Speakers and shipping…don’t mix
I ordered some replacement speakers for my PA boxes. Two 400watt cast aluminum speakers that arrived today. By courier. FedEx.
Now I’ve always had fabulous service from Fedex and they’ve delivered some fragile stuff before, but this time, I have to give them a fail. My first big clue was the outside of the box. Looks like the baker tried to crawl out of the cake…
When I unpacked the speaker, well, it was obvious that cast has no give to it at all. At least I don’t think the frame is supposed to look like this…
The second woofer had some edge damage. I didn’t even bother plugging it in to see if it affected the sound. It’s not right, it needs to be fixed. The broken frame one needs to be replaced.
Kind of puts a damper on the day when I was going to swap out the speakers. On the brighter side, I played the best round of golf I ever played. Shot +1 (73) on the NorthView Canal.
MIDI Muddy Murky
Working with MIDI interfaces for, oh, 20+ years now, has always been an interesting experience. Interesting in the fact that sometimes they work perfectly from the get go, and other times you feel like you need to beat them into submission with a sledge hammer.
Standard interfaces come from a variety of sources from Roland, M-Audio and there’s a lot of them used as “add on’s” to audio interfaces. While 99.9% of these work for standard 3 byte MIDI, there’s another portion of MIDI, called SYSEX that will tax these interfaces to the limit.
What is SYSEX? Essentially it’s a way for a company to write their own protocols for the device so a custom message can do anything they want it to do. A message can be anywhere from 6 bytes to thousands of bytes in length. It’s actually a slick idea, but never quite implemented fully. By that I mean, there’s no or little error checking done on the message received to verify that it was sent perfectly. I.e. no checksums, CRC’s or anything. Which would have been simple to implement, but never done. As it turns out, the streams, for the most part are very reliable.
Depending on the interface, every one that I’ve tested will receive these SYSEX messages just fine. It’s the SEND that they crap out on.
Enter in the “budget” USB to MIDI interfaces coming out of Asia. These $5 wonders, sometimes work. Sometimes don’t. I’ve got a few of these for testing and without exception, almost every one of them will fail a loopback test. But they will send and receive SYSEX so long as there is a slight delay between the messages. Which tells me the interfaces are not able to do two things at the same time. Obviously the chip designers can’t walk and chew noodles at the same time.
I don’t expect much for $5, but these little beasts do work to a point (high latency):
Ripping one apart you find this:
And from the component side:
Lots of missing parts on the board (transistors, resistors) so all you can see is an opto-isolator, crystal, transistor, caps, resistors. All SMT. The main chip that performs the “magic” is a USB to MIDI dedicated chip from Asia: MFM0860. Try finding a data sheet on that part.
Not sure what all the MISSING parts might do, maybe send morse code or something unique. Who knows. The thing probably doubles as a Mr Coffee timer/controller.
Thus as I said, and I left off the glowing sugarcoated review treatment these things attract, the odds of these working with SYSEX is roughly the same as winning on the first pull of the slot machine handle…Personally the best part I find to use are the preformed cables. Now those are worth $5.
Bed Day 1
My daughter asked me to build a bed for the grand daughter so…I started with this today…
5 Hrs later I got it to this point. No top, just the foot board done…
Link Baiting – here fishy fishy fishy
Every time Apple releases a new product or updated product something strange happens. Every pundit who makes a living out of saying much about nothing becomes an instant expert on something they obviously know nothing about. Some even resort to calling in other equally inept experts to tell us the problems with “XYZ” or why “XYZ” is doomed to fail.
Or that the “XYZ” device is not as good as “ABC” which was from a different company and will sell 10 million by year end. Except the Apple “XYZ” thing sold 40 million in the first quarter.
The headlines smack of the National Perspirer from the 70′s where the headlines rarely had anything to do with the actual body of the article. They must assume their audience has an IQ of less than room temperature. At the South Pole.
Of course, you expect link baiting from pundits, and they are supposed to be somewhat confrontational. Even if they’re wrong. I suspect they are truly blissful. Because ignorance is bliss.
However, when someone like Consumer Reports jumps on the flagon wagon, like the “heat gate” from the new iPad you have to wonder if perhaps all this is somehow profitable to them. Because if there’s no money involved there’d be no reason for them to do it.
So maybe it drives up traffic to their web site and they grab a few more subscribers. Probably the same types that respond to the spam stock, sex and drug emails. Not exactly a stellar lot. But then Consumer Reports doesn’t care where it gets its money from, so long as it gets it.
I remember when CR was a magazine and you could rely on the information they published because it was properly tested and almost everything seemed to be covered. Now with all the products that show up and a lot of which dies almost as fast, they can’t keep up. And really, all kidding aside, they don’t try. I did have a subscription to CR three years ago and it was pathetic. Everything I wanted to look up was better served by reading user reports from Google search. Bye CR.
Thus my proposal is to take CR, the majority of the pundits and banish them to a corner on the internet where they can only read each others publishing. They’d be allowed out of the corner when they learn to be honest and get along with others. I doubt we’ll ever hear from them again.
In the meantime, I’d give them the same honesty and credibility that I’d extend to a teenage girls boyfriend who tells you his intentions are honourable.
Colour Organ
Anyone from the 50′s or 60′s can remember the old “colour organs” that everyone from Radio Shack to Heathkit sold by the boatloads. In those days you usually got a three channel whoop dee do model or a single channel one. The channels obviously were the EQ filters for the frequencies for the lights.
I don’t know how many of those goofy things I’ve built over the years, but apparently my brother remembered some of them rather fondly. So for a present I bought him one. It was very much like the old ones, used SCR’s and half of the circuit is live. Since little brother isn’t a tech kind of guy like myself, when I looked at the circuit I had some concerns. Like he’d fry himself, or the amp he was going to hook it into.
Thus when he finished building it and it didn’t work, I was actually quite relieved. The kit was called Color Blaster. And blaster I think was an adequate description of the circuit. I tossed the whole piece of junk in the dumpster.
Next stop, Xkitz. These guys make a superb quality product and have excellent tech support. I’d built a 12VDC version myself. So I ordered the 120V version (5 channel) for my brother.
The five channel one that I built:
For my brothers I also ordered the main control board because it’s nicer and has a microphone input. I supplied him with the right tools to build it and off he went.
He spent a couple of weeks, few hours each night, soldering, checking and making sure he was doing it right. I’d also given him a box to put it in, and apparently a rather dull nibbler that I’d had laying around. Least he said it was dull…(maybe I was just being sneaky to see how bad he really wanted to build stuff)…
When he completed it (he only got stuck in the power cord section wiring because that’s not in the assembly guide you have to read the schematic), he rechecked it and found a resistor in the wrong place. A quick fix and he was ready for box mounting. Another couple of hours with fitting the circuit in the box and he was ready for power up.
And power up it did. Worked perfectly right off the bat. When he called I don’t think I’ve ever heard him so excited. YouTube videos of it in action, and he was having a blast with it.
