Official Off Topic Discussion Thread #1
- Thread starter Chrisplosion
- Start date
I added Another 50 words…Your last four words ^ say it all.
Today I’m converting this old radio to a portable guitar amp.
I have been taking apart electronic junk & scavenging bits to build this fuzz tone device.
The weather here has been very damp lately and so I have not been able to finish working out the shellac on my Bobcat Guitar. Number 11 or 12 as shown in this photograph from 1967.
I have been taking apart electronic junk & scavenging bits to build this fuzz tone device.
The weather here has been very damp lately and so I have not been able to finish working out the shellac on my Bobcat Guitar. Number 11 or 12 as shown in this photograph from 1967.
Oscars are doing well but we lost our last pleco last night.
Rhino the BNP is now in the dead fish thread. He was responsible for the bizarre shape of that filter foam. He ate off that filter for several years. Literally eating it.
Rhino the BNP is now in the dead fish thread. He was responsible for the bizarre shape of that filter foam. He ate off that filter for several years. Literally eating it.
Well my little guitar amp conversion worked ok. (It worked even better when I put a little 9 V booster amplifier into the circuit.)
Generally speaking, If you want to do this with a transistor radio, the trick is that the ground of the guitar or mic cable must go to the ground of the radio. (It happens to also be the negative terminal of the speaker.)
The center wire of the cable goes to the base of the preamp transistor. You can find this by tracing from the wiper of the volume control back through the filter capacitor and past the shunt resistor to the base of the audio preamplifier transistor.
I’m certain there are other configurations out there but this is the common one.
I also cut the AM wires at the AM/FM switch, and I will use this only with the switch in the AM position.
I could add one more switch to the system, allowing me to retain the AM radio. It wasn’t that important to me.
Generally speaking, If you want to do this with a transistor radio, the trick is that the ground of the guitar or mic cable must go to the ground of the radio. (It happens to also be the negative terminal of the speaker.)
The center wire of the cable goes to the base of the preamp transistor. You can find this by tracing from the wiper of the volume control back through the filter capacitor and past the shunt resistor to the base of the audio preamplifier transistor.
I’m certain there are other configurations out there but this is the common one.
I also cut the AM wires at the AM/FM switch, and I will use this only with the switch in the AM position.
I could add one more switch to the system, allowing me to retain the AM radio. It wasn’t that important to me.
It still needs a good cleanup, but today I installed a 1/4” phono jack on the repurposed AC/DC 9v GE “guitar amp”.
It’s running on AC here, & is goosed by the 9v Fulltone booster, itself goosed by a reverse polarity 15v power brick.
It could handle up to 18v, if I find a better brick, but it’s loud enough for my purposes now. Any more voltage and I might shred the speaker coil.
Without the booster amp it’s not too loud, unless I play the Schecter or the Clapton, both having amplified pickups on the instrument.
Anyhow, this is now my battery powered portable outdoor toy.
It’s running on AC here, & is goosed by the 9v Fulltone booster, itself goosed by a reverse polarity 15v power brick.
It could handle up to 18v, if I find a better brick, but it’s loud enough for my purposes now. Any more voltage and I might shred the speaker coil.
Without the booster amp it’s not too loud, unless I play the Schecter or the Clapton, both having amplified pickups on the instrument.
Anyhow, this is now my battery powered portable outdoor toy.
Hello; I was looking out on my front yard this morning and saw a full grown deer running across my front yard. Did not think too much about it until later. I saw a section of my chain link fence was damaged. One of the posts was bent at near a 90 degree angle and the fence was distorted. Did not make sense at first as to what happened.
When I inspected the fence there was deer body hair on the ground and a clear hoof print. I am amazed at the damage. A thing is the deer was not trapped as there is a fifteen foot opening nearby. Guess the deer was panicked by something.
I straightened the fence up some but will likely need to do more when it stops raining.
When I inspected the fence there was deer body hair on the ground and a clear hoof print. I am amazed at the damage. A thing is the deer was not trapped as there is a fifteen foot opening nearby. Guess the deer was panicked by something.
I straightened the fence up some but will likely need to do more when it stops raining.
Latest cheap guitar amp build: $30 total
Still needs paint & upholstery.
I bought a jack $5
Pine board $15
Screws $10
Everything else was junk I saved from other projects. Leftover plywood and oak cleats. Speakers from my shed radio. Amp, AC cord, transformer & controls from my wife’s old radio. Fuse holder & AC switch leftover from the mini-welder project.
My dad picked up those furniture legs and the steel brackets for them in Duluth Minnesota in 1968. Brand new surplus. They’ve been knocking around ever since.
Still needs paint & upholstery.
I bought a jack $5
Pine board $15
Screws $10
Everything else was junk I saved from other projects. Leftover plywood and oak cleats. Speakers from my shed radio. Amp, AC cord, transformer & controls from my wife’s old radio. Fuse holder & AC switch leftover from the mini-welder project.
My dad picked up those furniture legs and the steel brackets for them in Duluth Minnesota in 1968. Brand new surplus. They’ve been knocking around ever since.
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