Yeah, it's been a while since I last posted here ranting about something I've made, but I've gone and done it again, and made a 3rd electric balalaika.

http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/7509/img2739lz9.jpg

I'm really pleased with this one. Unlike the previous two, this one plays and sounds really nice. It plays better than either of the two acoustics I've bought. And it sounds good too. I surprised myself. It's surely not without its flaws, but I'm very pleased.

Mk IV will feature a "whammi bar" and truss rod, and perhaps multiple pickups and/or humbuckers.

I might get a sound sample up sometime over the weekend.

That's nice.

Nice! It looks very professional.

It looks like a Fender Telecaster compressed into a triangle shape. :)

i know i told you already but that is damn sweet yo

That's really very impressive, was this from a kit or online instructions or some basic instructions that you just went in your own direction with?

Thanks!

Yeah, I pretty much made it from scratch, although I bought a bunch of materials from stewmac.com (such as the pickguard material, jack plug, Strat-style knobs, pickup materials [although I made and wound the pickup myself as you can't buy a pickup with 3 magnets] etc.).

I modelled it after the Fender Strat where I could, exept I used the Telecaster pickup cover because the Strat covers have holes for the magnets to show through, and my custom pickup has 3 magnets so none of those would have fit. So I used a Tele cover for its universality if that's a word.

The bridge is made from a Martin nut, actually, because it so happens you can't get real tailpieces in 3-string varieties. (I wonder why...)

But yes, I essentially measured my Lunacharski balalaika which looks exaclty like this one (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/11/Balalaika.jpg) and made an electric version from scratch with roughly the same dimensions. The aforementioned stewmac.com has a lot of useful information involving wiring diagrams and explanations of how to make fretboards and cut pickguards and stuff, so I didn't pull it entirely out of my **** or anything though...

We wanna hear sound samples! Clean and with various effects.

Well, so I set up my horrible microphone to pick up my $40 amp I bought at Target (the cheapest one I could get...) and it doesn't sound that great, but what can you expect from such a setup? The amp is really bad and doesn't really do much distortion. Well, distortion is proportional to volume, so I can only get crunch if I turn it up all the way, which makes my microphone clip and sound terrible. Plus I've got neighbours... And even then it's not much distortion, and it's not very good quality distortion either...

Yeah, and I have some birds which won't ever be quiet, so you get to put up with them in the recording as well...

But anyways, here (http://brian.kentosh.com/balalaika/korobeiniki.ogg) is a sound sample of me playing Korobeiniki, the song after which the Tetris theme is based.


I want to see if I can attach the output of the amp to the line in of my computer and get something slightly better quality...

Was that a bird in the background or does your balalaika squeak? =D

"Yeah, and I have some birds which won't ever be quiet, so you get to put up with them in the recording as well..."

Although I must say it would be pretty interesting to have a squeaking balalaika...

Why don't you simply plug your balalaika to the line-in of your soundcard?
You can then use tools like Guitar Rig (http://www.native-instruments.com/index.php?id=guitarrig2_us&flash=9) to have all the amplifications and modulation you want.
Also makes it much easier to get your music into wave editors.

Good idea! I went to radioshack and got a 1/4" to 1/8" adapter so I could plug into my sound card, and it works pretty well. I'm having trouble with Guitar Rig - when I had it working it had a horrible delay, and it sounded awkward. Now for some reason it's not working anymore.

However, Audacity picks it up beautifully. No distortion yet or effects (although I'm working on getting the audacity plugins to do that) Interestingly, I don't quite know how to get the line in to play through the speakers - I need to record and then play it back. In my old computer the line in would play right back out. Don't know if it's Vista or my soundcard or some random setting or what.

Kalinka (http://brian.kentosh.com/balalaika/Kalinka.ogg) - The famous Russian folksong
Steppes^3 (http://brian.kentosh.com/balalaika/steppes%20cubed.ogg) - I don't remember what this song was called, but I think it was something about the Steppes. It's played in tremolo, and I recorded it 3 times and merged them all so it sounds absolutely insane. I love it. (I listened to the previous recording(s) while recording to make it roughly in time... key word: roughly = they aren't)

Guitar Rig is a pain in the ass. You'll never get rid of the delay unless you buy some really really good soundcard and have a really powerfull pc.
Also, in my case, to get the demo to work, I have to: Open > Run demo > File > Audio+MIDI Settings > Change interface to Direct Sound > Set Output Device to my soundcard > Set Input Device to my soundcard > Select ok > Close > Open again >Run Demo > File > Audio+MIDI Settings > Change interface to Multimedia > Set Output Device to my soundcard > Set Input Device to my soundcard > Select ok.
And then it works. If I close it and open it, it won't work anymore so I have to do this again.
And it "works", but the sound skips every now and then. Plus the horrible delay. Also if I dare to change the Sample Rate or Output Latency, it will crash and never work again untill I reinstall it.

But yeah Audacity is great, tough I could never manage to get any good effect using the plugins. Have you tried connecting the amp output directly into your soundcard's line in?
Also, what amp is it?

Amp is a Gibson Epoch G-10 for like $50.

I want to try plugging the amp into the sound card, but I need yet another audio cable to do that. But I'll try it at some point.

By the way, yeah, that's exactly what I did - I tried to adjust the output latency, and it hasn't worked since... Oh well. Nice to know I'm not the only one with issues.

You mean this one (http://cgi.ebay.ca/New-Epoch-10-W-Electric-Guitar-Amplifier-by-Gibson-1_W0QQitemZ120134494375QQihZ002QQcategoryZ121161QQ ssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)? :p
Also if you want Guitar Rig to work again you have to uninstall and reinstall it.

Yes, that's the piece of junk.
Don't think I'm going to bother with Guitar Rig right now and just play around with Audacity. With the lag and all I'm not sure how worth it it is.

What kind of guitar do you have, by the way?

I think to hear the sound from the line-in channel, you need to add it to the stereo-mix.
Play around with the volume options in Windows or with the mixer program that comes with your soundcard.

I have an Ibanez S series. :cool:
I also have a Telecaster, a Yamaha electroacustic and an Ovation electroacustic guitar. And a crappy Stratocaster. :p
Guitar Rig does sound great once you get it to work properly I guess, it's very versatile. But you need to invest in a good soundcard.

Should be able to just double-click the volume icon and unmute Line-In if you want to hear it through your speakers. It works the same for CD audio and the microphone. If you can't do that then your soundcard is crap.

Options > Properties will show you more sliders.

Should be able to just double-click the volume icon and unmute Line-In if you want to hear it through your speakers. It works the same for CD audio and the microphone. If you can't do that then your soundcard is crap.

Options > Properties will show you more sliders.In Vista you have to right-click the volume icon (or if you disabled it, Control Panel > Sound) > Playback Devices > double-click Speakers > Levels > Unmute Line-IN > OK OK OK.

(He said he had Vista)

In Vista you have to right-click the volume icon (or if you disabled it, Control Panel > Sound) > Playback Devices > double-click Speakers > Levels > Unmute Line-IN > OK OK OK.

(He said he had Vista)

Heh. Under the levels tab I only have the slider for "speakers". I guess that's just how bad my sound card is. It's integrated and all that.