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Your weird piece of gear you love thread

#81
will33 said:
That thing is cool!

Not comparing yours to this, but there is/was some company that makes a "punk rock bass".

It has one string...an E string. :)
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Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's Krappy Guitars. He does 1, 2 and 3 string instruments with reclaimed lumber and parts. It's kind of a "you get what you get" deal, rough but cool and definitely a deal for the price, which is dirt cheap. I just emailed him a scan of a drawing and asked him if he could build it. He did, for the same price as that range of instruments. I think it was $125 plus shipping. The nut is total garbage, I might replace that eventually myself, but it's a unique handmade instrument and it's a fun conversation piece.
 
#83
Still diggin on these - chopped A100 and a 142.

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#85
I've got this thing:
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Its a crazy sequencer / synthesizer that is intended to produce rap / R&B / whatever (the MP stands for Mo-Phat). I've added three other ROM cards: eXtreme Lead which is sort of year 2000ish synthesizer sounds, and both Rob Papen cards which have a wide variety of percussion and synth stuff. It is a bit tricky to figure out at first and I've only scratched the surface of the capabilities, but it sure is fun to mess with. It has pretty good bass sounds as well and I've used it a few times to work out difficult basslines by programming them in, slowing them down and then speeding them up.
 
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#86
beans-on-toast said:
The Leslie bottom rotor was pretty cheap plywood, nothing special. They used to wrap the drum in a cotton bag. I don't know if it was to keep the dust off it or if it was intended to act as a diffusor.
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That fabric was called "scrim cloth" - and its purpose was airflow (reduce the turbulence) as the rotor spins. Without the cloth, the rotating drum takes longer to come up to speed and it slows down more quickly too due to the wind resistance - and it also blows more air on the mic if you are miking it... the cloth reduces the wind noise on the mic.
 
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#87
AndyPanda said:
That fabric was called "scrim cloth" - and its purpose was airflow (reduce the turbulence) as the rotor spins. Without the cloth, the rotating drum takes longer to come up to speed and it slows down more quickly too due to the wind resistance - and it also blows more air on the mic if you are miking it... the cloth reduces the wind noise on the mic.
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I never knew what they called it. I know that I've cleaned enough of them, they get pretty dirty. The cloth is thin to keep weight down and has a pretty dense weave.

I usually place the mics on my Leslie cabinets a foot or two away from the vents. This helps with noise. I also tend to keep the back panels on.
 
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#90
Kalimba - based on an old African instrument. Think music box, vibraphone, marimba, celeste. Has a 1/4" jack and pickup inside but sounds best mic'd.

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Suzuki Omnichord - Nicknamed by many as the Frisbee. Originally came out in the 80s as an attempt at an electronic harp. Many chord qualities are possible.

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Suzuki Pure Harp - rosewood harmonica
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Casio SK-1 - advertised as the world's first keyboard sampler
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#91
JimmyM said:
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Jimmy, does the duct tape prevent the corrugations (or whatever you call them) from popping when you apply enough pressure on the neck to hit higher notes? tried making one myself a few years ago, and am not sure if I just had an inferior washtub, but the rings in the middle would literally pop up when i put much tension on the cord, not only making a horrid sound, but changing tension too and making reasonable intervals impossible to attain except as an intractable differential equation.
 
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#92
hazmatt said:
Jimmy, does the duct tape prevent the corrugations (or whatever you call them) from popping when you apply enough pressure on the neck to hit higher notes? tried making one myself a few years ago, and am not sure if I just had an inferior washtub, but the rings in the middle would literally pop up when i put much tension on the cord, not only making a horrid sound, but changing tension too and making reasonable intervals impossible to attain except as an intractable differential equation.
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Never had that problem with the corrugations actually popping up. Have made the top pop a little but nothing ever that drastic. And yeah, the duct tape is there to kill excess resonation and dull those pops.
 
#93
I have nothing that's really all that weird. My bass, amp, and cab are all kinda weird in their own ways, though.

The bass is a modded Peavey with a big old Rickenbacker bridge pickup, the amp is a Mesa D-180 in a head case I made myself out of wood I had lying around, and the cab started life as a Sunn 1200S guitar 6x12 that I then modified to a 2000S 2x15 configuration. Nothing super unusual, though.
 

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