Lunch report THur 11/24/2011

[meowmix]

Lunch Report for 11/24 2011

This is Thanksgiving day in America. Where we travel to gather with relatives, stuff ourselves with Turkey and watch some football. With the internet having no bounds, some of you live in other countries and have to work today just like any other day.

I'm not driving anywhere. Staying home away from the traffic madness. For lunch, it is my final installment of my Turkey stew. Anymore days of this and I am going to.....
For Supper tonight I'll have Lingcod.

Cranberries. Who here is eating cranberries today? Tell us how it was made.





Everyday, not just the holiday we should be thankful. And I am thankful for the guitars I have.
The G&L are some very fine instruments.

The G&L Topic of the day:
----------------------------
I have a 96' S-500 and to my ears, I find the PUs don't have the same bite
as my new 2011 S-500. For those who have different years but same model guitar, do you hear the same thing?
Do PU mellow over time?

Here is what Eric Clampton said about Blackie and his Signature model
" so I gave Blackie's neck to Fender as a template, and they built the Eric Clapton Signature guitars I'm playing now, which are more robust, with more power in the pickups."




The Non-G&L Topic of the day:
-------------------------------
Over the past year I have been working on DIY projects.
Any DIYers out there?
Mic pre-amp, microphones, and my big project, the LondonPower guitar amplifier.
Ever since reading Kevin O'Connors first book, "The Ultimate Tone" or TUT (http://www.londonpower.com/), I have taken modifications to amplifiers as a hobby. So much so, I started to build amplifiers from scratch.
Where do I start?
Tools


If you look close enough, I have the same type of wire cutter BoogieBill has. Of all the hand tools, that one gets used the most. The soldering iron is my third one in the past year. The previous two were junk. Hako soldering station is excellent. Spend the extra $$$ and get it done right. Kind of like buying a new G&L, when looking for what color to choose, do it right the first time. Don't settle for less, get the metal flake.

Buyers market for oscilloscopes. $200 for a Textronic 465! What a deal!

Now to the preamp
When I started it looked like this

as time when by, the build looked like this

Isn't that scary. Wires all over the place, looks like an accident waiting to happen.
Ended up backtracking. Got a larger rackmount and started again, this time small.

After each step, I tested it. When it worked, go to the next.
Here I am today

The switching mechanism isn't working, once that is complete, I will shorten or hide the wires to make it look clean.

That was the pre-amp.
Now to the Power amp. Another rack mount and just got started on this.


What is an amp without speakers?
My speaker just came home yersterday after a recone.

I'm using the Weber blocker to stop the ice-pick noise.

The speaker cab is a dutuned cab. Meaning 1 speaker


I also worked on this year was modifying tube microphones.




Another project: Mic pre-amp from FishFive


My goal for next Sept is to finish the amplifier.

Questions:
------------------
Cranberries?
Do PU get mellow over time?
Any DIYers?

[louis cyfer]

nice builds. did you design and make the pcb's? 6 preamp tubes and 3 power tubes?

alnico pups certainly mellow over time. they lose magnetic charge and that changes the tone. ceramic ones not so much imnsho.

[desertrat07]

Happy Thanksgiving everybody! We're having about 10-12 guests over today. Lunch will be the 20 pound turkey I've got roasting in the oven, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, beans, tortillas, red chile, crescent rolls, string bean casserole, roasted brussel sprouts, stuffing, and lots of gravy, with an assortment of pies, cookies and ice cream for desert. My wife is Native American, so the coming together of our family on this day has a lot of meaning for us. But mostly, it's about the FOOOOD! I'm not much a football fan, so I'll definitely be playing some guitar today as well.

I'm not so sure that pickups mellow with age. I just swapped one of my guitars for Murali's 1983 SC-2 for a few days, and those pickups are probably the hottest single coils I've played. I was actually amazed, because my Comanche's pickups are a lot hotter than my Legacy pups, but the SC-2's MFD's have noticeably more output than both of them. It's a loud guitar. I also had a 1995 S-500 for a little while that had some hot mothers in it. There are so many factors that impact a guitar's tone that it is difficult to say the only difference you are hearing between your S-500's is the pickups. But it's those variations that make it so much fun to try new guitars!!!

Peace.

[meowmix]

nice builds. did you design and make the pcb's? 6 preamp tubes and 3 power tubes?

No, you buy the board and put things together yourself.
The speaker cab was built by http://www.jdesigncabs.com/speakers_par ... /amp_caddy
I suck at wood work, pay someone else to do it.

