The best way to amplify springs?

Gear Acquisition Syndrome: A tendency to purchase more equipment than justified by usage and/or price.

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Re: The best way to amplify springs?

Post by NoiseWiki »

RUBBISH wrote: Tue Oct 20, 2020 1:30 pm My very large spring sounds great at home but live its limp and lame.

The smaller springs are fine but the bigger they get the more issues it seems.


Good luck.
I have a garage door spring that I have used for shows but it's under a little bit of tension otherwise not only would it not sound very good but it'd be pretty dangerous if it was just flopping around.

I read this interview with Devo in the late 80's where they were talking about wanting to have instruments like a big rubber bar that you slap around for bass but those kinda things usually look cooler than they sound ;-)
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Re: The best way to amplify springs?

Post by The Mysterious Creep »

NoiseWiki wrote: Tue Oct 20, 2020 3:48 pm I have a garage door spring that I have used for shows but it's under a little bit of tension otherwise not only would it not sound very good but it'd be pretty dangerous if it was just flopping around.
It seems like just having it flop around would be safer than having it under any tension, unless you're referring to the possibility of it getting snagged on something and snapping back. I've never seen a garage door spring that wasn't currently hooked up to a garage door, but I know they can get launched pretty hard and kill people.
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Re: The best way to amplify springs?

Post by NoiseWiki »

The Mysterious Creep wrote: Wed Oct 21, 2020 9:22 am
NoiseWiki wrote: Tue Oct 20, 2020 3:48 pm I have a garage door spring that I have used for shows but it's under a little bit of tension otherwise not only would it not sound very good but it'd be pretty dangerous if it was just flopping around.
It seems like just having it flop around would be safer than having it under any tension, unless you're referring to the possibility of it getting snagged on something and snapping back. I've never seen a garage door spring that wasn't currently hooked up to a garage door, but I know they can get launched pretty hard and kill people.
Its not under that much tension just enough so that there is some separation but as Bipolar Joe can attest to even small springs can do a lot of damage when under too much tension. The large garage door springs can be quite heavy and unpredictable when not mounted on both ends and you really don't want to get hit in the face with it.

Anyway mine is mounted on some galvanized pipe .. its pretty solidly mounted and isn't going anywhere .. I'll upload a picture later
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Re: The best way to amplify springs?

Post by JUBOO120MG »

Checkout Christian Blandhoel on Instagram. that dude made some of the craziest guitar modification I had ever seen. One of the thing that he did is he put a speaker onto the guitar body and the pickup on the trmolo/whammy bar. This thus giving him the full control of the feedback with his whammy bar. He also did a number of guitar mods with springs. Just check him out.

PS: I'm not sure if that surnburst guitar is his work tho. Seems too clean for Blandhoel work. I put it in just as a prove that spring and pickup can work beautifully.
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Re: The best way to amplify springs?

Post by RUBBISH »

Safety.
I have a metal milk crate with a spring that took a car jack to attach to the crate.
I had a friend's little brother put it on.
The spring slipped and caught his finger and it flayed that finger...if ripped a large piece of his finger off and very well could have removed his finger.
This spring is about an inch wide and 6 to 8 inches long before stretching.
Not a deadly looking spring at all.
Be very careful.
(Ill post a pic of this spring box later)

The large springs I have are about drink can size width and 18 inches long. It doesn't take much tension at all to get a good sound.
I will NOT be putting one of these large springs under tension. It could worse case kill somebody.
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Re: The best way to amplify springs?

Post by PortiaPorcupineFan »

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One of these (crank sturgeon plank & pluck) and a pair of battery powered toothbrushes rocks!
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Re: The best way to amplify springs?

Post by RUBBISH »

Setting up one of my spring cages for Sacramento audio waffle performance and I used a silicone 'liquid duct tape' to attach the conatct Mic. I am using no effects no preamp. Straight to amp.
Sounds great.

The contact mic is the little orange circular thing on top on the cage.
I have since glued a 6 inch brass plate to the top of the mic.
1031201539a.jpg
Amplifying the tape deck with a megaphone...it also kinda works for the spring cage!
Last edited by RUBBISH on Mon Nov 02, 2020 1:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The best way to amplify springs?

Post by Indeterminacy »

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Re: The best way to amplify springs?

Post by NoiseWiki »

Here's my spring rig ..
20201103_100053_resize_71.jpg
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