Rossy gave me this idea, how about posting pics of your DIY projects and bodge jobs (in my case lol), in your music room!

I'll start it off lol.

THE MUSIC STAND

Materials: Cardboard, An unused curtain, sticky back plastic, 2 plastic plate stands, and bulldog clips.

REPAIRED PIANO STOOL

Materials used: Metal curtain rod, Gold spray paint.

We recently had a party and the spindles on my piano stool got broke. I'm quite happy with their replacement, matches the piano ok

SECONDRY KEYBOARD STAND

Materials: Tie-wraps, 4 screws, 2 Stair Spindles, 2 foil caps (from 2 tea-candles)

Excellent Wayne, Wow, I keep inspiring folk by sheer accident!!
Someone who isnt with us anymore once told me "Many a temporary repair turns into a permanent fix"
Innovation and creativity is rife in my life as well, this has been born out of neccesaty, and limited finances. I personally feel that if you can build something or make something into something else, then go for it, much more satisfaction is derived from these endevours than just going out and buying things that break anyways..

As a mechanic, I can tell you with complete certainty : there are more mechanics driving around in cars that are held together with gaffa tape and tie straps than driven by folks of different occupations!
( this is beacuse we know just what can be just taped or tie strapped!!)

Wait till you see my guitar strap.... its a ferret called "Arnie", I jest not, I have been busking with it and had only interested comments except for one lady who moaned saying "Fur is bad" I replied it was my grandmothers stole, and was from the 1920's a time when fur was not deemed as "bad"

I might have also intimated that if it wasn't for fur, the human race would not be alive today, having froze to death during the last ice age... but i did that quietly under my breath in a sort of whisper.. I can be a devil for historical accuracy sometimes....##

Anyways... well done, I will show you some of my patches/fixes/bodges.....

I'm not entirely convinced. The human body can stand quite extreme cold so long as it's dry, and untreated animal skins aren't particularly waterproof. Moreover, if your only source of food and drinkable water is under half a mile of ice, being cold is not your worst problem.

I supect our distant ancestors survived the ice age mostly by moving away from the ice.

Fur may well have made our ancestors more comfortable, but claiming that without it we'd by now be an extinct evolutionary branch studied by super-intelligent bugs is pushing things a bit hard.

If you read what i said kevin, you will find you invented that part quoted above.
Don't take my word for it though, just ignore the Archeological evidence of say the ice man (who was caught out, injured)in the alps. Also dont pay any attention to the tens of thousands of flint scraping tools that have been found by Archeologists, the scraping tools for preparing hides to wear.

Test your theory out for real, have a little holiday with the Saami Rheindeer hearders in Finland without wearing their fur boots, and without wearing their fur hides, I can garauntee that fresh water and food will not be your main problem.

Since we're going sooooo OT.........I may as well add, I wouldn't be able to live without my slippers, flipsy and flopsy!

I have SO got to put batteries in my camera. I have a kludge for keeping the pedal on my dp from running away from me that really belongs here I'll get to it this weekend. Meanwhile - this thread has my soulmates, kludge-speaking, in it

Cathy

Creep no more pedal pad





I hold it in place with my heel, works on any surface (carpet, concrete, dirt, etc.).

Love this thread - keep going!

Here we go, busking with "Arnie" the home made guitar strap, take some string and a disused mink....

Rostosky - you're recognizable, but, uh, a little younger in that picture than now?

Joe - I may try that at sometime, tho I have a short foot and I'm not sure there would be enough weight on my foot to hold it down. For now, here's what I do:



Yup, two bungee cords. Perfectly portable, too. I just have to remember to put them on before I put the keyboard on the stand, because otherwise, well, disaster ensues.

Cathy

Pmsl, I'm suprised you only had one person comment negatively!

Have u looked inside Arnie? They may be a clue to hidden family jewels!

omg, Jotur, hillarious, you forgot to list the worn slipper as one of your used materials, really love this, brill

Yeah, Wayne, I don't wear shoes around the house, so I keep the clog at the keyboard for pedaling.

Oh dear, I just noticed the dust on that stand. And I've actually been a little better lately about dusting. Guess I've should have done my chores first.

Cathy

Forget the chores Cathy, Piano practice comes first, anyways, night time here in the uk, night all, x

Night Wayne, no jotur, that pic was only a couple of years ago, when I wash my hair it goes like that, when it is in need of washing it goes all greasy and makes me look older..

