Tech: Building a stompbox....

Subject: Tech: Building a stompbox....
From: Spartacus
Date: 07 Jan 03 - 09:59 PM

Hi all...
    I'm in the process of building a stompbox to use at my live shows. I have an old omni-directional mic, and an old soundhole pickup. The current plan is to pull the transducer from the pick up and mounting the mic and the pickup on either side. The idea is that I will be able to get different sounds by running them both through the board and getting a different sound from each. Has anyone ever built one, and if so how? I had planned on using different kinds of wood to test the acoustics, and building it about 1 to 2 inches high, and 1' by 1 or 2' wide. Any suggestions?

-Spartacus

Subject: RE: Tech: Building a stompbox....
From: Amos
Date: 08 Jan 03 - 01:00 AM

Spartacus, you have me baffled for sure, pal. A stomp-box??

What do you DO with it?


A

Subject: RE: Tech: Building a stompbox....
From: Cluin
Date: 08 Jan 03 - 01:03 AM

You keep your stomp collection in it, o' course.

Subject: RE: Tech: Building a stompbox....
From: Allan C.
Date: 08 Jan 03 - 02:12 AM

Here is an example of a stomp box. I didn't know what it was either.

Subject: RE: Tech: Building a stompbox....
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 08 Jan 03 - 02:24 AM

Amos - I'm sure that Spartacus wants to build an amplified board for dancing on while playing. Similar to what John Hartford used for many years. I've never built one, but I can tell you that John used a flanger as part of his bag of tricks to get the sounds he did from it.

Other than John, the only other time I've seen one used was by the singer for a rock band called The Chickasaw Mudpuppies. His setup was pretty simple. Just a roughly 3' by 3' box made of 2" by 4"s and plywood. He just wrapped a mic in a towel and put it under the box. He sang while rocking in a wooden rocking chair, playing a zydeco rub-board and stomping on the stomp-box. Wore some big old heavy boots, too.

Bruce

Subject: RE: Tech: Building a stompbox....
From: Allan C.
Date: 08 Jan 03 - 02:27 AM

Spartacus, I found a website that includes schematics as well as a discussion forum about stompboxes. Click here I hope you will find what you need there.

Subject: RE: Tech: Building a stompbox....
From: Allan C.
Date: 08 Jan 03 - 02:33 AM

Now that I have reread the original post and Bruce's reply I realize I have been barking up the wrong fish. Still, there may be some useful info found at the site I mentioned for someone who finds this thread and who is actually looking for that sort of thing.

Subject: RE: Tech: Building a stompbox....
From: Spartacus
Date: 08 Jan 03 - 12:43 PM

ok..I'm sorry...I should have clarified.

Im building a box from wood (actually, i did it this morning, and I'm just about to try it out) Its about 4" high at the highest point, and its 1'4" wide and 1' long from the side, it looks like a door stop. I put three supports underneath the ply wood, which created two separate compartments in the box in one side, i bracketed in an old microphone, on the other, a transducer strip. I plan to run the 1/4 inch cables from each into my board when I play live. Hopefully, when I tap my foot on the board, i can adjust each channel (one for the mic, one for the pick up) and get different percussion sounds when I tap my foot on it in different places. "Stompbox" is an old hillbilly term for anything you stomp on while you play to get a drum sound. I hope this helps.   So, I'm guessing that no one has any hints?

-Spartacus

Subject: Tech: building a stompbox...
From: Spartacus
Date: 08 Jan 03 - 04:08 PM

Ha....Ha Ha!   Eureka! I had to build 2 different models, but my second stompbox works like a champion. I use and old sound hole pickup, and an old omni directional mic, attached them to the bottom of the stomp board and viola! Instant bass drum, rim shot, or foot cloppy sort of noise, depending on where I tap my foot...Jesse Fuller ain't got nothin on me.   Now all I have to do is learn to tap my foot on the beat ...=( If anybody wants more info, let me know..this thing is a riot.

-Spartacus

Subject: RE: Tech: Building a stompbox....
From: Cluin
Date: 08 Jan 03 - 04:36 PM

My fiddler cousin Pierre made a footboard he used for foot percussion on French Canadian tunes, like Hangman's Reel or Pointe Au Pic, etc.

It was a piece of 5/8" or 1/2" plywood, roughly 2 feet square and grooved along one side to hold the feet of a chair so it didn't slide away while he was kicking out his rhythms. He had some kind of pick-up (piezo or mic, I don't know for sure) embedded in the board somehere and a 1/4" jack for an output at the top edge of the board. From there, he'd run a patch cord into a DI, then a cable from the DI to the snake or board.

He didn't play around too much with the sound of it. Once he got a "bootheel hitting the floorboard" sound, that was good. It solved a lot of feedback problems that floor mics would cause, because he and his band were pretty picky about their monitor sound.