My Huxley kit arrived in the mail. Very well packed and organized. I was a bit overwhelmed by the number of parts. But finally, I started in. The RepRap website suggests that first the top, front, and rear units be assembled. Basically, an erector set kind of vibe with washers between all nuts and plastic brackets and a lot of threaded rod. The idler bearings have some small washers as spacers and larger washers as guides to keep the belt on the bearing. So far, about 3 hours invested, though if I were to build a second one the time would be about half.
Leave it to the creator of the K-3D project, Timothy Shead, to create a great short enlightening tutorial on how to create objects quickly. This coffee cup video highlights some very useful functions in K-3D.
Making stuff is cool. Usually it involves taking a big hunk of stuff and removing material. In the case of the RepRap, it builds up the part like a printer laying down plastic in layers. I was able to find a complete kit on eBay for the RepRap Huxley. It is a compact 3D printer. You can learn more at reprap.org and make your own! The project is designed such that you can get the various parts from wherever and assemble the device, but a few in the community offer complete kits and if you Google about you can find assembled kits as well. I opted to put one together, and perhaps will add in some of my own mods. What I find reassuring about the project is that any repairs that may be needed will be possible. No worries about the device not working because replacement parts are no longer made or the model is obsolete. Just build up new bits!
While printing 3D bits is cool, what brought the whole package together and kicked off the project was finding open source 3D software that was user friendly and enables the creation of 3D stuff to print. The most powerful is Blender, but it also has the steepest learning curve. Another very powerful program is Meshlab, which specializes in working with meshes rather than animation. These two are very useful for converting file formats. Since the common stereo lithography format is the STL file, it is important to be able to create them. I find Meshlab seems to create great STL files and is quite fast and pretty intuitive.
For creating 3D images from scratch, K-3D rules for the beginner. You can click about and learn by some trial and error, but the real aha moment was when I saw this tutorial on YouTube from theSniperofDeath. In minutes, you can see the potential. And all three programs mentioned are available in Linux. Ubuntu Lucid (the latest version, I’m running 10.04 LTS) runs them very will on my Lenovo G550.
This very basic video gives an idea of the controls:
This video is really inspiring. It shows how to manipulate and form models:
After seeing the second video, I was able to make this shape in a matter of minutes. To make a solid object with a RepRap printer, save as an .obj in K-3D, then import to Meshlab and convert to .stl file. The open source software for the RepRap can read .stl files. That’s the plan, the kit is in the mail……
My new install of Ubuntu Studio 10.04 on my Lenovo G550 seemed to be working flawlessly. Then I tried a multitrack recording. While simple recording was flawless, playing back one track while recording another locked up Audacity after a few seconds. But I quickly figured out a couple of simple fixes that are only a few mouse clicks away.
Ubuntu Studio has some memory controls. Under system administration I opened Ubuntu Studio Controls. Enabling memory lock, I set 50% of memory locked to audio processing per recommendations of the Ubuntu community. I then enabled “nice” to -10 to give preference to audio processes. This helped, but the software still locked up.
I was recording through a USB preamp and since it was recording I assumed the default device had gotten it right. However, by changing settings for the hardware recording in Audacity from default to the USB device the lockups stopped.
After installing Ubuntu Studio 10.04 onto my new Levovo G550 and playing around for a bit, I settled on Audacity to record the riffs for the Telecaster Custom Guitar post. The rig met all of my expectations for being intuitive and not interrupting the creative process.
First, it was easy to get the signal from the USB amp and to see signal levels and get everything set to avoid clipping but use the dynamic range. But Audacity really shined as a multiple take recorder. Bad take? Just delete and hit record again. A new track is created and recording starts. Maybe that is the take, maybe not? Just hit record again. You can keep as many takes as you want to keep track of. Figuring out how to change the name of the track, add effects (just volume adjustment and fade in fade out for the Telecaster tone tracks), and export to your choice of formats was also quick and intuitive. No need to consult the help file. The effects are nicely organized in groups that let you search quickly through the more than 200 effects plugins. The record and play buttons are big, easy to hit with a touch pad control while a guitar is in the lap and the PC is a long reach away. From powering up, setting levels, doing some takes, adjusting levels, and exporting out was an hour total. And more than half that time was playing around with the amp to tweak tone.
Audacity in Ubuntu Studio 10.04 did a great job of doing what most basement musicians are looking for. A high quality recording without a lot of mouseclicks.
Like putting a souped up engine in a hot rod, it was time for the adding some extra heart and soul to the custom Fender Telecaster. I was looking for a fat rich buttery blues tone. But I also wanted responsive pickups. I wanted to interact with the guitar and amp.
Kevin from smitspickups.com wound a set of pickups for me. You tell Kevin the tone you are looking for, he dials them in. We settled on Alnico 5 magnets for a powerful signal, his standard bridge pickup, and a mildly hot “Hawkeye” Telecaster neck pickup. Of course, wound in different directions to cancel hum in the mid position. Then Kevin said “I could leave them unpotted”. I couldn’t wait to see how they would sound. I wasn’t too worried about feedback with the moderate volumes I play.
The pickups sounded so good, and so “Tele” I wanted to match them up with a classic Fender blues amp. Finding a Limited Edition Blues Jr with a Celestion speaker, the pair delivered more than I expected. The Blues Jr. is very expressive, changing tone as the attack and volume changes. The pickups blew me away. All three positions sound great. For the first time, the tone knob had a purpose on a guitar. With the neck pickup, it is bright. Rolling the tone knob off a bit lets me adjust how much bite I want. Even half way down it still sounds rich and full.
My favorite tone of all (so far) is the middle strings at the 12th fret with the bridge pickup. For this recording I rolled just a bit of treble off. Recorded with a Bluebird mic and no post processing. The recording sounds good, but didn’t quite capture all of the rich bass. The Blues Jr. was set to a reverb = 3, all other knobs at 6.
The mid position is quite versatile. Here are some power chords with the mid position (both pickups)
SHGP Telecaster mid position
The neck pickup is rich and mellow. It also sounds great with a Boss Blues Driver pedal. Here is a sample of some clean tones around the 3rd to 5th fret.
SHGP Telecaster “Hawkeye” neck pickup, unpotted
The project was a great success. The guitar and amp combination is very expressive and very inspiring. I’ve just begun to explore all the quality tones it can generate. The custom handwound pickups really brought the rig to life. And, for me, leaving the pickups unpotted gave the guitar a personalized custom touch.
The scatter wound pickups sound great, of course. But the the responsiveness has to be played to be experienced. The richness of tone inspires “less is more” blues riffs. No need to jam a lot of notes in. This guitar wants to be played.