The mic pre-amp kit http://www.fivefishstudios.com/diy-kits

The pre-amp kits example http://www.londonpower.com/catalog/prod ... ucts_id=75

The microphone was a Tady1050 or was it NADY? But the mod included replacing the capsule, replacing caps plus resistors, replacing the tube, and replacing the transformer.

[Michael-GnL-Michael]

I have made cranberry sauce from scratch. You cannot buy a small amount of berries and end up throwing so much out though. There really isn't that much difference in the taste of homemade over canned that I can tell at least. The biggest difference is that many canned cranberry sauces are just some gel concoction. If you can find more of a lumpy sauce in a can go for it unless you have a very large group of cranberry sauce eaters. It is made similar to applesauce. A little water cooked over the stove stirred to the right consistency with some sweetener like sugar or maple syrup (my preference).

Comparing apples to apples I have a 2011 and a mid 90's ASAT Classic. There is a noticeable difference between the pickups of these specific guitars. The new one is more responsive to nuances and hotter. I would have to have more experience with older and newer guitars to tell whether it is the period, due to aging or strictly confined to these two guitars on their own.

I agree with the philosophy of paying for the right thing. Sometimes paying more is necessary in order to have all of the benefits of the best item, whatever that happens to be.

Thanks for the LRs so far this week.

[louis cyfer]

nice builds. did you design and make the pcb's? 6 preamp tubes and 3 power tubes?

No, you buy the board and put things together yourself.
The speaker cab was built by http://www.jdesigncabs.com/speakers_par ... /amp_caddy
I suck at wood work, pay someone else to do it.

The mic pre-amp kit http://www.fivefishstudios.com/diy-kits

The pre-amp kits example http://www.londonpower.com/catalog/prod ... ucts_id=75

The microphone was a Tady1050 or was it NADY? But the mod included replacing the capsule, replacing caps plus resistors, replacing the tube, and replacing the transformer.

i am talking about this statement "I started to build amplifiers from scratch." i was thinking the amp was that one in the picture.

[blargfromouterspace]

Happy thanksgiving to you Americans. We should have something similar here to commemorate how badly we treated the indigenous Australians but that is unlikely to happen - the government only issued an apology two or three years ago for taking away the children of entire generation after a very long campaign for them to say "sorry". Our big celebration day is Australia Day, the day that the first white people landed here. It is called "Invasion Day" by the indig', and that name is catching on. I don't partake in the celebrations as it looks more and more like a National Party convention every year, too much flag waving and brainless chanting.

If we did have thanksgiving here there's a possibility that Australian women would still know how to cook. That's something I'd be thankful for.

I just bought a nice soldering iron this week. I haven't tackled anything as serious as an amp yet, but want to get a kit from Weber sometime. That wiry picture is frightening, I can only begin to imagine how frustrating that was! I learned (the hard way...) that with electronic projects that it's much easier to plan things before you jump in. I have a bunch of projects that remain unfinished because I have no idea where I'm up to and the thing looks like a plate of spaghetti. Good luck with finishing it off!

[meowmix]

i am talking about this statement "I started to build amplifiers from scratch." i was thinking the amp was that one in the picture.

Good catch. That is the wrong word. I have all the tools to do so. But for DIY projects to be beneficial, it needs time + price to make it worth it. I could use fiberglass board, drill 1/8 holes and solder everything together just like this.


There has been people who did start from scratch and built "The Standard" (TUT book 5, I think)
Check this guy out
http://www.fydamps.com/photo.html
That amp is about the same as the one I am building.
I am in contact with Dan who built that thing. He has been helping me out.

[darwinohm]

Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving. We did and everyone has left. We do a brunch of different egg, potato dishes with bacon, sausage, and ham. I usually don't eat much as I am tasting the meats while grilling them outdoors and pretty much topped out by mealtime. Ginny can't see what I doing.

Tools of the trade. Yes, they are going to do the job correctly. I have them but am still looking for a good Techtronix on the cheap. I would like one to isolate 60 cycle hum in the power supplies. Some of the new power supplies could be improved upon but I need a scope to do it. I am a do it your selfer on most everything. I even do my own medical diagnoses but it's usually a few days before I finally end up at the doctor.

Blarg, I get a feeling that most of the ladies that you are looking at when your gigging don't need to cook. I am only surmising that based on the wares I see hanging on you guitar. Who needs a cook at time like that. As long as they know how to make reservations you are going to survive. -- Darwin

[Michael-GnL-Michael]

Happy thanksgiving to you Americans. We should have something similar here to commemorate how badly we treated the indigenous Australians but that is unlikely to happen...!

