Those damn neon signs!

[jmaf]

You managed to attach two (of maybe ten guitarists) from the 80's worth noting

Right?

I immediately thought of this album cover when I thought of people playing in cages. It's been burned into my DNA.

For those who don't know, the idea for the album cover came up because Marty and Jason wouldn't stop fighting during the recording and rehearsals, someone said put them in separate cages. No neon signs involved.

[R.G.]

These Transformers have their own panel breaker?

There are two main styles. One comes with just terminals on the primary and secondary, intended for hard-wiring into a building or equipment. The second and more useful for this kind of thing has a heavy input power cord, an overall metal shell, and outlets on the secondary side so you can just plug into them.

I don't remember seeing any with what would be a breaker panel. But then, I'm fairly cavalier about what appurtenances come with electrical gear. If I wanted a small breaker panel, Home Despot carries four breaker panels for about $20, and breakers are about $5 each.

Here's one example.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Minigard-35...gAAOSwUuFWuO9G
This one will provide power for any combination of loads up to 500W. Your amp will have a rating plate on the back. Well, it SHOULD have a rating plate on it. That plate will tell you how many watts it uses. If your amp is less than 500W, this one will do fine. The only bad news with this one, like all CVTs, this one is heavy. It's 40 pounds all by itself. So it costs to ship and hurts to schlep.

[mhuss]

Many years ago, I 'liberated' a dusty old (unused) 15kv neon transformer from a storefront we used to rent (for practice space). This was back in the day when people still used analog radios and TVs. We made a spectacular Jacob's ladder with it plus a pair of metal coat hangers, but boy did it mess up Radio/TV reception while running!

[bob p]

What? People don't use analog radios any more?!?

[olddawg]

What? People don't use analog radios any more?!?

AM works when nothing else will. I have one that runs on a tiny crank generator. Even a crystal set if everything went to sh@t....

[mhuss]

Of course they do. A much smaller % of the population though, particularly AM. Today I could run the thing and likely no one in the several block interference range would notice!

[J M Fahey]

AM works when nothing else will. I have one that runs on a tiny crank generator. Even a crystal set if everything went to sh@t....

Agree.

I share some traits with Survivalists, plus loving Minimalism, so the idea of eventually being able to "downdate" (opposite of "update") to the Technologically simplest solution for lots of stuff rings a bell for me.

Still very much use an AM radio everyday, idly babbling/chattering a few feet away while I do boring but necessary stuff such as cutting/rounding/sanding/painting wood panels, assembling cabinets, winding transformers, cutting/punching sheet metal, etc. , can´t stand silence.

Just turn it on, tune it to something I want to listen at the moment, put it in an apron pocket and it goes everywhere I go, as simple as that.

**Might** setup a wide area WiFi connection or something, setup a Music or Podcast server and carry everywhere some kind of digital receiver with headphones, etc. , that is the modern solution, but so far the humble AM radio has been a faithful companion for the last 49 years

[Chuck H]

Still very much use an AM radio everyday, idly babbling/chattering a few feet away while I do boring but necessary stuff such as cutting/rounding/sanding/painting wood panels, assembling cabinets, winding transformers, cutting/punching sheet metal, etc. , can´t stand silence.

Lest the voices in your head make an impression and you, and maybe a few others, end up in the paper (I understand ).

[g1]

Just turn it on, tune it to something I want to listen at the moment, put it in an apron pocket and it goes everywhere I go, as simple as that.

Ah, a transistor radio!
I have one like the green here, branded as 'sweet sound'. Still running fine since childhood.

[bob p]

Analog radio isn't dead yet. It's not like the world has been captured by XM/Sirius.

Maybe I'm just wrong on this, but I think that XM/Sirius is a smaller segment of the population than plain old AM/FM radios.

Am I the only one who thinks it's crazy to subscribe to a satellite service just to have tunes in the car?

[olddawg]

Ah, a transistor radio!
I have one like the green here, branded as 'sweet sound'. Still running fine since childhood.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]48799[/ATTACH]

I can remember having a "3 transistor" radio placed firmly against my ear in the back
seat (no seat belt of course) of the family car on road trips as a child in the very early 60s. I repaired a delco am radio out of my friend's 63 Chevy a while back. Supposedly their first all transitor one. It had one PNP output transitor. He said you should start a business. Nobody can do this anymore. I said no thanks. I still listen to AM in my car.

[loudthud]

The computers at my work would go crazy every once in a while, seemingly at random times. The computers were connected to test gear. Then someone noticed that an AM radio would pickup a static type noise that corresponded with the computers going crazy. Turned out a guy a couple of doors down was arch welding. Do AM radios pickup those neon signs?

[Steve A.]

You can shield a cavity all day but a single coil pickup will still pick up radiated hum and buzz. Especially a P90. This particular one is a "dog ear" Mount and has a large steel back plate. It shields it better than a "soapbar" configuration. But I found out Saturday night it will still hum like a whore on meth in a bad room. There's one club I know that's even worse. The back wall of the stage is up against a large gas station with a thousand fluorescents and a power company stepdown transformer farm.

Shielding cavities helps with the buzz but not with the hum picked up by single coil pickups. Mojotone has come out with their line of Quiet Coil pickups which are supposed to sound a lot like real single coils (I just rec'd a set of their tele Quiet Coils but have not yet installed them.)

The worst club I ever played at had Christmas lights strung around the stage area connected to cheap dimmers. It was great for testing out my dummy coil experiments...

There was another club that was dead quiet with single coil pickups, even with a neon sign in the window about 15 feet from the stage. After a change of ownership they moved the stage to the opposite side of the club and had a "consultant" add lighting which made it noisy as all heck for single coil pickups.

Steve A.

P.S. Wrapping single coil pickups with copper foil tape helps, too, but can can affect the sound by cutting highs. Definitely a mistake with the Lindy Fralin strat pickups I bought in the 90's...

[SoulFetish]

There are two main styles. One comes with just terminals on the primary and secondary, intended for hard-wiring into a building or equipment. The second and more useful for this kind of thing has a heavy input power cord, an overall metal shell, and outlets on the secondary side so you can just plug into them.

I don't remember seeing any with what would be a breaker panel. But then, I'm fairly cavalier about what appurtenances come with electrical gear. If I wanted a small breaker panel, Home Despot carries four breaker panels for about $20, and breakers are about $5 each.

Here's one example.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Minigard-35...gAAOSwUuFWuO9G
This one will provide power for any combination of loads up to 500W. Your amp will have a rating plate on the back. Well, it SHOULD have a rating plate on it. That plate will tell you how many watts it uses. If your amp is less than 500W, this one will do fine. The only bad news with this one, like all CVTs, this one is heavy. It's 40 pounds all by itself. So it costs to ship and hurts to schlep.

I guess I just wanted to bring it up so that if one were to drive their own earth rod, they would ensure that they included the necessary complaint safety devices to protect against fault current.

[olddawg]

I played a good sized Mother's Day event Sunday. New constitution outdoor stage behind a roadhouse on its own breaker panel and a proper ground. No lights because it started at noon (argh). No hum in my single coils at all!