Cassiel, you need a garage, or warehouse.
Mine isn't quite finished but I'm going to the Land Speed Record Races (East Coast Timing Association) at Maxton North Carolina this weekend. Several friends will show up with instruments so I wanted to get mine in playable condition to take.
It lacks grill-cloth, a rear upper panel, and some refinement but is as follows.
This is the full blown beyond the limit amp. Strip out the reverb and it can make the $100 limit. Unless I get some good recordings this weekend I may just go with my previous posted demo.
Mine isn't quite finished but I'm going to the Land Speed Record Races (East Coast Timing Association) at Maxton North Carolina this weekend. Several friends will show up with instruments so I wanted to get mine in playable condition to take.
It lacks grill-cloth, a rear upper panel, and some refinement but is as follows.
This is the full blown beyond the limit amp. Strip out the reverb and it can make the $100 limit. Unless I get some good recordings this weekend I may just go with my previous posted demo.
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+I don't know what the problem was with the contract negotiations. However, the ECTA has a contract for 2012 in Wilmington Ohio. (Longer drive for us and you.)
East Coast Timing Association
I got back into motorcycles back in 1999 and got a rolling basket-case 75 Sportster. On line I got hooked up with a couple Sportster groups. Team Motoguzzi set a new PP record taking it from HD and a bunch of people in the chat groups decided to try to take it back. In one form or another it has continued for over 10 years, sometimes with HDs sometimes with other bikes.
Thanks on the amp. It looks better in pix than live. It's not bad, but a rush job trying to get ready for Maxton. I just got the jack mounted to switch the reverb and tremolo last night.
The Termolo is not right. It makes a ticking sound. The negative going half cycle does not look like a sine wave, rather like a triangle wave.
East Coast Timing Association
I got back into motorcycles back in 1999 and got a rolling basket-case 75 Sportster. On line I got hooked up with a couple Sportster groups. Team Motoguzzi set a new PP record taking it from HD and a bunch of people in the chat groups decided to try to take it back. In one form or another it has continued for over 10 years, sometimes with HDs sometimes with other bikes.
Thanks on the amp. It looks better in pix than live. It's not bad, but a rush job trying to get ready for Maxton. I just got the jack mounted to switch the reverb and tremolo last night.
The Termolo is not right. It makes a ticking sound. The negative going half cycle does not look like a sine wave, rather like a triangle wave.
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A private security company, Gryphon, formerly known as the Blackwater Group has secured the rights to the Maxton facility and no longer will allow the ECTA or anyone else to interfere with their paramilitary operations. This was posted in Hot Rod Magazine since HRM had a land speed challenge event with the ECTA.
I built a Front Wheel Drive 4 cylinder Dodge back in 1986 before the "sport compact" scene became popular. It went 154 MPH but I never had the opportunity to officially test it. It did stomp 5.0 Mustangs repeatedly on the local drag strip before the drag strip closed.
Well, the amp was a success, but it had to compete with a Triumph 650 and the Triumph won.
Considering he was there to race and our group was just jamming and trying to keep warm around the fire I had no right to ask him to quit.
The only players were Blue Grass so no one used the tremolo or reverb, but the consensus was the clean was very nice and they were amazed that it was only 3W. It sounded really nice with Cam on a 12 string.
No postings yet on ECTA, but a little 100CC took 2nd overall this year. He was supposed to let lose with a NOS bottle but we left before his run today.
I may have a lead on some nice covering for the speaker.
Considering he was there to race and our group was just jamming and trying to keep warm around the fire I had no right to ask him to quit.
The only players were Blue Grass so no one used the tremolo or reverb, but the consensus was the clean was very nice and they were amazed that it was only 3W. It sounded really nice with Cam on a 12 string.
No postings yet on ECTA, but a little 100CC took 2nd overall this year. He was supposed to let lose with a NOS bottle but we left before his run today.
I may have a lead on some nice covering for the speaker.
NOS = go fast or blow up.......I like it. Somewhere I have pictures of a NOS lawnmower experiment that ended at about 7000 RPM. I had video of my NOS computer experiment but ironically I lost it when my PC died several years ago.
