Z-TARD

Getting closer to making it sound he way I want. Found out that the tinny sound came mostly from trying to push 100 watt speakers with a 5 watt amplifier. I hooked it up to a vintage Jensen 12", probably rated for about 15 to 25 watts and the sound quality improved quite a bit. I also upgraded the output transformer to a larger unit designed specifically for single ended amps like this one, which improved the bottom end response even more. the new transformer is easily twice the size of the old unit. It's so bass heavy now that I may have to go back into it and undo some of the mods I did earlier to add bottom end. Overall, it's getting very close to the sound I want, which is somewhere between a cranked Marshall 69 plexi and a Peavey 5150. Once I get some stomp boxes for it (analog delay, chorus, etc.) and get a cabinet built around it I should be ready to do some sound clips. I suppose Youtube is probably the easiest option for hosting video/sound files? Mike

I doubt that gun was on his shoulder long enough to use the scope. At 36 pounds, they're a little difficult to get shouldered Major props for actually looking calm while holding it up though. When I tried, big veins stuck out in my forehead.... Since this thread has pretty much turned into "Post a pic of yourself + rifle" Here's my contribution: And for those of you who are wondering: Yes, that IS my happy face.... Mike

600 rounds with a flick of the finger? First off, it's supposed to be a gentle squeeze of the trigger for proper marksmanship. I suppose if one is prone to "flicking" the trigger, one might need 600 rounds to hit anything close to their intended target. Secondly, unless he's firing an MG42 or other belt fed machine gun, I think he might have a problem finding 600 round magazines (Airsoft perhaps...). I'm glad that story is getting torn apart in the comments section of the page.

Just thought of another one, just in case you win the lottery or suddenly come down with a case of "Money out the wazoo".... Should you happen to have $25,000 petty cash handy: http://www.evhgear.com/frankenstein/#Home Or you could just spend about $350 getting parts off of the internet to make one just like it.....

Seems like a pretty decent axe. A buddy of mine, who is a semi professional musician bought one of the Dean EVO guitars. He would not shut up about how much he liked it, so I guess that has to say something for the quality of Dean Guitars (He thought my Wolfgang was "Okay"). Are you looking for a Floyd Rose equipped guitar, or a fixed bridge?

For the money, the OLP MM1 is hard to beat. The standard tremolo versions can be found for $200 and less on Ebay. They also make a version that comes with a genuine Floyd Rose locking tremolo (As opposed to a licensed version made from questionable materials). I think this is probably the best deal going for a factory guitar. The pickups in these things are awesome, and the guitar itself is actually made very well despite the price. Here's a link to one of the Floyd Rose version on Evilbay: http://cgi.ebay.com/OLP-MM1F-ernie-ball-music-man-Lisc-Guitar-w-floyd-rose_W0QQitemZ150165007022QQihZ005QQcategoryZ2384QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem Another option, and one more in the spirit of HybridZ, is to get a kit from this place: http://www.axcessories.com/products.asp?cat=140 They sell complete kits for the Mean Street "Exile" guitar, which is a replica of the Peavy Wolfgang, the Van Halen signature model a few years back. I have both a real Wolfgang, which cost me around $1300, and the Exile, which cost me around $300. The Wolfgang is arguably one of the best production guitars ever made, quality control on them was very stringent. I wont lie and tell you that the Exile is every bit as good, but I will say that it's so close to the Wolgang in terms of fit and finish that it's pretty much impossible to find any faults with it. Heres a pic of mine: Yet another option from the wonderful world of Ebay, is this one: http://cgi.ebay.com/Brand-New-WENSEN-Electric-Guitar-SET-NECK-WSPK-520_W0QQitemZ220155803810QQihZ012QQcategoryZ2384QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem It's a semi close copy of a Parker Fly guitar, one of my favorite guitars ever just for the visual aspect of them. Getting a new Parker wasn't in the budget for me however, being that I'm kind of a cheap skate and have too many hobbies. Here's the one I got: The feel is very much like a Les Paul, except it's lighter and has a few more frets. The neck is very slick, and quality on them is pretty good for an overseas guitar. I was able to set the action on mine extremely low after correcting a few minor problems with the factory tremolo installation. The electronics are very good, the pots dont scratch or hiss when changing volume or tone, and the smaller toggle switches are for coil tapping. With this you can effectively make the humbucker pickups sound like a single coil pickup from a strat or telecaster guitar. There are a lot of different guitars this one is capable of sounding like due to this ability. The stock pickups in it are okay. I'm kind of picky about pickups, so most people would be fine with the stock ones in this guitar I swapped mine out for some GFS Loudmouth pickups, but will probably end trying something else as they don't seem to agree with a mahogany body, tone-wise. Anyway, I hope this helps out a little. Mike

