What's in the mailbox? 📬 📦

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B-Side Fuzz, Danube Fuzz, Informant Overdrive, Sugarbag Overdrive and Scenario Preamp to go with the enclosures I got earlier. These would have arrived sooner, but I paid for the customs and forgot to pay the 3€ post office charge so they didn't release it until a week or so later when I finally realized I missed something 👀
 
I'm not a massive switcher, but I've been using Daier for a while and been pretty happy with them. It's all I know from momentary switches..
Nice! I have a build that I was just about to start today, but I decided at the very last minute that I want to do relay bypass on it since it’ll probably be used on a desk just as often if not more than it’ll be stomped on the floor.
 
We‘ve always had various noisemakers and cheap instruments around for fun—this only increased during the young kids years. They’ve been sitting in a wicker chest near the stairs. Last night I decided to move them to a less central place, and re-utilize the chest.

Towards the bottom, I began to unearth a few items, the first a pair of marimbas, that I realized I had owned since I was a kid. (Does anyone else here remember what a big hit Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White was in 1955? I think I must’ve grooved on it, because somehow I got these a bit after that.) I was suddenly floored by this notion, something I’ve had for that long, still not only usable, but fun!

The recorder is not that old (but close; I think from 4th grade) and I was pleased to pick it up and play a major scale on it. The kazoo, complete with horn so you can do great wah wah mutes while jamming away, I remember getting while in grad school, where we had a kazoo marching band. The harmonica is less historical to me, it could be as recent as 40 years ago, and I have no idea how many harmonicas I’ve had, but the reeds are all working, and the front strip is still smooth and shiny, so my wife is in for some unfortunate wailing.

This is probably why our attic is such a shambles. Every time I Strat to organize it, there are too many distractions. (I’m gonna leave that auto correct, incorrection in there—I like that I must type Strat enough that it wasn’t to make a wronged start into Strat.)

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Nice! Got a few on the way now.
I’m a big fan of the Daier LED bezels, but I think that’s all I’ve bought from them so far
I use them for pretty much anything mechanical or enclosure. Footswitches, enclosures, knobs, DC jack, phone jack, LED bezel, all Daier. It’s cheaper than Tayda for Europe after customs, though I miss the Tayda enclosure colours. I haven’t done their toggle switches yet because of minimum quantity but I probably will when I need to stock up.
 
We‘ve always had various noisemakers and cheap instruments around for fun—this only increased during the young kids years. They’ve been sitting in a wicker chest near the stairs. Last night I decided to move them to a less central place, and re-utilize the chest.

Towards the bottom, I began to unearth a few items, the first a pair of marimbas, that I realized I had owned since I was a kid. (Does anyone else here remember what a big hit Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White was in 1955? I think I must’ve grooved on it, because somehow I got these a bit after that.) I was suddenly floored by this notion, something I’ve had for that long, still not only usable, but fun!

The recorder is not that old (but close; I think from 4th grade) and I was pleased to pick it up and play a major scale on it. The kazoo, complete with horn so you can do great wah wah mutes while jamming away, I remember getting while in grad school, where we had a kazoo marching band. The harmonica is less historical to me, it could be as recent as 40 years ago, and I have no idea how many harmonicas I’ve had, but the reeds are all working, and the front strip is still smooth and shiny, so my wife is in for some unfortunate wailing.

This is probably why our attic is such a shambles. Every time I Strat to organize it, there are too many distractions. (I’m gonna leave that auto correct, incorrection in there—I like that I must type Strat enough that it wasn’t to make a wronged start into Strat.)

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That's fun, you should find a tiny toilet plunger so you can do Mrs. Othmar imitations.

Also, those are maracas not marimbas. Finding multiple marimbas in the attic would've been coooool.
 
That's fun, you should find a tiny toilet plunger so you can do Mrs. Othmar imitations.

Also, those are maracas not marimbas. Finding multiple marimbas in the attic would've been coooool.
Damn! Of course you’re correct. I would love even a single marimba. Probably my favorite dance music of all is Zimbabwean Marimba music. I’ve looked at plans before, the more “authentic” African bands I’ve seen often have marimbas made with pvc pipe, etc.

Im planning on going to my old shop this Friday. Maybe I’ll make a correctly sized plunger. Will be rigid plastic though; probably an easier approach would be to start with some suction cup darts (if they still sell those).
 
Not the greatest pictures, but I got a box of turning blanks and scraps, and a bag of small flat stock suitable for fretboards at a flea market yesterday.

The box
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Including some nice large stock, like this ebony blank
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The bag… has some walnut, Purple Heart, and some currently unidentified sapwood-heavy wood that seems to be in the rosewood family
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Damn! Of course you’re correct. I would love even a single marimba. Probably my favorite dance music of all is Zimbabwean Marimba music. I’ve looked at plans before, the more “authentic” African bands I’ve seen often have marimbas made with pvc pipe, etc.

Im planning on going to my old shop this Friday. Maybe I’ll make a correctly sized plunger. Will be rigid plastic though; probably an easier approach would be to start with some suction cup darts (if they still sell those).
I like where this is going.

I'm a giant African music nut so any type of handmade idiophone is my jammmm. I took an African music class in college and the professor brought in some cool smaller marimba type instruments that had dried gourds as resonators. Absolutely beautiful sounds.
 
More stuff from AliExpress, which - yes - is a common theme in my life.

Optocouplers claiming to be VTL5C9s. I can't test them at the moment but the LEDs work so I expect they'll do something like they're supposed to and I have 5 to choose from so hopefully some of them will do the thing.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003751949105.html
I decided to grab some silver mica caps since I need a pair of 10pF caps.
Are they in fact genuine silver mica caps? I believe so, they test right on 10pF and they seem pretty stable so I'm calling them good. They're larger than I expected but there's plenty of room where they're going so it's all good.
 

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