I love this thread, and will have more photos... It reminds me of a band I knew, the drummer got so sick of his kick drum shifting, he nailed through it into the floor witha couple of six inch nails!!

The best one I ever saw was a band who rented a warehouse, but still there were neighbours and noise issuse... SO, ( this was brilliant) They built a dome inside the warehouse out of timber and covered it with rolls and rolls of carpets. ( carpets are a really good soundproofing device)

they got all their equipment in and where playing when me and the singer I was giving a lift to arrived.


From the outside of the carpet dome, you could not hear a thing, we were not even sure they were in there...

However, when we found the flaps that were the way in and got inside , it was like 98 decibel freaks..
But, there had been an oversight...

All the band were in their undies, and pouring with sweat big time, and they could only stand it for about fifteen mins each, before crawling out of the dome and getting cold air on them.. I managed five mins inside and felt like I couldnt breath....

It was probably a kilowatt or two of valve amps causing it plus them...

Hilarious.

I didn't invent it, maybe repurposed it, but in my bag of tricks I have a gel pad that is advertised to hold your cell phone on your car dashboard. I use it under my pedal when I'm at a gig where it slides.

Cathy, how many different bungee cords did you go through until you found the 2 that created the perfect height?

I don't have pictures because at the time I wasn't particularly proud of the fix and expected to hang my head in shame when the piano tuner came but I once "repaired" my piano with a sawed off #2 pencil and "duck tape". After I explained myself to the tuner he was actually impressed and called it "ingenious".

Somewhat OT but since Rostosky mentioned cars I used to be awfully handy under the hood (or bonnet?)with a screwdriver and starter fluid. Kind of where the keeping a safe distance part of my signature springs from. No one wants to stand too close to a girl spraying flammable liquids at her car's engine. That's been my personal experience anyway...

LOL. I used a hair brush in the choke a few times. . .

Brian - I did find that two the length of the yellow one weren't taut enough, but that was all I tried before I got this combination.

For gigs I use two black ones - a little more elegant, no?

Cathy

"DIY projects and bodge jobs..."

Does a home made "Leslie" rotary speaker count? If so here's a fun project:

I like the sound of a Hammond, either clean (Jimmy Smith, Booker T) or dirty (Gregg Rolie, Jon Lord etc etc), but it's got to have 'moving air' (supplied by the rotating horn in this example).

So this is my 'compact' Leslie (modeled on a 'Roadbox' speaker). It's rated at 400 watt (yes it's way toooo louuuud!!). I used it with Native Instruments B4II (Hammond VST) and a MIDI controller with a good firewire audio interface and balanced line outputs that feed a 400 watt power amplifier... it's earth shaking loud (real Leslie's are 40 watt).

Barebones...



'Rear' view (or is it the front dunno)...




'Assembled'...

Elwyn - are you telling me that butterfly-shaped part in the upper opening is the "horn" and it rotates while sounding? (You can tell I'm terribly naive about these things ) Does it go "ooo-wah ooo-wah" ?

Nice looking piece of equipment tho, and a pretty sophisticated bodge

Cathy

Yep! You got it.... It's a genuine Leslie horn.

The "Chorale" setting is around 42 rpm, sound only comes out one side of the horn (the other is basically a counter balance), at much higher settings 240 rpm it gives that characteristic Hammond/Leslie "vibrato" effect.

I love it. Clever, very cool.

Cathy

EJR, Excellent, my other half is into serious bass, we got a couple of speakers from an old blues club, and he's built a few himself, I can take pics, but it's not really my forteit! I do know however that he tends to build the bass speaker in the bottom, facing down towards the floor, something he learned over the years, will take pics 2moz, gonna show him what you've made, he'll be well interested!

Have you seen the massive lesliesque cabs that Pink Floyd use? The whole cab rotates!

Hi Wayne,

<<he tends to build the bass speaker in the bottom, facing down towards the floor, something he learned over the years, will take pics 2moz,>>

Cool! Looking forward to it!

<<Have you seen the massive lesliesque cabs that Pink Floyd use? The whole cab rotates!>>

The whole cab! Awesome!! I know Dave Gilmour uses Leslie/rotary speaker effects a lot though... When I first put the speaker together, before I got the B4ii and interface stuff sorted, the first quick test was a White Stratocaster and Marshall played clean (they were like just lying about at hand)... It sounded sort of Hendrix/Little Wing right off the bat!

Even pickup beds?

Of course! (smacks hand on head) I kept trying to figure out why that looked so familiar

Cathy