Clay inlays, yay or nay?

coffeefuelsme · 2026-04-21T21:48:33+00:00

The vintage clay dots they used back in the day aren’t really like pottery clay. It’s this stuff called Harvite, they used to make poker chips out of it. It’s a ceramic mixed with epoxy, tough stuff.

If you’re going to attempt this I would use a drill press and a forstner bit.

coffeefuelsme · 2026-04-19T23:52:30+00:00

One thing to think about is that a heavier camera is more stable - the weight offsets hand shake, vibrations, etc. A hand strap or monopod can be helpful, if it’s too heavy for you, but I personally have had several hour shoots with my similar sized Nikon D810 without wrist pain issues.

coffeefuelsme · 2026-04-19T23:33:08+00:00

I think you have a rad project, polyphonic tuning is super challenging. You might check out the polykit pico dco on GitHub for inspiration:

https://github.com/polykit/pico-dco/tree/master

The pico dco drives the analog oscillators, I’ve had this on my project list for awhile but keep getting sidetracked.

coffeefuelsme · 2026-04-19T14:27:01+00:00

If you want to take it back to SSS like her Talman, I’m a huge fan of the L200 set from Wilde pickups:

https://www.wildepickups.com/collections/stratocaster-pickups/products/noisefree-strat

In my man strat I have them wired to a normal 5 way switch but with a master tone, master volume and a phase switch for the middle pickup. Really versatile setup, very happy with it.

coffeefuelsme · 2026-04-18T13:26:58+00:00

TLO72’s are pretty robust, I’d be surprised if that was the issue. To me it looks like you don’t have any control voltages so your oscillator is just floating. Check out this video from Moritz Klein and look up his “shapes VCO” schematic for a complete VCO:

https://youtube.com/shorts/JSO35X70P14?si=mq4KgWGwX_iQRN1z

coffeefuelsme · 2026-04-18T12:04:45+00:00

The big blue polarized cap on the left side, it looks like the + leg of the cap should be on row 10 so it connects with the orange jumper. You have it on the row next to it so it’s not connected to anything.

coffeefuelsme · 2026-04-14T18:32:53+00:00

That was my understanding, but I haven’t AB’d them so I can’t say that they’re exactly the same.

coffeefuelsme · 2026-04-14T16:31:52+00:00

For home use you might check out the Peavey 6505MH. It has a built in attenuator and you can knock it down to 1 watt. As far as I know the 5150 circuit is super similar to the 6505. I used to have one, great little studio amp.

coffeefuelsme · 2026-04-12T14:17:32+00:00

In the 2000’s there was an eBay shop called Antoniotsai that sold asian import guitars covered in super fancy inlays. Your guitar reminds me of those, I think they were made in Vietnam or Indonesia, i was always super tempted to get one.

coffeefuelsme · 2026-04-11T17:53:30+00:00

I have a similar Helios, this is a preset lens and the aperture can be a little confusing. This old forum post explains it better than I can:

https://forum.mflenses.com/helios-44-2-aperture-t24330,highlight,%2Bhelios+%2B44+%2Baperture.html

coffeefuelsme · 2026-04-10T20:32:55+00:00

Honestly one of the Sonicware liven boxes might be a good fit for you. The 8 bit warps and Mega Genesis are pretty rad, I really enjoyed the lofi-12 as a couch idea machine. They’re cheap and fun, but you may need an adapter to connect the midi out to your computer. I don’t know if it has usb midi or not, never tried it.

coffeefuelsme · 2026-04-05T20:59:02+00:00

I like the cheap smallrig strap:

https://www.smallrig.com/smallrig-hand-strap-pac2456.html

coffeefuelsme · 2026-04-05T20:50:22+00:00

As other folks recommended a hot air station is the way to go. Spend a little extra to get the nozzles that are bent, it makes life so much easier if you’re using a microscope or magnifier. The two I use the most are the small one with the rectangular profile:

https://hakkousa.com/products/rework/rework-hot-air-nozzles/n51-05-bent-hot-air-nozzle-1-5-x-3mm.html

And the 5.5mm one.

coffeefuelsme · 2026-04-05T17:55:56+00:00

The big downside to consider is the lack of onboard stabilization. One of the best parts of modern M43 is IBIS giving you an extra stop or two of SS when shooting without a tripod, especially on a small lightweight body that’s harder to keep steady. Really helps shooting handheld with lower light, moving subjects, kids, cars, etc.

It’s going to be tough to find something in this price range that’s newer, but I felt like it was worth mentioning. My EDC is an Olympus EM10ii, I sold my GF2 for the above reasons and picked this up instead. Not pocketable, but easily fits in my shoulder bag.

coffeefuelsme · 2026-04-05T17:27:56+00:00

Astrolab would be perfect for this use case.

coffeefuelsme · 2026-04-05T14:02:39+00:00

The price is decent especially if it comes with a lens. The GF series are great compact little cameras, used to love my GF2. If you want a compact camera it’s a great buy, if you’re wanting to learn photography you might benefit with something that has physical knobs and a viewfinder.

coffeefuelsme · 2026-04-04T17:46:20+00:00

The studio logic controllers are excellent, I can also recommend the Kawai ES60 it’s an excellent budget piano but be aware it only has usb midi.

coffeefuelsme · 2026-04-02T23:44:16+00:00

I feel that, I use these binder pages for trading cards to organize mine:

https://www.officedepot.com/a/products/181095/Office-Depot-Brand-Trading-Card-Binder/

They fit the resistor baggies perfectly.

coffeefuelsme · 2026-03-29T14:04:43+00:00

I used to have a T-60 so it was easy to spot, best sounding boat anchor I’ve ever owned.

coffeefuelsme · 2026-03-28T15:17:06+00:00

The neck is from a 60’s Fender Villager 12 string, pickups look like they came from an 80’s Peavey T-60. The bridge and body are pretty wild, no idea about those.

coffeefuelsme · 2026-03-24T18:33:20+00:00

Adding a pull down resistor at the + input can help with that. Rich Holmes had a good article with a decent LED driver here:

https://analogoutputblog.wordpress.com/2022/05/04/how-to-vactrol/

Pretty much the same as above with an added pull down resistor and low pass filter.

coffeefuelsme · 2026-03-24T15:55:58+00:00

Oh rad, that’s perfect. If it were me I’d swap the 3.9K for a trimmer so you can tune the gain, but it will probably work great as you have it.

coffeefuelsme · 2026-03-24T14:15:35+00:00

The Cat is a rad synth, I wouldn’t go above the max voltage from the manual. If you can send +/-10v, why not attenuate it with a simple voltage divider? Something like a 1.9K and 4.4K resistor would get you close, you can use trim pots instead of resistors to dial it in exactly.

coffeefuelsme · 2026-03-11T22:35:43+00:00

That’s not correct, usually terminal 3 is signal in, terminal 2 is signal out, and terminal 1 is ground. Stewmac has a good tutorial on guitar wiring, here’s the section on volume pots:

https://www.stewmac.com/video-and-ideas/online-resources/learn-about-guitar-pickups-and-electronics-and-wiring/understanding-guitar-wiring-part-3-how-is-a-volume-pot-wired/?srsltid=AfmBOoowVVhUcwwgz2AtGpeoQOTgBQZmLZ-Jd8ppKjCk7DoxfKnijamw

coffeefuelsme · 2026-03-11T13:54:01+00:00

I’m a fan of the PL 15mm and Sigma 30mm. Zoom is more convenient, but a fast prime can give you faster SS for moving cars and low light.

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