Distorfrost box: an EF9-based distortion pedal

Many old tubes sleep in my country house, since the old times when my father used to build vacuum-tubes radios in his green days. There are also lots of miniature 7-pin EF95 pentodes, that were used in high-frequency amps.

Now people round the globe is using them for audio applications... so I decided to try out a low-anodic voltage circuit. With small signals you can't drive the valve into the distortion zone, therefore I added a FET stage. I've also inserted a pot that moves the pentode's operating point, but its effect can be noticed only at high distortion levels. 

It works sweet, it's really easy to build – and it does not sound bad at all!

On stage I'm using it with a 'burglar alarm' type lead battery not to have to plug one more "brick" PS.

Ghirondrone: A new instrument under construction

The Ghirondrone is a self-playing chordophone.
It is drone generator inspired by the work of Vulpestruments.

 The pickup is made from a salvaged contactor coil.
We'll see if it gets enough audio signal...

An A and a D guitar strings ready to be tuned...

The motor that will play the strings will be placed between the "pickup" an the "bridge".

Maybe the Ghirondrone will be given a distinctive Steampunk look... we'll see.

Steampunk theremin: the making

Building a Steampunk theremin is a tough challenge, but I could count on some friends' help both for design and manual help. Thanks to Barbara for the styling and to Sergio for woodworking, wiring, plumbing...

We started from a base concept and a few parts:

 

Then we began the work by conditioning a Jeroboam wine bottle's wooden box:

Then uhm, you have to choose the parts's placement.

On the workbench, after drilling, before elctrical wirings...