Speaking of dead PC's this one has spontaneously rebooted about a dozen times this weekend, so I have started on the building of a new one. This one is infested with a virus known as Vista......
Severe weather, flooding, and tornado warnings have kept me inside all weekend, but I didn't get much amp building done. Started on the BOM but the reboots quickly hit my frustration limit so I got out the box of PC parts and started making a serious new computer. It's been on my list of things to do since this one started getting stupid.
Speaking of dead PC's this one has spontaneously rebooted about a dozen times this weekend, so I have started on the building of a new one. This one is infested with a virus known as Vista......
Severe weather, flooding, and tornado warnings have kept me inside all weekend, but I didn't get much amp building done. Started on the BOM but the reboots quickly hit my frustration limit so I got out the box of PC parts and started making a serious new computer. It's been on my list of things to do since this one started getting stupid.
There was a new observation tower built a few years ago for the ETCA that Gryphon wanted. Rumor has it that a crane picked it up and it is no longer on the MAXTON air base.
I was surprised at the number of British bikes this race. Lots of Triumphs, BSAs, and three Vincents (I was told a fourth was there as well but I didn't see it).
I was surprised at the number of British bikes this race. Lots of Triumphs, BSAs, and three Vincents (I was told a fourth was there as well but I didn't see it).
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Hi All
I am a noobie and have just read this entire thread.
Great concept, I love it.
I am currently building a GU-32 amp for my son as a bass amp.
Definatly wont come in under $100 but its the fun that counts.
Parts over here in Oz are a lot more expensive and a very limited range.
I am looking at using Hammond power and output transformers.
Looking forward to the results of this challange.
Cheers
Dave
I am a noobie and have just read this entire thread.
Great concept, I love it.
I am currently building a GU-32 amp for my son as a bass amp.
Definatly wont come in under $100 but its the fun that counts.
Parts over here in Oz are a lot more expensive and a very limited range.
I am looking at using Hammond power and output transformers.
Looking forward to the results of this challange.
Cheers
Dave
Recording Sessions . . . MP3 files . . . microphones . . . and guitars
I got a version of the amp operational before the neighborhood went to sleep this evening, so I thought I'd try to record and submit something, even if the amp wasn't yet quite ready for prime time.
At least that way I could say I submitted something on October 30. But it wasn't to be.
Put a Shure SM57 in front of a 12" guitar speaker I have that I got at a music store many years ago. It's housed in a nearly square box that's built like a tank under its felt covering.
The mic goes into a D/A which goes into a laptop. Nothing fancy.
And the setup worked well enough to capture some strums and flatpicking.
For the clean I used a Martin acoustic which has an under-the-saddle peizo pickup blended with a sound-hole condenser in a configuration that Martin has a patent on, I think. It works well enough to capture the best of both technologies. The peizo isn't as sensitive to feedback as the condenser is, but it doesn't deliver much bass. The condenser gives the bass, depending on where it's pointed (its on a short little gooseneck down inside the body), but it can feed back with a howling moan if the sound pressure gets too high.
For clean electric, I just slapped a few notes into the laptop on my beater Strat (the MIJ that's seen better days). Sadly, its G string now sounds vaguely reminiscent of a dobro or steel resonator for some reason. This is especially noticeable when doing clean arpeggios.
For the overdrive and distortion takes, I used my prized American classic strat and played some passable Hendrix and Stevie Ray, if by passable means that you can recognize the licks I'm trying to play.
I've got an off-brand Les Paul semi-hollow imitation with real Gibson pickups on it (I rewired it with a 12-position rotary switch to give me about every combination of two dissimilar pickups possible) I may use for some jazzy mellow clean later, but it didn't come out tonight.
After playing enough takes to piece together a few seconds of something recognizable, I began reviewing the captured audio. And that reminds me: there's the friction after opening a mic and just playing for forty-five minutes. It takes more than forty-five minutes to review what got recorded.
Since I had four separate tracks (noodling, clean, overdrive, metal) and a total of perhaps two hours of audio, it took till midnight to select a small sample of audio seconds to turn into four mp3s.
By then, October 30 was over on America's west coast, and the whole point of it was moot. I hope and trust that the new deadline IS November 15, but still . . .
if I had submitted anything at all, I could at least say that I got something in under the wire.
