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Originally Posted By: Simon - PG Music
Outside of music I design, build, and repair electronics - guitar amps, pedals, mic preamps - and I am working on more repair videos for my youtube channel.
I also do some sound design for video games (as well as playing a lot of video games) or other audio recording/engineering.

I go swimming whenever possible, as they're one of the forms of exercise I can actually do with a spine injury, though I do like an occasional light walk in the woods. Otherwise I'm cooking or baking something with my partner, or maybe reading comics. Being autistic, I tend to get very deep into other hobbies from time to time, but those usually don't stick around long enough to be worth mentioning.


Originally Posted By: Planobilly
Building electronics



Nice! What amp is that?


A failure...lol

What I wanted to do was to design a two channel amp that could be switched with a foot switch. One channel would sound like a Fender Vibroverb and the other like a 100 watt Soldano.

Both channels sounded pretty good but I could never get them to switch properly at high volume. One speaker cab with a 15 for the Vibroverb and two 12's for the Soldano. I tried several brands of speakers. Mercury Magnetics input transformer and custom made output transformer. Four 6L6 output tube ( I messed around with some 6550's) and 5 12Ax7 pre tubes all matched for me by Eurotubes in Portland.

I have been fooling around with it for a couple of years. Lots of conversations with Bruce Zinky. He could most likely design what I wanted...I just could not afford the four or five thousand design fee...lol I think I got to ask Roy Blakenship a few questions but he is a really busy guy.

It is loud as hell so I have to take it away from my house to test it.

Actually I am not sure what I will do with the amp....I have a small fortune tied up in parts...lol

Billy


“Amazing! I’ll be working with Jaco Pastorius, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, and Buddy Rich, and you’re telling me it’s not that great of a gig?
“Well…” Saint Peter, hesitated, “God’s got this girlfriend who thinks she can sing…”
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ALL.
heres a little challenge for the diy electronic gurus here.
(ive tried and failed on several occasions in the past.)
i call it the MOJO PRE. an in line 20 db mic pre with one xlr input, and line out to sound interface line in.
mojo pre has one control a "mojo pot". ie character.
specs.
1. easy to build low cost diy under 30 buks.
2. single low voltage supply. 9 volt battery would be great.
(with bipolar op amp supplies, one often ends up with too many darn components. and yes i know bout the 5 buckie mic pre.)
3. low component count.
4. maybe useing a low voltage cheap "new technology tube" or a couple of germanium transistors ?.
i'm not an electronics guru. lol.

best
oldmuso
my interests are songwriting crazy songs, singing,
jaunts/travel with my lovely wife who i adore and who spoils me rotten lol
(jaunts now limited due to covid. just got the pfizer jab. so far no side fx.)
just happy to be alive on this crazy planet after surgery over a year ago.
a particular interest of mine is researching space travel,
and whether certain types of future tech like magnetic propulsion might be the solution rather than current fuel technology. which i feel is old tech.


Last edited by justanoldmuso; 04/16/21 12:54 AM.

my songs....mixed for good earbuds...(fyi..my vocs on all songs..)
https://soundcloud.com/alfsongs
(90 songs created useing bb/rb)
(lots of tips of mine in pg tips forum.)
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Quote:
2. single low voltage supply. 9 volt battery would be great.
(with bipolar op amp supplies, one often ends up with too many darn components. and yes i know bout the 5 buckie mic pre.)
4. maybe useing a low voltage cheap "new technology tube" or a couple of germanium transistors

Sadly, 2 and 4 don't mix. A 9 volt battery isn't going to reliably give the 100volt+ HV that the anode requires of a vacuum tube, and supply the heater current. Germanium transistors? I would have thought that at the very least, a low noise analog op-amp with feedback set for the right gain would have been a much more effective option. But just my 2 cents.


BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
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Originally Posted By: Planobilly
A failure...lol

What I wanted to do was to design a two channel amp that could be switched with a foot switch. One channel would sound like a Fender Vibroverb and the other like a 100 watt Soldano.


