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Author Topic: First Contact...  (Read 9638 times)

Steve M Smith

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First Contact...
« on: December 16, 2014, 01:43:14 AM »

I was probably 14 years at the time so it was a good learning experience.

It amazes me that my parents didn't have a problem with me experimenting with valve/tube circuits and old TVs and radios from the age of about 12!


Steve.
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Mike Sokol

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Re: First Contact...
« Reply #1 on: December 16, 2014, 09:25:20 AM »

It amazes me that my parents didn't have a problem with me experimenting with valve/tube circuits and old TVs and radios from the age of about 12!

Steve.

Yeah, my dad was a history teacher and had no idea how dangerous this all was. Plus I could ride my bike to the local dump/landfill and find dozens of junked television sets and radios to scrounge for parts. I remember taking home every loudspeaker I could salvage and mounting dozens of them in cardboard boxes which I placed on every shelf of my bedroom. Then I tied half of them into a Kalamozoo guitar tube amp, and the other half into a Silvertone amp. I kludged an output from my mom's old record player with a crystal cartridge to drive the entire mess. It must have sounded horrible but I thought it sounded great since I built it myself. That's where I first heard the then-new album by Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland. At that point there was no turning back.

But for newbies on this forum, realize that any kind of electricity can be very dangerous. Even 120-volts on incoming power can be deadly under the right circumstances, and many of us are involved with high-amperage distro systems that can have a arc-flash explosion that's equally deadly. So as they say in all legal disclaimers, Kids, don't try this at home. Please consult a professional technician before modifying any guitar amps or sound components.

Bob Leonard

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Re: First Contact...
« Reply #2 on: December 16, 2014, 01:03:49 PM »

I did pretty much the same Mike, always ripping stuff out of old radio's and TV's. My first amp was my fathers Hi-FI. All tubes and the guitar was tied in through the pre amp circuit for the stylus. He didn't know I was doing that to his stereo and when he found the Hi-FI missing from the living room he came right to me and whipped my ass.
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BOSTON STRONG........
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I did a gig for Otis Elevator once. Like every job, it had it's ups and downs.

Mike Sokol

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Re: First Contact...
« Reply #3 on: December 16, 2014, 01:35:50 PM »

Alright,

So here's where you all can post your first contacts with electricity and sound gear. Please be sure to note that the dangerous stuff should NOT be repeated by newbies. After all, we got away with a LOT of things in the 50's, 60's and 70's that would be considered far too dangerous nowadays. Still, experimentation is at the center of all significant learning, and you gotta break a few eggs to make an an omelet or souffle or whatever it is they make with eggs in the UK.  ;D 

Maybe OT, but I like Eggies in a Basket from the V for Vendetta movie. Isn't that British? That's worth breaking a few eggs for.  ???

Steve M Smith

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Re: First Contact...
« Reply #4 on: December 16, 2014, 02:21:28 PM »

After all, we got away with a LOT of things in the 50's, 60's and 70's

... 80s, 90s...

Maybe OT, but I like Eggies in a Basket from the V for Vendetta movie. Isn't that British?

No idea.  I've never heard of it!

and you gotta break a few eggs to make an an omelet or souffle or whatever it is they make with eggs in the UK

You have to break them whatever it is you make with them (I think you mean omelette).

My favourite, Eggie Bread (aka frebch Toast). Similar to whatever you posted but the egg is beaten first:





Steve.
« Last Edit: December 16, 2014, 02:26:45 PM by Steve M Smith »
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Jonathan Johnson

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Re: First Contact...
« Reply #5 on: December 16, 2014, 03:05:48 PM »

Born in 1972... story is that I took apart the neighbor's stereo when I was 3, but probably all I did was pull the knobs off. I don't remember that incident.

No household appliance was safe from my screwdriver. With maybe a couple of exceptions, I always put it back together. I've been a tinkerer for as long as I remember.

I come from a religious background that frowns on dancing. So in elementary school PE class, when they did square dancing, I was excused. Sort of. I got to run the record player. That was my first exposure to "running sound." (In retrospect, I don't think that quite complied with the spirit of the law.)

When I was in the 5th grade, there was a filmstrip projector in the classroom that never worked right. Looking at it, I could see that a part had been installed upside down. I started taking it apart when the teacher saw me and marched me to the principal's office. I explained the situation, and the principal marched me right back and made me finish the job. He called my parents and they had a good laugh about it. Yes, it worked right after that.

