My other ride

Amazing… I like the adjustable snare!

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I have only made little ic based amps before… Little lm386 smokey style things. Your amp hear looks great. Imagine building an amp with a zynthian built in?

I think I have seen router jigs for this too

You don’t need to, just use a hifiberry amp2 card instead of the audio output card . . .

https://www.hifiberry.com/shop/boards/hifiberry-amp2/

I’m running two of them …

The idea actually pleases me ! I already transformed a hollow body guitar to throw in a Roland GK pickup, playing it through a Boss Gp10 (so actually playing midi synth on the guitar).
On the tube amp I play a '57 Strat using only Effectrode tube driven effect pedals (compressor, Blackbird, tube drive), keeping it a 100% ‘tube’.
I also build a replica of the '62 Japanese Surf Green lefthand telecaster, which I equipped with hidden Lace pickups (double red, blue and white).
Yeah i’m crazy I used to carry a huge case with G-system and about 15 pedals around!

Using an electric guitar as input signal ? What does that sound like ? :face_with_monocle:

@le51 As @Vincent says, I’m sure that dimensions and material choice have and impact on sound. The cajon I made was “recycled”, made from materials I had lying about. It uses 3/4 ply for 5 sides and 4 mm ply for the tympan. The instructions I read suggested 3/4 ply for 4 sides, either 4 mm ply or 3/4 ply for the back, and 3 mm ply for the tympan. the 5 sides are glued. The tympan must be screwed onto the box. Tightness of the screws will impact sound. And number of screws likely will as well. I looked at a bunch of cajon photos and decided to use 7 screws in the vertical direction and 5 horizontally (with one less in each of two sides for the rim shot corner). I routed a 4" hole in the back so I could get my hand through to adjust the snare (I’ve seen versions with up to 3 holes). In mine, the hole in centered vertically, but not horizontally. I’ve seen both. This hole is very important as it acts like the sound hole in an acoustic guitar. Blocking this hole with my hand completely changes the sound! The cajon is about 19" tall (chair height) and more or less 12" square. The top right corner has no screws as it acts like a rim shot. I’m glad I added this feature. The one video I linked suggested to rabbet the corner by about 1 mm, which I did, but as I am using 4 mm for the tympan (less flexible), it would have been better to rabbet the corner less or not at all. All it all, it sounds pretty good, but I have nothing to compare it to. Like any drum, it does resonate to a distinct note. A friend who’s a symphony tympanist told me he always tunes his drums to an A. I’m not sure what the cajon is tuned to, but I’m sure that it could be tuned by playing with the tightness of the screws. If you want to get to this level of detail, I would suggest using fine pitch screws. I used drywall screws which have quite a coarse pitch and would be more difficult to tune.

Out of curiosity, I might try to get some 3 mm material and make a different tympan to see how tympan thickness affects the sound.

@Vincent, I’d be interested in your dovetailing techniques. Eventually, I’d like to build another, perhaps out of solid wood. Maybe even wood I could collect from discarded furniture! And then I could dovetail the corners!

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Hi there!
I build a small table to make the dovetails; You need to mount a router (or miller) upside-down under the table to allow the cutting part to point through a hole (can be very dangerous, you need to create some security power-cut buttons and so on!); lots of tutorials can be found on YT.
Then you must build a sledge or sliding carriage allowing you to move across the router.
Like I said, there are lots of videos, I can do a short one if you want me to, but the one’s on YT helped me to build mine.
I would always advice the use of simple massif pine; this is what is used for 5000 euros boutique amps. Baltic birch can do the job aswell.
You need some skills but I can see that’s not a problem for you, so if you have a small router you can go ahead.
once again the use of a router is always dangerous !! (I worked in a wood workshop being young, lots of fingerless guys over at those places :face_with_raised_eyebrow:)
I will try to link a Dropbox in the next message, I managed to compress some pictures about the building process of this amp, including some shots of the dovetails.
Now some bragging; I also build my own Telecaster (except for the neck that I found somewhere on the internet);

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Some (bad quality) pictures on the building process of the amp cab

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I have dreamed about building my own electric ukulele for years. I suspect I would have done it by now if I had a workshop, and could purchase a neck :wink:

You really don’t need that much of a workshop, it’s the kick-off that takes the energy. Once you’re on a roll things normally work out fine, as long as you’re not in a rush.
Ofcourse at least a small table to work on is necessary, and ofcourse a neck.
And then you can always try the get your hands on a used ukelele, and equip it with electronics yourself, some K%K’s or even fishman pickups are rather easy to integrate.
It’s also a lot of fun and very satisfying to redo the paint, or strip it down, varnish, customise it with graphics (I did this even with the Zynthian, put a massive oak faceplate on it)


This way you can become more familiar with the whole structure and so on, and feel more at ease about building your own uke!

I live in London, brov… Workshop type space is very restrictive here. I have seen estate agents offer cupboards under the stairs as a “spacious single occupancy des res” but that’s a different story. One day though.

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I see…but still, you might consider the ‘plan B’ option I mentionned; Picking up a used/cheap ukelulu and customise it !!!
Sand-paper it, colourstain it (some nice deep mahogony shade, with a beautiful varnish, your own Broccoli logo on the headstock (I can print a small transfer like the ones used in scale models and send it to London it would be my pleasure!), and eventually equip it with electronics!
You really don’t need a lot more than a shoebox to get this kind of project off the ground…lucky you don’t want to do a stand-up bass :upside_down_face:

@Vincent Maybe we could hear this amp cabinet? :face_with_monocle:

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Here you go!

Beware ! no Zytnhian on this track !! :imp:

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Hard to run on that track without a leg! https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=Xvz8B66cwns&feature=emb_logo

Thank you @wolfpaw98