hey all,
i read on the interwebs that one can easily make an amp by taking the wires going to a tape player head on an old boombox and fixing them to a jack-socket.
so i tried this, attached a jack socket to some speaker wire, and attached that to different wires going to the tape deck head but allthough i can get some nice sounding buzzing, and when i plug in a jack cable and i touch that i hear static too, when i plug it into the guitar i hear nothing, not even on full volume.
so now,
i got a black, a red, a white and a yellow wire, the red and white appear to be hot, the yellow and black not and i got to bits of speaker wire attached to a mono jack socket, what do i solder to what in order to crank it up?
thanks in advance!!!
Replies
that srynge idea is really smart . i use a red plastic wd40 straw , cut at an angle , but it gets a lil messy sometimes . i use "harveys" flux , its like a dollar at weepis (home depot) . im pretty sure thats a huge blunder if you are a real pro book learned ohms law tattoo guy , but we always clean it off with a lil rubbin hooch .
one question , were do i get the hype ? i dont normally go to the methadone clinic every day , so . . .
i got a wire wheel mounted on a larger dowel rod / wooden handle to clean my tips . im sure this is a huge faux paux as well . i saw a guy who crocheted himself a cotton yarn 3 inch by 3 inch double layer pad . he says its way better than a sponge for cleanin . i found the wire wheel method to be really quick , i have seen those super size spring coil lookin brass(?) tip cleaner things , just never saw one in a dumpster . been using the wire wheel method for a few years (i solder quite a bit more than your average sports fan) and it hasn't effected my tips at all , but they were pretty tore up to start so . i will say this , having NEVER purchased an iron , (i have 7 or so) , tips , solder , its not that big a deal to me . i just prefer a 45 watt for normal . got a 15 for sensitive chip stuff and a few guns for quick jobs / larger wires but i usually use a propane torch on "monster" cable joints .
i built a home made temp control like in the old Craig Anderton book so i run the iron on low when i'm not cuttin . its really a nice time saver . i also made a temp control for my hot glue gun . it uses a ceiling fan dimmer , im sure this is a fire hazzard as well , but ive been usin it for 3 years no problems . i just cut in a 110 volt mini lamp from a curling iron as an idiot light , one of those on the solder station as well .
when i opened the solder station up to install the dummy lamp i noticed that i had failed to ground the box that holds the resistor / switch / outlet . so i grounded it up , then i mounted a spring iron holder to sit next to it , and put 4 rubber feet on the bottom . i cut a dowel and mounted that upright on the far left corner, slid a spool of garbage picked solder on it , and put a large washer screwed down to the dowel to hold the solder spool so i can pull solder to my work area , several feet away . this is prolly tough to picture , but bear with me .
i was runnin this set up for over a year , the other day , we are sittin at the kitchen table workin , i pull the solder over and BOOM ! lighting / liquid solder flying everywhere followed by smoke , the power is out . when i pulled the solder it slid in between the ac input plug for the iron , then it contacted the GROUNDED chassis . pretty glad i got faulty eyes and wear glasses , cause some of the hot flying solder melted two nice craters in my spectacles . one case were taking the proper safety precautions (grounding the chassis) turned out to be an actual hazard !
thanks for stepping up and stressing safety . i just got back from the kitchen were is installed a lil strip of wood to reroute the solder path away from the outlets , i am sure that would a happed again . i honestly meant to do something about that and forgot . i can post a pic later , if anyone cares . i also cut a lil piece of kitchen sponge and put that in the solder station tray so i can try a "more conventional cleaning method . i dont know though , then i have to wet the sponge , i spose i could pour some beer in it , but i drink brass monkeys . lately i been puttin black cherry juice concentrate in my icehouse , cause its good for gout ! (i know) . it looks way more feminine than an orange brass monkey , the beer has a giant pink head on it . but dang , there adaptable .
come to think of it i did purchase that 15 watt iron , for cuttin in mod chips on playstations . sorry if i ramble , ive been "laid up" for a few years (back injury) and i'm here by myself for most of the day , so just ignore me :)
Shrink ray.... That is highly proprietary information!
You like my miniature collection? It has about doubled lately, I'll have to update the pics.
My accident involved a lamp cord. I was very young and did a very stupid thing. But it taught me to respect the potential of live a/c circuits. Now dont get me wrong, I have done some risky things since, and yes, I know exactly how you feel about those side cutters. Been there, done that. Just remember to yell "I'm alright!" so the wifes heart starts beating again while you look for the blown breaker.
I hate to admit it, but I have done some dumb things like "tap" a wire with my finger to see if it was live, enough times to detect accurately if I am on a hot wire or a wire through a load (light bulb) by how much it "hurt" while attempting to trace say... a three way light circuit. I dont recommend such foolishness. Get some basic test equipment fool!
My point is be careful. If you dont know what you are messing with treat it like it could kill you, cause if you dont, it might.
The right "plumbers flux" is fine on wires. Most modern stuff is different than the stuff we commonly had around decades ago that was a no-no on wiring. I use "no-corrode" a lot. Heres a trick for you. Find a medical syringe and cut a med guage needle off about half way with a cut-off tool. Heat the bottom of your "no-corrode" tin with your hot soldering iron, melting a little puddle at a time and draw it up into the syringe. Now you have a precision applicator. Also, if you are like me and appreciate a good iron with a propperly cleaned and tinned tip, find yourself one of those tip cleaners that looks like an old metallic pot scrubber. Mine looks like an old tin ash tray with a brillo pad in it. The cleaner has a mild coating of flux and an occasional rub of the tip of your iron during use and after each use will keep it working like it was freshly tinned.
