UIUC Physics 398EMI
Physics of Electronic Musical Instruments
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 (93 kb PDF file)

• Calculated Fret Marker Locations for Andy's Lap Steel (25 kb PDF file)

• Electronics Circuit for Andy's Lap Steel (17 kb PDF file)

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

• 5F2A Princeton Amp (51 kb PDF file)

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" (1773 kb PDF file)

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

• Flange Pedal Project (1880 kb PDF file)

• Panasonic MN3012 Bucket Brigade IC Data Sheet (154 kb PDF file)

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 (1740 kb PDF file)

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 (2020 kb PDF file)

7. Johannes Husinsky investigated the frequency spectra and decay times of three different electric guitars.

• Comparison of the Frequency Spectra and the Frequency Decay of Three Different Electrical Guitars (481 kb PDF file)

Johannes Husinsky also investigated (his own) absolute pitch.

• Measuring Absolute Pitch (131 kb PDF file)

8. 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 (1013 kb PDF file)

• Appendix I - Matlab Code (20 kb PDF file)

• rock.m - Matlab Code to remove noise from Acoustic Guitar recordings (1 kb Matlab *.m {i.e. text/*.txt} file)

• harmonic_ratios.m - Matlab Code to generate Fourier transform/harmonic information/plots contained in Appendix II and Appendix III - see below (2 kb Matlab *.m {i.e. text/*.txt} file)

• Appendix II - Electric Guitar String Results: 3-D Color Graphs of Intensity vs. Frequency vs. Time (33247 kb PDF file)

• Appendix III - Acoustic Guitar String Results: 3-D Color Graphs of Intensity vs. Frequency vs. Time (55583 kb PDF file)

• Excel File - Acoustic and Electric Guitar String Harmonic Results (668 kb Microsoft Excel file)

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

• Carvin X-100B Amplifier (214 kb PDF file)

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

• Final Project and Report (248 kb PDF file)

11. 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 (591 kb PDF file)

12. 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 (2435 kb PDF file)

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

• Stereo Hi-Fi Tube Amp: Remake of the Dynaco ST-70 (828 kb PDF file)

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

• Adaptive Sound System (209 kb PDF file)

Jason's MatLab Files:

• Step1: Minimize Mic Input (1 kb MatLab *.m text file)

• Step2: Minimize Mic Input Delay (2 kb MatLab *.m text file)

• Step3: Minimize Mic Input Delay (Both Speakers) (2 kb MatLab *.m text file)

• Step4: Maximize Mic Input Match Phase (2 kb MatLab *.m text file)

• Step5: Non-RealTime Adjustment of Phase (3 kb MatLab *.m text file)

15. Matt Winkler built a MIDI-controlled synthesizer.

• A MIDI-controlled IC Synthesizer (356 kb PDF file)

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