Editor's Note: This is the thread for DIY Instruments and Amps - Stuff you or some other non-commercial person made!
For posting photos of your store-bought Instruments and Amps go here:
Post Your Pics of Store-Bought Instruments/Amps Here
End Note
Get a copy of the Grizzly Industrial catalog -- seems that the owner is zonkers for hand/home made guitars -- Grizzly is the source for cutting tools, end mills, boring tools etc., but there is an entire section in the catalog devoted to guitar construction Shop Tools and Machinery at Grizzly.com
For posting photos of your store-bought Instruments and Amps go here:
Post Your Pics of Store-Bought Instruments/Amps Here
End Note
Get a copy of the Grizzly Industrial catalog -- seems that the owner is zonkers for hand/home made guitars -- Grizzly is the source for cutting tools, end mills, boring tools etc., but there is an entire section in the catalog devoted to guitar construction Shop Tools and Machinery at Grizzly.com
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guitargully said:
If the interest warrants it, sure. Let's run with this for a few days and see what happens.
Somewhere deep in the bowels of my garage is my old Frankenguitar. Fender pre-CBS Mustang neck, Strat body, Jaguar bridge, and some pickups spirited away from Seymour Duncan back in my Santa Barabara days. LM310-buffered outputs.
Here is my DIY Oversized 2x12 cabinet. 3/4" fur, all dado construction, polyurethane glue, closed bottom, open top, finished in box-liner spray. Testing with a little Altec Lansing subwoofer for a speaker. The holes are recessed for Celestions.
And here is my Gibson BFG Les Paul. I facking love this guitar, love at first site, feels tight, love the "chisel marks", nice sound, loud even unplugged and because it's a barely finished guitar it appeals to the ADD carpenter in me!
And here is my Gibson BFG Les Paul. I facking love this guitar, love at first site, feels tight, love the "chisel marks", nice sound, loud even unplugged and because it's a barely finished guitar it appeals to the ADD carpenter in me!
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Here's my home made tube bass preamp, on top of a home made 1x15 and a 2x10:
And inside a rack on top of the same 2x10 but also a 2x6,5" (using autosound kickbass speakers):
Two Vigier basses:
And a Stanley Clarke-ish 5 string I'm building (will take ages to complete).
I've also built a Ashbory bass in the shape of a Rickenbacker bass, assembled a Precision bass, and am building another bass (6string headless fretless semiacoustic).
Here's the Ashbory:
Oh yeah, and some stompboxes, fuzzes, big muffs, an Ampeg Scrambler, busy doing a Seek Wah workalike, a Phase 100, a tremolo. Lots of stuff!
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
And inside a rack on top of the same 2x10 but also a 2x6,5" (using autosound kickbass speakers):
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Two Vigier basses:
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
And a Stanley Clarke-ish 5 string I'm building (will take ages to complete).
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
I've also built a Ashbory bass in the shape of a Rickenbacker bass, assembled a Precision bass, and am building another bass (6string headless fretless semiacoustic).
Here's the Ashbory:
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Oh yeah, and some stompboxes, fuzzes, big muffs, an Ampeg Scrambler, busy doing a Seek Wah workalike, a Phase 100, a tremolo. Lots of stuff!
TechnoBeaver - that's a nice looking cab, and I really wish I had an amp like that one. How does the little sub sound? The photo of the guitar isn't showing too well - perhaps you have a better one? Still, from what I can make out, it looks pretty good.
Bob - perhaps you'd like to show us some of those instruments - I know I'd be interested to see some, as I expect you'll have some I've never heard of.
Jarno - you have some very nice basses there, and I'm particularly jealous of those speakers. Like the amp - clean and simple.
I'm sure there's more of us on here with an instrument - come on, guys - get 'em posted.
Chris
Bob - perhaps you'd like to show us some of those instruments - I know I'd be interested to see some, as I expect you'll have some I've never heard of.
Jarno - you have some very nice basses there, and I'm particularly jealous of those speakers. Like the amp - clean and simple.
I'm sure there's more of us on here with an instrument - come on, guys - get 'em posted.
Chris
Thanks!
I would recommend everybody to build their own cabinets, there's really not that math involved, especially for guitar cabinets. Also, the amount of woodworking skills needed is pretty low. Carpeting is also pretty easy.
From a financial standpoint, low driver counts are more interesting, because commercial firms get discounts on drivers we do not. A commercial 1x12 cabinet is much more expensive than a home made one. But if you want to make an 8x10 the difference between commercial and DIY is much smaller.
The cable in the second picture is nice as well, I used to work at a firm designing MRI scanners, and I got a piece of that cable from the bin and soldered neutrik jacks to it, it's a pretty expensive silver conductor RF cable. It sounds great, but unfortunately, it's stiff as a board, minimum bend radius is something like 30 centimeters.
