Personal Projects Thread

The purpose of this thread is to post your personal projects that you have currently working on at this current time, whether it be electronic, artsy, building, etc.
You can start your post by providing a list of materials/gear as well as before and after pics. And if you have schematics/drawing designs feel free to post those as well! ^.=.^
Also feel free to give an explanation as to what you plan on doing with your creation.
Hopefully this gets some momentum cause personally I'm quite intrigued to hear what people are working on atm.

 

So my current project is upgrading/"blacking out" my Squier II Precision Bass guitar.
My plans for this will be adding a humbucker bridge pick-up, adding a 3-way pick-up selector, and basically "blacking out" all of the hardware (i.e. bridge, tuners, string tree, input jack, strap locks).

The gear includes as follows:
- Babicz Full Contact Hardware 4-String Bass Bridge - Black
- Seymour Duncan SMB-4a Music Man Alnico Passive Humbucker Bass Pick-Up
- Vintage Style Open Gear Tuners - Black by Musiclily
- Schaller Black Strap Locks
- Black 3-Way Pick-Up Selector by Musiclily
- Black Input Jack
- Black String Tree by Kluson
- Black Dome Knobs

Schematics (of sorts):


Before Pics (After Pics will come eventually):
- Body


- Headstock

 

Right on, I wanna see how it will turn out.

At one point I actually used to play. Had a Fender precision bass as well as a strat but the strat ended up getting wrecked and it got sold. I've been jonesing for another bass just so I can play along with ZZ Top...but I'm really no good to be honest.

 

Ugh, it's always sad to hear when instruments get wrecked, what happened to it if I may ask?

 

Some asshat classmate dropped the case and I think it wrecked the truss rod adjustment...I don't know enough about guitars so it's my best guess but I could never tune it right after that. I was so choked, almost pounded the crap out of the little shit... It wasn't the greatest guitar but still, $650 down the drain.

 

Yeah that sounds about right. The truss rod is basically used to make neck adjustments, which can be a source of tuning issues.
And hey man, usually a $650 guitar can be very dear and that's a major shame that you lost it. :<
Though I'm having trouble figuring out how one can manage to break a guitar while it's in the case, unless it was a soft-shell gig bag any hard case should protect guitars from almost any fall.

I had a buddy of mine have his guitar fall onto a hard floor and completely cracked the neck right at the base of it. Both of us were gutted when that happened.

But yeah, so @Serathaiya got any projects you'd like to share for the thread?

 

I learned my lesson with soft cases after that. Sometimes you just have to learn the hard way, that's the way it is hahaha!

As for projects I'm just waiting for my Raytheon 866A to come in, it's a mercury arc rectifier that looks like this in operation:



Unfortunately it's a very, very dangerous tube and a lot of precautions have to be taken, BUT, that said it will outlast me and probably a couple generations after providing it's still around. The mercury is self renewing and the power this thing can handle is unreal. Plus it only drops 10V as opposed to 40-70V depending on rectifier tubes. I could use diodes but why bother...?

I've got a case for the next amp in the works so maybe some pics! But it's nothing special at the moment.

 

That looks so awesome! And I can definitely understand the danger seeing as its mercury.
And speaking of amps are you trying to create a new form of amp?
If so I'm all ears.

 

Hmm...not quite new but it will be substanstially more powerful than the others. I have a pair of Yamaha PA speakers that are rated for 80W continuous program material and are very sensitive. Am I aiming to blow windows out? Perhaps...hehehehe..

However, that said, I want to make a guitar amp.

 

Hehe very nice, how big and how many speakers are you trying to move with this potential amp?
Also I'm assuming it's going to be a tube amp correct, also if you could figure out a bass amp version of it I'd be all over it ;3

 

Just the pair I have. I used to be able to crank them years ago and royally pissed my neighbours off. Miss those days...

Oooh a bass amp would be a lot easier to build since the signal needs to remain clean...in fact I could change a couple resistors in the other amps I made to increase sensitivity for the pickup and you would have a bass amp! I'll draw a couple load lines up and post a schematic for you if you like.

I eventually want to build something that will move a 4 x 12 cab at around 100W. Should be loud enough.

 

What would be cool is if you could add a built in compressor circuit as well as a parametric EQ circuit.
As for moving the 4x12, I'm not sure 100W will be enough unless it's a guitar cab and not a bass cab.
The average 4x12 bass usually runs around 300W-800W RMS, so I'm assuming that it's different for guitar cabs?
Or am I going about this all wrong?

 

Sorry, wrote a book here...

Compressors and EQ are definitely possible, there is a tube I recently found called the 6ES8 that is extremely non linear in regards to signal amplitude. It will function in a circuit wired for a 6BZ7 or 6FQ7 and its many equivalents, so I tried it and found that it does a good job at compressing audio without much distortion. Not good for hifi but good for guitars! Tube tone controls are definitely possible too but get pretty expensive as high voltage parts cost more to make. But I'm crazy and like stuff like that so you can bet one day I will make something of that nature.

