The wonderful eBay ...

shbaz · Sat 10/07/2004 14:12:57

Quote from: Ben on Fri 09/07/2004 23:25:26
shbaz: How much did it cost you to build that combo?

The transformers, speaker, and the box + chassis are usually the most expensive items. I bought the output transformer on eBay for $35 (total), power transformer was salvaged from an old piece of army equipment along with a bunch of sockets, tubes, and mounting hardware (free - circa 1958 - cold war), the speaker was a $40 Jensen one from tubesandmore.com, and the box and chassis came from a Kustom amp my friend blew up and ripped the tolex off of. I bought it for $10. Add about $40 for all of the capacitors, switches, the light, resistors and wire from Mouser.com.. Add $5 for two of the power tubes I bought from eBay and it costed about $125 and loads of my time. Most DIY projects can cost much more (click AX84 link below to see) but I had some good luck with the $10 box, the free cold war thingy and eBay.

QuoteHeh.. Just yesterday I was looking at used Warmoth guitar parts on ebay. When I get some money saved up I want to build my own guitar-- something I know almost nothing about. I figure I can start with cheap stuff to learn the basics, and from there try and build something nicer..

Nobody will notice I suck if I have a cool guitar-- RIGHT?

I wanted to do this a while back too but never got around to it. Building your own neck is a huge job because you have to precisely measure the fret lengths (obtained through a formula that inputs the distance between nut and bridge) and make a channel for the truss rod etc. If you really want to do it though - This guy is the freaking king of DIY audio stuff and he's done it. You can buy new (unused) necks on eBay as well as bodies (but make sure the neck will fit into the socket!). Check out Ampage.org; they have a section for guitar guys. I always wanted to do it all or nothing though, because guitars are pretty cheap to buy and mod anyway.

I think a better amp makes a cheap guitar sound better than a better guitar would make a cheap amp sound though.. Tube amps really are a huge leap from any SS equipment (even tube emulating stuff) and they'll hide a $100 squire strat as if it were an original 50's Fender.

Oh yeah.. heh.. I just thought of another eBay story. That guy John Tirone that I linked above once posted on the Ampage forums that someone had ripped his website and was selling it for $10 on eBay. The ensuing anger from the Ampage community ended up finding the perpetrator's name, telephone number, home address, Church (where he was a youth minister) and one guy who lived nearby even offered to beat him up for John. John refused because he was a devout Christian man, and instead e-mailed the pastor of the church. He talked with the guy about it, and e-mailed back saying that his excuse was that he was selling the time he took to find the information, not the information. I think he lost his title of youth pastor, but he might still be selling the stuff on eBay now.

AGA · Sat 10/07/2004 15:08:14

Whoa, somebody else who's played Faxanadu. I used to love that game. Although the RPGing was only very basic, going up levels and getting new weapons really gave you a sense of accomplishment. Awesome game.

Ben · Sat 10/07/2004 20:42:13

Quote from: shbazjinkens on Sat 10/07/2004 14:12:57
I wanted to do this a while back too but never got around to it. Building your own neck is a huge job because you have to precisely measure the fret lengths (obtained through a formula that inputs the distance between nut and bridge) and make a channel for the truss rod etc. If you really want to do it though - This guy is the freaking king of DIY audio stuff and he's done it. You can buy new (unused) necks on eBay as well as bodies (but make sure the neck will fit into the socket!). Check out Ampage.org; they have a section for guitar guys. I always wanted to do it all or nothing though, because guitars are pretty cheap to buy and mod anyway.

Yeah, I was just planning on buying a finished neck and body. I'd never try to do that sort of thing myself, especially for my first guitar. Mostly I just want to learn about wiring pickups and things like that, so I might be better off just getting a cheap Squire or something and mod it.. But it's a shame to waste nice custom pickups on a plywood guitar $:-\$

Thanks for the Ampage.org link, BTW. The homebrew gallery looks really interesting..

shbaz · Sat 10/07/2004 21:41:26

Quote from: Ben on Sat 10/07/2004 20:42:13
Yeah, I was just planning on buying a finished neck and body. I'd never try to do that sort of thing myself, especially for my first guitar. Mostly I just want to learn about wiring pickups and things like that, so I might be better off just getting a cheap Squire or something and mod it.. But it's a shame to waste nice custom pickups on a plywood guitar $:-\$

If you can't tell it's plywood and you play distorted, there's hardly a difference. If you play clean, there's a minor noticable difference, but it really only matters if the body is hollow.

If all else fails, buy used or a less notorious brand-name. You can always sand off the headstock and replace it with your name.

Hinders · Sun 11/07/2004 14:04:24

Quote from: AGA on Sat 10/07/2004 15:08:14
Whoa, somebody else who's played Faxanadu. I used to love that game. Although the RPGing was only very basic, going up levels and getting new weapons really gave you a sense of accomplishment. Awesome game.

i had that game for my nes, bought it for 20mk(3euro) and it was awesome, the last boss was difficult though...

Timosity · Fri 16/07/2004 17:07:48

If you wanted to get a lot of Sierra games in one go and have pleanty of money (not long to go on this one)

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8118371956

maybe you like that Lucas fella better

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8118803898

It'll be interesting how much they go for, and I guess shipping would be pretty steep

edit: actually shipping for the Sierra one is free worldwide

Darth Mandarb · Fri 16/07/2004 18:03:02

Timosity - Wow!Ã,Â That second one (for the LucasArts games) is a double WOW!Ã,Â I'm watching that one and in 9 days I might bid if it's not gotten too high.

Faxanadu ... alas ... it arrived and was in great (looking) shape.Ã,Â But it wouldn't work when I put the game in :(Ã,Â I took it out and cleaned the connector part as best I could.Ã,Â I was able to get it to work, but the graphics are glitchy.Ã,Â I'm gonna take it apart and clean the whole thing to see what happens.

When you pay $0.99 for a 15 year old game what do you expect?

Hollister Man · Fri 16/07/2004 18:37:15

BB: I'd loan you my copy, but Holland is a long way away.

Its good, but 5 is better. 6 was kinda a letdown.