Sounds similar to my Rivera Knucklehead - one channel can do Fender Blackface (with a pull knob for Tweed) and the other does Marshall-style crunch (with a pull knob for boost that gets quite hairy). It has fewer gain stages than a Soldano might have, but probably would sound pretty close. Anyway, keep at it, hopefully you'll get it working!



Originally Posted By: VideoTrack
Quote:
2. single low voltage supply. 9 volt battery would be great.
(with bipolar op amp supplies, one often ends up with too many darn components. and yes i know bout the 5 buckie mic pre.)
4. maybe useing a low voltage cheap "new technology tube" or a couple of germanium transistors

Sadly, 2 and 4 don't mix. A 9 volt battery isn't going to reliably give the 100volt+ HV that the anode requires of a vacuum tube, and supply the heater current. Germanium transistors? I would have thought that at the very least, a low noise analog op-amp with feedback set for the right gain would have been a much more effective option. But just my 2 cents.


I agree, 2 and 4 won't mix without "too many darn components". From a 9v, you'd need a voltage booster to be able to drive a tube, or even an op-amp, and this style of voltage booster would add noise to the circuit. Even with a Nutube, it requires 17ma of heater current alone, and would flatten a 9v battery in half a day or less. AA's would be better, or 18650's.

Germanium transistors are most often not low noise. They're sensitive to temperature in regards to noise output. Any germanium transistor available these days is going to be "new old stock" at best, or used and half dead at worst.

Low noise analog op-amp, sounds like a perfect application for the 5 buck preamp. Still requires more than 9 volts though.


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This is the perfect discussion to ask the following: have any of you checked out the Finhol Blues Bass Board? If you haven’t, please check it out on YouTube (just do a YouTube search for “Finhol Blues Bass Board” and check out the video). For some reason, it is no longer being made....but, in my view, it’s really neat and it sounds great particularly for playing BLUES music!!! I’d love to have one for sure....can one of you tell me where one can be found OR CAN ONE OF YOU BUILD ONE? Please respond back with any suggestions about how I might get my hands on one of these....THANKS TREMENDOUSLY!!!
Cecil

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Originally Posted By: Planobilly
A failure...lol


Never a failure. Just an early draft!

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Originally Posted By: cchallum
This is the perfect discussion to ask the following: have any of you checked out the Finhol Blues Bass Board? If you haven’t, please check it out on YouTube (just do a YouTube search for “Finhol Blues Bass Board” and check out the video). For some reason, it is no longer being made....but, in my view, it’s really neat and it sounds great particularly for playing BLUES music!!! I’d love to have one for sure....can one of you tell me where one can be found OR CAN ONE OF YOU BUILD ONE? Please respond back with any suggestions about how I might get my hands on one of these....THANKS TREMENDOUSLY!!!
Cecil

Here is one on Reverb for sale.

https://reverb.com/item/7058938-thomann-finhol-blues-bass-board-2017-wood-aluminum

Billy


“Amazing! I’ll be working with Jaco Pastorius, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, and Buddy Rich, and you’re telling me it’s not that great of a gig?
“Well…” Saint Peter, hesitated, “God’s got this girlfriend who thinks she can sing…”
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Billy......thanks tremendously!!! I’ll pursue getting it if it’s still there!!!
THANKS VERY MUCH,
Cecil

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Band-in-a-Box 2026 Video: The Newly Designed Piano Roll Window

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Band-in-a-Box 2026 Video: AI Stems & Notes - split polyphonic audio into instruments and transcribe

This video demonstrates how to use the new AI-Notes feature together with the AI-Stems splitter, allowing you to select an audio file and have it separated into individual stems while transcribing each one to its own MIDI track. AI-Notes converts polyphonic audio—either full mixes or individual instruments—into MIDI that you can view in notation or play back instantly.

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  • Artist Performance Set 19: Songs with Vocals 9
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