I exported to mp3 anyway. After all, it was still Sunday night in Hawaii.
Then I listened to them through the Windows Media Player.
Where'd they go? I could hardly hear them. It sounded like someone playing music over on the next street down at the far end of the block.
Ah yes. -6dB on the D/A isn't -6dB in the sequencer, and a -12dB signal on the track doesn't play back at -12dB, and after translating from 24bits to 16 bits, . . .
well, I don't really know what the explanation is. All I know is that I can't hear much of anything, and I'm certainly not going to waste everyone's time by posting these pathetic mp3 files.
But it brings up a question. I have felt all along that the recording part of things is the weakest link if only because it is far too easy to doctor a recording, and not necessarily deliberately, either.
If we are to be able to realistically compare the quality of sound coming from these various amps, doesn't it make sense to limit these recordings to only the guitar and the amp on a single track through a mic or DI? And to limit the effects that are not part of the amp to "none"? For if we try to make production numbers here with bass and drums and keys and backup vocalists, then the sound of the guitar amp is going to be so buried in the mix, and gain so much prestige just from the stuff that's going on around it that it's going to be impossible to tell what kind of amp is making the sound, good or bad. A kazoo could sound like a Stradivarius if it's in the right part of the right mix through the right kind of outboard gear, am I not right?
How does everyone else feel about this? Myself, I'm willing to admit that a vocal might be okay, if it isn't to heavily processed, since a song needs, well, a vocal. And I've got a MIDI track for the bass part of Watchtower that really makes the guitar (when it can keep up) FIT the piece, you know what I mean? And maybe a bass wouldn't get TOO much in the way, . . .
but . . .
I'm kind of leaning in the direction of thinking that to really do this right, it's put a mic in front of the speaker, and record the guitar. That's it. It doesn't have to be a song. It doesn't have to be three and a half minutes long. It doesn't need a bass, or a vocal.
All that's needed is the amp and the guitar, and a means for getting onto the disk.
True? Or not?
How does everyone else feel about this?
I got a version of the amp operational before the neighborhood went to sleep this evening, so I thought I'd try to record and submit something, even if the amp wasn't yet quite ready for prime time.
At least that way I could say I submitted something on October 30. But it wasn't to be.
Put a Shure SM57 in front of a 12" guitar speaker I have that I got at a music store many years ago. It's housed in a nearly square box that's built like a tank under its felt covering.
The mic goes into a D/A which goes into a laptop. Nothing fancy.
And the setup worked well enough to capture some strums and flatpicking.
For the clean I used a Martin acoustic which has an under-the-saddle peizo pickup blended with a sound-hole condenser in a configuration that Martin has a patent on, I think. It works well enough to capture the best of both technologies. The peizo isn't as sensitive to feedback as the condenser is, but it doesn't deliver much bass. The condenser gives the bass, depending on where it's pointed (its on a short little gooseneck down inside the body), but it can feed back with a howling moan if the sound pressure gets too high.
For clean electric, I just slapped a few notes into the laptop on my beater Strat (the MIJ that's seen better days). Sadly, its G string now sounds vaguely reminiscent of a dobro or steel resonator for some reason. This is especially noticeable when doing clean arpeggios.
For the overdrive and distortion takes, I used my prized American classic strat and played some passable Hendrix and Stevie Ray, if by passable means that you can recognize the licks I'm trying to play.
I've got an off-brand Les Paul semi-hollow imitation with real Gibson pickups on it (I rewired it with a 12-position rotary switch to give me about every combination of two dissimilar pickups possible) I may use for some jazzy mellow clean later, but it didn't come out tonight.
After playing enough takes to piece together a few seconds of something recognizable, I began reviewing the captured audio. And that reminds me: there's the friction after opening a mic and just playing for forty-five minutes. It takes more than forty-five minutes to review what got recorded.
Since I had four separate tracks (noodling, clean, overdrive, metal) and a total of perhaps two hours of audio, it took till midnight to select a small sample of audio seconds to turn into four mp3s.
By then, October 30 was over on America's west coast, and the whole point of it was moot. I hope and trust that the new deadline IS November 15, but still . . .
if I had submitted anything at all, I could at least say that I got something in under the wire.