No sound samples yet unfortunately. I'm still working on the tone of the amp, replacing various resistors and capacitors to alter the tonal characteristics. I added a small 10k trim pot in place of one of the gain stage resistors that lets me change the distortion from pre amp driven like a lot of newer amps (Soldano, 5150, etc) to more of a power amp driven distortion like older Marshall amps. The overall tone though is still quite heavy in the mid range and upper frequencies, to the point of being almost annoying. I think I may end up swapping the output transformer for a better unit, as I went the cheap route and got a universal model that may not be up to the task of driving several large speakers. I know that the amp is capable of sounding absolutely huge with the right components, but right now it pretty much sounds like a practice amp. When I get to a point where I'm happy with the tone of it, I'll try to get some sound clips posted up. Check this site out for some more amp designs. http://www.ax84.com/?pg=coreprojects It's mostly oriented towards building guitar amps, but under the core projects section on their site there are quite a few pre amp and power amp designs that can be mixed and matched to do pretty much any audio stuff you need. My next amp will probably be based on one of their lower watt power amps combined with a similar pre amp to the Hi Octane I just built. They also have an online forum a lot like this one, but devoted to building amps. Lots of knowlege on that site as well. Mike

Heres some pics of my latest project, if nothing else just to prove that I do make progress on at least a few of my projects... It's a home built tube amplifier built from plans for the Hi Octane amplifier found on AX84.com. This is my first real electronics project, and amazingly it came out pretty good. It puts out about 5 watts of power, and is still amazingly loud. I was hoping for something a little quieter than this for using in the house. Tube amps never sound so good as when the gain knobs and master volume are CRANKED to "11". I can take this one to about 4 or 5 before it gets too loud for indoors Accordingly, my next build will probably be something in the 1 watt or below range. Anyhoo, pics: No tube amp thread is complete without pictures of the heater filaments glowing! Picture of my current setup, located in the garage of course. The cardboard box just visable in the background is acting as a speaker baffle for a Maddison 12" speaker, and acting badly at that. The final version will have either 2 or 4 12" speakers enclosed in a wooden box. Now all I need to do is go get a bunch of stomp boxes for effects.

After spending the past 4 months in Kuwait, I can personally attest to this. Nearly every highway collision out there involves at least one, if not multiple fatalities. Definitely not the most safety conscious society

Request submitted. Mike

We can still have the cool stuff, it just has to be a castrated version with fixed 10 round mag. Either that, or you can take all the offending "assault rifle" features off, like flash hiders, pistol grips, barrel shrouds, etc, and then you get to have a 10 round DETACHABLE mag. Yeah, this state is in pretty sorry shape. Fortunately being in the military has some perks. Last week as part of my weapons qualification prior to deployment, I got to shoot a belt fed M-240 machine gun, along with a full auto M-16 and a lame a$$ 9mm berretta. After qualifying, we had to burn up all the excess ammo we brought, which ended up looking and sounding a lot like the scene in "Predator" when they cut down an acre or so of jungle with a minigun. Imagine about 1/2 an hour of non stop fully automatic rifle fire. The 240 is a pain to shoot from the hip, ala John Rambo style, but it just feels better that way I also found out that it takes about 12 30 round magazines run one right after the other on full auto to make an M-16 hot enough to begin emitting smoke from the outside of the barrel..... Mike

I live right next to SDSU. We should go shooting sometime (OMG, I just mentioned a college campus and shooting in the same post....) I'll be on deployment to Kuwait until November, so if you are in the area (edit: after november, in San Diego) let me know. Mike

I've welded on the receiver of a Mauser, so far it still maintains a tight chamber headspace, so I don't think the heat affected the steel enough to weaken it. Using TIG on about 50-60 amps with .030" mig wire as filler would probably work. Be prepared for lots of cosmoline to ooze out from between the barrel and receiver Slotting the mount will probably also work, just be sure to use plenty of locktite on the mounting screws to prevent it from shifting around under recoil later on. Mike