Seeing in the Dark

I was up late again the other night out watching TV in the front room.  I heard Dayne start to wake up and cry.  I went into the pitch black room and could see nothing.

My wife had laready been in there a while and said “Can you make him a bottle?  Its on the table”.  My eyes had still not adjusted to the dark so my reply was, “I cannot even see the table let alone the bottle on there.”  So she made the bottle and I picked up Dayne from the crib. I was not very graceful, I still could not see.  We sit down to feed him.  Traci – “Can you get the binky?”  And once again my reply, “I can see nothing, how can I get you the binky?”

After sitting the the dark room for about 15 minutes my eyes started adjusting and I could actually see quite well.  Thinking back I laugh at how Traci could see this well while I was stumbling around for the first 15  minutes.  It must have been comical.

This made me think.  How much time do I spend in my spriritual environment?  How well adjusted are my ’spiritual’ eyes to this?  Does God have more layed out for me than I realize, and my lack of time spent with him is the only thing not allowing me to see it?  I need to just spend time with God.  Allow my eyes to adjust to his kingdom, as well as the promises and opportunities he has put in front of me.  I also need people around me who can see.  Then when I am having trouble seeing simple things (like making a bottle) they can step in and help, give direction and hope.

Finally, once my eyes are adjusted,  I hope to be looking for the next person coming in the door…..  “Where is the table?”

 

Introducing…… Dayne.

Traci popped a little earlier than planned.  Dayne was born on 7/31, he was 7lbs even and 18 1/2″ long.  Here is a pic of Dayne and Mom in the hospital.  I told her she was allowed to have scary hair after all she went through in the delivery room!

 

Traci’s going to pop…..

Very soon!

Thanks for all the prayer and support.  The Doctor is surprised that Traci has made it this far due to her early complications.  We are blessed!

 

Resitance is futile…. the fifth generation of Black Vans

If this makes no sense to you go read my original post here on  my shoes.

Traci bought some shoes at a yard sale and did not relize until she got home that I had officially brainwashed her.  My son is in big trouble…….

 

 

Altoid Amp – ‘A curiously loud little amp’

I am starting to build a few more pedals and I needed a small amp that I could keep on the desk just to test the functionality of the circuit as I complete it.  I used a schematic from runoffgroove.com called the ruby and installed everything in a metal Altoids can.

Its a 1/2 watt amp powered by 9 volts.  It has a volume and a gain knob that allows it to go from very clean to quite crunchy.  I plugged this into my single 12″ weber silver bell and was very surpised by the sound.  Its no tube amp, but the sound is very good…. and loud.  With an overdrive pedal in front of it, the guitar could easily be heard throughout the house.  With the gain turned up about 30% the amp goes into a light overdrive that is very touch sensitive.  Above that and great harmonics start punching through.  Here is a picture next to a standard size Boss pedal.

 

7 months and counting

My shy wife finally let me take a picture of her.  At 7 months she’s finally looking pregnant!

For those of you following her saga, Traci has been doing a lot better the last few weeks.  She is off her medicine pump now and is also off bed rest.  A thorough ultrasound last week confirmed the baby is in great shape.  Thanks for all your prayers!

 

A fresh coat of paint will make you get priorities straight

Today I was painting a bathroom.  Not the most fun thing to do on a Saturday by any means.  When I paint, my mind wanders.  There is really not any thinking to be done with painting so its a time that allows me to slow down from my normal hectic life and pay attention to some of the things going on.

While I was painting today I had a small revelation, if there is such a thing.  Traci and I have been going through the grinder so to speak the past many months.  Our lives have been turned upside down and we still don’t have any answers coming on the horizon.  Although I believe God has this whole mess under control and that I must rely on him for the answers, I think I have been going about this wrong.

I often tell people that God knows how much I can handle, and follow that by a tongue in cheek, “I hope he thinks I weak so I can be done with this.”  My focus has been on when the end of my trial will be, how tough it will get, and how we will come out in the end.  I have been tackling it like a warrior in a defensive position.  Down behind a shield, determined to thwart the blows coming at me, and waiting for my backup (God) to arrive.  I believe I have been obedient to God in this and my faith resides in him….  But while painting today it occured to me, he wants more…. More is hard…

James 1:2-4 says that I should consider it ALL JOY when I encounter trials.  Joy is defined as ‘the emotion of great happiness’.  I have not been doing this. The bible is telling me here to do the opposite of what the world would expect.  I have been faithful, I have been thankful, but I have not had ‘great happiness’ over the circumstances I am in.  Will I be truly joyful about it tomorrow?  Probably not, but I know I need to work at it.

The next part of the verse tells me why I should be joyful.  “knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.  And let endurance have its perfect result, so you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing.”

As a christian I want that last part, ‘perfect lacking in nothing.’  But that is the result of the character building trials we must go through.  Being ‘hands on’ faced with problems is much different than externally examining them.  One of the wisest people I know, my Dad, always told me that after high school he went to the school of hard knocks.  There is something valuable there, life experiences cannot be replaced.

