wearing boots and such. (I really do not understand that song.) Pixies are good, faeries are bad. I really like the scene in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town when the old ladies from Mandrake Falls describe Gary Cooper as pixelated. I have started using that term more often.

--gh

Meedley Meedley Meedley MEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

2005-12-23T23:57:00.000-06:00

If you are not familiar with the "meedley" reference, then check out Episode 36: Guitar from Strongbad Email...

...then, check out Chit San Maung, the burmese POSTER CHILD for meedley guitar playing. As the title states, he plays "All The Guitar Tricks Possible. (At the end, you can see the words Golden Peacock on the banner behind him.)

--gh

MY 200 DOLLAR QUESTION PLEASE HELP ME!!

2005-12-22T21:23:00.000-06:00

Some times, I like to read Google Answers, either looking for something or just browsing around.

I came across a real doosie, of a question and answer. It intrigues me that someone is so desperate for an answer to their question that they are willing to shell out serious money for it. Read what this nimcomtard asks
here. Basically, I think he met someone, but didn't remember it, but then when she called him he tried to get involved in her life and now she doesn't wan't anything to do with him... yada, yada, yada.

The best part is that the guy apparently pays for the first person to answer him with the cheesiest introduction: "I am not a therapist, but I am knowledgeable in matters of the heart and I am pleased to offer you my point of view." He even tipped him another $45!

If only Fairly had seen the question first. He would have earned the $245 with an even more creative answer... almost a Staircase Wit challenge.

--gh

Bug your "Future Self"

2005-12-19T14:47:00.000-06:00

If you are bored, why not go to this website (F u t u r e M e . o r g) and send yourself an email in the future...

--gh

Treasure Island

2005-12-17T23:43:00.000-06:00

King Kong was good. You can tell it was good because I was siding with Kong. In the 1970s version, I hated Kong and was glad when they finally killed him in the end. ...or, maybe I was just dumb.

I think it is time to make a remake of Treasure Island.

--gh

Krazy

2005-11-30T23:01:00.000-06:00

Have you seen the Intel Centrino commercial with Seal sitting on a woman's lap singing "Crazy"?

Is everyone else okay with this? It's just plain weird.

--gh

Christmas

2005-11-30T22:33:00.000-06:00

I haven't hung the outside lights yet. I really missed an opportunity right before Thanksgiving because now it is all cold and wet and stuff.

I see nothing wrong with writing Xmas for Christmas. It's not like people are going around saying "Merry Xmas" or anything. (Unless you watch Futurama.)

The kids asked not to hang the vast collection of ornaments this year. I think our tree will just have lights, and maybe candy canes or tinsel. If I would have asked for this 25 years ago, my mother would have flipped out.

So, now I can concentrate on making the outside of the house 1.3x more gaudy this year than last.

--gh