Now I have to give him credit in that he checked and rechecked his work several times. And was rewarded with a working unit the first go. We could all learn a little from that…
I had to make a label for his new “project” and he had an idea of exactly what he wanted…so this is the completed project:
I have to say, I’m damned proud of the work he put into this thing. I hope he gets many years of giggles and grins from it…
Here come da Fuzz
Finished up the Rat Fuzz and it works almost the same as the first one. Except the gain of the transistor is a little higher. So I used my checker and found one a little closer to a match. Works great. The only error was I used the wrong kind of jack for the 2.1mm AC adapter. Looks like this:
Course as soon as I plugged in the AC adapter the whole thing shorted out. The way pedals work, they use the outside for the switched part, so the centre is negative. Except in these style of jacks the barrel is GROUNDED. So the outside positive meets the negative of the circuit and poof. End of working…
Luckily it didn’t blow my power supply, but it took me some testing with my bench supply to figure out what I’d screwed up…
These are the CORRECT kind of jacks for guitar pedals…
The latest build is now completed…and works fabulous…from that old germanium buzz, to the newer silicon raspy crunch. And pretty much all points in between.
My brother finished off his colour organ kit and I labeled up the box for him as well…He came up with the moniker, I just did the label.
Fuzzy’s Buddy
I’ve been doing a lot of experimenting with the air brushes..Which involves painting, sanding, painting, sanding and well, there’s a pattern here. I decided to pick up some Auto Air white base coat and reducer. It’s far better for the aluminum boxes than the cheaper Createx (which seems to be best for porous surfaces.
So I’ve been experimenting with water based Tremclad. I even tried to thin it with Auto Air’s reducer. It works, but there’s a fine line between when you get enough on for a final wet coat and when it turns to a run and you get more practice at sanding…water (about 1:4) seems to work fairly decent with a 35 PSI airbrush. You can mist it on and it builds up not too badly.
Sure Tremclad is cheap, and when you’re trying stuff out, cheap is a good way to learn your chops. It’s really hard to get an absolute gloss top coat on it. It wants to speckle slightly. If you put it on with a brush it works better but of course you get brush streaks.
Easy to see what a transparent label on a white pedal will do compared to a dark blue metallic paint job…
For a clear coat I’m using a very slightly thinner Polycrylic gloss clear. Works very nicely for a good clear coat.
Any way, if you’re ever painting pedals, apart from white and clear being the hardest colours to paint, they sure make the pedal stand out.
Fuzzy wasn’t fuzzy..oh yea?
Finished off the Rat Fuzz today…
Wired into the box…
And she’s good to “distort” from a mild buzz to down right gravel..
Snarf snarf…
Here piggy piggy piggy…
On the test bench (that’d be my electronics work area), I have signal generators, scope, meters and all kinds of test gear. But one thing I lack is a audible signal tracer. You know, inject a 1Khz tone in a circuit, stick in a probe and see where it got lost…
I started of with the idea of building one. I usually start off with ideas of grandeur before common sense, occasionally, prevails. I worked out the size, speaker, amp, power supply and in the end it looked like it was going to be a lot of work and while it would have worked, I wasn’t elated with the fact I’d have to stick together a simple amplifier.
A little niggle in the back of my mind (not to be confused with scalp critters) and I remember seeing all those bedroom sized guitar amps. YEAH. So I started looking for something around the $25 to $50 mark. Turns out there’s lots to pick from and just as equally questionable quality in said item. Lots of IC’s to make it cheap to build and impossible to fix when I blow it up. Yes, things like that happen…
I phone my friend in the guitar store and said I was looking for a really small amp for my test bench. He assumed guitar test bench and suggested a Pignose. Hey, I remember those! He had a used one from, near as I could figure 1982-1984 or so. It needed a little work (scratchy pot, bad on/off switch) but no big deal for me. We made a deal and I brought “Piggy” home.
Considering the amp has probably seen a million miles of bad road and equally as many bedrooms, it’s in pretty fair shape for a 30 yr old amp. Someone at some point has changed the volume/switch control. I think. Looks like one of those mini-pots out of an old transistor radio. Actually the amp circuit itself does to.
When I cracked it open to see when it was made I was pretty surprised…
The original Pignose amps were made from about 1972/3 and had a fancy blue label. When they moved manufacturing offshore in the early 80′s they used this white label. And from what I can find, the series started with “A”. So this is one of the first 45 units that was built in Asia.
After more investigating, the parts and schematics for the Pignose amps have changed over the decades. Everything I could find built in Asia used Asian transistors. LIke 2SB172A, 2SB175B, 2SB324B (power transistors). Apparently they had a different sound than the US built ones. Or, so I’ve read. I honestly have no idea. Any way, I popped the circuit board off mine and that dropped my jaw somewhat…
It might be hard to make out in the photo, but that’s a MJE3055 power transistor (there’s two of them). There’s also a 2N3904 and a 2N5412 (I think; hard to read the numbers).
Of course this doesn’t make a lick of sense for an Asian unit. What I think might have happened is that there were some left over boards from the US builds and those were shipped overseas to be assembled into working Pignose amps so the first few would have been the US PCB (my PCB is 002).
I doubt the amp is worth any real money since it’s seen better days, but I feel like I got a little treasure here and it sounds fabulous and works sweet. Yep. Win win…
New Power Supply Day…
I’ve been using a 30V 5A DC variable power supply from Circuit Specialists for over a year now. While it works quite well, it’s a rebranded “whatever”…
I connected up a 4.5A @ 12V load to it and the internal heatsink, which is nothing more than a flat piece of 3/16″ aluminum plate gets VERY hot. There’s a few token slots cut in the plate and they have the worlds noisiest fan inside the thing that is not temperature controlled, it just runs flat out. Worst than a vacuum cleaner. Ugh.
Since I need about 5 amps for a lot of my 12V testing and this little supply is getting stressed about it, it was time to go shopping for something that was built better (?) and could handle higher amperage.
In all my searching, you simply keep coming across similar units that I am sure are rebranded whatevers from Asia. Some had temperature controlled fans, but most, just ran the fan flat out all the time. Of course they said it was 51dbA, but I think that was measured from a nearby building. Mine was rated at 51dba and according to my DB meter it wasn’t even in the ballpark.
I happened across a few sites that showed guys opening up a Mastech power supply, either to fix it or show what was inside. What I noticed was..no fan. Big heatsinks on the back. So I started to dig deeper and I emailed MastechPowerSupplys.com for more details. I settled on a HY3010D. That’s a linear supply, massive transformer, easy to fix if it goes south because it uses standard parts.
You don’t get any leads with it, which is kind of odd and although it was packed well, someone managed to bash the fins on the heat sinks on the back. I was told there was a temperature controlled fan inside. So…like Dave from the EEVBlog says, “Don’t turn it on, take it apppaarrttt.” So I did.
You can see from the photo, there’s a control board, a relay board, display board in the front and … no fan. Zero. Nada.
