My daughter tried to eat my Red Hat hat. I think sh’e really trying to help her daddy.
I think I’m losing it……
I felt compelled to put a Red Hat shadowman sticker on my gig bag last Saturday.
I think I might have problems.
KDE Rocks
Over the past four years I’ve used both KDE & Gnome, but I’ve typically gravitated towards Gnome. ……that is until I played w/ the controversial Gnome Shell. Get me out of here! Watch the screencasts
Of course I didn’t really like KDE 4 when it first came out either. ….maybe it’s my “inner old-man” coming through that makes me resistant to change. I’ll admit that it’s entirely possible that I’ll warm up to the concept, but right now Gnome Shell looks and feels pretty awkward. I really hope they make it an option that can be disabled.
Enter KDE:
Anyway, I’ve been curious about giving KDE another shot recently so after my Karmic upgrade was running terrible, I decided to give Kubuntu a shot. It is AWESOME. What a beautiful desktop; I was really blown away.
Here are the issues I have w/ the current state of KDE:
- Network Manager sucks – I couldn’t connect to my hidden WPA2 wireless network @ home. Also the openvpn component had problems w/ Kwallet. I ended up running gnome’s network manager.
- No native SOCKs proxy – I believe this was included w/ KDE 3.X (not 100%) hopefully this will be added sooner than later.
- Odd keyboard shortcuts – I qualify this by saying odd= I’m not used to it. Luckily everything is tweakable (which is often one of the main criticisms of KDE) so I was able to set it back to a Gnome-ish feel.
- Korganize lacks simple Google Calendar setup. :(
At any rate, I have moved almost all of my boxes to Fedora 12 now, and one of the things I really like about their KDE distro is it defaults to gnome’s network manager. I’m going to stick w/ Gnome on my laptop for now because of the SOCKs issue, but for the time being I consider my self a KDE man and I’m loving my office PC.
Blues Breaker becomes Bread Breaker
I built this pedal because I needed something I can leave up at the church. After consulting a friend who went to seminary, we concluded that it would not be sacrilegious to give this a “church” theme. I was originally going to build another Tube Screamer and call it the Jesus Screamer, but I think 3x Tube Screamers is enough. I debated calling the MBB kit Jesus Screamer, Hey Zeus Screamer, or G-sus Screamer, but it’s not a Tube Screamer it’s a Blues Breaker. Anyway, Bread Breaker 5000 was the most appropriate name I could come up w/. The pedal features a white case, white knobs, a blinding white LED, and cheap white P-Touch labels. The color of course represents the “holiest of tones” that this pedal produces.
Blues Breaker Clone
I finished putting together a General Guitar Gadgets MBB kit over the holidays. I had ordered a case from Pedal Parts Plus but sense it hasn’t shown up in weeks, I used the original case for one of my GGG tube screamers. The wiring is really sloppy on this one. I’ll definitely clean that up when I move it to the permenant case. Anyway, the pedal sounds great and I couldn’t be any happier with it.
My MythTV Setup
I’ve been an avid MythTV user for the last 2 -3 years. It all started when I got fed up w/ Tivo’s service. My wife and I loved our old Tivo, but it drove me nuts that the hardware & feature set was locked down depending on the subscription plan. I won’t go into too much detail on how my setup evolved the way it has, this is more of a venue to document my current setup. Basically this setup allows me to record, or watch, three five HD shows simultaneously. The commercials are flagged and automatically skipped over while watching the shows. Not only are both our TVs tied into this setup, but both our office PCs and laptops run MythTV as well. Myth also has preliminary support for streaming TV shows over the web interface like a slingbox. Anyway, there are many, many more features but most importantly my recurring costs for this are $20 a year for the listing data (…and electricity). You’ll notice that none of this hardware is expensive or high-end. It’s pretty basic stuff really.
Master Backend Server Hardware:
(The silver case on the bottom right)
- Case: Antec P180 – This case is AWESOME. I highly recommend it. ….it’s expensive though.
- Motherboard: Abit AB9 Pro – I choose this one for the 10x SATA ports!
- CPU: Intel Core 2 Dou E4500 @ 2.20 GHz
- RAM: 4 GB
- Hard drive(s): 2x WD 750 GB RAID 1 for OS, music, pictures, & home movies. 4x 500 GB for TV & Movies. 1x 1 TB drive for backups and misc storage.
- Tuners: Tichnisat AirStar HD-5000, 2x Silicondust HDHomeRun
- Misc: 2x NICs
- OS: Fedora x86_64
Living Room Frontend:
- TV: Samsung 56′” DLP
- Case: Silverstone LC17 – This case is really nice, but it’s large and too expensive.
- Motherboard: Abit NF-M2S
- CPU: AMD Athon 64 X2 5600+ 2.8 GHz
- RAM: 2 GB
- Video: Nvidia GeForce 9500 GT w/ VDPAU (fanless, DVI –> HDMI)
- Hard drive(s): 1x Hitachi 160 GB
- Remote: Humax Tivo D800 Remote (the Peanut)
- OS: Fedora x86_64
Bedroom Frontend Hardware:
- TV: Old Samsung 27″ CRT P.O.S.
- Case: Antec Minuet 350
- Motherboard: ECS GeForce6100PM-M2
- CPU: AMD Athon 64 3200+ 2.0 GHz
- RAM: 2 GB
- Video: Nvidia 7200 (fanless, Composite)
- Hard drive(s): 1x 4 GB USB Thumb Drive. Cheap & silent.
