Technical question about a homemade stomp box.

That's why most musicians will literally play dozens upon dozens of instruments until they find "the one". I got lucky with both of mine, it only took trying a couple dozen before I found the perfect (for me) Fender Tele and Fender American Jazz bass. You know it as soon as you start playing it. The same goes with amps but they are less so because they have less organic material. Having said that, I've worked on many Fender tube heads that have a distinct sound. The windings in the transformers, the capacitors, the type of resistors, the difference in tubes that are all hand-made, the different speakers, cabinets... ok, it's as complex as a guitar but you players know what I mean.

originally posted by: HalWesten
That's why most musicians will literally play dozens upon dozens of instruments until they find "the one". I got lucky with both of mine, it only took trying a couple dozen before I found the perfect (for me) Fender Tele and Fender American Jazz bass. You know it as soon as you start playing it. The same goes with amps but they are less so because they have less organic material. Having said that, I've worked on many Fender tube heads that have a distinct sound. The windings in the transformers, the capacitors, the type of resistors, the difference in tubes that are all hand-made, the different speakers, cabinets... ok, it's as complex as a guitar but you players know what I mean.

Yep, I found a masterbuilt Tele with a Strat pickup configuration a few years back that I knew as soon as I played it and plugged it in that it would go to my grave with me. Which was odd after playing Hamer’s and Les Paul’s most of my life. Just sold my Marshall I’d had for almost 40 years because of money issues, that hurt.

OP,

Okay, I understand what you're trying to do now. I've never made such a device so I was just going by basic audio designs. This is a fairly unconventional application (definitely interesting, but unconventional).

As Mtnshredder has indicated, the speaker may be too heavy for the sound to move the cone. You can test by tapping (gently) on the speaker cone and you should hear it. If that's the sound you want, and you're not getting it with your foot, the speaker magnet may be too large.

Also, how many wires does the guitar lead you used have? If it has 3 wires, you should have a red, black and a white. Wire the red to the positive terminal, the black to the negative terminal (on the speaker) and leave the white unterminated (or you could bond to the black, although this probably isn't advisable until you try it without this first). The white wire is the shield, and you could wind up with noise if you don't do it right. If you have more than 3 wires then only use the red and black wires.

Let us know how this works out. I will be very interested to hear. Interesting concept.

a reply to: mtnshredder

Dare I ask what it was?

My stable consists of an Ampeg SVT III, a Fender Bassman 100w early 70s Silverface, a Blackface circuit Fender Bandmaster that's around a '71 or so, a Traynor YBA-1A and a couple of Sunns that I'm rebuilding. Yeah, too much stuff. I've only used the Ampeg since 2004, the others need to be finished and sold to someone that will use them.

a reply to: HalWesten
It was a 82 JCM800 50 watt white anniversary series full stack. I had bought it new in 82.

originally posted by: mtnshredder
a reply to: HalWesten
It was a 82 JCM800 50 watt white anniversary series full stack. I had bought it new in 82.

Very cool. Too bad you had to sell it.