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Passinwind

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Everything posted by Passinwind

  1. Many vendors sell tubular brass shims to alleviate that very problem. It's not too hard to improvise a DIY solution either, a cut up soda or beer can works OK for instance. For those of us in or near the US, these guys have a few different Kilo knobs at really good prices: https://lovemyswitches.com/knobs/ Interesting on Digikey, in the past I've been told that Mouser (the other main player here) shipped parts from the US by default.
  2. In the context of jazz with acoustic piano you are generally expected to tune to the piano by ear. I made this faux pas myself as a rookie in a big band, but most of time the keyboard player brought an electric one and it didn't matter, and sometimes the acoustic ones have been so out of tune that it also didn't matter. The real fun started when there was no keyboard player and the whole band tuned to my fretless bass, and not to a pitch with a marker either. 😉
  3. There's always that one more thing, isn't there? 😎
  4. What specs do you need for the regulator John? And BTW, I share your pain when it comes to metalwork. Literally, my fingers are a mess right now from hand filling a power switch opening in 1/8" aluminium two days ago
  5. I see the separate supplies as potentially a big plus actually. Not easier to deal with though, of course. My cost would be substantially higher though, and I already have too many amps!
  6. I believe the NC500MP OEM is the one my friend Jule Potter is using in his new "pedalboard" power amp. I'm in no hurry to do any more Class D builds but it could be fun to give a different brand a try eventually. That said, both the Icepower 500ASP and 700ASC modules were pretty easy to work with beyond the cable fabrication end, but even that just takes a few Web clicks and a few weeks waiting time under normal circumstances. I just got in an order for something else from that vendor in the ROC, it took about 5-6 weeks this time around.
  7. I wasn't calling you out in any way John, I think you're doing it just right. Rod is in a position of extreme responsibilty and potential liability, and he did offer a Class D module as part of one or more projects a few years ago, but apparently doesn't anymore. I've purposely kept a lot of details of my DIY builds a bit vague in forum posts, but as always I'm happy to share more in PMs. I'm always surprised not to see more mention of Hypex. They make great sounding stuff and are happy to support DIY'ers fully. In the US the ICEpower rep is a great guy and has helped me a lot, but tech support comes from Denmark and IME those guys are pretty much all business. They changed their presence at NAMM from a public booth to appointment-only in a private office this year and I can't say I blame them. My first module came from a gray market source (lightly used evaluation kit) and was pretty expensive, but the guy was very helpful and made me a nice cable set on his nickel. For the last three I called in favors, schmoozed the right people, and so on, and the price for 700ASCs was very reasonable.
  8. Agreed, but in many parts of the world including the US it would be sketchy to even publish anything with the usual SMPS supply format that so many Class D amps use. DIYaudio used to explicitly forbid it, not sure if they're still held to that or not though. For my part, I'm deep into a tube bass amp build at the moment. Just about everything about it is a real shock after all the battery powered stuff I've been doing for the last few years, hopefully not literally though!
  9. Project 27 works really well for a bass preamp IME. I gigged with a DIY rack preamp using his V1 board for quite a few years and that build ended up in a NAMM booth earlier this year actually. Hopefully Rod will do boards for at least some parts of his new bass preamp project as well.
  10. As a long term straight ahead jazz performer and a general weirdo, no problem there at all. And I like it that way!
  11. Sure, nearly any new Alembic for starters. And then of course a nice upright can easily cost double or triple that figure.
  12. I'll be interested to see how that bright switch works out; I've used it in the Rod Elliot preamp design I lifted it from but not in the board you have. Nice to hear that you're making noise now!
  13. It a really simple build, and fDeck has published the schematic for his v3 now. I could knock off a board layout very quickly, but he's a friend and even though he's said he'd be OK with that I'd rather not. I've done a design during lockdown for a 12dB/oct one with a resonance control that will be open source and intended for DIY builders, just have to build one myself and make sure it performs as expected.
  14. Yep, it's not even the same ballpark at all.
  15. I had already been semi-retired from gigging for a couple of years before this mess started. I have a pretty strong inclination to just make it permanent and move on to other things. It'd take more than low rent bar gigs to entice me at this point in any case.
  16. I just ordered a few sets of I/O cables from Ghent the other day, not for the first time. IME the key to good consistent crimps is to use a real crimping tool, i.e. not just a generic hand one meant for occasional prototyping . Real JST hand crimpers are already about $400 new over here and you need two different models to do the ICE modules I've worked with. If you go for powered ones with thermal stripping you're looking at a few $K each. And at least that's one of my older board layouts, which are often much easier to do mods on. The SMT onboard preamps I'm doing these days are really not all that much fun to work on.
  17. A little Google-Fu shows stories of some (nominally correct size) Duracell batteries being problematic when used in oversized battery compartments meant for the Energizer Industrials. I have both in my shop at the moment and it's a chore to get the Energizer to fit in my Fender drive pedal. Consumer grade Duracells pop right in, FWIW. But of course counterfeits are everywhere these days, and Duracell have an industrial variant as well, so who knows really?
  18. Yes. The Energizer Industrial batteries are a classic example of being at the high end of the standard, but I've never observed that latter result personally.
  19. Outstanding. I still have a couple of preamps with that first generation board of mine in them kicking around. One is about to get replaced by the second gen one any day now, but the differences are pretty minimal. Hope it goes smoothly for you from here on out! BTW, did the I/O cabling for the power module come with it, or did you have to do the usual aftermarket route to get it done?
  20. True that, but Marcus was right up there with anyone I saw at NAMM as far as "show chops" this year too. Difference was that he was playing actual self contained music the whole time, stuff that needed no visual component or constraint to portrait view on a stoopid phone, until some other guy joined him 15 minutes in anyway. I did see a few other really great show demo sets too. Anyone with disdain for pick playing might want to check out Cody Wright, for instance. At the booth I "worked" in it wasn't quite all slap all the time, probably only 85-90%. My crankiness is rock steady these days, no worries. What technique produces good music isn't all that important to me, as long as it happens.
  21. My friend who runs an audio gear repair shop just down the street is a certified teacher for SMT soldering, and has extensive experience with computer motherboards and all sorts of other arcane stuff. We've discussed a barter arrangment to get me some scary knowledge but it's hasn't happened yet. He' s repurposed a toaster oven, among other things.
  22. Sound wise I lke Silencers, GHS Pressurewounds, and EB Cobalt Flats about equally for fretless duty, which is by far my main thing. Out of those only the CFs really feel like flats texture wise though, IMO. Unfortunately that works against my current obsession, slide bass.
  23. Heh! I've been avoiding getting the right tooling, as I really don't savor going deeper down this rabbit hole. It seems unavoidable these days though.
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