I exported to mp3 anyway. After all, it was still Sunday night in Hawaii.
Then I listened to them through the Windows Media Player.
Where'd they go? I could hardly hear them. It sounded like someone playing music over on the next street down at the far end of the block.
Ah yes. -6dB on the D/A isn't -6dB in the sequencer, and a -12dB signal on the track doesn't play back at -12dB, and after translating from 24bits to 16 bits, . . .
well, I don't really know what the explanation is. All I know is that I can't hear much of anything, and I'm certainly not going to waste everyone's time by posting these pathetic mp3 files.
But it brings up a question. I have felt all along that the recording part of things is the weakest link if only because it is far too easy to doctor a recording, and not necessarily deliberately, either.
If we are to be able to realistically compare the quality of sound coming from these various amps, doesn't it make sense to limit these recordings to only the guitar and the amp on a single track through a mic or DI? And to limit the effects that are not part of the amp to "none"? For if we try to make production numbers here with bass and drums and keys and backup vocalists, then the sound of the guitar amp is going to be so buried in the mix, and gain so much prestige just from the stuff that's going on around it that it's going to be impossible to tell what kind of amp is making the sound, good or bad. A kazoo could sound like a Stradivarius if it's in the right part of the right mix through the right kind of outboard gear, am I not right?
How does everyone else feel about this? Myself, I'm willing to admit that a vocal might be okay, if it isn't to heavily processed, since a song needs, well, a vocal. And I've got a MIDI track for the bass part of Watchtower that really makes the guitar (when it can keep up) FIT the piece, you know what I mean? And maybe a bass wouldn't get TOO much in the way, . . .
but . . .
I'm kind of leaning in the direction of thinking that to really do this right, it's put a mic in front of the speaker, and record the guitar. That's it. It doesn't have to be a song. It doesn't have to be three and a half minutes long. It doesn't need a bass, or a vocal.
All that's needed is the amp and the guitar, and a means for getting onto the disk.
True? Or not?
How does everyone else feel about this?
It has happened to me before, after all the hassle I got pathetic results. Well, do your best, it's not going to sound great anyway. If you have too much background noise there's nobody stopping you from editing things out. Maybe somebody putting a lot of effort to make his recordings sound great (not easy) deserves some recognition - like winning this thing. The lazy ones, the sloppy ones generally don't win anything other than some hours of sleep, maybe.
Hey Gimp, I love classic bikes so thanks for the pictures. I was a biker but I was crashing too much (crazy rider) so one day I said enough is enough. Good luck can't last forever, one day I'm going to get myself killed, blah, blah, blah.
I forgot to post my voltage quadrupler. Works like a charm. Different power transformers and caps but same technique.
AVA100 Power Supply
AVA100 Power Supply
Heck, just go over to guitar center, there are no less than 10 customers daily in there at any given moment that would love to try it out on video!
Need a shreader player? No Problem! go in during daytime hours LOL
Need more classic Tones, Try after 7pm on Saturdays.
Yes I know, I should have been working on the amp but like a dog with a bone I had a hard time staying away from this idea until I got it worked out. An amp I will have to build this year after I get my house in order. A single channel amp that has a two triode first stage 5E3 Fender Deluxe amp, A Blackface configuration, and finally a 5F6 Bassman config. A few other interesting combinations, it would take a while to go through them. It would make a fin addition to my switchable PI portion of the amp. That is if you can get it laid out so that it won't squeal.
Humm a few bars and I'll see if I can pick it up . . .
Cassiel, you cracked me up!
Very well done!
I can't stop laughing!
Where'd you find that?
That's the truly funniest (very, very well done, by the way; did I mention that?) thing I've seen in a long time.
That belongs in a world-class venue! I see YouTube fame in someone's future!
ROTFL
Cassiel, you cracked me up!
Very well done!
I can't stop laughing!
Where'd you find that?
That's the truly funniest (very, very well done, by the way; did I mention that?) thing I've seen in a long time.
That belongs in a world-class venue! I see YouTube fame in someone's future!
ROTFL
I might be in Madrid next month, could you please tell me the street or the address of the shop?
Thanks,
Jaz