41–50 of 169 posts
Mechanical relays are not obsolete. They can have lower resistance and capacitance than solid state equivalents. A good relay is a very close approximation to a plain wire when closed. Relays are still commonly used for RF switching.
RF grade relays will cost you an arm and a leg though.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Separate from my other comment. I'm pretty much switched over entirely to AxeFX for my guitar & bass setup these days but I've been building circuits lately and figure instrument & vocal effects would be cool projects. Any places I should get started looking?
I'm still resisting the AxeFx but being short on space and a growing stack of rack gear waiting to get fixed might push me over the edge soon :-] There's a pretty classic book called Electronic Projects for Musicians that might be of interest: https://msu.edu/~dougl126/Electronic%20Projects%20for%20Musi...
I build a lot of guitar effects, and that community is even worse when it comes to attachement to obsolete components. The discontinuation of J201 JFETs (in TO-92 through hole package at least) by Fairchild has caused a lot of upset. My perspective, not widely shared, is that JFETs in general have been made obsolete by depletion-mode MOSFETs, at least in audio circuits. Part of the reason, I think, is that a lot of "…
I'm a noob builder (constructed my first pedal a week ago, woo) but I can kinda understand this. Most effects tend to overdrive their components. This by definition means that they operate beyond what a datasheet and the manufacturer specifies. Tiny differences that aren't noticeable when going by the specs can become much more obvious when hearing it overdriven. Yes, the community is really based in "older is always…
Mechanical relays are not obsolete. They can have lower resistance and capacitance than solid state equivalents. A good relay is a very close approximation to a plain wire when closed. Relays are still commonly used for RF switching.
I use mechanical relays to switch AC power for pumps and similar AC motor loads using DC signals from Arduinos and similar. I have very very little experience with electrical engineering (I'm in the Lego mindset of I plug things in according to things I find online until they work), but is there something I should be using instead with 120V ~3-5 A loads?
I build a lot of guitar effects, and that community is even worse when it comes to attachement to obsolete components. The discontinuation of J201 JFETs (in TO-92 through hole package at least) by Fairchild has caused a lot of upset. My perspective, not widely shared, is that JFETs in general have been made obsolete by depletion-mode MOSFETs, at least in audio circuits. Part of the reason, I think, is that a lot of "…
Guitar d00ds having obscure, nonsensical reasons for things because "mah tones!"? Say it ain't so. I mean, nearly every tube head on the market has an essentially pointless standby/bypass switch because of the mistaken belief that you need to warm up your tubes for some arbitrary amount of time in a modern amp and keep them warm. I forget which manufacturer it was that dropped the switch on one model and saw sales pl…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm still resisting the AxeFx but being short on space and a growing stack of rack gear waiting to get fixed might push me over the edge soon :-] There's a pretty classic book called Electronic Projects for Musicians that might be of interest: https://msu.edu/~dougl126/Electronic%20Projects%20for%20Musi...
Sold all my heads, pedals, cabs. Have just the Axe and a FRFR wedge now. Best decision I ever made.
I build a lot of guitar effects, and that community is even worse when it comes to attachement to obsolete components. The discontinuation of J201 JFETs (in TO-92 through hole package at least) by Fairchild has caused a lot of upset. My perspective, not widely shared, is that JFETs in general have been made obsolete by depletion-mode MOSFETs, at least in audio circuits. Part of the reason, I think, is that a lot of "…
> My perspective, not widely shared, is that JFETs in general have been made obsolete by depletion-mode MOSFETs, at least in audio circuits. A guitarist friend decided to "test" me once and put this in front of me and ask what it would sound like: http://el34world.com/charts/Schematics/files/randall/Randall... My immediate response was: "That looks like a really great amp from the mid 1980's--looks like it was design…
I build a lot of guitar effects, and that community is even worse when it comes to attachement to obsolete components. The discontinuation of J201 JFETs (in TO-92 through hole package at least) by Fairchild has caused a lot of upset. My perspective, not widely shared, is that JFETs in general have been made obsolete by depletion-mode MOSFETs, at least in audio circuits. Part of the reason, I think, is that a lot of "…
Guitar d00ds having obscure, nonsensical reasons for things because "mah tones!"? Say it ain't so. I mean, nearly every tube head on the market has an essentially pointless standby/bypass switch because of the mistaken belief that you need to warm up your tubes for some arbitrary amount of time in a modern amp and keep them warm. I forget which manufacturer it was that dropped the switch on one model and saw sales pl…
*Using a cheap tube amp from CL as the basis for a new build and tossing everything except the chassis and transformers, and maybe the sockets if they are chassis mounted, is a great way to build a great sounding tube amp on the cheap.