Hi from Parkes NSW

Thanks for the add... I'm a retired electronics engineer and not much of a musician, but I love music + the art & science of sound. I cut my teeth with valve radios and amplifiers in 1970, at age 12 and find myself at home with boxes of valves & bits. Building two custom valve amps and valve fuzz/reverb for my son and niece, who are musically passionate and more gifted than me. I do have an old Epiphone guitar as part of my lab gear and for visitors to blast through ancien KT66's.

Lots of good info here on these forums and I can smell the passion.

Welcome Aelrik.

If you're going to be building a guitar, there will be lots of helpful people here for you get through it, and with your background I'm sure you'll have equally valuable information to share for many of us!

Only caveat, is leave your Elvis costume at the door! (just kidding!)

Welcome to a fellow CSIRO person. I spent a year seconded to CASS working on image processing software for ASKAP. I learnt a lot, mostly that radio astronomy is hard!

Definitely lots of passionate and helpful people around here.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by McCreed

Welcome Aelrik.

If you're going to be building a guitar, there will be lots of helpful people here for you get through it, and with your background I'm sure you'll have equally valuable information to share for many of us!

Only caveat, is leave your Elvis costume at the door! (just kidding!)

---

Thanks, I might just have a go at the headless semiacoustic and nah, I think I’m allergic to Elvis Costumes! :)

Hi there Jugg,
Well its a small world after all... the pale blue dot hanging in a remote corner of the cosmos! :)

I worked on ASKAP too, most of my effort went into telescope construction, plus battling some of the bureaucracy haha!

This COVID isolation seems to be a good time for creative personal ptojectd :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Aelrik

Hi there Jugg,
Well its a small world after all... the pale blue dot hanging in a remote corner of the cosmos! :)

I worked on ASKAP too, most of my effort went into telescope construction, plus battling some of the bureaucracy haha!

This COVID isolation seems to be a good time for creative personal ptojectd :)

---

Yes it is. Since the isolation started I have built 3 guitar pedals, refurbished and modded a 4th, and am most of the way through a fifth. I have also made good progress on my telecaster.

I have always found headless guitars to be odd looking creatures, but I see the appeal.

Cheers,
DC

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jugglindan

Yes it is. Since the isolation started I have built 3 guitar pedals, refurbished and modded a 4th, and am most of the way through a fifth. I have also made good progress on my telecaster.

I have always found headless guitars to be odd looking creatures, but I see the appeal.

Cheers,
DC

---

Hi DC,
Yeah, headless does look a bit odd, but my badass guitarist niece is a bit odd too, so I thought it will be a good match for her to have a headless semi-acoustic! Hehe ;)

What kinds of effects did you build?

I’m contracted by my son to make a custom valve fuzzbox for him, for his studio. He is into electronic music, rather than guitar, so I think the design will need to be a development project... a 19” rack item I expect. I’ve got the usual assortment of 12A?7’s, but also some more exotic NOS items..

Ooh, a valve fuzzbox sounds awesome. I have been thinking of building a valvecaster(there are many descriptions, I just picked this one at random). It's interesting because it uses a 12AU7 and runs off 9v DC, so it would sit comfortably on a pedal board without any extra special power supplies.

All the other stuff I have done recently is in the DIY Pedals section here. Just look for the threads I started. It's all solid-state circuits, mostly on stripboard because I don't etch PCBs.

Oh yes, valve pedals really light me up with interest.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Bakersdozen

Oh yes, valve pedals really light me up with interest.

---

They are tasty. I have been reluctant to build one since I have no experience with valves, but the Valvecaster looks doable.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jugglindan

They are tasty. I have been reluctant to build one since I have no experience with valves, but the Valvecaster looks doable.

---

Looks very cool. You would want to somehow incorporate a valve socket, to easily be able to swap out tubes.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Bakersdozen

Looks very cool. You would want to somehow incorporate a valve socket, to easily be able to swap out tubes.

---

That's how I would approach it. Wire the socket into the enclosure with a point to point circuit. Then the valve can be changed as required.

Lawry conjured up a quick tube fuzz a while back, and I eventually built a modded switchable 9v/12v version:

Attachment 35057

Oh and, welcome Aelrik.

Welcome Erik