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I smashed a crappy homebuilt guitar through the speaker of a crappy homebuilt amp once. Afterwards, I noticed I'd missed the high voltage terminals by about 1/10". I stopped smashing guitars after that. Never started polishing them, though. :)

A solid body 12 with light gauge strings should be fine at concert pitch - mine is - but on an acoustic, it's common to tune down a tone or more. I've heard of people tuning down as far as C. Well made necks should be ok, but it seems to be the bridge, and warping of the top that's the risk.

Is there a stand-alone host that will enable VST instruments to be used directly, e.g. with a keyboard? I'd like to try out some of the freeware synths etc., but I don't have (or want) a VST enabled sequencer like Cubase. If there's a free one with VST support, that might be a different matter...

The most rewarding part must have been emptying the beer bottle. Can you tell us what brand it was? I bought some bulk tape "pancakes" by mistake once, and there's no telling when it might happen again. I'd better get stocks in now. :D

Good electronic practice would suggest that protective ground should be separated from signal ground(s). So the overall screen of your multiway would connect through the body of your connector - when dealing with 'D' types, this usually requires a metal or metallized plastic backshell, and you...

Didn't work for me... I tried to stream the M3Us, but nothing ever came out of my speakers - I downloaded the MP3s (although my browser wanted to save them as MPEGs) but couldn't play them in either format. So, sorry, but no help just yet. :( To be honest, an MP3 would not be the best way to...

Are you saying that you want to turn your amp up high, to get the sound you want, but don't actually want it to be too loud? If that's the case, and assuming everything else is unchanged, a 2 x 12 would be quieter - but not by very much. If you're after true overdriven amp sounds at lower volume...

Assuming your amp is mono, you'll want a mono cabinet (that's easy!) In the following, "how many ohms it has" is referred to by the proper technical term which is impedance. You can use that to impress the salespeople at your music store. :D Your speakers should be matched to the output of...

I have this trouble on my (very) old Teac - in this case it's nothing to do with rubberware, but the pinch wheel is not quite touching the capstan. Try pushing the pinch wheel gently to see if it grips the tape. On my machine the grease on the pinch wheel lever had got gummy with age. I stripped...

This is the Analog forum, so you're preaching to the converted here... If you record digitally at 16 bit, 44.1kHz then you're right, there is nowhere left to go from that. Any adjustments you or the mastering house might want to make can only subtract from the sound quality - it may be...

Is this your question: Is there a master recording format which is preferred within the industry? In my experience, CD mastering labs will work with anything you give them. They might cough a bit if you hand over a 48kHz sample rate DAT, but more likely they'll just grin and charge you for...

I can't help with getting your machine fixed, whimsmith, but I must leap to your brother's defence. :) I can't imagine any way that the output of a preamp, however high it was set, would be the real cause of the failure you described. Perhaps if you'd attached it to the speaker terminals of a...

I built my own tape recorder years ago, and there are lots of problems awaiting an upgrade like this. The new heads you get will need a lot of physical alignment work - assuming you can source some which are the same size; if not, there's some precision machining ahead of you. The heads will...

Some folks spend ages trying to get rid of guitar string squeaks and other stuff like that - but I'm with the "keep it in, keep it real" brigade. Plus, that way you don't waste any time that would be better spent writing your next masterpiece. :) Oh, yes, I tried adding the acoustic string slap...

My A8 had trouble with the pinch roller: it was shiny smooth and the tape slipped while playing. If your R8's roller is like this, you may want to try fitting a new one yourself. Ditto any internal rubberware - this is more likely if fast wind has also started to lose its will to live.

I would recommend cutting the guitar lengthways, because you can use standard length strings then. Of course, there would only be room for three on each half, but all the popular balalaika repertoire would be available to you. If you divide a guitar across the strings, there are some playability...

Lucky Escape! My A8 (non-LR) is on the way out, I'm sure... most of the meter lamps have gone out, and the "fast" rewind has to be helped along with some forefinger. They were amazing for the price, I think I got mine at about the lowest they ever went. But not the most robust machine, not...

I'm showing this thread to my wife. See? I'm not greedy, just keeping up with everybody else. No, I don't have to open a shop. No, he said guitars. The mandolins, bouzouki, autoharp and thumb pianos don't count. Nor does the stash of necks and bodies under the bed. :D

Play it again, Sam! The only reasons for duplicating with effects would be if the part was genuinely unrepeatable, or if you ran out of tracks to record on. I usually pan 75% left and right also - hard panning makes it sound artificial and disassociated from the rest of the instruments. It can...

I voted for monitors - although they're just home hi-fi speakers really, but they're what I mix down on because I'm used to them. I might use headphones to check the bass end isn't going pear shaped, but most of the time I like to listen to mixes on the same set-up that I listen to everything else.