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I think I'll have to print this and tape it to my phone if this place really shutters (but I'm still keeping my fingers crossed).

We haven't let our kids play Roblox, and we just said ok to the younger one (10yo) playing the original Doom (he's been interested in retro gaming lately, which I obvs fully support). Both were quite into Minecraft earlier, but without public online multiplayer stuff allowed. Neither really played the actual survival game mode that much, mostly they just liked to build things in the creative mode. I though that was nice, kind of like infinite Legos, and it was genuinely fun seeing the progress they made.

It's been the online multiplayer thing I've been most vary of earlier. But recently we've let the 10yo play Fortnite, with strict chat/contact settings. And sure, it's a shooter, but it's really the monetisation aspect of the game, plus the friction it seems to create with his real world friends that bothers me the most. Possibly I should just flat out tell him to play something else instead, but so far I haven't had the resolve to do it.

Just a quick test, random noodling, warts and all, with the Model T. For full geek-out details: late '70s MIJ through-neck, tuned down to standard D, BKP Nailbomb bridge pickup, DIY booster pedal (Runoff Groove Omega), G12H-100 speakers in the cab. Recorded with a ribbon mic ca. 20cm from a speaker. Some limiting applied in DAW.

Must be a 4x12 tho. I'll find the space and the band. Just want.

No judgement. I've been sort of playing with the idea of putting up a wanted ad for a matching top or bottom cab for full stack stupid.

A band could be fun too, obviously, but at least now I don't have move any of this stuff around.

any sound clips?

Nope, but I can try to record something. I'm also curious on how well the tone translates.

I feel like it took me ages to build this thing. AFAIK the chassis is re-purposed from another kit (their Hiwatt DR201 clone), which caused a bit of extra work, but I think I ended up spending a disproportionate amount of time wiring everything up inside the chassis. I mean it still doesn't look all that complicated.

This was largely an impulse thing but the finished item feels more sensible that it has the right to be. I've been planning on selling a few other amps, but having this makes it an easier decision.

Finished my Model T build. As an extra speed bump the first 6550 quartet apparently had a faulty tube. That had me worried for a bit, but it got sorted admirably fast and now everything seems to be stable. I'm quite pleased with the end result. The amp is really quiet, master volume works well, and just a booster pedal and cranking the pre-amp gain gets pretty fuzzy and works even at manageable volume levels.

Model T

Speaking of which, I'm slowly getting there. Last things left are wiring input jacks and heaters (which is a bit of a pain), and then double checking everything before powering up. I'm not 100% happy with all of my handiwork, but I try to fight the urge to redo stuff.

Keep us updated

Boards done. I hate cleaning the solder flux, but at the same time I can't just leave it be...

I was considering using lead-free solder, but then I thought it might be good practise on something smaller first and just went with the usual leaded stuff.

A Sunn Model T clone. Rated at 150W. I don't have any excuses 😬

Building an amp kit. Moving on to the fun stuff, i.e. populating the boards next.

I absolutely don't need this.

I'm still going to read the third one as well. My few gripes are on a fairly general level, and not enough to keep me from enjoying the books regardless.

I'm a big fan of his sci-fi.

Ditto. I won't vouch for similarity as such, but I quite liked Becky Chambers' Wayfarers series.

Unrelated, right now I'm reading Adrian Tchaikovsky's Eyes of the Void (second book in the series). Entertaining enough, but dunno, a bit short of winning me over completely.

I also liked the mic'd sound more, might be worth the extra effort. I've used the ribbon mic just a few times so far, but it has seemed to be pretty forgiving about placement and acoustics. Which maybe surprised me a bit given the figure-of-eight pattern, but would obviously be great news for home recording.

Recording test pt. 2, using a ribbon mic in untreated (but cluttered) basement room. This was mostly "earplugs required" volume level for me. Just listened back through my random noodling, actually thought the captured sound was pretty decent here as well — at least more so than some of my previous attempts. Chose this bit as the amp settings were close to the load box test before, just with the string reverb turned up a little.

I've been experimenting with a DIY reactive load I built some years ago for the past few days. I pretty much wrote the thing off previously, but this time I've actually had fun noodling even through headphones. Here's a random recording of bright bridge humbucker --> slightly modded Princeton Reverb clone at almost full volume --> unorthodox pairing with 4x12" impulse response (plus a bit of room reverb). Usual caveats and all that, but I don't think the tone itself is half bad.

Having our own four walls I can just about crank the amp at home without the load box, but even at 14W and an inefficient 10" speaker it's still impractically loud going into overdrive.

Anyway, like this amp a lot. Planning on trying another tweak to reduce bass after the preamp (as it is, I almost always have the bass turned all the way down).

jazzmaster clone in the works

Just now seen this thread, thoroughly enjoyable. "How hard it can be?", huh 🫡

😳 I hope that didn't come across wrong, I definitely didn't mean to imply that you should be charging any less for your work.

Smaller bag, yup. I think I'm going to make use of the sale Carradice is having at the moment, as much as I'd love a sweet Wit Slingers bag. Maybe some day.

Tyres are 25mm. Rear would fit 28mm, but they were out of stock at the time. In reality that section was pretty short, the fist-sized "gravel" was just so funny I had to take a snap. I'd normally stay on paved roads with this bike, but this being a "friendly" race... 🤷‍♂️

Yeah, I think it's a nice ride, and I don't find it overly harsh either. Steering is quick, which makes the bike feel fun, but otoh can be slightly worrysome at 50kph. Or maybe it's just the speed.

I haven't tried the tubeless setup yet. Still planning to, but I do things at a sedate pace sometimes 🙃

One of the AXS brifters was faulty and drained a new battery in a fortnight, which killed my initial enthusiasm a bit. I only got a warranty replacement late in the summer, so ended up not doing much riding on the 2.8 last year.

This summer is looking up, I hope. I did a 150km fixie-scene-adjacent event with this setup last weekend:

There was a fair bit of gravel thrown in, too. This was some of my less fortunate route choices:

Some bits were borrowed from other bikes, so I'm not sure how permanent this will be. Kind of tempted to leave the bag support / quick release in place, or get a second one or something (I do have a Nitto R-10 knocking about). The big Super C bag is a bit overkill, though, so a slightly smaller alternative would be nice. Plus with the frame pump the bottles are hard to get out of the cages. This being lufguss I suppose the obvious answer would be Tijmen & Hulsroy, but let's see.

Local luthier had a beautifully worn '61 Jazzmaster on the bench when I dropped off my Gibson acoustic. Dream guitar right there 🤤.

(not my photo)

Compulsory new guitar post, got this little L-00 style acoustic earlier in the week. Very much still in the honeymoon period, but I think it's awesome. Between this and an OM I truly believe I'm pretty much set. Now I just need to shift the other two acoustics...

I'm including a tiny sound demo — tried to keep it really simple on purpose, but still didn't quite manage to nail it 🙃

I think it's fairly safe to assume that the timber came from some old farm buildings. Log construction was very common in Finland up until 1940s or thereabouts. Apparently you can take apart a log house by starting from the top, and put it back together in reverse, so I guess the material is naturally suited to reuse.

The log frame in our house is normally visible only in the side / knee wall attics. We tore down some questionable insulation from the basement stairs, so that's why I could take the photo, but there's really nothing large scale I can show.