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What 'do-it-yourself' music technology projects have you done ? - things that can be used in your home-studio or live performance. For those of you interested in sharing, please include the approximate cost, time, and success of the project. Also share the more 'challenging' parts, and whether you would bother doing it again if you knew then what you know now 
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In the 70s and 80s I built a couple of Craig Anderton's devices from his book "Electronic Projects for Musicians" (which is still in print and available from PAIA Electronics, among others) including a basic six-channel mixer, an optical compressor (which never worked--it was my first attempt at a printed circuit board), and a really sweet-sounding spring reverb. All were built using components from retail electronic supply houses other than Radio Shack wherever possible. I even built a VOM from a kit during that time to test everything.
Using similar techniques I was able to get inside several of my Fender tube guitar amps and insert intermediate-stage gain controls which allowed me to use external preamps to get different distortion sounds without effects as such, and without having to crank the amps to their max to do it.
The knowledge I gained was invaluable in my pursuit of live sound and recording and helped save shows a couple of times when I was able to diagnose and correct issues during performances. I'm still willing to get inside a box or an electric guitar or bass with a soldering iron to correct a (to me) obvious problem. I wouldn't try most of the projects today, though, because of time and money; it's simply easier and cheaper to buy better sounding, more versatile digital effects, or to use VSTs or other virtual devices instead.
Richard
"My primary musical instrument is the personal computer."
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You DIY'ers may like this site. If you like tinkering and elctronics, Make is a great magazine to read. http://makezine.com/07/primer/
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Too numerous to count, Joe.
Of course, one has to realize just how LOOOOOOONG I've been at it, received my first tape recorder for Christmas at the tender age of around 8, started making home recordings of our family ensembles, etc. and had the nerve to attempt "on location" recordings at church within the first year of having that device.
Wasn't long before I wanted more. Stereo deck with the magic of "Sound on Sound" was next, that led kind of naturally into early attempts at multitracking.
Then along came the intense interest in the Electric Guitar that hit my generation so hard by the latter half of the 60s or so. Being a young ham radio enthusiast, the concept of home brewing various bits of electrical/electronics gear was a natural, often converting audio devices designed and built with other intent into Electric Guitar oriented stuff. While in high school, "built" my own two twelve twin amplifier that utilized a tube chassis power amp strip that came out of an old Wurlitzer jukebox. Also found this old 30s or 40s vintage Master Intercom station in someone's trash that turned into a single-ended and wonderful sounding Fender Champ "tweed" class of guitar amp rather easily by tapping into the center lug of its Volume Control with nothing more than a 1/4" jack and a .1mfd coupling cap. That little thing wailed, wish I still had it now. About 5W of low fidelity (no negative feedback in the circuit) overdrive into the built in ~5" round speaker that had the old electromagnetic magnet that also served as power supply filter choke. And the wooden louvered intercom cabinet. Big row of leaf switches across the bottom switched in the screw terminals on the back that were supposed to go to the Remote intercom stations, which I did not have and did not need.
Then there was the day that I accidentally discovered the fuzzbox/overdrive sound. One first has to understand that there was once a time when the music stores and catalogs were not filled with stompboxes and I don't think the term, "fuzzbox" much less "distortion pedal" existed yet. But for some reason I took that first mono tape recorder, tube driven, of course, off the shelf and plugged one of my electric guitars into the mic jack, simply because the mic jack on that old recorder was also a 1/4" phone, I guess. But the recorder itself had no provision for monitoring the input, so I heard nothing. For some reason, I remembered that one of the Output jacks at the back of the recorder would output audio while the recorder was in Record mode. So I used the RCA output at back and a 1/4" plug at the other end of a cable to jack the output of that tape recorder into the input of one of my guitar amps, by then a real Fender Twin.
And -- spent the rest of the afternoon in my own festival of glorious, overdriven guitar sounds.
I somehow ended up figuring out that the audio output transformer of the tape recorder needed a load across it that was lower impedance than the input to the guitar amp (understatement there, the Twin had in input imepdance in the megohm vicinity) and, lacking a "proper" 4 to 10 ohm Wirewound resistor for such in my junkboxes, placed a 6V automobile tailight bulb across instead. Didn't know it, but the filament of that bulb is what added a bit of ersatz Audio Compression.
That tape recorder ended up going to gigs. I would try to hide it on the floor behind the Twin. Driven with humbuckers, the strange and new world of that "Cream" sound was finally mine.
But I digress. As usual.
I don't know how people who cannot handle a VTVM, DMM, 'Scope and a soldering iron get things done in their studios. But I never could figure out Hammond Organ ownership without those skills either *grin*. To me that's half the fun.
