Blog
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Reparing a toy electric car
This children’s electric car only worked in reverse… Not the most practical to practice lateral parking in front of the school. After manipulating the normal-reverse selector switch, I noticed that it would work, but only intermittently, if I pressed strongly on it or moved it in a specific way.…
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Bench restoration
This bench has been a part of my life since my earliest age. It was indeed storing toys and costumes at my grandfather’s house, and also served as a projectile cover during mythical (imaginary) battles with my cousins! I was lucky to inherit its care, and it can now…
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DIY amp – Fender 5E3 Tweed Deluxe
Back to the basics with this Uraltone clone kit of a Fender 5E3 (Tweed Deluxe). It has the bare minimum required of an amp: a volume pot per channel and a master tone, brilliantly enhanced with a headroom pot by the Uraltone people, to avoid breaking the neighbours’ windows.…
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DIY amp – Fender Vibro Champ
To remedy my aching loss from the Princeton Reverb, which has become a permanent resident in the rehearsing space of Satarma, I build its little brother: the Fender Vibro Champ. It has everything from its bigger sibling, except the size! 5W instead of the Princeton’s 14W, it is nonetheless…
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Ibanez V300 – Nashville Conversion
I first heard a Nashville-tuned guitar a very long time ago, although I didn’t know it at the time. It’s of course the chorus of Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd, written by David Gilmour on his own version of the high-strung guitar. You can hear it especially well in…
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DIY amp – Fender Princeton Reverb
Ever since I got interested in tube guitar amp building, the Princeton Reverb from Fender was somewhat of an ultimate goal. Beautiful tremolo and spring reverb in a Blackface combo, what more can you ask for? It also has the major advantage of weighing much less than my Fender…
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DIY amp – Fender Champ 5F1
My first tube guitar amp was a Marshall JCM900, that I traded (maybe ill-advisedly) for my old Gibson Les Paul Studio. Expecting a somewhat aggressive sound, the JCM900 didn’t convince me much. When I first played on this Fender 5F1 Champ clone, at max volume, I understood that raw…
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Custom record player cabinet
Inspired by the very popular cabinet made by La Redoute, as well as an even more popular one from Ikea, I built a custom record player cabinet. The open spaces are sized, of course, to store records, but also to fit the sadly discontinued Ikea Eneby 30 speaker, which…
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Custom table saw cabinet
Not having the space for a cabinet table saw in my workshop, I chose a jobsite saw of a much more appropriate size (Metabo TS 254). The suggested systems to have those saws at table height, however, leave much to be desired, especially regarding stabiility during use. Thus, I…
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MicParts S-25 – DIY microphone
It’s very satisfying to build a complex object, then turn on the juice and see or hear it work perfectly! This kit actually delivered, above and beyond, both in the build phase and testing phase. Find the kit at micparts.com, I will definitely come back for more!