welcome
This is an old revision of the document!
Zot's Dream
Info
If anyone happened to be wandering around the big bad internet wondering what happened to the Zot's Dream website, it is archived here:
http://zotsdream.hintersphere.com/
…and all of the flyer and music downloads should still be working just fine. I did take down the part where we were looking for a bass player though. This is available purely for posterity.
DIY MP3 Radio
My secret santa for X-Mas 2009 was my Grampa Kriete. I thought it would be cool to make him a DIY Radio/MP3 Player pre-loaded with a bunch of songs he liked and also a bunch of songs I've played on.
Ingredients
Eventually settled on this circuit which worked out very well:
http://www.aaroncake.net/circuits/amp20w.asp
One cool thing about the circuit is that it can be powered using a recycled PC Computer power supply. In addition to powering the amp, it can be rigged up as a USB power charger, and also power a cpu fan which cools the TDA1554 chip. So not only is this thing a radio, it is also a charging station for anything USB.
The amplifier parts were mounted in a clementine box which can be seen in the pics. The clementine box was eventually velcro'd inside a decorative box from Hobby Lobby which has a pair of pawn shop JBL car stereo speakers mounted in both sides. At the top of the box is a sheet metal control panel which accesses 4 USB charging ports, the mp3 player/radio and a big on/off switch for power.
I only have pictures and video from before the final radio was assembled.
Gallery
Video
More Harmony Mods
Magnet Swap
The Harmony is outfitted with GFS Crunchy PAF chrome covered humbuckers. Last month I swapped the ceramic magnets with AlNiCo 8 ones. This inspiration came from a 1977 Ibanez Les Paul Copy. Those pickups are wound to about 7k resistance (both the neck and bridge, pretty evenly) with AlNiCo 8 magnets. I noticed that they are brighter with a boingier, more dynamic, musical quality. The GFS Crunchy PAFs are wound to about 10k neck and 14k for the bridge. Out of the box they have a thick, meaty tone. The magnet swap was relatively easy to do without even disconnecting the pickups.
Some interesting observations about the swap… The pickups aren't really any brighter, but I wasn't really expecting that anyway. They are however more dynamic, musical and boingy. Because the pickups are overwound, there is still a lot of “meat” also… I haven't yet established a preference for the overwounds vs the ones in the Ibanez. The wiring itself has already been heavily modded and in this guitar I normally favor the outer coils in series to a standard middle position. With the original magnets, the middle position had a lot of mud whereas outer coils in series is much cleaner (and almost tele-middle) sounding. The mud has really cleared up with the AlNiCo 8s in the standard middle position.
I tend to shy away from the bridge pickup but I'm finding that position more attractive as well.
Wax Potting
One unfortunate side effect of the magnet swap was a loosening of the coils or the cover of the bridge pickup. Found this out on stage doing the solo for Alice Cooper's School's Out (check out feedback @ 1:05). Normally the guitar note bleeds into feedback which has to be regulated by position in front of the amp. Instead, I got blasts of unmusical squealing as something in the pickup went haywire.
I found this link and re-potted the bridge pickup last night. Since there is about 2 pounds of copper wire in the cavity, and 5 connections per pickup I was really trying to avoid unsoldering them. Put together a simple double-boiler and mixed about 60-40 parafin to beeswax. Managed to do this without frying the guitar body although I almost burned it on the stove. The final test will be tonight when the Boneheadz play at “Del Ranch”
Ten Summers
Latest Mix:
ten_summers.mp3
History
- 20090207 - Guitar + Vocals
- 20090208 - Beefed up the guitars.