(sort of) [NGD] - This has been my pet project for a few weeks now. Description in comments.

thencomesdudley · 2012-05-25T17:00:06.887347+00:00

I love that the upvote button for that turns into a tube :D

thencomesdudley · 2012-05-25T06:46:52.920188+00:00

It's not causing problems (yet). It's staying in tune reasonably well, and I'm using pretty light strings on it. But I will likely do something about that in the near future. I'm just excited to finally have it in a playable state.

thencomesdudley · 1 day

From comparing it to other out-of-phase setups, I think you're right. That being said, after playing that pickup for a while, I'm starting to like it a lot more. It has a really jangly, glassy, almost quacking sound to it. Twang x 1000000. I think it's a nice contrast between the more regular sounding neck pickup. I'll probably need some kind of booster pedal or something, but it sounds pretty good to me.

thencomesdudley · 1 day

Downvoted in the first 15 minutes.

thencomesdudley · 1 day

Yes, I went & built myself a cigar box guitar. Sort of. Here's an outline of everything.

Body - Technically not a cigar box, but a microscope slide storage box. Chemistry department at my university was getting rid of a LOT of equipment. I stopped by & found a few of these boxes. One of them turned into this guitar. I'm not sure what I'll do with the other one. The pickup holes & tiny useless F-hole were laser cut. I made a mockup of the guitar in CAD, then put it through a laser cutter. The wood was really thin & light, so cutting it was super easy. I used a few bits of poplar from Home Depot for the neck joint.
Neck - The neck was taken from an old Harmony H-802. I decided to rip that guitar apart & use the parts for various projects. I didn't like it much, and that guitar's body was pretty terrible.
Electronics - Pickups are some Danelectro ones I picked up on eBay a few years back. Selector switch is just an on/off/on switch from Radio Shack. Volume pot is a 250K pot, and the knob is also from Radio Shack. The knob has to be my favorite part.
Bridge - Mighty Mite wraparound bridge from another project guitar gone wrong. Intonation on it is kind of weird, and I'm probably gonna replace it with an adjustable wraparound bride like this one.
Strings - D'addario 9's. I went with a lighter gauge, since I'm nervous about putting too much tension on the neck joint.

So, the million dollar question: how does it sound? For a beater guitar, not too bad. Like I said, intonation's weird, but that's mostly my fault. I mounted the neck slightly too far back (like a fraction of a fraction of an inch too far), so around the 12th fret everything starts to sound flat. Kind of a bummer. But above the 12th fret it has a really raunchy, badass tone to it. I did kind of a crappy job wiring it, where the pickup selection is either neck or neck + bridge. With just the neck pickup & some overdrive it sounds great, but both together sound thin & "meh." The action on it is surprisingly good. I shimmed the neck with a 1 mm pick, and it plays really really nicely. So far it's staying in tune OK, although the strings are new & it'll take a little while for them to break in. I'm considering putting heavier strings on it & tuning down to C, since that neck pickup has an almost Queens of the Stone Age-y sound to it.

Anyway, I had fun making this thing. I wish I had a way of getting a video demo of it or something.

thencomesdudley · 1 day

Way to be late to the party :D I'm actually looking at a Blue Box right now on eBay; here's hoping I can get it for cheap. I've been able to get some gnarly tones with a Danelectro French Toast octave fuzz into a Big Muff, but it's not really the sound I'm looking for. I think an SYB with some kind of octave pedal might do the trick.

SocotraBrewingCo · 1 day

That one's no longer in production, but this one is. I'm seriously considering getting one & building a little control strip for it, instead of all the pushbuttons. With a little waist-level stand for it (or maybe photoresistors &... foot-controllable lights or something) it could do some really crazy shit.

thencomesdudley · 2 days

I'm considering birch as well, but not sure if it'd be thin enough. I think the thinnest the Menards around here has is 1/8" (or maybe 1/4", didn't check today). I might be able to do it with 1/8". Still, it'd be nice to have some interesting-looking wood, instead of plain birch.

thencomesdudley · 2 days

Even if it does (again, can't check right now), the labs are closed over the summer.

thencomesdudley · 2 days

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign,

thencomesdudley · 2 days

I don't think there's one anywhere nearby (college campus, and I'm not sure if our woodshop has a planer).

SocotraBrewingCo · 2 days

Look at this thing.

Gomets51 · 2 days

Upvote for balalaika.

myninjaway · 3 days

I dunno, I kind of like Bling Pig better.

reid-o · 3 days

These are some of the most horrendous-looking things I've ever seen. I don't care how much work goes into them, they're ugly as shit. And unbelievably tacky to boot.

chemicalcoulson · 4 days

One Spot is great. We had a gig a while back where I forgot mine at home, and ended up using the bass player's. We were both running off the same power supply, and were able to power about 12 pedals for the half hour set. I wouldn't recommend doing that for an extended period of time, but the point is that it's a solid power supply :D

I usually just power about 5 pedals: Artec Whish Wah, Danelectro French Toast, Danelectro Daddy-O, Daphon Analog Delay, and a Digitech Digidelay. I've had the same one for about 5 years now, with no problems.

lrhkb8 · 4 days

I've been meaning to pick that up one of these days. The few songs I've heard off it are pretty solid.

thesluggards · 4 days

Pedals is one of my favorites. Sounds really really good, and the interface is almost identical to AmpliTube. Obviously not quite as many features as AmpliTube, but for the price it's fantastic.

wintremute · 4 days

Ha, I'll take a picture one of these days. It's sitting in the drummer's basement right now & I keep forgetting to take a picture of it. One of these days, whenever I finish my pedal board.

ThatDamnGreaser · 4 days

He likes it a lot. It was a terrible joke gone wrong.

ThatDamnGreaser · 4 days

I was gonna say, you should've sold stuff on eBay or something like that & gotten your money's worth. But if you're only 13, it's understandable. Kudos to you for figuring out a way regardless; I'm sure your uncle appreciates the... poop out of this.

fighting_illini · 5 days

The credits should transfer over, but I'd double-check with an advisor (either at your current school or here) just to be sure. I had a friend that took 2 years' worth of community college classes, and most didn't transfer to ISU. Granted, it's a different school & a different process, but I'd still make sure.

Theophagist · 6 days

Now just work towards trading for a house & you'll be set!

thencomesdudley

TROPHY CASE

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