This unit is almost twice the width of my original supply so my bench needed some rearranging to fit it in. I’t a linear supply so there are a lot of taps and relays on the transformer. The idea is that the voltage is done in steps so the transistors don’t have to dissipate all the “extra” over voltage. Keeps things cooler. I like it.
I checked the boards and the soldering and while not exactly stellar, it’s better than some I’ve seen. The wiring is quite neat. Controls operate nice and smooth in either voltage limit or current limiting mode.
Speaking standard parts, how many of these have you seen from the old days..2N3055′s…four of them. Yep. That’s 10 amps worth…
The control board looks kind of like a power resistor orgy. I’m guessing that’s the cheapest way to do it. It’s also not mounted all that great with only two screws holding the board. I think they could have done this a little better.
Any way, at the end of the day, it does the job, it’s QUIET!!!! We’ll have to wait and see what it’s lifespan is…
Fuzzy’s Box
Way back in the 60′s I remember the first time I heard a FuzzTone. It was 1966 and a movie called The Wild Angles had a theme song called Blues Theme. It opened with a motorcycle starting up and driving off (a Harley obviously) and then the fuzzy guitar started in. I can still hear it, plain as day.
Since then I think a lot of players have covered the song, it was obvious that Fuzztone’s were here to stay. The Ventures had their own FuzzRite, there was the Gibson Maestro’s, Arbiter Fuzzface and on it went.
I haven’t actually owned on since the 60′s and I can’t even remember what I did own. I recall the smooth fuzz those so maybe it was Germanium transistor based instead of silicon. Lately I’ve been toying with painting so stomp boxes are what I plan on painting for.
Why not start with a Fuzztone. And not just any. I found a schematic for a FuzzRite and changed a few parts, added a bit of tone circuit and then came across a schematic called Green Bomb Fuzz that was so close to the one I laid out, I just used it instead of mine. So much for original thinking… It’s based on a Fuzzrite with some changes.
The box…the first thing is to get the box laid out, drilled, named, and labeled. Which is no small task. I using an airbrush and all this water based enamel is new to me (I spray lacquer for years). I decided to start with Createx paint. Good range of colours, supposedly ready to spray out of the 2oz bottles and easy to clean up. Well, one out of three isn’t too bad. It is easy to clean up…
I picked a dark blue metallic, which as it turns out is too dark… But what the heck. It’s just for fun any way.
Drilled and painted. Next up, design the graphics…which I admit I just used web images.
This is the real box but the knows and controls are just for show, a mock up. I used Rayven Repro Film to laser print a full label. Rayven is fabulous but expensive stuff. Self adhesive so it’s easy to apply and once it sets up it sticks quite well. I was going to clear coat the box any way.
I applied the clear coat and this is what it looked like all painted up. Yep, dark blue is too dark…
In my opinion Createx needs to be thinned slightly, and it doesn’t “flow” worth beans. Trying to get a nice gloss finish was very very hard compared to other paints I’ve used. So I guess for $4 you get $4 worth of paint.
One of the BIG issues with Createx is you need to heat cure it. Or it never really sets up and dries. I used a heat gun to get the temp of the stomp box up to 150F. At that point the paint “fades” or “dulls” down. You really have to put a clear coat on to bring back the gloss. Again, not what I’m used to. The Gloss Createx isn’t really all that glossy either. So far, not impressed with Createx “entry level” stuff at all.
It takes a lot of “thin” coats to get a nice finish. I wouldn’t use the heat cure stuff again. Don’t like it. I might try the AutoAir. I have sprayed some Testors and that actually went on quite nicely.
I laced on the clear coat pretty thick and it doesn’t feel like I should have to do that. But hey, enamels are something new to learn…
Next installment…building the circuitry..
Flying a 737…
Andrew got me thirty minutes in a 737 flight simulator from Flight Adventures for Christmas and I finally got to use it!
The sim is out at YVR (Vancouver airport for the lay people) and in one of the oddest places you try to drive to. Felt like I was going down an alley and the the guy who runs the place, Jason, played telephone tag with me. I was on time, he was running over from the last client. Seems a lot of his clients are real life pilots. I’m not. Since he’s the only guy there and in the sim, the doors are locked and the lights are off until he’s out of the sim.
The nondescript door of the place makes you wonder if you’re in the right place…the only clue is the 737 in the window.
Once you’re inside, you get a QUICK briefing on the 737. A lightening speed look at the controls with a mention of what controls you’ll be handling.
Then it’s off to the room that has the sim in it. I’d seen flight simulators before, ones that are mounted on hydraulic systems with video so you get the full feel. Those normally aren’t for the general public, unless it’s Disneyland…
Captain WestJet…:-) And when you’re in it, that’s exactly what it looks like…
Lower part of the console and dash (the horizon thingie on the left is your “guide”)…computer on the low console are for programming your route.
Sitting at YVR 08 waiting for take off clearance…ah screwem’ I’m going for it..:-)
It sure ain’t first class…:-)
Thus I managed to take off, fly out over Pitt Lake, do a 360 back around, had to Victoria and land. The only iffy part was the bunny hop landing. Jason ran the throttles and flaps, I did pretty much every thing else. I suspect he keeps it simple for everyones enjoyment…
There’s two things I picked up from this half hour. First is, Jason cobbled all this stuff together into a rather accurate 737 simulator. Looking out the window when you do a turn, you swear you can feel yourself moving. The sim doesn’t move, you do! Really weird. Same with climbing and descending. It feels very real and the when you pull on the speed brakes it makes the same noise I’ve heard a lot of times before. I was waiting for the “bump” of the gear coming down, don’t remember if it did that or not.
Hence Jason is a first class nerd (he’s never flown a real 737) as well. His passion is this sim and he expects you to treat it with kid gloves because that’s what he does. And really, you don’t want to toss a 737 around the sky any way. Use a Pitts Special for that.
Second, pilots apparently use the auto pilot rather heavily. Like from almost take off to landing (on landing autopilots can auto brake but don’t steer). So the pilot is a great programmer as well, but you have no idea if they can fly or not…least you hope you don’t have to find out. Even so, flying the thing manually or programming the legs of the journey keeps you busy. I flew for half an hour and at the end of it I was exhausted. Obviously a veteran pilot would do this like a walk in the park, but I have a whole different appreciation for their skills.
If there’s a downside to Flight Adventures it’s the business end. They have a fabulous product with a great looking web site. And quite clearly not a clue as to how to market or promote their product. if they have competition it’s probably a Nintendo or a PS3. Which quite honestly don’t hold a candle to the simulator Jason built. The only super accurate slight simulator I know of is X-Plane and they have a Pro version.
In short, I hope Flight Adventures works out a decent business model because flying the thing is a hoot. Although I do wish they had a helicopter one…
Spray Booth update
I was spraying up a stomp box today, shot the main colour and that was okay. Later on I tried spraying the clear coat. Man was that hard. Even with all the LED’s I added, there were shadows in the front…
As anyone can see the front edge, like the one I’d be spraying, is in the dark. If you’ve done spray painting at all you know you need light to see the “wet” paint… So I added a set of LED’s that are removable in the front…
I put some velcro on the wood so I wouldn’t bump it, wired in a short jumper and connectors and it makes a HUGE difference. Now, if I’d done that BEFORE I got the run in the clear coat…
Genz Benz 60LT Acoustic Amp
Having an acoustic guitar and several guitar amplifiers means that I could plug in and use the built in pickup in my Fender Sonoran SE.
