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on some soldering iron ish

ChairmasterChairmaster 45 Posts
edited January 2007 in Strut Central
I'm a writer (and long time SS lurker) for a magazine based in new york and I'm doing a story on something that could hold some interest for the people of SoulStrut.The feature is on the creative uses of dead and/or broken technology, and seeing as how there's a lot of know how and ingenuity on SS there should be quite a few people who've done something in this vein. A few examples of things i've found are an old sewing machine rigged to wrap the hair-thin wire used in contructing guitar pickups, a 16-year-old who took the uranium from 50 old smoke detectors and built a working nuclear reactor (this kid is quite elusive though), and the more typical fish tank built inside a television or iMac. I realize my lurking status will probably bring out the , but this is something that a lot of people could get down on, so post or PM me if you like.

  Comments

  • SPlDEYSPlDEY Vegas 3,375 Posts
    Nice, don't know if too many of these guys are into this stuff. But it really calls out to the inner engineer in me. The site I go to for this specifically is www.instructables.com followed by my love of Make magazine. On the personal tip I haven't really done much modding save for homemade headphones, homemade pedalboard, and some computer related ish, but I think I'm going to start making guitar pedals this year. I also want to try to do the walkman's into a mellotron that's a badass project.

    - spidey
  • hemolhemol 2,578 Posts
    I build contact microphones with piezos. This is a pretty common thing though.
  • unlasciviousunlascivious 220 Posts
    what you're reporting on is extremely broad. if you're looking for a music theme, do some research on circuit bending. the price for certain ancient kids toys has gone up huge because of the capabilities of these electronics.

    i've personally bent a TI Math & Spell and it has some weird nonsense output, but a very rich sound.

    check out magazines wired, spectrum, make, pop sci and every geek blog out there for tons of info.
  • FlomotionFlomotion 2,390 Posts
    Maybe not on the right tip but you might be interested in Brian Duffy's project, the Modified Toy Orchestra - taking old electronics toys and games and rebuilding them to form a battery of new instruments. There's a whole philosophy behind it and the music's kind of interesting too.

    Not related but fits the bill...

  • ZEN2ZEN2 1,540 Posts
    I recently bent an old casio keyboard i had laying around. Its still in pieces, but makes interesting noises (especially the demo button).
  • ZEN2ZEN2 1,540 Posts
    good info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circuit_bending

    Personally I think 99.9% of the music coming out of this movement is garbage and not at all groundbreaking... Merzbow was doing this shit for years before the whole sk1/speaknspell fad.

    http://merzbow.net/
  • BeekBeek 146 Posts
    I suggest you pick a few issues of Make Magazine, it might have a few things like this.
  • bthavbthav 1,538 Posts
    i tried to build a tape delay outta a bunch of old tape heads from dictophones. excersize in futility.

    i built a stereoimaging binaral microphone out of a dummy head. it was all smoke and mirrors though.


































    tape-op.


  • ChairmasterChairmaster 45 Posts
    what you're reporting on is extremely broad. if you're looking for a music theme, do some research on circuit bending. the price for certain ancient kids toys has gone up huge because of the capabilities of these electronics.

    i've personally bent a TI Math & Spell and it has some weird nonsense output, but a very rich sound.

    check out magazines wired, spectrum, make, pop sci and every geek blog out there for tons of info.

    It is broad, however, the magazine isn't a technical one. Basically it's the magazine's second issue, so there is a vague theme of two, hence the story on the rebirth of old or broken technology. It doesn't have to be a project that requires rewiring or anything technical, I think the magazine's blog even mentioned a keyboard doorstop.

    Thank you to everyone for the help, I'm actually on my way to pick up some of the mags a few of you have mentioned.
  • hemolhemol 2,578 Posts
    You should really head over to the ITP department at Tisch (721 Broadway, 4th floor). I was in there the other day and they had a project up that was mini CRT's with a static image of a light bulb, suspended from the ceiling and used as a light bulb.
  • sabadabadasabadabada 5,966 Posts
    I suggest you pick a few issues of Make Magazine, it might have a few things like this.

    and pick me up a quart of old harper and a copy of swank while youre out.
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