I quite often got to run the movie projector in class.

Growing up on a small farm, I was no stranger to shocks from the electric fence. Only a couple of times have I contacted 120V, and I'd rather hold on to the electric fence.

(By the way, in residential wiring in the United States, you'll never touch a "240 volt" wire. They are all 120 volts relative to ground, but if you get between two 120 volt wires that are on opposite legs of the poco transformer, then you'll get 240 volts. Industrial and commercial wiring can have higher voltages.)
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Mike Sokol

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Re: First Contact...
« Reply #6 on: December 16, 2014, 03:16:37 PM »

So did/do all of you have "The Knack"? Here's how it started for me...  ;D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8vHhgh6oM0

John Roberts {JR}

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Re: First Contact...
« Reply #7 on: December 16, 2014, 03:17:26 PM »

My first memorable contact with electricity was from a lawn mower spark plug. The old mowers had a metal tab that you would touch the spark plug to short it out... if you miss and touch the plug wire with your hand you remember it.

My first memorable contact with mains voltage was as young kid, maybe teen. While reaching up to turn on a table lamp in the living room next to the couch, I did not realize that somebody had removed the light bulb. I managed to get my finger into the lamp socket (not sure exactly how) but I ended up with the lamp in my lap while laying on the couch. This was considered a good save at the time, since so many of our lamps were broken by me and my brothers rough housing, so this lamp miraculously was unbroken despite my acrobatic response to being shocked. 

Another time (late teens) I was arc welding some traction bar mounts to my car, and accidentally touched the welding rod to my sweaty arm, while I was touching the car chassis with my hand... It was pretty low voltage so not much of a shock but my skin resistance was low enough that I felt it (just barely).

I am sorry to disappoint and I have done (and still do some stupid stuff) but never had my life threatened by mains voltage. I did have a capacitor charged up to high voltage inside a strobe light kit I was trying to repair for a friend. As the shock discharged through my hand, the strobe went flying through the air tracing out a perfect parabola landing upside down on the strobe light tube breaking it... I had to tell my friend that it couldn't be fixed,  :o I never told him exactly why.   

Do what we say not what we do... I am aware of enough people being killed around musical equipment that any tingle should be taken seriously.

JR
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Jonathan Johnson

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Re: First Contact...
« Reply #8 on: December 16, 2014, 03:39:02 PM »

My step grandfather was perpetually dehydrated. (I rarely saw him drink ANYthing.) As a result, the electrical resistance of his skin was very high. He would work on 120V wiring and feel nothing. He would work on his electric fence -- which would immediately put you or I on our butts -- barehanded and only feel "a little tingle."

The only way to kill the power to his workshop was to cut the wire or pull the electric meter. I have no doubt it was all wired hot. Apparently he found fuses annoying. Pretty much every code in the book was violated multiple times -- the entire farm was a "code cluster."

How his house and barn never burned down is a great mystery. He passed away in the late 1980s. It has since all been rewired properly.
« Last Edit: December 16, 2014, 03:42:57 PM by Jonathan Johnson »
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Mike Sokol

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Re: First Contact...
« Reply #9 on: December 16, 2014, 04:04:04 PM »

My first AC experiments started when I lived in Delaware, so I had to be younger than 7 years old. I'm guessing maybe 6. I found a box under my dad's workbench downstairs that had some old porcelain light bulb sockets, a light switch, a bunch of old wire, and an Edison plug. Oh yes, dad had plenty of screwdrivers and pliers on the bench so I was well prepared for my experiment. I knew you had to hook wires up between the screws somehow to make a working light with a switch, so not wanting to miss anything I hooked multiple wires between every possible screw combinaiton AT THE SAME TIME. Seemed logical to me at the time and looked like a real spider web of wiring. However, as we all can predict now, when I plugged it into the outlet on the bench, there was a big spark and all the basement lights went out. Dad wasn't too pleased with my experiment as he replaced the fuse, but that didn't stop me from trying to build a perpetual motion machine a year later that would generate extra electricity for my grandmother's house.

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Re: First Contact...
« Reply #9 on: December 16, 2014, 04:04:04 PM »


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