UIUC Physics 406
Acoustical Physics of Music
Student Projects/Experimental Results
Fall Semester 2002:

1. Andy Francis built a modern version of a 1946 Fender Lap Steel, from scratch (!)

• Lap Steel Project

• Calculated Fret Marker Locations for Andy's Lap Steel

• Electronics Circuit for Andy's Lap Steel

2. Stephen Fung built a 5F2-A Princeton Amp - it sounded pretty good!

• 5F2A Princeton Amp

3. Ben Hay built a 50W 2x12 Combo Amp, similar to a low-power tweed Twin, using a modified 5F6-A Bassman circuit.
It sounded totally awesome - very tight bottom end and crystal clear highs!!

• Final Project: "The OX"

4. Aric Hermann built a flange pedal using a bucket-brigade IC.

• Flange Pedal Project

• Panasonic MN3012 Bucket Brigade IC Data Sheet

5. Mark Herrmann refurbished, and then modified a 1965 Gibson GA45-RVT Saturn Amp.
It sounded really great when all the mods were completed !!!

• 1965 Gibson GA45-RVT Saturn Amp

6. John Horstman and Drew Tarico built a modified version of a Deluxe Reverb-style amp and a patchable Ring Modulator circuit for use with their amp.
Their amp sounded really great !!! The Ring Modulator circuit (using a AD633 4-Quadrant Multiplier IC) really sounded wild!

• Modification and Assembly of A Fender Deluxe Reverb with Patchable Ring Modulator

7. Ryan Lee quantitatively investigated the harmonic properties of many many kinds of strings, from different string manufacturers.

• Electric and Acoustic Guitar Strings: A Recording of Harmonic Content

• Appendix I - Matlab Code

• rock.m - Matlab Code to remove noise from Acoustic Guitar recordings (rename to rock.m to run...)

• harmonic_ratios.m - Matlab Code to generate Fourier transform/harmonic information/plots contained in Appendix II and Appendix III - see below (rename to harmonic_ratios.m to run...)

• Appendix II - Electric Guitar String Results: 3-D Color Graphs of Intensity vs. Frequency vs. Time

• Appendix III - Acoustic Guitar String Results: 3-D Color Graphs of Intensity vs. Frequency vs. Time

• Excel File - Acoustic and Electric Guitar String Harmonic Results

8. Peter Manhart re-furbished a Carvin X-100B Amplifier, and measured the frequency response of the lead and rhythm channels.

• Carvin X-100B Amplifier

9. Michael McLoughlin built and tested various kinds of distortion box circuits.

• Final Project and Report

10. Mark Murphey built a SAGA ST-10 Strat copy from a kit, and measured some of the properties of the guitar's pickups.

• Assembly and Assessment of a SAGA ST-10 Guitar Kit

11. Chris Orban wrote LabView program to read out the memory of the Hewlett-Packard 3562A Dynamic Signal Analyzer, and then used it to measure and compare the frequency response of a vintage Gibson GA-8 amp to that of a Peavey practice amp, and also used the HP-3562A to measure the harmonic content of sounds from a French horn, and also to investigate the mechanical vibrational resonances of a SAGA Strat, that Chris built during the course.

• First Results from the Hewlett-Packard 3562A Dynamic Signal Analyzer With Data Acquisition

12. Mihir Shah built a hi-fi stereo tube amplifier.
It sounded really great!!!

• Stereo Hi-Fi Tube Amp: Remake of the Dynaco ST-70

13. Jason Voccia investigated details of the design of an adaptive sound system.

• Adaptive Sound System

Jason's MatLab Files:

• Step1: Minimize Mic Input (rename *.txt file to *.m to run...)

• Step2: Minimize Mic Input Delay (rename *.txt file to *.m to run...)

• Step3: Minimize Mic Input Delay (Both Speakers) (rename *.txt file to *.m to run...)

• Step4: Maximize Mic Input Match Phase (rename *.txt file to *.m to run...)

• Step5: Non-RealTime Adjustment of Phase (rename *.txt file to *.m to run...)

14. Matt Winkler built a MIDI-controlled synthesizer.

• A MIDI-controlled IC Synthesizer

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