So I was practicing some songs the other night with a tin guitar and my electric soda crate stomp box (with license plate stomping area), and while I like the sound of the stomper through a bass amp, keeping a foot on it puts me in a weird, unstable playing position. I'd rather be
So I'm kicking around the idea of building a section of electric porch, about the size of a shipping pallet, only sturdier and with slightly nicer boards. Then I'll put a piezo or two in strategic locations and wire 'em directly to an output jack. Then, when needed, I can stand on my little section of porch and stomp away.
I think somebody had something similar posted here back in 2012 or so, but I don't remember who.
Any and all suggestions are welcome, whether for making it sound decent or for making it sillier than it already will be. License plate(s) again? Multiple "hot" areas on it, or just one?
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Shot a video last night that doesn't quite capture the sound of the Electric Porch, but it works at least.
A larger bass amp might be the answer...I had my little one cranked up all the way.
http://www.cigarboxnation.com/video/uncle-gus-electric-porch-demo
Congrats on a really neat build. I love that tune you played, what is it?
Thanks. It's an original number called "Eugene Dalton's Blues." I wrote it after finding this photo (attachment) at the Library of Congress archive.
The photographer's description: Some results of messenger and newsboy work. For nine years this sixteen year old boy has been newsboy and messenger for drug stores and telegraph companies. He was recently brought before the Judge of the Juvenile Court for incorrigibility at home. Is now out on parole, and was working again for drug company when he got a job carrying grips in the Union Depot. He is on the job from 6:00 A.M. to 11:00 P.M. (seventeen hours a day) for seven days in the week. His mother and the Judge think[s] he uses cocaine, and yet they let him put in these long hours every day. He told me "There ain't a house in 'The Acre,' (Red Light) that I ain't been in. At the drug store, all my deliveries were down there." Says he makes from $15.00 to $18.00 a week. Eugene Dalton. Location: Fort Worth, Texas.
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Wow, interesting story. I'd love to hear the lyrics.
Sounds dreamy good to me. So long as you don't move next door. Down the road would be cool.
Okay, so I guess the adhesive just took way longer than normal to cure, because my problems with it not transferring enough sound to the amp are gone today. This sucker is LIVELY. If I had a decent-sized bass amp to run it through, it would probably just about pick up your thoughts.
It also sounds nice acoustically, though you have to hit it a lot harder.
One other problem presented itself today, though: while the box will produce a nice sound with a very small foot movement, on certain songs it's almost impossible to not get real into it and start stomping with one leg going way up in the air, or alternating both in some kind of exaggerated march. And I'm not in good enough physical shape to hang. I was laid up a few times over the winter and it got me out of the habit of at least taking a little treadmill walk a few times a week. So when I play the Electric Porch, I get winded if I play an uptempo number and start having too much fun. Nothing wrecks your performance cred like hitting on an inhaler.
Guess I gotta work on that next.
Oh well, at least it ain't the wiring.
I'll get some photos/video up this weekend. It turned out to not look all that enthralling, but it sounds cool. I decided I'll just start painting and drawing goofy stuff on it gradually and let it slowly gain "character" that way.
I hear you man, that one Warren Zevon song kinda sums it up.
Okay, here's where I show how much of a doofus I am on the building side of things (after two years): do larger piezo discs produce a stronger signal? Like those big honkin' ones from Radio Shack where you have to crack open the little plastic thing they're encased in?
I'm using a couple of the real small ones I got from CBGitty, and while this thing is sounding pretty OK, it just ain't loud enough.
(I guess that means I'm not too old, eh? Y'know, 'cause, like...if it's too loud...never mind...)
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