--Mac
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Oh, wow, Joe! That opens the memory floodgates.
A schoolmate in HS, Jerry Yates, got me interested in Electronics Technology and we did many wild experiments in the late 50s. We learned how to tap into the audio amp portion of his Dad's big Crosley "Trans Oceanic" SW receiver and, using a ceramic phonograph cartridge as a guitar pickup, we were "amplified". We removed the carbon rod from a carbon-zinc D cell and nearly blinded ourselves with our carbon arc lamp experiments.
Jerry was what I would call a genius. We had a math teacher who would let us visit his apartment in the evenings where he allowed us to smoke and drink coffee. We would ponder space travel, rocketry, and everything scientific. His name was Neil Johnson and was exactly like the teacher that Robin Williams played in "Dead Poet's Society". He made learning an exciting adventure.
I also started building PAIA kits. Two that I fondly remember were the "Thumpa Thumpa Box" Electronic Drummer and the "Vocal Zapper" which removed vocals and other phantom (center channel) information from a stereo signal. I later got Craig Anderton's book which took me to the next level. I was hooked.
I enlisted the aid of Nortronics, a US tape head manufacturing company, and they sent me heads and schematics to build my own Tape Echo.
Later, I began an Import Agency specializing in electronic components. I supplied parts for most major US music and sound reinforcement OEM including the best known names of that era. At the same time, I was working on several product designs of my own while being coached by such geniuses as Greg Mackie, Bob Carver, Dr Alan Chandler (AEA), and many other high-profile friends.
About that time I became the stocking import/distributor for Japanese Kiso Suzuki Musical Instruments who were primarily violin makers of world fame.
At that point, renowned Dobro(r) picker, Mike Auldridge, and I undertook to co-design the ultimate resonator guitar. That idea was stillborn because Suzuki couldn't make a cone/spider combination to satisfy Mike's ear.
Chapter Two tomorrow...
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Quote:
...We learned how to tap into the audio amp portion of his Dad's big Crosley "Trans Oceanic" SW receiver...
"Transoceanic" was a Zenith brand model.
I've still got the last transistorized model, let the toob ones go when the collectors were payin' way more than I figured they'd ever be again.
--Mac
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Quote:
Jeez, Don. All I ever "built" was a Heathkit. 
At one time Heathkit offered a lineup of Guitar Amp kits, top of the line was a solid state twintwelve equivalent.
A Heathkit Fuzzbox and for a while, a Heathkit Vox wah-wah pedal were also offered. The Fuzzbox was in Heath crinkle green, but, perhaps in an example of scattered showers of design wisdom, they mercifully left the Vox wah pedal in crinkle black. The pedal top's "rubberoid" panel did say Heath-by-Vox on it instead of Vox, though.
And, they did another first in offering the Vox "Jaguar" combo organ as a Heathkit, as well. Today, those are collector items.
Never had any of their musical instrument stuff, but certainly had Heath in the hamshack. The introduction of the HW-100 transceiver with the PTO in it and the look and feel made the "Hot Water 100" as it was often called onair, also known as The Poor Man's Collins. And, indeed, operationally, once you got the bugs of being self-assembled and calibrated out of it, it was.
--Mac
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My Heathkit was just one of the little AM radio jobs. On a good night I could pull in a couple of local stations - and of course - Wolfman Jack (out of Mexico!)
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Wolfman indeed.
That was a rather infamous Mexican transmitter that ran one million watts (no foolin') into a wire array antenna that was directional, covering most of the United States in its pattern.
On a good night I used to be able to copy The Wolfman in Pittsburgh, PA, on a crystal set.
--Mac
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Quote:
Quote:
...We learned how to tap into the audio amp portion of his Dad's big Crosley "Trans Oceanic" SW receiver...
"Transoceanic" was a Zenith brand model.
I've still got the last transistorized model, let the toob ones go when the collectors were payin' way more than I figured they'd ever be again.
--Mac
Mac, me wee Oyrish mate, I meant that as an adjective more than a proper noun. Plus, my spelling thingy couldn't spell Halicrafter. Chuckle! It was either a Halicrafter or a big Grundig. At any rate, we thought that we were rock stars.
Imagine a Sears Silvertone, archtop, f-hole, fencepost amplified! We were "squatin' in your proverbial cotton!"
Last edited by Don Gaynor; 01/03/13 12:38 PM.
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I knew that, Don. Or something to that effect anyways. I've noticed that in the middle of conversations, there have been names, things, places, "right on the tip o' my tongue" -- but lately that's where they seem to stay. Quote:
Imagine a Sears Silvertone, archtop, f-hole, fencepost amplified!
Don't have to imagine that one, all I need do is be able to remember mine, right?