What I’d noticed in testing out electric/acoustics was that they used different amps than what your standard Tele or Strat might use. Initially, I was thinking “marketing ploy” but when I started to try some, yeah, they sounded a lot different. The idea of an acoustic amp is to make it louder without colouring your sound. So as usual, talk to a bazillion people, read reviews, and try out as many as I could to see what i liked the sound of.
Most of these amps are quite small, i.e. no Marshall stack (Marshall does make an acoustic amp though)…speakers range from a couple of 4″ to a single 12″ and anything in between. Almost all are stereo, which is interesting considering the guitar is a mono source. Wattages range from 15 to over 300. Yea, 300 watts through a pair of 10″ speakers (with tweeters).
Fishman acoustic amps are first and foremost, every friggin’ where. If there were any more, you’d have to start a spraying program to stop them breeding…I tried several different variations of their Loudbox Artist and Professional. Attractively priced. Sound did bupkiss for me.
From that point, I worked my way down the line…and happened to be out at SurfSide Music. Noticed they carried Genz Benz in a solid state series called “Shenandoah”. They went from 45 watts to 300 watts with various speaker compliments, effects and input/outputs. The king of the hill is the Shen ProLT or the 300LT. Loud doesn’t adequately describe these things. Deafening would be closer. None the less, I didn’t care for the sound of either, nor the price…
Then I tried the Shen LT60. Bingo. First amp that I tried that didn’t change the sound of the acoustic guitar. Just brought out it’s natural sound. I wondered what could be making all this wonderful sound and…a pair of 6 1/2″ speakers and matching tweeters. 30 Watts driver each pair for a 60 watt amp. Who’da thunk.
Specs:
|
• Lightweight 29 lb design
• Stereo 60-Watt Power (30 Watts per side) • Stereo 24 Bit DSP w/ 16 Preset Digital Effects • Two Channels w/3-Band Active EQ w/Sweepable Mids • XLR and 1⁄4” Inputs • Headphone Jack • All Input Signals Mix Together |
| • Dual 61⁄2” Woofers and Bullet Tweeters • Compact Monitor-shaped Cabinet Design • XLR Direct Outputs (Left and Right) w/Ground Lift • Phantom Power for Condenser Mics • Speaker Stand Mountable • Protective Metal Speaker Grille |
Coming from a world of BIG 4 x 10 or 4 x 12 cabinets, it’s hard to explain how much volume/tone this little amp can pump out…with the mic input I can even caterwaul along with myself…
I recently checked Genz Benz for the LT60 and it would appear they don’t make it any more. They have an LT80 now.
If there’s one annoying “feature”, it’s that the designer(s) overlooked the fact that the amp thumps when you power it up and when you power it down. It’s a solid state amp, it has a DSP. When the DSP comes online, it thumps the speakers. Turn down the “effects” gain before power up and it doesn’t do it. I emailed the company and they suggested doing just that, turn down the gain, power on the amp, turn the effects gain back up.
Which is like saying: get in your car, turn the radio volume down to zero, start the car, turn the radio volume back to where it had been. Every time.
So Genz Benz, lovely little amp, good sound, sturdy but for the glaring oversight on an amp in this price range – FAIL.
Thus, I do like the sound, I tolerate the thumps because some engineer was probably polishing his resume…I hope.
DCA55 – Analyser
Every now and then there’s a big of test gear that comes along that is simply, for lack of a better expression, drool worthy…
As I designing and building some stomp box pedals, I was trying to match up transistors according to gain (hFE) or B-E voltages or whatever. Plus I was looking for lower gain transistors in some cases or higher in others. Just looking at a heap of them in the parts bin doesn’t really tell you much.
Of course the manufacturers specs are always around, and low and behold, some of the parts even are within spec. Some aren’t. Then there’s others that don’t have any numbers or house numbers on them and you wonder what the heck they are. Sure with a multimeter you can figure it out…but I happened across a Peak Atlas DCA55 Semiconductor Component Analyser. Now with a name like that, it HAS to be good…
I checked the reviews and educated myself to it’s pros and cons. The only con I could find was if you were testing 40 year old Germanium transistors with hFE around 10-15 the tester was going to have a fit. Usually saying that it’s either a faulty device or unknown. Since that’s unlikely to occur for me, I ordered one from the UK company that makes them. Because there’s nowhere else that seems to have them. Cost is about $100.
Comes in a nice little box, 12V battery, about the same size as a point and shoot digital camera. Yep. Small. Three leads to connect to “whatever”, two switches to test with and that’s it.
What will it test? Diodes, diode networks, LED’s, Bicolor LEDS, Bipolar transistors (BJT), Enhancement mode MosFET’s, depletion mode MOSFETS, JFETS, SCR’s and TRIACS. Covers the majority of the stuff in my parts bins…
So the first thing I did was plug a common cathode tricolour LED on the leads. Any leads by the way, it will tell which ones are which. Yes, I know mine is a tricolour but this was a test.
Don’t know what leads do what? Click the scroll button on the DCA55…The RED lead is the cathode. Now if you’re thinking it MISSED the green lead, it didn’t it tells you the details about EACH led it found, so I was only checking the one in the photo.
Next up, grab a transistor and plug the leads on (TIP122)
But what leads are what? EASY!
What about GAIN (2N2904; spec says 40-120 for hFE):
The DCA55 comes with a well written 25 page PRINTED manual and the thing is a piece of cake to use. A one year warranty, and a COMPLETE listing of all the test parameters the DCA is using to give you the results.
So like I said, this is one drool worthy piece of kit. Money well spent as far as I am concerned…
Offshore Mail Delivery
I tend to order a lot of little bits and pieces from mainland China and it feels like the post office lottery when you try to guess the delivery date. Some are here in a heartbeat (or two), where as others take 6 or 7 weeks. I’ve searched online to try to find the answer and today I think I found it.
When the shipper doesn’t pay enough at the post office, they get this method of shipping:
El Sleezo LCR Meter
It goes without saying that if you need an LCR meter you should buy a good one. If you’re an engineer or electronics designer you probably have a top notch unit with a calibration sheet, and, you’re hardly the type that is going to get anything useful out of this post at all…except maybe a chuckle…
For the unwashed electronics masses, of which I am one, we simply need something that can get the job done.
Enter the El Sleezo line of meters, tools, parts, or whatever. They all come from the same place (offshore; but you knew that). The quality test on El Sleezo stuff is generally performed at the speed of light. I concluded that because no one in their right mind is going to reach onto the assembly line that travels at Mach 5 and risk life and limb to grab one of these “whatevers” for testing. Nope, testing was done during the design phase. Returns and DOA’s bad Karma.
