Salvaging octal tube socket bases One of the tube amp projects I have in mind lately is to create some kind of instrumentation dashboard for a guitar amplifier. In order to do this I need to create some tube socket adapters that go between the amp and the tubes so that I can measure things like plate voltages and bias…

Duncan amp restore – NOS rectifier tube I’ve gotten back to the Duncan amp restoration project this weekend by grabbing a replacement for my burned out rectifier tube. I had the amp on the bench at the Hacker Dojo a few weeks ago, and with the help of my buddy Fred, we figured out that despite my measuring 600v in…

Testing out the Maxim MAX9768 I recently got some Maxim class D amplifier chips thanks to Michael at Maxim here in the Valley. Along with the MAX9768 parts I scored some development boards, which are already set up with the amp chip, filtering inductors and binding posts. I have a few projects in mind for this. Namely, guitar amps! That’s…

Maxim MAX9768 amp board running through THD hot plate

Tube amp design I’ve been playing around with some different vacuum tube amplifier circuits on the bench recently. However, it’s hard to play around with anything but a starved-plate design given that I don’t have a high voltage power supply on the bench. It’s also hard to provide a proper load for the output tubes since that typically requires a…

Pedal Fighter Pure Data patch In a previous post, I described the physical build process for the Pedalfighter project. I have now played around with getting the software setup going using PD. The process of getting the PD patch working was complicated by lack of documentation on how to work with MIDI messages beyond using the built-in makenote object. The…

Arduino Pedal Fighter project I’m looking into building a MIDI foot controller that works something like the MIDI Fighter but for your feet. The idea is to use momentary arcade-style buttons just like the MIDI Fighter. There are a few problems with doing that though. One is that the arcade buttons are not very low profile. They are designed to…

Tube circuit experiments Here at Audiodestrukt, no esoteric and potentially aurally destructive technology goes unexploited, even those technologies that are over 50 years old. Well, in this case the parts I’m using are modern versions of the early stuff, but it’s still pretty cool. I had some 12AX7 preamp tubes on hand and after running across this tube headphone amp…

Guitar tech – Ibanez Artist I just got my Artist cleaned up and put back together again with the Gibson humbuckers that I got for it a few years ago. This project has been sitting around on my bench for a long time now, so it feels good to get it all done and out of the way. The back…

Korg – the old new thing I’m digging some of the new stuff that Korg is putting out. They have always been one of the most innovative gear companies in my opinion. I’m not a shill for them, I’m just looking out for cool stuff. Some of the boutique synth makers like Dave Smith instruments might have some flashier stuff,…