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Personal Projects Thread

Discussion in 'Creatives Forum' started by Velixer, Feb 7, 2016.

  1. Serathaiya

    Serathaiya Draenei Tail Puller.

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    Keeping busy...
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    Sounds awesome, when it cooperates. It's got some strange intermittent problems that appear then go away, like the power tubes randomly getting hot. Hmmmm...sounds excellent though.
     
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  2. ForestFires

    ForestFires Silent Protaganist

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    Well, I've gotten invited to a cosplay group with a bunch of friends in November's MCM Comic Con so I'll be starting my League cosplay of Omega Squad Teemo. I've gotten most of the stuff already that I didn't realise that I had (blue top and bottoms with doc martins as the boots) so it's mostly modifying some bit and pieces so that it makes up OS Teemo and adding some brought bits and peices. The challenge of this is going to be the gas mask but I think I'll be able to easily do it.

    Here's a picture of OS Teemo for references sake:
    [​IMG]
     
  3. Serathaiya

    Serathaiya Draenei Tail Puller.

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    I scored something but have been very quiet here lately...

    I've been going nuts with the tube stuff. I'm actually considering selling off bikes to make space for amps/parts/tubes...never thought that would happen!

    Here's the beast in question...it's an Altec 353A from 1959...yes...1959. How it's in the shape it's in is baffling...but...

    01.jpg

    Glowy tubes...all the soldering for the most part was original, even the wax marks on the solder joints from QC still. Unfortunately when I powered it up after doing what needs to be done to old electronics stuff (DON'T EVER PLUG IT IN AND JUST TURN IT ON!), I cautiously powered it up and discovered the power tubes were red-plating...which means they're exceeding maximum thermal dissipation limits. I wasn't pleased but trucked on...

    02.jpg

    And here's something interesting I never seen before...electron glow on the glass of the tubes! This phenomena happens when the electrons are at such a high velocity that when they strike the glass they liberate phosphor atoms from the wall of the glass and cause it to glow because of the gases formed. Not a bad condition and eventually goes away but it looks really cool! I haven't witnessed this yet because the power tubes run on 380V...nothing I have made does that!

    03.jpg

    I think I ironed out all the bugs...think...I know that's not true! I should really replace all the resistors as I found a few bad ones pushing the grid bias up on the power tubes causing the overheating.

    I had it cranked a couple of times. A 30WPC tube amp capable of 50WPC is gloriously loud...and...sounds like the performers are literally right in front of you. Unreal! I love this thing! It has humbled me a bit and pushed me to research my own equipment so I can get that same effortless, live sound too.
     
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  4. Velixer

    Velixer The Musical Draconic Muse

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    Holy shit dude, where the hell did you manage to score that beast?!?!
     
  5. Serathaiya

    Serathaiya Draenei Tail Puller.

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    Oh...I talk a lot at work about this stuff...a really nice customer gave it to me! I'm going to give him some rare tubes from the 30's for it in exchange, I can't just take this without returning the favour.

    If you're ever up my way you're more than welcome to have a listen to it, I'm sure you'd appreciate the sound it has!
     
  6. Velixer

    Velixer The Musical Draconic Muse

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    Oh nice! And most definitely, what frequency range do you believe sounds best through it? Or have you tried running any musical instruments through it at all?
     
  7. Serathaiya

    Serathaiya Draenei Tail Puller.

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    It's pretty flat over the human hearing range I think, although the tone controls do a good job letting you tailor the sound to your liking. I might steal, errr borrow, the circuit design for one of my amps. :p

    I haven't, it's made for Hi-Fi so it likely wouldn't be good for that. However I might be picking up another guitar...12 string electric, cause I'm a sucker for punishment. I have an idea for an FX pedal using tubes!
     
  8. Velixer

    Velixer The Musical Draconic Muse

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    Aaaaah a micro-tube FX pedal I presume?
    What type of effect are you going for? Fuzz? Distortion? Overdrive?
     
  9. MurphyAlter

    MurphyAlter The Floofiest

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    I know nothing about audio equipment whatsoever, but you make it really interesting!
     
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  10. Serathaiya

    Serathaiya Draenei Tail Puller.

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    No a custom design...it's weird, it will be a fuzz but crunchy and buzzy, kinda like Billy Gibbons' sound in ZZ Top but more grunge! I'll post schematics but it won't be for a while as I have another thing I may share with you guys over the weekend here.
    Thanks! I try to break things down and not get super technical but that's almost impossible with me hahaha!
     
  11. Velixer

    Velixer The Musical Draconic Muse

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    Sounds like a good deal. Always nice to have a nice crunchy fuzz, especially if tubes are involved.
     
  12. MurphyAlter

    MurphyAlter The Floofiest

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    Okay now I actually am lost.
     
  13. Serathaiya

    Serathaiya Draenei Tail Puller.

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    So asides from getting my brains fucked out and meeting cool people, I've been working at the tube stuff a fair bit. Load lines and mathematics...drunk! As well as hunting for an EF86 which means...

    ....dumping all...scratch that...SOME of my tubes out. They were organized by type before this...and I discovered that:

    01.2.JPG

    A) I don't have an EF86, EF80, or 6BR7....
    B) There's no American equivalents. Grrr....

    Fine, off to draw load lines:

    03.2.JPG

    Dressed up of course, like this person...I swear I'm not trying to cover up my bad math:



    I built a prototyping board with a power supply to make things easier to build and so I don't waste materials like solder / flux / wire, and I can fuck around with the valves...tubes....whatever.

    04.2.JPG 05.2.JPG

    On it is a cloneish thing of a Mullard 5-20. Does it work? Nope. Not yet anyway, right now it just buzzes angrily but I didn't blow anything up yet. Apparently this thing is a bitch to build for several reasons and new production EL34s don't stand up to the shit kicking that the Mullard tubes did, no surprise there. So some changes were made because today's EL34s just ain't built like that homie.

    After watching this:



    I now understand why. Tube/valve construction was an art and a science, thus quality was a high consideration if progress and understanding of the materials were to be realized. Nowadays nobody cares and in today's capitalist society the manufacturers don't care if they only last you 1000 hours (if that even) since it means you have to pony up $80 for a new pair of tubes.

    There's no real reason to though, the market is limited but when I see people paying $1500+ for a quad of NOS Mullard EL34s...I wonder why nobody has thought to make new valves which equal or surpass the originals. I'd certainly pay $400 for a quad of tubes knowing that they were just as good as the old types.

    Modern stuff? For shame...although all things considered the Russians aren't doing a half bad job and at least I can still buy a new EL34...
     
    Last edited: Oct 6, 2016
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  14. Velixer

    Velixer The Musical Draconic Muse

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    Really hoping to finally finish my audio PC after by the beginning of 2017. It's been hard trying to save up funds for the last parts (which happen to be the most crucial as well as the most expensive.
     
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  15. MurphyAlter

    MurphyAlter The Floofiest

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    As a fellow PC builder, I wish you good luck!
     
  16. Velixer

    Velixer The Musical Draconic Muse

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    Thanks Murphy! It's been almost 2 years in the making, but thankfully as of right now I haven't even spent over $1k in parts yet (which is good seeing as all the parts technically cost $1,800 regularly)
     
  17. Velixer

    Velixer The Musical Draconic Muse

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    Current update to my PC part-obtaining adventure, managed to nab my sound card! I also am led to believe that my mom might've gotten me my internal hard drive for Christmas. So all that's left is the processor and the RAM.
     

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