Mystery box ?

j.harv

j.harv

@#$%
I thought I'd post this here because this is the forum I frequent the most, and...I like you guys:)

I was at a Thrift store and noticed this cheap looking plastic box with 3 Knobs. Tone,Balance,Volume. I don't know why I bought it, I was just curious. It is really light in weight. It feels like it only has these three pots in it and nothing else. But there is a universal adapter wired into it along with an on/off switch on the side and 2 cables coming out. One 3.5mm input and one with a stereo jack.
I was eager to get it home and open it up. When opened there are 2 boards. One has a Toshiba
TA7203P chip.
Anyone know what this could be.....maybe a homemade headphone amp??? I know it's probably junk, but my curiosity got the best of me.

Pics...
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Trovador98 said:
Weird..how much was it?

Try it with some headphones and see what happens.
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It was $4. I plugged the stereo jack into my strat and headphones into the 3.5mm. Got sound. Only in one side obviously. It's noisy, but if it could be summed to mono and the noise could be eliminated it could work as a pre I guess. It really boosts the sound of the electric guitar nicely and would sound nice if the hum and buzz would disappear. Oh well. I got a 3 nice aluminum knobs out of it :)
 
Use the noise as a glitchy lofi effect...ala Zvex instant lofi junky. What does it do if you run an ipod through it?
 
Just plugged an Mp3 player into it. It actually sounds good. No noise. Then I tried plugging a bass into it. This time it was not nearly as noisey. Ant the tone/volume boost is pretty good. Im might mess with it and put a mono jack on it,clean the pots and maybe put a xlr or "1/4 out on it and see how it sound within a recording.
 
Maybe it didn't like your strat single coils.
Interesting find! Makes me want to poke around my neighborhood pawn shop.
 
Trovador98 said:
Maybe it didn't like your strat single coils.
Interesting find! Makes me want to poke around my neighborhood pawn shop.
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Yeah, Im always poking around thrift/goodwill stores. There is usually something interesting in the electrical section amongst the junk. Always looking out for cheap old mics and such. Got some nice old stereo recievers too. There was a thrift store selling an old AKG D19 microphone that they advertised online for $60. They usually sell for $300+ on ebay. Always wanted one. I contacted them to see if they would ship it to me because their store is like a 5-6 hour drive from me. They said no. In store sales only:( .
It seems like all the items that sell for good deals in the classifieds are always too far from me.
 
Think of it this way, at least nowadays, you have a chance if getting that stuff. 20 years ago you wouldn't even have known of it for sale. Unless it came from a catalog or was in local range, you wouldn't have gotten it . :D

Edit: Almost forgot. Cool box, right price. I'm sure you'll find some use for it. :thumbs up:
 
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Tadpui said:
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Ha ha! Not a human head,that's for sure.
It's now a pre-amp. I removed the very long headphone jack cable and the stereo plug cable and wired up in and out "1/4 jacks and mounted them on the side of the box. It works well. Did a quick test recording with a bass and it does the trick.
 
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