Looking forward to the second exciting installment of Don's Dilemmas & Derring-Do.
Don't touch that dial...
--Mac
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Quote:
I knew that, Don. Or something to that effect anyways. I've noticed that in the middle of conversations, there have been names, things, places, "right on the tip o' my tongue" -- but lately that's where they seem to stay.
Quote:
Imagine a Sears Silvertone, archtop, f-hole, fencepost amplified!
Don't have to imagine that one, all I need do is be able to remember mine, right?
Looking forward to the second exciting installment of Don's Dilemmas & Derring-Do.
Don't touch that dial...
--Mac
Mac, I'm stuck in "name-dropping" mode. That Silvertone box was the same one that Bob Dylan and I would swap back and forth at house parties and keggers in the late 50s in Northern Minnesota (Hibbing).
Okay, my name-dropping clip is empty. I need to reload.
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I think it is only "name dropping" when someone is tellin' a whopper.
So, if Dylan really did dig yer guitar, that's jus' tellin' it like it is.
Or rather, "was".
But then, I'm not sure about bragging rights when it comes to knowin' Bob...
--Mac
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I didn't mean to imply that Bob "dug" my guitar...it was all we had! Chuckle.
I'm currently waiting for him to reply to my letter that I wrote him in someone else's behalf. That will speak volumes. My son was at a venue with Jakob Dylan and Jakob recognized my son's name stating that his dad remembered me very fondly and spoke highly of me.
My letter had to first get through Bob's agent so he may never see it. Even if it did get through to Bob, it could be weeks or months before he finds time to answer.
Just the facts, ma'am!
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Probably the most useful things I have built for my studio are more mechanical/furniture in nature. 1. Very simple: I built speaker stands for my monitors that put them right at ear level off my desk. I might have pix somewhere. I don't use them anymore since I bought a different desk off of Craigslist - a 'producer' desk which has way more 19" rack space than I will ever need, but a puny depth top shelf - so I've modded that by making the shelf extend further towards the front of the desk and the monitor speakers sit there right on the front edge at ear height. 2. More complex but even more useful was the GOBO I built and anti-flutter treatment for the studio. I do have pix of those. GOBO front - GOBO is on the right, anti-flutter item on left of image: (click either image for larger view)  Back side is scavenged 3" deep foam wedges in a hodgepodge of pieces glued to the GOBO. Striped sides of both are rugs purchased from IKEA. Anti-flutter device is a framework built from 1"x2" material, with the same rug stapled over it and hung from ceiling by picture hanging wire - about 3-4" out away from the wall.  Those photos are from the previous house. I now use that gobo in concert with a clothes closet that has slider doors on it, expose one side of closet and box myself in a bit with the foam side of the gobo - makes for a very dead 'booth'. Best piece of studio 'furniture' I ever purchased was a built-in Murphy bed that lets us use that room for dual purposes. -Scott
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For me the strangest thing I did JUST before discovering BIAB did was to use organ footpedals, soldered into a stripped computerr keyboard, used a keyboard "keyboard simulator" after mapping the connections to the keyboard circuit board in order to try and play my own bass while playing guitar and singing. A home organ player can do! Why not me. Sort of worked but happily abandoned it when i found BIAB on the internet .....
(Do not tell the wife, i still have that organ footpedals stashed in the attic!)
I'm doing allright for Country Trash ....
I used to care, but things have changed (Bob Dylan)
BIAB 2026W + RB
M-Audio FastTrack C600, Rode NT2-A
Digitech VoiceLive 4
Epiphone Sheraton, Ibanez 12str, Washburn 6str, Cort 6Str Nylon
Yanagisawa Tenor Sax
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Hi
didn`t everybody make there own solid guitar and pickups the old magazine BMG was first rate in showin you how, i made half a dozen guitars, bass and lap guitars,the hardest part was to make a guitar pickup coil machine that did not brake the finest wires you could get before this occurd you would wind a coil for weeks and it was worth the effort as the sound was superb when finised,one thing you notice now is that where we had so many mags showing you how to make all the different guitar boxes, piano`s and other things now there is none
I always play the right notes but not always in the right order
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There was a time when I put together my own pickup winding device, complete with turns counter, and then proceeded to rewind just about every pickup that passed thru my hands, often ignoring the turns counter and "overwrapping" until no more magnet wire could be made to fit on the things.
Prolly ruined a few real PAFs along the way...
--Mac
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Quote:
one thing you notice now is that where we had so many mags showing you how to make all the different guitar boxes, piano`s and other things now there is none
Not true - it's mostly online now. Make Magazine's website, TV show, forum, etc. are abundant with projects. Several other sources as well.
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