- Remote: StreamZap
- OS: Fedora x86_64
Here are some helpful links for anyone interested in learning more about MythTV:
AB9RPO
Super BS Chorus!
As always the BS stands for Ben Screamer ;)
I started building a BYOC Chorus back in November, and when I was finished, it didn’t work. I spent a lot of time going over the all the solder joints and checking the components w/ my multi-meter. I couldn’t track down the problem. A good buddy of mine, who actually knows what he’s doing, spent some time w/ me a couple weeks ago combing over the circuit. It turns out that one run to the depth pot had come loose and the trim pot was turned all the way down. Now that it functions, this pedal sounds pretty good. It’s a worthy replacement to my old T.C. Electronics pedal that I lugged around for 11 years and never used. I did such a bad job painting this kit the first go-around that I felt compelled to re-do it. The LED is white and pulses to match the rate knob. I also added a switch to change from chorus to vibrato mode; which sounds terrible – but it was available so I has to install it.
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| From guitars |
Who says baby-proofing the house can’t be fun?
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| From guitars |
With the baby on the way we have to get all of my toys off of the floor in the study. My wife had the brilliant idea to hang the guitars on the wall, and I love it!
The New BS-808
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| From |
I was so pleased w/ my BS-9 that it really wanted another one with more of a vintage vibe. When the kit went on sale, I couldn’t resist. I first built this to the original 808 specs, but it didn’t sound very good. I then added the AMZ mods and the OPA3134 opp amp and now I like it quite a lot. I also doubled up on the symmetric clipping; There are 4x 1N914 diodes like my Barber LTD. It definitely gets that “Wayne Krantz” sound. I don’t think I’m 100% finished. The bass boost is either not enough bass or too much bass – so I still need to play w/ the CAPs I’m switching between. This pedal also has a little bit too much in the mids for my taste, but it still sounds great and I really enjoy using it. Since I don’t care much for the LED clippers I’m going to be experimenting w/ MOSFETs in the near future. More to come.
About done…..
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| From bass |
It’s pretty much finished. I had some problems w/ the pickup wiring, and had to take it to a local tech to fix. It turns out that one of my grounds was bad. For some reason the potentiometers from Warmoth are very difficult to get solder to adhere to.
I got these great string guides from Hip Shot. They cost way too much money for what they are, but…….. they’re functional and let’s face it, they look cool too.
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| From bass |
Under the pickguard
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| From web |
I’ve had my Anderson Hollow Drop Top since 2002 and I’ve never removed the pickguard. I was overwhelmed with curiosity the other day while changing my strings so I carefully unscrewed it. You can see in the picture that the screws were laid out so they could be replaced in their original holes. How’s that for OCD?!
I did not expect an H-S-H route, but it makes since that it’s cut that way.
Bass Progress
Warmoth Bass Project
Lately, I’ve been getting the itch to do some more home recordings, and I always feel a little guilty borrowing friends’ basses. I’ve been so happy w/ my Warmoth Tele that I decided to build another one. Like all the gear I own this will end up being somewhat unconventional. It’s a P bass body that will have J bass electronics. It’s also going to have a maple fingerboard (because I’m obsessed with that sound). I’m pretty excited about the new project. ….more posts to come.
TS-9 or BS-9?
I finished my first DIY pedal and I’m pretty happy w/ how it turned out.
Continue reading “TS-9 or BS-9?”
My homebrewed Tube Screamer
I received my ITS8 kit promptly in the mail and spent a a good part of Saturday putting it together. This video was a great refresher for soldering. I spent the most time trying to get the wiring nice and neat. It’s not perfect, but I think it’s pretty good for my first build. I used the pedal at church on Sunday and it’s sounds awesome.
DIY Pedals?
I’m huge fan of DIY (do it yourself) projects. I don’t necessarily have the best track record for completing and sticking with them (like the radiant barrier in my attic), but I still enjoy getting my hands dirty on all types of DIY projects. One successful endeavour was my Warmoth Tele which I put together and love playing it. Anyway, a couple weeks ago i stumbled across a web site www.buildyourownclone.com and was fascinated by what they sell. They have all kinds of DIY pedal kits that are clones of famous vintage pedals. They use top notch parts, have great, detailed instructions, and offer a lot of the popular “mods” for these pedals. To be honest I was really sold by the mods and the price. They also have an excellent forum w/ tons of great info.
After digging around it didn’t take long for me to find their competitor, www.generalguitargadgets.com. Their site is a total mess, but the price is right! I ended up purchasing a tube screamer kit form these guys for the following reasons:
- The case has the input jacks on the top instead of the sides. (all pedals should IMO)
- For $8 you get the parts to do the Landgraff mods ($400 for a real Landgraff!)
- The kit was $30 bucks cheaper ($74 shipped).
…more to come.
The Tubescreamer, An American Classic
I’m not sure what it is about the Ibanez Tube Screamer that has fascinated guitarist from it’s conception in the late 70s. Guitarists such as Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Johnson, Trey Anastasio, Scott Henderon, (and thousands more) have all sworn by some variation of these pedals. These iconic seasick-green pedals, or one of the many clones, can be found in just about every guitarists’ rig. If you play the guitar this is a must have! Continue reading “The Tubescreamer, An American Classic”
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