Mark Peacock introduced me to the idea of christians being ‘vessels’.  I cant think of a better single word to describe it.  Modern terms would be any item that could hold water.  As a christian, God pours himself into me, and in turn I can pour his spirit out on others.  Not all vessles are equal.  Some christians are spoons.  They fill up quickly and have little to pour out.  Some are cups, they can take more of god ‘in’ and thus have more to pour out onto others.  Some are pitchers, kegs (ha!)… you get the idea.  Some people will just be spoons for their whole lives.  That is ok if that is what God has designed you for.  But what if you are a spoon and God wants you to be a pitcher?  How do I do that?  A little hint here, look at the above verses in James.

I want to be the biggest vessel I can for the lord so that I can pour out his spirit on others.  So as I joke that “I hope God thinks I’m weak”, I am telling him that I just want to be a spoon, I don’t want the work or the trouble to become the greatest vessel I can for him.

So how do I remedy this?  I need to approach my trials differently.  I will not do it overnight, but I will stay the course.  I must remember that God’s plan is ultimately the best one for me and that he has my eternal future in mind as he allows things in my path.  Instead of acting as a warrior in a defensive position I need to act as a student.  I need to be thankful for the challenges because they are my opportunity to grow in the lord.  I need to be joyful because as I go through these trials and rely on God, he is increasing my capacity as a vessel.  My goals during this time should not be to minimize the pain and timeframe, but to grow through the process and seek to become a larger vessel, God will take care of the rest.

 

Crate VC-508 transformation

Eric Beeman gave me his crate tube amp to modify into something a little more palatable(the black amp in the first pic).  The parameters were low cost, small, and light weight.  He wanted to get a warmer clean sound out of it as well as a more usable overdriven sound.  Beside that he gave me free reign.

I looked up mods for the amp online.  I found a good resource at guitarnutz.com.  One of the problems with this crate amp is that it has a solid state pre-amp before the first pre-amp tube.  When you turn up the gain, the solid state section would overdrive before the tube.  This results in a harsh buzzy overdrive.  The guitarnutz page had instructions on how to fix this.

I removed and replaced a few capacitors and resistors, re-routed some wiring and added a pot to control the drive of the power tube.  I also rewired the tone control to work like a normal one instead of the ‘mid scoop’ it actually controlled.

As part of the fix we needed to get a 12AY7 pre-amp tube instead of a 12AX7.  This tube has lower gain properties and will not overdrive the next stage int he amp as much.  Since we needed a new tube anyway, I ordered that one and a new el84 tube from Dave’s tubes.  I got JJ brand tubes which are generally considered good solid dependable tubes.

The next part of the eqation was a new speaker.  12″ speakers are very common for guitar and could definitely give some improved warmth over the stock 6″.  Since price was a factor, we went with a Weber signature series.  It has a ceramic magnet for a little better low end and an overall warm voicing.

Now for the cabinet a small size was necessary.  I used baltic birch for the construction and a semi closed back to tighten up some of the low end. (This speaker does not like closed back)

After an attempt at staining the cab for a natural finish, I decided tolex would be a better option….

The result is great.  While the speaker still needs to break in, it produces much warmer tones.  The overdrive in the amp is very pleasant and highly controllable via the two gain controls.  When the speaker settles in I think this will be a very good amp for the money.

 

 

first guitar pedal from scratch

My past few pedals have all been based on a kit that I buy.  It comes bundled with all the components I need as well as a PCB board that determines where all the components go.

This pedal I built from scratch.  I saw a schematic and layout online and built it based on that.  I bought all the capacitors, resistors, pots, switches and wire.  Its a step forward in my learning of electronics.

The pedal is called the ‘Highway 89′.  It is an overdrive pedal loosly based on the Dr Z route 66 pre-amp.  The first thing I did was wire it all up so that I could debug any problems that may arise.  So all the pots and jacks are just hanging out attached to wires.

Once I made sure all was OK I drilled out the enclosure I bought.  To do this I put masking tape over the paint of the enclosure.  I then used a punch to create dimples to center the drill bit.  I then drilled a pilot hole and proceeded to make it larger with a step bit.

The next step was to secure all the pots, switches, led, jacks, and power supply in the enclosure.

Finally I installed the circuit board and did all the off board wring in the enclosure.

My first impressions of the pedal are good.  It is a very high gain pedal, but with the guitar volume down a little it really produced some good haronics along with a rich midrange hump for a very fat and grainy sound.  After I play it for a while I may make a few modifications to it, but it works great for me now.  All I need now are some knobs for it.

 

Another guitar pedal

I think I need to start a new blog just for my guitar projects…..  The last pedal I built was a great start.  The sound with my setup just didn’t make me say, ‘wow!’.  So I advertised it on The Gear Page and sold it.  After I had sold it I had another member of the board ask me if I could build him one, so of course I could not say no.

I started with the same kit, a marshall blues breaker.  Then after researching some mods on the net I added three switches.  One switch was ‘Gain’, where I used LED’s and diodes to give some additional clipping options for slightly different distiortion sounds.  The second switch was a ‘Fat’ switch which slightly boosted the lows.  The third switch was a ‘Mid Boost’ which progressively added back mids to the notorious mid scooped marshall sound.

 So, I continue my quest to understand all these electronic components….  I still have a long way to go.

 I’ve got two more projects in process right now and one on the drawing board, so look for more in the future!

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