I would recommend everybody to build their own cabinets, there's really not that math involved, especially for guitar cabinets. Also, the amount of woodworking skills needed is pretty low. Carpeting is also pretty easy.
From a financial standpoint, low driver counts are more interesting, because commercial firms get discounts on drivers we do not. A commercial 1x12 cabinet is much more expensive than a home made one. But if you want to make an 8x10 the difference between commercial and DIY is much smaller.
The cable in the second picture is nice as well, I used to work at a firm designing MRI scanners, and I got a piece of that cable from the bin and soldered neutrik jacks to it, it's a pretty expensive silver conductor RF cable. It sounds great, but unfortunately, it's stiff as a board, minimum bend radius is something like 30 centimeters.
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Chris, the box and woofer were one, called a bass speaker. I installed a tweeter from a keyboard amplifier, and the amplifier is 30 Watts, from the same keyboard amplifier.
Later I took the remains of that keyboard amplifier, installed an old Lafayette home stereo amplifier, modified with op amps to give me gain and inversion, and now have a great little 25 Watt guitar amplifier with the speaker bridged between the two 8 Watt channels.
Later I took the remains of that keyboard amplifier, installed an old Lafayette home stereo amplifier, modified with op amps to give me gain and inversion, and now have a great little 25 Watt guitar amplifier with the speaker bridged between the two 8 Watt channels.
Thanx !!!
If You listened to this amp you would definately want one , everyone would want one , it sounds freaking awesome , Somewhere between a Marshal and a Mesa dual rec but with way more gain and tonal options .....
Cheers
Im not experienced, just normal EADG, I guess
But I think I know what you are getting at, that some say the short scale is a bit "soft" or mellow
I hope to get more time to build a complete 30" scale 6string
My plan is to make both work with the better full scale strings, thats the trick
Brilliant example of people using what they have to make something better. I admire that.
Cal, thanks for sticky-ing this. Hopefully, we'll get the 200 pages the rest of them have.
tinitus - at first I thought you meant a carbon fibre neck, which would have been pretty cool. I expect you'll work wonders with it.
I'm getting a new mains transformer for my amp today. After poking around with a scope, it was discovered that bigger transistors (of correct specs, of course), and a bigger PSU would greatly help to get some decent volume out.
Great thread
I have just ordered a Moses carbon bass neck, 4string 30" scale
That's cool! The Stanley Clarke copy I'm building will be 5 string 30" (well just over thirty, by sawing the first couple of frets off a 34" fingerboard). Didn't know Moses made short scale necks as well.
The trick is to use thicker strings with shorter scale lenghts, my humble Squier Bronco sounds great (despite also being 30" or 32", don't remember), put a decent pickup in there and there's no reason shorter scalelengths should sound worse.
Hopefully Its not insulting saying that its not that simple
If you shorten a 34" scale neck its still 34", just with a longer body
The shorter scale means less distance bewteen the frets, thats all
Or maybe I have misunderstood, and you have just expressed it wrong by saying "sawing off frets" ?
Maybe you mean shortening a "RAW" 34" fretboard ?
btw, I know a couple of fret position calculaters
Ouch
Sorry Jarno, I read wrong
Sawing off the FIRST couple of frets does seem to work
I tried to calculate scale length, and it seem to ad up very nicely with a 30.3" scale
To those who doesnt know, it refers to FREE swinging string length
Thanks Jarno, thats quite cool, I didnt know that would work
Hi,
I have just finished building an electric vielle. The keyboard uses strings and a humbucker pick-up like an electric guitar but the rhythm is generated from an IR laser system that monitors the wheel speed. The drones come from a synthesizer module inside the instrument's body with the other electronics. All the sounds and effects can be regulated and mixed before output to a power amp. It works fine but I really need an ADSR envelope module to shape the rhythm pulses. Does anyone have knowledge of a simple circuit that works off a 9V supply that would do the trick? All I can find are schematics for synthesizers and they use +/- 18V which is OK if you have access to a transformer. My vielle is portable and uses batteries; consumation has to be at a minimum.
Thanks for any help.
Vielle568
I have just finished building an electric vielle. The keyboard uses strings and a humbucker pick-up like an electric guitar but the rhythm is generated from an IR laser system that monitors the wheel speed. The drones come from a synthesizer module inside the instrument's body with the other electronics. All the sounds and effects can be regulated and mixed before output to a power amp. It works fine but I really need an ADSR envelope module to shape the rhythm pulses. Does anyone have knowledge of a simple circuit that works off a 9V supply that would do the trick? All I can find are schematics for synthesizers and they use +/- 18V which is OK if you have access to a transformer. My vielle is portable and uses batteries; consumation has to be at a minimum.
Thanks for any help.
Vielle568