Required output power is a confusing subject for sure...it doesn't help manufacturers fudge numbers a lot. dBm/W @ 1m or 10m is almost an unquoted figure because that exposes how efficient something is, among other reasons. I always crack a grin when I see cheap ass computer speakers claiming 1500W...cracking them open reveals the drivers inside are rated for 5W each, and the power supply can only supply 15W. Bastards! Lying right in our faces to put it bluntly. For instance those aforementioned Yamahas are rated for 98db with 1W input power at 1m from the speaker. In an average room, 10W is deafening. Shakes the windows.... Interestingly enough they do rate them at 30ft at 1mW...why 1mW @ 30ft is beyond me, but anyway they are 49db at that distance and power input.

Anyway, 100W can definitely be enough but you need sensitive/efficient drivers. Most speakers made today aren't all that sensitive because there's no need, transistors move a lot of current with ease, are more efficient and are cheaper than tubes so it doesn't matter if they need 800W to make, let's say, 200W audio power. Transistors don't require output transformers, nor power for heaters which can cost a lot of money, so they can afford to splurge elsewhere, and/or cost cut.

That's why tubes have to have sensitive speakers, to make most of the power they can generate. That said, tubes often sound louder than transistors size for size because when tubes are driven into clipping they don't flat top the waveform like a transistor will and hence people crank them more as the distortion isn't as harsh and to some actually sounds pleasing. This is like cheating a bit because at that point, the equivalent tube circuit is actually moving more electrons so to speak.

Sorry this got long but I hope you learned something new. As you can probably tell, I love audio electronics...always have.

 

No no no I absolutely appreciate all this kind of information (despite not really understanding it all fully, I understand enough)
And that's amazing how speaker companies can just flat out lie knowing that people aren't going to check.

As for the the overdriven tube sound, that's one of those kinds of sounds I absolutely love, which is why I'm such a fan of tube amp heads. Plus all you really need is a few tube heads and you could heat up your whole household! XD

But yes this kind of information is awesome to learn about.
It makes me wish that I was more proficient in electronics and the like. (despite receiving this kind of education in my major but it wasn't as much as I would have liked).

 

A year and a bit ago I knew nothing about tube amps. A good customer of mine pointed me in this direction after a discussion about hifi audio and now I can't stop, I've accumulated so much junk...but good stuff as well. I just kept reading and studying books and with the right attitude and persistence you can do it too. If you wanna learn, check out the Valve Wizard, Merlin has an awesome site up about the basics.

If you're interested I could send you some TV tubes to experiment with just for shipping costs, though an old radio shop near you might have some for cheap or free even. You don't even need 200V+, some tubes work fine at say 30 or 40V. Still, take precaution. When you get experience, you will find that high voltages will affect the sound...that's because it reduces some phenomena inside the tube, namely electron transit time from the cathode to the plate.

If you like listening to headphones, the first circuit I ever built was this: http://diyaudioprojects.com/Solid/12AU7-IRF510-LM317-Headamp/

It sounds great but will get you addicted to tube rolling. You don't have to use 12AU7; 12AY7, 12AV7, 12AT7, 6CG7, 6FQ7, 6BZ7...all work, plus many many many more. I made something called "tube lab" based on this that enables me to switch out sockets for 7/8/9 pin types with free leads on the bottom that I wire in to screw type terminal strips. I just wire the plate to the plate connection, heaters to heaters, etc. I've used crap like 12BY7s which are TV type tubes but work amazing. Some don't but that's the fun of playing with it. You can easily burn an evening doing that with some beer...hehehehe!

 

See that's the funny thing, I have all the passion and curiosity and drive, but no proper workspace.
If I had my own little "audio world" in an outdoor shed with electricity going to it I'd be all over this like hotcakes.
Maybe someday when I get established somewhere.

 

@Velixer Don't let that stop you. I barely have what someone can call a workshop but I make do with what I have and still create those electron hogging monsters.

If you really can't work at your home you can still read books and watch things on youtube, don't let it stop you from exploring. EEVBlog is a good channel to watch about electronics stuff and Dave is really funny. You may not pick it all up right away but pretty soon you may find you understand something he said and it all builds from there.

Honestly if you really want to build tube stuff from the get go, you will need to understand the basics. Unfortunately, study can be boring but it's necessary. I myself hate it as I learn best from doing but still, I persist.

Read this guy's site: http://www.angelfire.com/electronic/funwithtubes/index.html

Max knows his stuff and has some interesting pages. I learned a lot from him.

Also, if you're interested, you can check this out:

http://www.tubebooks.org/tubedata/RC17.pdf

A lot of theory but a good amount about how a tube works and the different types. It seems like a lot of info but it's just because it's all new. Of course, if you have questions, just ask and I'll try to clarify. I love to teach people new things and I hope you will learn a new skill that will be fun and useful to you. Who knows, you may be able to fix someone's amp for some extra coin!

 

Ooooooooooo knowledge!!
Thank you kindly sir.

 

I am currently working on my Jazzi cosplay. It is made out of fuzzy felt with a liner. The pieces are glued together in preparation of sewing, but I have to fix the legs as the joint between the thigh and calf is too narrow to fit my leg through.

Also, I am going to work on my Jhin cosplay. Right now I have three fabrics, one for the outer part of the poncho and a liner, and some thicker gold fabric for accents and the arm piece. I am also going to make his gun, and that will be made out of wood, and will take a bit more work.

 

Whoops, I have some images now of what I will be doing for Jhin. And I didn't realize how detailed his gun really was lololol.