My eyes, along with other parts of my anatomy, which we won’t cover, aren’t what they used to be. Reading little capacitors to determine what value they once were or might have been, assuming there are some numbers still to be seen, is just too difficult. So I needed a capacitor meter. There. I said it. Notice I didn’t say I needed a good one.
I didn’t need an L or R meter (inductance or resistance). I can read resistors without problems. I rarely work with inductors except for those few times when I forget the mains are live and volunteer to “induct”. At which point I do resemble an inductor. I choke, coil and react. Sometimes all al the same time. Truly amazing.
eBay has a LOT of LCR meters. Some of the local electronics shops carry the same “value” meters at a premium price. And of course theres some good stuff around. Unfortunately you’d have to miss a mortgage payment to afford it..but still..
For brands, there’s Vichy, CA-4070L, MasTech, Extech, and so on. Lots to pick from. For $30-$50 you get one of the low cost units and The Vichy DM4070 I got cost $30 (free shipping!)..
I honestly didn’t expect much, just something that if I blew it up or broke it, it wouldn’t break the bank.
It arrived in a multimeter box, which confused me until I realized that they are recycling boxes “over there”. So that’s not a bad thing. I got the required cute little manual that compretely x-sprains opa-ration of un it. Yea, you want a chuckle, try reading the translations. For example, the one that I found in the “diaper policy” section:
“The Function stated for this User Manual cannot be reason of special usage.”
Or better yet:
“The content of this manual is regarded as correct, error or omits. Please contact with factory.”
That one should set off some alarm bells some place…
You get couple of leads, no 9V battery, the manual and meter. Have to say that the digits in the meter are HUGE. I could almost use them for our house address out front. There’s a zero adjust pot for the leads stray capacitance. On the lower scales it’s a little touchy but it works. The meter has blade sockets so you can just shove in a cap. Okay, these were may out of some old soda pop can but they work. For now.
I tried turning it on. Found that I had to hold down the button because it wouldn’t latch. Who wants to have a half functioning piece of doodoo any way. So I took it apart (credit EEVBlog for that tag line).
Notice that mine is water marked, or something. Maybe a repair for a bad connection. Hummmm. Around the power switch too. Turns out there was nothing wrong with the PCB at all.
If you look at the photo below, you see the power switch on the left under the display. That’s nothing but a chunk of plastic attached to a pushbutton switch. And after looking at it, I see the plastic had a piece of flashing on one side that hindered its movement. Couple of seconds with a nail file and plastic is nice and smoothy…
I put it back together, stuck a battery on it and tried the switch a LOT. Works perfect every time. Checked a bunch of caps with it and yep, it works. Not sure I’d want to shove a charged up electrolytic capacitor into it since it doesn’t look to me like there’s much in the way of input protection on this meter. Well, other than the PCB foil traces…
And as you can see the blade sockets for the caps are well, ah, stellar isn’t the word I’d use to describe them. The rotary switch is one of those wiper jobs that after a lot of use will sand through the PCB traces and render the meter fit only as landfill.
For intermittent use it’ll probably last a while. Or not. Maybe they need to add a tag line like this to the manual:
Life expectancy of unit is subject to change without notice.
El Sleezo MIDI Interface
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If you’ve ever been surfing for a MIDI interface, I’m positive you’ve seen the likes of these ones:
Usually selling for the awesome sum of $5. If you’re wondering how they can build one of these for $5 and make a profit (when they even off free shipping), I have no idea either. These things have peaked my curiosity for some time and since I’m not a feline, I took the bait…er plunge and ordered two of them. One from Amazon, one from eBay. After receiving both, it was obvious that they are from the same factory. There are no drivers to install, you just plug them in and..well…pray. Which is exactly what I did… On my Mac system, they show up as “USB MIDI Cable” in my MIDI interfaces listing. Probably the most generic name in the world, but what the heck. No drivers. Any way, I fired up my testing software and ran these through their paces. I expected the worst. I mean, what do you get for $5? A Starbucks latte? Maybe. Thus I was pleasantly surprised when the darn things actually work. Send MIDI, receive MIDI. Send SYSEX, receive SYSEX… they actually work. Now lets stress them a little…ah ha. Hit them with a high traffic stream and…bingo. We got some issues. Our old evil friend Mr. Latency. Now the latency is not so bad that you could measure it on a calendar, but it’s there. Near as I can tell 9-15ms. Kind of varies. Probably not the largest buffer in them nor well written software (I’m guessing a PIC chip in them). For standard low stream MIDI, you’ll probably get away with it and think they work perfect. But for multiple SYSEX messages (like doing a dump from a MIDI CPU where it sends umpteen SYSEX messages one after the other), or some really high traffic MIDI data, ah..nope. Fail. Of course it “tries”, kind of like the little engine that could, but didn’t. You need the briefest of pauses between multiple SYSEX messages and it’s as happy as a clam though. The reason for my testing these things out was that I wanted to see if it really needs a driver (no it doesn’t), does it actually work with SYSEX (yes it does, as noted), and is it really worth the $5 (yes it is). I wasn’t looking to replace my 8×8 MIDI interface that does routing, or even my M-Audio UNO. Just something I could toss in a gig bag or drawer, pull it out, do some SYSEX programming and toss it back in the drawer/bag. The only thing I haven’t done is plug both of them at the same time to see what happens. And I’m not going to. No use tempting fate… |
Spray Painting
Finally got all the bits and pieces for the airbrush and compressor so it was time to paint up a box (the LED Tester I was making). Since I was going to have black lettering on the box, the best colour for the box was going to be white. Of course, for me, white has to be one of the hardest colours to paint just because it’s tough to see the build up.
That was hardly going to stop me though…so here’s some sample shots of me “in action”…That’s a Badger 200NH with a 1/4oz side cup. I think a standard box will take about an ounce so I could have used one of the 2oz bottles. So I had to refill the side cup quite often (use pipettes to do it!)…
A little close up of it…
And completed:
No mist came out of the box, the filters grabbed it nicely. The turntable made it easy to spin the job and paint it all the way around. The LED’s on the top helped me to see the wetness of the paint because, as I said, white for me is a tough colour to paint…
All in all, the spray booth is a complete success.
There are some additional things needed. One is a proper cleaning bottle:
With this you put some water into the airbrush, then spray it into this large glass container. No mist comes out (it’s filtered) and the water based paint stays in the bottle for easy clean up. Ihave one on order so it will help in the future.
LED Tester Completed
So after shooting some paint with the new airbrush, sticking on my labels, adding the circuits to the inside, the LED Tester lives…actually works quite well.
Lotsa room in there…standard stomp box enclosure…
Just plug in the LED to the top connect, select the current range, hit the TEST button. I like simple.
LED Tester Software
While looking for circuit drawing software, I happened across an app that I’d gotten for the iPad a while back (and promptly forgot about having)…
It’s called iCircuit and talk about slick. While it still doesn’t have ALL the bits and pieces for doing schematics, it’s got a good deal more than Fritzing plus it does allow you to “run” the design. You can scope various points so it’s very much like the old Circuit Maker.
