the Metal Amp

[petey twofinger]

my 3rd diy battery powered mini amp with built in effects . this one has three , a flanger , distortion , and a uni-vibe clone . this was the most challenging project i ever tried . it took a very VERY long time to complete and its super tight inside the chassis . i think it was around 5 weeks total build time , i mean i worked on it every night , some evenings went into the next morning . i did run into one very odd problem , but fortunately figured that out in less than an hour . i think i broke around a dozen drill bits , it has just under a hundred holes in the chassis .

enjoy , part one i talk , part 2 i play thru it a lil :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_OsZsA32m4



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfF9f0wtFw4&feature=related


thanks for watching ! 

two more to go .

[JHow]

Good work!  Thanks for sharing.  The half-consumed pint of ale is also a nice touch!  Ha ha!

I forgot to add the most hilarious quote:  "Service manager of the Year Award - I ended up firing that guy!"

[petey twofinger]

it sounded like i said i , but i really said they . i didn't fire him , but yeah i liked that bit too .

i picked up a cordless dust-buster at salvation army , for 1.50 . it had a pack of 6 "c" size ni-cads in it . i added 2 more , and a separate jack to charge or use an an "out" to power a low drain pedal or 3 . i think its really a logical idea for these lil amps . i found a bag with 4 18 volt batteries in a contractors dumpster a while back . they were all good too . i am guessing the tool was cheap or the charger broke , prolly both . its interesting , i mean i have 4 ryobi 18 volt batteries i use all the time . 2 of these i have replaced the cells with garbage picked replacements . i have had great luck finding good ni-cd's for some reason . i was in radio shack for a pcb and i noticed they want 70 dollars for an 18 volter ! i am guessing they are more like 50 at home depot , but . . . i do have a 6 by 9 solar panel here i am going to try that as a trickle charger next time .

i am thinking in the future i should keep my eyes peeled for cordless stuff at resale . like that dust buster , for 1.50 . i still have a collection of deep cells and transformers here . they are really heavy , and we got in trouble at the forest preserve when a fat angry tree police officer informed me "you cant have contraptions like that in the forest preserve" .

it was me , my 2 daughters , and my wife . no one else . a casio , a lil bass amp , guitar amp , mini (tiny) pa with a horn only , no speaker . i did have a few pedals though . he also informed me we needed a permit . a permit to play 3 chord progressions , and solo over that ? i was pretty upset . i spent a lot of time getting all that together . we were planning on doing it all summer . as apartment dwellers , its tough .

at one point we had the entire living room set up with gear , and we used line in , with a headphone amp , and sony mdr 756's . we had 2 foggers , some dj lights and a few lasers with a mirror ball . we rehearsed those 30 cover tunes for 3 years then recorded them .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ9r90GjHos

this is an early stage shot of the living room , i added more over the next few years but that footage is not yet on our hd :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3LO-mvt5cc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-v7aTbG5eA

moving to the forest preserve was an attempt to make some simpler , more organic (?) type of sounds . straying away from full midi accompaniment , just using a beat and going from there . then i hurt my back , so i have kinda been on hiatus for a WHILE . i do have a few ideas , and all this amp building is an attempt to get the rig less contraption-ey . its really a shame about that police officer . i think if he knew how much this meant to me , he would get off on that even more . i am pretty bitter about the whole thing , but moving on .

the bass amp video will be up next , i really like how it turned out , but i need a slightly beefier speaker . the current one came out of a curbed silvertone organ circa 1975 , and it breaks up a little if everything is dimed . i have some ideas about this , but , more on that later . thanks for watching , and commenting !

[joecool85]

I have to say, when I read "the Metal Amp" I was thinking "Metal Distortion" not "Metal Enclosure" lol.

Looks and sounds good though Pete.  I watched some of your family recordings and you guys have a talented group!

[petey twofinger]

the distortion box i used in there is a dano "metal distortion" so you are correct ! but yeah its metal too . i garbage picked that box at the arcade place dumpster , it was a juke box power supply . that dumpster has been good to me . i got the top panel from a arcade bowling game there , with the track ball . it just had 5 wires hangin down . i spliced those onto the pcb of an old ball mouse , where the IR sensors are , hooked up the arcade buttons to the mouse clickers , and it became a mame controller . so we have all the mame trackball games , like golden tee , bowling , shuffleshot , marble madness , missle command , millipede etc , on this pc . i set it up with a 21 inch monitor on the patio when we bbq and we have a blast with 4 player .

i also got a mp3 "server" module from a juke box . it was a solid metal box , 12 volt in , network out . i opened it up , there were 2 seagate barracuda 250 gig hd's in it ! i LOVE the arcade place dumpster .

thanks for checkin out our music vids . we had a lot of fun , it wasn't serious though . im really proud of how well they did , and i got a lot better too ! could ya tell i only use 2 fingers to fret ? that incedent with the lawnmower , when i was lil kinda threw me for a loop for a while there .

[joecool85]

could ya tell i only use 2 fingers to fret ? that incedent with the lawnmower , when i was lil kinda threw me for a loop for a while there .

To tell you the truth, I really didn't notice.  You're playing is better than mine!

[J M Fahey]

Well, a friend of mine unfortunately lost 3 fingers in his right hand, kept only thumb and pinky.
He *invented* tapping on his own to be able to play his Telecaster bass.
Only years later we learnt that that was a legitimate way to play bass.
Out of necessity, he was a very good player, and his percussive style set him apart from every other Bass player.
In those old days, most Rockers used picks, to get some extra definition (no Rotosound roundwounds yet).
We are talking early 70's here.

[petey twofinger]

there a few mutants out there , the one finger bass guy , never heard of anything like that . really cool , i would have loved to hear him play . i always wanted to put together a band with all the members are missing fingers or limbs . what a gimmick . then "if"  :lmao: we sucked we'd have a huge out .

django reinhardt was the best 2finger guy , iommi , well techniccly he doesnt really count in my book , but , honorable mention . garcia was missing his 3rd finger tip , i believe .

for me , i was playing for about 6 months , then i had the accident . i ended up getting pushed down to bass in the band . i felt pretty bad about it , but i attacked the bass , did that for 15 years , but i always kept at the 6 string . so now , i have the ability to play both FAIRLY well .

kind of a win . it makes me feel "special" , at least i didnt give up ... but man oh man do i miss em !!