National holidays can be looked at several ways. For many people who grew up in the USA, these events (not only Thanksgiving) are more of a reason for a special family gathering and the history is irrelevant. There are not any people alive who were directly involved in the original events. No one should be walking around with a chip on their shoulders over it. Set aside the commercializing of everything. Among many groups and individuals, there are those who insist on reminding everyone that there is some original purpose to the events. There are others who would like to see things changed to their preferences. There are those who would like there to be no such "celebrations" ever about anything. There are those who use these events to criticize organizations that support them. Is Thanksgiving in the US really an event when everyone celebrates one group taking over another land and culture or the fairy tale of friendship? No one really celebrates that except for maybe a very tiny group of extremists. The US eventually became a relatively decent place to live with more opportunities for more people than anywhere in the world. The US is full of people who came from nothing and made something of themselves. In fact even its enemies would come here to take advantage of the opportunities when they had a chance. Some people hate the US because they want what is here. There is envy and jealousy behind their actions. It is childish thinking "If I can't have it you can't either." With all of this scorn the US has been deteriorating so now no one can have what was once available. I am not rich but I get to enjoy driving on nice roads or to access a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables at the grocery store because there are wealthy people and with that wealth comes an overall upgrade in everyone's lifestyle.

[blargfromouterspace]

...There are not any people alive who were directly involved in the original events..... No one should be walking around with a chip on their shoulders over it....and the history is irrelevant

It's kind of different here. For a whole bunch of people the history is not only relevant it wasn't that long ago. Kids were being taken from their families into the '70s, making them 40 something today. Better leave it at that before it gets too political.

[Michael-GnL-Michael]

...There are not any people alive who were directly involved in the original events..... No one should be walking around with a chip on their shoulders over it....and the history is irrelevant

It's kind of different here. For a whole bunch of people the history is not only relevant it wasn't that long ago. Kids were being taken from their families into the '70s, making them 40 something today. Better leave it at that before it gets too political.

Okay I understand.

[louis cyfer]

...There are not any people alive who were directly involved in the original events..... No one should be walking around with a chip on their shoulders over it....and the history is irrelevant

It's kind of different here. For a whole bunch of people the history is not only relevant it wasn't that long ago. Kids were being taken from their families into the '70s, making them 40 something today. Better leave it at that before it gets too political.

i think michael is talking about thanksgiving, not about all holidays.

[zapcosongs]

Questions:
------------------
Cranberries? Yes. Homemade sauce. Raw cranberries cooked with water, sugar, orange zest and ginger.
Do PU get mellow over time? Not sure, but I certainly do!
Any DIYers? Not here. Looks like you're having fun though, which is important. What's that bagel doing in there with all the wires? - ed
PS: Great holiday to all!

[louis cyfer]

Questions:
------------------
Cranberries? Yes. Homemade sauce. Raw cranberries cooked with water, sugar, orange zest and ginger.
Do PU get mellow over time? Not sure, but I certainly do!
Any DIYers? Not here. Looks like you're having fun though, which is important. What's that bagel doing in there with all the wires? - ed
PS: Great holiday to all!

you mean the toroidal transformer?

[zapcosongs]

Heck if I know! Is it good with cream cheese? - ed

[willross]

...the history is irrelevant.

Oh, yeah... Then we are doomed to repeat it. Take, take, take; how many invite a Native American to their feast? The answer is "irrelevant". Happy Thanksgiving!


Will

[Michael-GnL-Michael]

...the history is irrelevant.

Oh, yeah... Then we are doomed to repeat it. Take, take, take; how many invite a Native American to their feast? The answer is "irrelevant". Happy Thanksgiving!


Will

Will,

You missed the point entirely.

For many people the immediacy of the familial experience overshadows any historical aspect with regards to most national holidays, albeit Independence Day, Thanksgiving, Labor Day,.... Growing up fertile soil for ideas, the history lessons taught in school soon paled to the immediate experiences of the way people celebrated these events. Few people formally "honor" the origins of most national holidays with the exception of Memorial Day. For most people these are days when you get together with your family and friends.

You have stripped a partial sentence from its context. I am not advocating anything like your sarcasm suggests. I was describing it as I have observed and experienced it.

[louis cyfer]

i went to a second thanksgiving dinner on friday. there was a cranberry sauce that was so good, i have never tasted the like of it. asked her how it was made, she said "cranberries and splenda, just enough to control the tartness". boy was it good.