It’s in RUN mode on the iPad 2, you can see the switches that are closed, the current draw at that point. To open or close a switch you just click on it.
The plain schematic looks like this and you get a parts listing out of it too. I was pretty impressed with it.
Led Test Schematic
Finally found a piece of software that allows me to at least do some basic drawing of a schematic. The software is called Fritzing.
This is not a review of the software, just my personal impression of it.
I think it’s designed for taking a circuit that you’d build on a strip style board, which creates a schematic (of sorts) from what you lay down. From there you can create a PCB and save it as a Gerber plot. A high percentage of the examples of it in use show it coupled with the Arduino devices. I suspect that’s a lot of it’s background and judging from the lack of “core” components you can work with on a schematic, it seems to bare that out.
When I design circuitry, I don’t normally work on anything overly complex, I start with a schematic. From that point, I can almost always turn that into a PCB by hand without too much work. When you do it this way with Fritzing, you get some interesting results because that’s not the way it was designed. But then I’m old school too. I was designing PCB’s before there was software to design PCB’s and “auto routing”….
So here’s what I managed to “draw” in Fritzing. First off, you’ll see that I have switches S3 thru S8. Actually in my circuit that’s a rotary switch. But there’s no rotary switch in Fritzing. Matter of fact in Fritzing the “input” section is pretty skimpy. DPDT? Nope. Pushbutton? Nope. And on it goes. While you have the option of defining your own parts, one look at the multiple steps required to do this and it pretty much cures you of that idea.
Which is not to say that Fritzing isn’t useful, it’s remarkably good at what it does. However, if you’re schematic based like me, you’ll find it lacking in a lot of areas. So keep in mind that it’s free.
Ages ago (we’re taking in the early 90′s) I used a piece of software called “Circuit Maker” from Microcode Engineering for my Macintosh systems. Not only could you draw a work schematic but you could “run” your schematic and put scope points on it to watch logic signals change. Of course resistors or capacitors didn’t affect the circuitry for “simulation” it was just logic gates. But you could set propagation for those gates. I built a lot of digital circuits in those days with that little program. I still miss it.
Eventually, Microcode dropped the Apple Mac support and continued to develop for Windows. I think they’re up to version 5 now.
After that I ended up using Canvas from Deneba Software and I had an electronics symbol library that I could draw schematics with. It wasn’t bad either. Course if you started to move parts around the wires came apart pretty quick because there weren’t any real points. Then Deneba got tired of Canvas and flogged it off to ACDC who didn’t give a squirt about the Mac clients. The software was let lapse and one of my most used drawing programs went the way of the DODO bird. If Lion would run Rosetta I’d still be using Canvas 8. But in another Apple’s infinite bouts of “we know what you want more than you do”, Rosetta is gone.
Finally I used OmniGraffle and its electronic symbols to draw schematics. And it worked, but I never seemed to get really comfortable with it to continue using it.
Softwares nature is to be a good revenue generating machine and if it’s not, it’s dead pretty fast. There’s scant few hobbyists like myself that program for fun and little to no profit. Unlike many, money has rarely ever been a motivator for what I do. Regardless of what it is. I write software that I need. Turns out other people seem to need it too, but writing for profit is something I only did once, a long time ago and I never did it again.
Any way, I’d love to see something like Circuit Maker for the Mac again….hey, I can dream can’t I?
So then, probably like a million others, my schematics are drawn on the back of a coffee stained napkin in an all night donut shop…
LED Tester
Having bought about a quadrillion LED’s off eBay and from other sources, I notice that when they aren’t on, they sort of all look the same. Occasionally I grab one, manage to get the right colour and put it in a project. Only to find out later that I should have picked one that wasn’t as bright or one that is brighter. Sort of a duck shoot really.
I’ve looked at those LED testers from eBay and thought, what the heck I could make one myself. Not that it would save any money since the ones on eBay or in kit form are dirt cheap to start with, but still, there’s the creative side of it that intrigues me…
Initially I thought for testing LED’s I’d just use a bunch of resistors on a rotary switch and use that to change the current to the LED. Which is find in theory but when you factor in that different colour LED’s use different voltages it didn’t take long before I could see the error in my thinking (seconds really)… Blue or IR can use 3.6V 20ma, where as red might use 1.9V 10ma. That’s a spread.
Thus a constant current source is what was needed. I could vary the current source to try the LED at whatever milliamp I wanted (to a point or smoke if you like)…I estimated a values from 5 to 50ma should cover the LED’s that I deal with all the time.
The simplest ideas, require the simplest parts. Couple diodes, few resistors, one transistor, some switches, a box, wire, battery and that about sums it up.
My circuit board:
Diodes on the left with the resistor, one good ole fashioned 2N3904 NPN, and a bunch of resistors to do the current limiting (12-120 ohms). Nothing fancy, but it works nicely.
Here’s a shot of the box, label and all the circuitry. That’s a 4 pole 4 position switch, but I’m only using 2 poles. I switch between them so one pole is three low current settings 5, 10, 15 and then 20, 30, 50. I wired them a little different than that so I can toggle 5-15, 10-20, 30-50 with the SPDT toggle switch.
For the LED to test, I’m just using an RC battery connector, and it’s not wired in the circuit yet. Have to paint and get the box ready first.
I’d have put the schematic here, but trying to find some simple to use software that allows me to drop symbols on a layout is apparently more difficult that I envisioned. I used to use Mac Circuit or something about 20 years ago, but that’s long gone now. So I’m still looking for something simple that doesn’t require a second mortgage to buy.
I’ll try to post the schematic….
Spray Both…er..Booth
Having an airbrush means you get to atomize paint in to tiny droplets and spread the rainbow of acrylic around the…well.. pretty much everywhere within a ten foot circle of where you’re spraying. Which may not exactly make you popular with your better half.
Having looked at the outlines of past projects on my garage floor for several years now, I knew I was going to need some sort of containment area. Googling spray booths on the net brought up anything from a transport container that had be converted for spraying to people who obviously don’t recycle much cardboard because they got a lot of it to make into oh..say a Campbell soup spray booth…
In either case, they tend to be big, vented (with some sort of extraction fan) and anything but compact or portable. By chance I happened on Paasche’s web site and found a small fold up spray booth. And of course, with a little more searching a knock off of the same.
Compressor Part Deux…
The bits and pieces for the airbrush to compressor have been not only a challenge but a bit of a test of patience as well. None of the local suppliers carry the required adapters so it’s online dealers or eBay to source out the pieces needed.
Of course, the pieces tend to be in abroad and the expression “Slow Boat From China” tends be bluntly painful when dealing with overseas shipping. Things do arrive, but it can be anywhere from two to six weeks.
The hose is standard 1/4″, the airbrush is .5mm.