Mark Bliss said:
mind if i ask , what you tapped into that lit cha up ? i'd really like to know the story behind the shrink ray you have developed , was that a heathkit , PIAA ?
that is a good point , if its runnin off ac , i check the voltage comin out of the transformer , and use probes . when i spliced cable for AT&T the line voltage was 90 volts AC , we used to get lit up all the time . it wasnt as bad as the time i laid into a hot tv tube as a lil kid , or a lil later when i ripped into live AC cable with some side cutters , i was a bit miffed , those were some nice ones ! all in all , giving safety advice to a guy who goes by the name two-finger , you may be a little late on that one , but i appreciate it . did i mention i use plumbers flux , on EVERYTHING ?
anything tastes better , on a ritz .
All this poking around on circuits concerns me a bit. If its a battery powered circuit you are ok, worst that might happen is you let the smoke out of something somewhere. But if its a 120 volt ac powered circuit, please dont let the smoke out through your fingers!
It takes very little current to injure you, trust me, I wear the scars of a childhood electrical injury, that damn well could have killed me.
Sucsess!
well, sort off, attaching the yellow to the white wire took away all of the buzz, so now it's only sounding distorted, also, at first it wasn't verry loud, but after a bit off freestyle poking, i found out that if one attached two nodescript items on the cirquit board the volume boost way way up.
so thanks for the help!
Man, thanks a lot for the lesson in amateur electronics!
i have to read your posts 3 times, but afterwards i feel i understand something!
and i like the nails and wire tool,
anyway back to work, and back to experimenting tonight!
petey twofinger said:
putting a resistor in-line a challenge ?
for the question you asked , how I DO IT , is lick the finger , touch the red wire , does it hum ? if yes then grab the red wire again , get it buzzing good . now with your other hand grab the black wire while it is buzzing / you are holding the red . did it stop buzzing , or the buzz was reduced quite a bit ? then the black is a ground . now determine if the yellow wire indeed is a ground as well , and if the white is an input like the red . once you know what they all are , connect them to the jack , use all the grounds to the ring side , and all the inputs (or positives) to the tip . or just go with one input , run the amp off one channel , or you could bridge em . shit i better stop . short version , yellow and black to ground , white and red to pos (if you are right about what they are and it sounds like you are) .
well anyway ,yes the guitar ohms and the tape head ohms are different . ohms are resistance . and yes soldering properly will eliminate buzz quite often but , if you find that when you it all hooked up nice , and you cant get a clean tone , its a ll fuzzy or distorted , thats when you would try cutting in a resistor .
last night i opened up a pc speaker with an amp in it . when you connect a guitar to it you can hear it , but its very quiet . i used the volt meter to determine the amp was running off of 11 volts AC . by testing the wires that go from the transformer to the circuit board . 11 volts ac , nothing to make my hair stand on end . i looked at the board , there were about 8 resistors . i figured one that was very near the only chip on the board was prolly setting the input gain for the amp (impedance) . at this stage i sometimes opt to use a probe instead of a wet finger . i have one that is 2 nails , with a wire between em , another that is 2 nails with wire , and a 1k resistor in the middle . i used the resistor probe and started bypassing the resistors by touching the probes to both sides of a resistor , one at a time . sure enough i found the input gain resistor , and when by passed , the amps impedance matched the guitars a lot better than with the resistor . it became nice and loud , but not distorted . so i will remember that if i want to convert something into a "guitar amp" and its really quiet with guitar , but cranks with a line level signal , you just bypass the input resistor .
your case is the other way around , the signal generated off the tape head is LESS than guitar . so when its hooked up , the guitar is gonna be too loud and have very nasty distortion . you could try and put a resistor in to match it up , but getting the right one may be hit or miss .
you could put it on the hot side of the guitar to tape head lead connection , but personally i would try and find the input gain resistor . get an old radio that has a headphone jack , run a cable out of that to the tape lead , adjust the volume so its kinda quiet . get 2 nails , some wire , make a probe and then tape up the nails (except the tips) , look for a chip on the board that has a heat sink . start bypassing the resistors that are around it . if you dont know where the amp is on the board , just do each resistor , one by one . if it sparks , take it off , it it pops , take it off , eventually you should hit a resistor that when you touch both its leads (this is from the top) the volume will jump up.
you found the input gain resistor . use the ohm meter , to determine the resistor value . remove the resistor , now you could put in a larger value resistor or a pot so it is adjustable . then again you may get lucky , the distortion may actually be desirable , i know when i did it , it was just waay to hot , unusable .
i started doing this stuff when i was a kid , i ENJOY doing this quite a bit . i wish i knew more though , so i look at problems with delight , cause i almost always figure em out . the most important thing is that you NEVER EVER use plumbers flux .
well, that sounds mighty complicated, but i do have an ohm meter/multimeter, which some guy said i needed when i wanted to make my own pickups (i used it and got a reading, but didn't understand what it meant, so i just made the bobbin of copper as big as i thought it should be, works fine by the way).
what you said before about attaching the jack to the two hot wires actually worked!... a bit
there's a huge hummmmmmm going on but i hear the strings, distorted but with a cool reverb effect!
the humm is muffeld a bit when you touch the black cord from the tape head, leading me to believe that the black and yellow may be grounds, i might try to solder them back to the tape head tommorow, maybe it will help a bit right?
but if i understand right (this is my first endevour in amplifying so pardon the ignorance) my guitar ohm reading and the tape head ohm reading are probably radically different leading to a buzzing noise?
so where exactly do i poke around with my finger, where ever there are wires?
kind of goes against what your parents tell you when youre a kid, but what the heck.
putting in a resistor would be quite a challenge, but anyway i'm going to keep trying!
thanks for all the help so far!
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