New Music Gear Monday: MOD Kit MOD 102+ Guitar Amp Kit

There used to be a lot of companies that offered DIY kits for audio gear at one time, and many of us in the business were introduced to electronics that way (myself included). Alas, over the years these companies mostly fell by the wayside once gear became so inexpensive that it took much of the incentive away from building your own. Then there was the liability issue of someone potentially hurting themselves either in building or operating a kit that scared many companies away.

It looks like a number of companies are now willing to get back into this market, and one of them is MOD Kit, a division of Amplified Parts. Although the company features a wide range of pedal kits, one of its cooler products is the MOD 102+ guitar amp kit.

The MOD 102+ is a simple circuit based upon the circuit design of an old Gibson GA-5 amp from the 50's. It's about as simple as you can get with just two tubes, but that will get you around 8 watts of creamy guitar heaven that's perfect for recording.

The Class A circuit is based around a standard 12AX7 preamp tube and an EL84 power tube, so it has more of a Vox "British" sound, which could be a perfect compliment to the more common 6L6 (like  a Fender) or EL34 (like a Marshall) that you might have around.

The "+" version of the original MOD 102 has a number of features that customers inevitably asked for or added themselves, such as a standby switch, and push-pull switches for the bass control that provides mid-boost, the treble control for top-boost, and a "turbo" setting on the volume control.

You have to supply your own speaker, but at a cost of only $265 and a few hours of your time, this thing looks like a winner. And you'll learn a bit about electronics along the way.

Check out the other kits available, including other amp versions, at MOD Kit as well. Here's an older video from MOD Kits that doesn't feature this current product, but you'll get the feel for what they offer.

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Make A Mic Stand From A Coat Hanger

We've all been in a situation where we needed just one more low mic stand for a guitar amp or kick drum. Here's a video that will show you a quick way to make a desktop stand with only a coat hanger.

The video isn't the greatest, but you'll get the idea of how to quickly make a stand to bail you out the next time you run out of stands.

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Build A DIY Voice-Over Booth

If you're doing voice-overs for your videos and don't like the way your room sounds due to excessive reflections from hard walls, here's a video that shows a quick and easy way to set up a mini-voiceover booth. The video's host and booth designer Les McDonald says it cost him $23, but I bet you can do it for less if you shop around.

Keep in mind that this won't scale up to be a complete vocal booth, as you'll need to use better techniques and acoustic materials (you can find out more about how to do that in The Studio Builder's Handbook), but it will work fine for the purpose it's designed.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

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How To Make Your Own Pop Filter

A pop filter in front of a vocal or dialog mic can help keep the plosives (the big puffs of air from the "p's" in a word) in check and stop breath moisture from reaching the microphone's capsule. Here's a great video on how you can build your own that works every bit as well as a store-bought one.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.

New Music Gear Monday: The Arduinome

Ever since the first sequencer first came on the scene back in the modular synthesizer days, players have been fascinated by the hypnotic melodies that can be built with one. Most software synths have at least a rudimentary sequencer built into them these days, but sometimes you just want something with a lot more control and flexibility. That's where the Arduinome comes in. And believe it or not, it's a DIY project.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.

DIY Recording Gear

One of my favorite new sites is DIYrecordingequipment.com, a true DIY site that is somewhat of a clearinghouse for all sorts of record gear mods and projects. It's the brainchild of Peterson Goodwyn, a drummer and recording engineer who discovered that building your own gear can be a lot cheaper than buying it.

The site has 244 DIY projects that range from rack gear for the 500 series racks, compressors, equalizers, guitar amps and pedals, controllers, mics, mic preamps, gear modifications, and DIs, summing amps, and interesting effects.

DIYrecordingequimpent.com has a number of pages designed for the DIY newbie. A DIY jargon page, a guide to passive electronic components, newbie friendly DIY projects and a DIY tools store are all excellent places to begin, if you've not ventured into the world of electronic tech before.

Do It Yourself is near and dear to my heart, since I grew up with my hands inside a guitar amp, and later a recording console and tape machine, eventually getting a degree in electronics so I could do a better job following the electrons around the recording studio. I don't do much tech stuff anymore, but I appreciate the ethic involved. Of course, this is how all the lovely boutique mic pres, compressors and guitar amp companies that seem to be everywhere these days came to pass.

There's nothing more satisfying than building your own gear, even it's as simple as just cables (the simplest of all DIY projects). Check out diyrecordingequipment.com. It's very cool.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

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DIY High-End Headphones

I know that "high-end" and "headphones" don't necessarily deserve to be in the same sentence, but I thought this was interesting. There's a guy who does a mode on some rather run of the mill Fostex T-50 headphones (like the ones that many studios use) that supposedly turns them into something "high-end" (there's that word again). Here's a review from Head-Fi TV about the modified T-50's with a new name - Thunderpants.

You can find out more about the mod on this website.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.

A Strategy For Getting Gigs

Musicians are in bands so they can play in front of people, but getting gigs is probably one of the most difficult things to occur during the lifetime of a band. I came across the following article about getting gigs at your local venue in CD Baby's DIY Musician, and it really made sense. Here are the main points.

Step 1. Get familiar with the venue’s calendar – There are many inside tips and secrets that can be gleaned just from consistently checking out a venues calendar. Most clubs are meticulous with their calendar (which are usually posted online). Start looking for specific clues. Do they have a standard number of bands on the bill every night? Is there a night where they tend to give new bands a shot?

Step 2. Look for holes in the schedule – Once you pick up on a club’s booking patterns, you can start finding holes in their schedule where THEY are in need of a band.

Step 3. Make sure your music is a match – Now that you have identified the shows where the venue is most likely looking for bands, narrow it down to the shows where you music is a true fit (time to be honest folks!). Remember, in order for this strategy to work, you must only pitch to the shows where you fit!

Step 4. Target that specific show in you email pitch – Now you are prepared to approach the club booker in a way that HELPS THEM out! Just put the show name and date in the subject line of your email and politely let them know that you would be a good fit to round out that bill (Keep the email brief!). The chances of getting a response to your email, and better yet a gig, just went way up!

Go to the DIY Musician for the entire article entitled, A Booking Strategy That Works.

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Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating the music business.