Nope, definitely need an adapter…or a LOT of duct tape…
Airbrushing…
Apart from the fact it’s been a LONG time since I wrote in the blog, cause I’m too busy to write every day, my new goal is to turn over a new leaf and get back into it. We’ll see how long that lasts…
I’m slowly getting back into some of the hobbies I had a lot of years ago and one them requires that I do some painting…airbrush style, not HPLV nor rattle cans. So the first thing is a source of … yep … air…
Senco PC1010
I first seen one of these compressors in use when we had our living room mantle custom installed. I couldn’t get over how light, small and quiet it was. I asked the installer a lot of questions about it and eventually found out that it’s next to impossible to get in our area. Lots of distributors carry Senco, none of them carry this little guy and none would bring it in. So I ended up ordering it up from the US and having it shipped here. Even with shipping, it was a lot cheaper than my big twin tank Hitachi or my other pancake compressor.
However, there’s only one quick connect on it, and airbrushes need a moisture trap inline for obvious reasons…
Airbrushes need a max of about .6 CFM, the Senco can pump out .7 @ 90PSI. Thus it’s a perfect airbrush fit.
Senco Modification
I ordered the moisture trap from eBay ($12) quality isn’t too bad, but I didn’t expect much so I wasn’t disappointed. Then it was out to local Princess Auto to find a manifold, some piping and a few other pieces.
After an hour or so later, my compressor now looks like this:
I can still use the standard quick connect for my brad gun or finish nailer, but the airbrush is on it’s own outlet. The moisture trap fits a little snug between the compressor head and the tank, but it does fit.
In hindsight if I’d have been thinking, I’d have got another 2 way manifold to allow me to connect up the brad and finish nail guns at the same time. If I tried to add one now, the pipe would have to come out since it’s in the way, then put in the splitter and then re-assemble the thing. The only time I use both guns is when I’m doing crown molding so I’ll just put up with it…
At this point I’m still waiting on the airbrush hose and the adapter fittings that will connect the hose to the tank. Amazingly enough, they actually sell quick disconnects for airbrushes.
Compressor Performance…
Should you be curious as to how the compressor works with a finish or brad nailer…
Milwaukee 15 gauge finish nailer – 6 nails.
Bostitch brad nailer – 16 brads
Rigid Pin Nailer – lots…friggin lots.
Milwaukee Framing Nail (clipped head) – 1.5 Yep. One point five….
For charging the tank, about 2 1/2 minutes. When it’s time to top up the tank, about 40 seconds. I’ve ran 75 feet of air line from the garage into the house but there’s some pressure drop in that length of air line. I normally run a 20 or 25 footer and that’s the way it should be used.
The other unusual attribute about this compressor is that it only draws 4 AMPS. Use long extension cords, don’t overload circuits, it’s a wonderful thing…
Specifications:
| Power Source: | Electric |
| Max Amp: | 4 amps @ 115V |
| Horsepower: | 1 hp. (peak) .5 hp. (running) |
| Pump: | Oil-less |
| SCFM: | 90 psi: 0.7 |
| Pump Up-Time: | 0-120 psi: 128 seconds |
| Recovery Time: | 90-120 psi: 35 seconds |
| Max Pressure: | 125 psi |
| Tank Capacity: | 1 gallon |
| Tool Weight: | 20 lbs. |
| Height: | 13″ |
| Length: | 14″ |
| Width: | 10″ |
On Stranger Tides…
My daughter and I caught the latest installment of Pirates Of The Caribbean, On Stranger Tides.
In a heartbeat (not Davy Jones’s), it’s about finding the Fountain Of Youth and the reason behind doing so for the four main characters. Plus there was some other stories going on at the same time in the movie, the outcome of some were never quite explained by the movies ending.
And that’s what made it different than previous episodes. For us, it tended to water down the focus. Jack wasn’t as funny, cute or devious (his character looked toned down somewhat), Barbossa was a far more in depth character study, Angelica was annoying and BlackBeard was the stand out character we simply loved to hate. Ian McShane did a fantastic job of portraying the amoral BlackBeard and remained true to his character from start to finish.
None the less, although we enjoyed the movie, we found it significantly different than previous ones. Perhaps because it was a complete new story, not a continuation of the previous ones. The noted Gore Virbinski did not direct this time. It’s not like you can see two or three different versions from different directors and pick the best one, but not using Virbinski might have been one reason for the different feel.
Thus for us it was a good movie, but it wasn’t a great movie…
On the other side of the world…Carol and I just finished off playing Lego Pirates Of The Caribbean on the PS3 and it was a hoot watching the scenes in the movie match up with scenes from the game. Obviously the game scenes are over the top because they covered all four episodes and were expanded because, after all, it is a game. But Lego seems to be able to capture the raw essence of each of the characters, with their odd mannerisms, movements, expressions and encased in Lego’s own brand of humour.
I’d rate the actual movie about a 6.5, and the Lego game 8…
The “Bridge”
The studio Mac Pro’s built in wireless airport can barely reach the main router (a DLINK DIR 655) in the office. In spite of the fact that it’s only about 50 feet. The walls no doubt play a large part in the signal strength..
Thus, I picked up a DLINK DAP 1522 to use as an ethernet wireless bridge. Not exactly a straight forward set up, but that might be because I’ve never set up a bridge before. After finally figuring it out, I got the DLINK DP1522 connected to my DIR 655 and I was..ah.. stumbling along. I checked the signal strength and I was getting about 44% for a blistering throughput of 38Mbps. Maybe. More like dial up…and the signal would fluctuate all over the place.
The problem? The DAP1522 doesn’t have external antennas:
You can see the antenna wire is glued onto the u.fl connector and then it goes to a piece of metal that’s supposed to be some great antenna. Which it’s not. Very directional, very pathetic. I read that the glue is very difficult to get off. I didn’t find that at all. Came off in a second at the most (almost flaked off). So maybe DLINK changed the type of glue they used.
I found an eBay seller who sold an external antenna mod kit but unfortunately only shipped to the US and I’m north of that… However, my son had a four year old DIR 655 that just fried itself and he was throwing it out. Guess what’s on the DIR 655? That’s right. Antennas!!!!
I 
Took about two minutes to get the 655 part and salvage the antennas. I even got a spare…
I drilled two holes for mounting the antennas in the back of the DAP1522, put in the connectors and snapped them on the jacks on the main PCB.
Had to cut off the two posts that have screws in them for holding the case halves together, but there are still snaps around the case that will hold it together. So no big deal.
While I wouldn’t say it looks like it’s factory installed, it was a simple and neat install.
I connected it up to the Mac Pro in the studio and yep, it works sweet…(it’s 192.168.1.197 line):
Why DLINK doesn’t put antennas on these is a bit of a mystery. Maybe they want to sell more of the DAP 1555 that does have the external antennas (I think the 1555 is really a modded 655 anyway). But really the 1522 is a nice device, just needs some signal strength to it… which I now have…
Ethereal Pedals
If you’re a guitarist, you probably have shares in most companies that make pedals. No. Really. If you’re anything like me, you’ve spent a lot of moola chasing down an effect or sound. And in due time realized it’s not exactly what you wanted, envisioned, or was worth selling that last kidney for…and start lusting some other pedal…of. course.
