What’s on *YOUR* workbench?

KR Sound said:
It needs some new and missing parts. Belts, tensioner (or whatever that felt arm is called that holds the tape to the head), and some general TLC. He’s like a grounded plug put on as well and probably new tubes.
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Nice!

Not that there are a lot of options for parts suppliers, but I can vouch for the echofix service kits.
 
victim.jpg floorUnit.jpg

Many failures. Much upset. Heavy debris field from rebuilding things destroyed by boneheaded knuckle dragging ignorance.

The available DIY information online looks like a squirrel trying to cross a street.

I can summarize the experience with two words : Zobel Network.

I had tried going lower voltage and got a device that was very subject to noise.
So I went with more headroom. 12 volt supply, and an LM380 chip (not 386). The benefit there, again, being headroom. Not using the full power of the amp chip. The higher headroom cost a bit of loss of auto gain control, resulting in the higher strings being hesitant to sustain. Solution : extra gain control on the pickguard. Adds up to 10k to the gain loop. Down, the system doesn't self oscillate. All the way up it does.

Distortion bad, mmmkay? You love it through a speaker, yes. Some kind of mad science inductor pointed at your strings doesn't handle it like you expect. There's almost no filter as provided by the speaker itself. UHF garbage floods the neighborhood. Low frequency blooms come out of nowhere.

The vast majority of the DIY info has you building a Fetzer/Ruby. There's no Zobel on that. Sure it works. Sure it sounds like a$$.
The network, which is a resistor and capacitor in parallel with the load, present the amplifier with a stable impedance across all frequencies. Combine the chaos that results *without* it and the UHF soup of a totally clipped lm386 and you get a device that functions but DOES NOT WORK.

The floor box is sending 12 volts over a TRS cable. The guitar has safety against the cord being powered when inserted or removed. The pedal doesn't yet :) but the power supply tolerates a short. The box has a double buffer and a Pedal PCB Station Wah because there is some sort of noteworthy interaction between the systainer-equipped guitar and the wah circuit. The wah appears to cancel a great amount of the "fuzz-like" effect of the electromagnetic abomination screwed into the guitar. There's also an aggressive LC filter for the power. Power noise shows up in the guitar output like you wouldn't believe - even from a Cioks.

I understand "perceived value" in a way I never have before.

I really want to get my hands on a Fernandes so I can examine a baseline. Good God D&mn I have questions.
 
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KreoPensas said:
Here's a recording of the sustainabocker. Used a Boss IR-200 to be thoroughly unforgiving. The computer was equally unforgiving, but wtf.

The first note is initiated with a finger tap on the guitar body with all strings open.
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Nice! Well done! It doesn't seem as aggressive as the Fernandes but feels more natural, as in it sounds like natural sustain of aa well built guitar that just keeps sustaining....
Is it finished, or is this the first functional beta?
 
Thanks! As finished as anything ever gets. At some point I do want to create a PCB to get the board as small as feasible.

I greatly appreciate the Fernandes comparison. The closest thing I have on hand is an eBow.
 
Grrrrrr... okay well, I have these thoughts concerning using a xx571 chip... or two...

That's the joy of DIY makergineering, you can do things that will get most engineers fired.
 
Over the past month I cleaned out my basement and moved my work benches downstairs. Now I have my enclosure drilling workbench and my soldering workbench in one place out of the cold and out of my bedroom. I also set up my recording interface so that I can make demos of my work to send to people, since everyone asks for a recording these days.

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Over the weekend I made this, a BSIAB2 using a PCB from Tayda. I performed the contour mod, which was done by substituting a resistor for a smaller resistor and a pot. I used an enclosure I painted last year and experimented with simple labels. It's in a 1590b with top jacks.

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Started making instrument cables with quality parts from BTPA. Switchcraft plugs and nice cable. Feels good.

This 4-ft one stays between my amp and whatever pedal I’m testing.

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KR Sound said:
Started making instrument cables with quality parts from BTPA. Switchcraft plugs and nice cable. Feels good.

This 4-ft one stays between my amp and whatever pedal I’m testing.

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I just soldered up a new cable yesterday as well. I can't even remember the last ready-made instrument/mic/speaker cable I bought. Can get much better quality at a lower price if you just do it yourself (y)
 

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KR Sound said:
What neutriks do you like to use?
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I only ever used their nickel contact PX and C series plugs, the latter now discontinued afaik. The gold plated ones are overkill imo. Never had issues with corrosion, even with permanent installations. In the post above I'm using an NP2X (straight) and NP2RX (right angle). They are really sturdy, the strain relief is excellent and they can be reused/resoldered pretty much indefinitely. What little plastic parts they use in the actual plug are incredibly heat resistant, so there's no chance of melting anything by accident.
 
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Oof, that's less tolerance than I would like, but it should be fine. Maybe I need to try and move the potentiometers down a millimeter or so.

(I know the pot solder looks like a horrible blob, but that's because the legs didn't stick up far enough - I hit them slightly on the other side too just to be sure the connection is good)
 
lowpitch said:
I only ever used their nickel contact PX and C series plugs, the latter now discontinued afaik. The gold plated ones are overkill imo. Never had issues with corrosion, even with permanent installations. In the post above I'm using an NP2X (straight) and NP2RX (right angle). They are really sturdy, the strain relief is excellent and they can be reused/resoldered pretty much indefinitely. What little plastic parts they use in the actual plug are incredibly heat resistant, so there's no chance of melting anything by accident.
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Good to know. These Switchcraft 285L and 280’s seem super sturdy also. And definitely take the heat well.

Made a 20-footer last night.

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I see a compander chip.

The other mess glued to the pickguard? No effing clue. Otherwise I would suspect a sustainer, if that neck pickup has dc resistance resembling a speaker.
 
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