But someone, on the net no less, has a lighter view of pedals…and I certainly got a chuckle out of it…
Tower of Effects
I finally got round to finish up the lower section of the effects tower. I was going to leave it finished wood or paint it black. Carol suggested I use my Tolex and cover it. So I did. Thus the whole thing is still easily separated at the top to make a floor based board or I can leave it in a tower mode and run it from my FCB1010… either way works fine.
The velcro carpeting is still in the mail (someplace) so I used some cable ties to put it together so I can use it in the meantime. I also have some 1/4″ phone jacks ordered and I’ll be making some custom cables for it (that are the proper length).
Top view:
All working good so far…
Guitar Shopping
Although it’s probably not unique to guitarists, there’s something about always being on the lookout for new guitars. I drop into any music store and my eyes just gravitate towards all those nitro finished beauties hanging on the walls of said establishment. If you’re a tool monger or electronics buff, the tool section in a store or rows and rows of electronics parts bins will generate the same kind of “brain rush”.
As it happened, the bassist and I were attending an Andrew Scheps recording seminar, which, conveniently, was held at Tom Lee Music in downtown Vancouver. Guess what they have adorning their walls? Yep. Geetars…mmm We had a lot of day to kill since it was an evening seminar and we go down early in the morning so, quite naturally, I simply have to start playing things and the bassist just keeps bringing them.
Electric solid bodies are my main weakness. Single coil or P90 style pickups. Which means I try a lot of Fender gear. Squier’s, Strats, Teles, Jazzmaster, Jaguar and so on. Usually plugged into the cleanest sounding amp with decent I can find, and I’ll state firmly that clean amps are getting harder and harder to find. Decent reverb in an amp is even harder to find with the DSP (digital signal processor) age in full swing and quality on the other end of the teeter totter.
After you play through about nine or ten of the solid bodies you start to notice a pattern. Specifically, none of them are in tune, or even close in most cases. The strings seem like there is no tension at all, no doubt so common string bends can be done by even the wimpiest handed player. I’d deliberately picked up guitars that others had just tried out to see if the guitar was in tune and nope. Ninety percent of them are out. A lot. So this begs, of course, why test play a guitar that isn’t in tune. My guess as to the why would be:
1. The player doesn’t know how to tune it
2. They don’t care if it’s in tune for their style of playing
Now I’d be hoping that it’s reason #1 because I’d avoid ever wanting to hear the player who subscribes to reason #2.
I did have a store salesman help “tune” a guitar for me. Not sure of the tuning he used, but it would go a long way to explain why so many of the guitars were out of tune. I carry a pocket tuner with me when I try out guitars because many of them will go out of tune so far it’s amazing.
But..today…I finally got “enlightened”. I asked a guy playing a guitar that was obviously out of tune why he didn’t tune it and he insisted it was in tune. Okay methinks, bad hearing (and mine’s not that great any more either). But no, he honestly thought it was in tune so I said, “Play an A chord”. That’d be a barre A on the 5th. I got a look like I was the very first alien life form ever seen (I’m sure he had friends so I knew this couldn’t be true). He says, “A chord, who plays chords on an electric?” To which I put it in “shredder” terms, “Can you play arpeggios?” “OH Yea, he says and fires through a sample”. “Good”, says I “Now strum all those notes instead of picking them”. And I get the “Huh, is that what a chord is?” Well actually it’s a broken chord but enough education for one day.
The guys playing electric guitars that are shredding don’t play full on chords, plus high levels of distortion/drive are used and both of these add up to the fact that the guitar can be a fair whack out of tune and they don’t hear it. If you’re a country, jazz or clean player, you’ll hear it though, your ear is trained for it. Perhaps what the shredders don’t realize is that if the guitar is in tune, the harmonics they so lustily go after will also sound much better. Or it’s not their style.
After spending considerable time going through the electric section and finding nothing that sounded better than when I already owned, we drifted into the “acoustic” guitar area. You don’t find shredders in here and I’ll wager than over 90% of the guitars on the wall, even the El Sleazo models, were spot on for tuning.
I used to own a big Yamaha dreadnaught and it had fabulous sound and was brutal to play. You shredded on it, mostly your finger tips. Typical high action and pain city. Loved the sound, didn’t like neck.
What caught my eye was a Fender dreadnaught that looked like it had a Strat neck. Weird. Traditional acoustic players would consider it ugly, unplayable, a blight on the landscape of all things acoustic. Me? I seen a guitar that looks different, I have to try it. So I did. And it was wow. Low action, easy to play, very usable sound for me. And it was electric as well. Bonus. I should have mentioned that I’m a flat picker, I don’t chicken pick a guitar (not my style) and for rhythm’s I’m a guitar percussionist.
The guitar is a Fender Sonoran SCE and advertised as your $300, drag it to the beach and have a party with it. And yep, that’d be exactly what I’d be doing with it. It’s got laminated mahogany sides and back and a solid spruce top (no, I doubt it’s Sitka spruce, more like some fir tree from someones back yard)…but hey, if it was good enough for the Wright Brothers first plane, it’s plenty good enough for a guitar. Right?
It’s got a Fishman preamp/eq in it with a tuner. So if it’s not in tune, press a button and tune it. I tested that tuner against my Peterson Strobe tuner and was amazed to see how accurate the Fishman tuner was. Very usable.
Since it literally has a Strat neck on it, the sound is like a big acoustic dreadnaught but plays like an electric. Essentially perfect for a guy like me. At the beach. With sand in his sandals….If there’s a weak point, it’s the tuners. They work, but seems to me the quality of them could be better.
I plugged it into my amps (thought I was going to have to get an acoustic amp) but it’s actually very usable there as well. Unless you crank the EQ and then you can get feedback. I cranked the bass up and the whole guitar (and me) were vibrating like crazy. Wow. I do need a longer strap on it, it’s playing kind of high for my liking.
The bonus is really that it sounds different than the rest of my stable of guitars but at the same time just as playable. Even if it has wound strings on it. We jammed for almost four hrs with it and I was more than amazed that my fingers were only slightly tender at the end. With the old Yammie they’d have been hamburger.
I also did try other guitars like Seagull, Martin, Art & Lutherie, Yamaha, etc in comparison to this one. Once I got to about $1200-$1500 the quality of sound bypassed the Sonoran by a fair amount. However anything in $400-$800 range wasn’t. There was a Seagull that had slightly better sound for about $500, but it had a brutal neck and no electric capability. Sound, of course, is very subjective so what might sound good to me might not to others.
Lastly, I will say that I tried three other models of the SAME guitar. A black, red and natural finish model. The red finish one had dead D and G strings and changing them didn’t help. Something not quite aligned right with that one. The black one was beautiful BUT it fretted out in WAY too many places. It needed a truss adjustment in the worst way but I suspect someone will buy it any way and “live” with it (therein lies one of the problems with buying mail order for those that do). Both of the natural models played just fine and sounded the same. The logic in me might say that the paint job was affecting the other guitars but that’s something I don’t know for fact….
