Tag: Radio Shack

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Consumer Electronics Lutherie Musical Instruments

Buys at the Livonia Swap Meet

So this morning I went to another swap meet. This one is sponsored by the Livonia Amateur Radio Club in Livonia, Michigan. It is an annual one that I always attend, and while about 75% of the items for sale are related to ham and amateur radio enthusiasts, the remaining 25% is made up of computers, consumer electronics, and musical instrument items. Forty years ago, there would be swap meets like this at least once per month in the area. These days, I only know of this one and the antique radio swap meet I hit last month, so finding needed electronic parts is getting difficult.

I picked up a few things that made it worth the trip. First off, I secured a brand-new Shure SM48 microphone for $25.00. I made sure to hand-weigh it to make sure it was the real thing and not one of those fake ones coming out of China (see my blog https://luegra.design.blog/2021/01/14/are-you-sure-that-its-a-shure/). For those who are unaware, the SM48 is a more budget-friendly version of the stalwart SM58. The frequency response is a little less bass responsive, but still does a great job as a dynamic vocal mic. I’m not sure if they are made any more, but they used to run for about $70.00 new, and I see online that used ones are going for about $30.00. Beware of ones advertised as new on Temu, Wish, or eBay for less than that, as they are fake Shure microphones.

I snagged a microphone shock mount in a bundle package with a 1970s-era AM bicycle radio from Radio Shack. I already have a shock mount, but for a few dollars, it was worth buying to have around, or perhaps selling for a buck or two more on Craigslist. The radio is one that I wanted as a kid for my bike. Back then, to have any accessory on your bike was cool, and a radio was one of the ultimate blings! Besides the AM band, it had a horn and reflector. It is missing the handle-bar mount, but it will look cool in my transistor radio collection.

One item that I was planning on getting from Harbor Freight soon is a U.S. General Mini Toolbox. I have been seeing positive reviews for these on YouTube. It has two drawers and a flip top, all with pads to store smaller tools and items without them banging around. The drawers have a magnetic closure so they won’t open if the box gets tilted. One vendor there had a few new ones for $15.00, which is a few dollars cheaper than what Harbor Freight regularly sells them at (I was waiting around for a sale). This will make a great way to store some of my luthier tools that are currently in a large tote, as well as small containers that hold screws and electronic parts.

There were two musical instrument vendors there, which I often see at the other swap meets that I attend. All of the items that they sell are too much for my wallet, pretty much going for what can be seen on eBay. There were also some other microphones that I would have considered if the prices were right. I enjoy hitting these events, but I have some complaints:
-Setting up the vendor tables with too narrow of aisles, so it becomes hard to move along when there are others stopping to look at items.
-People with backpacks that make it even more difficult to get through an aisle
-People that bring their kids, especially infants in strollers that literally take up the entire aisle, so you have to wait at the end until the inconsiderate grandpa pushes the stroller through.
-People who decide to stop and have a conversation with each other in one of the aisles instead of moving into an open area along the wall of the hall.
-People who decide to have a cup of coffee without a cover while walking the narrow aisles, and when bumped, the coffee spills, usually on me!

I hope to hit the Lansing Guitar Show on the weekend of March 7-8. On March 9th, I start a new job as a valet/porter at a car dealership. Working at a logistics company for the last five years has been a drain on my mental well-being, and I’m willing to take a cut in pay and change my hours to get back my mental (and physical) health back.

Chew on it and comment.

Categories
Consumer Electronics Entertainment Industry

Catherine O’Hara RIP/Antique Radio Swap Meet

A little over a week ago, we lost one of the funniest, most talented comediennes of our lifetime. Catherine O’Hara passed away January 30th at the age of 71. I was so glad to have soaked in her talent since the 1970s.

While most people will remember her as the mother in the Home Alone film series, as well as her Emmy-winning role as Moira Rose in the sitcom Schitt’s Creek, I will always think about her early roles doing sketch comedy for the SCTV program.

She began working with the Second City Comedy Troupe in the mid 1970s in Toronto. The main cast became so popular that they developed a television show for CBC starting around 1976. This is where I was fortunate to witness her talent long befor many others in the US. Being in Detroit, my television viewing included Channel 9 out of Windsor, Ontario. The Second City crew, which included O’Hara, John Candy, Eugene Levy and Joe Flaherty, parodied many commercial and cable television shows. The humor was perfect for a teen like me. O’Hara had some amazing characters, including Las Vegas singer Lola Heatherton, Brooke Shields, Meryl Streep, as well as dozens of housewife roles in commercial spoofs. It was fantastic that NBC picked up the program and aired it as a 90-minute comedy on Friday nights.

O’Hara was supposed to join the Saturday Night Live cast in the late 1980s, but passed because she did not want to live in New York City. She instead moved into film. Along with her Home Alone work, she was in Beetlejuice as well as a few of the Christopher Guest mockumentaries. These were I loved her the most. In Best in Show, she played a dog owner that seemed to have had previous sexual relationships with almost every man she comes across during a Westminster-type dog show. In A Mighty Wind, she plays Mickey Crabbe, the female member of the “famous” 1960s folk duo Mitch & Mickey. In For Your Consideration, she plays Marilyn Hack, an actress who is being considered for an Oscar nomination.

In all of her roles, O’Hara exaggerated the human character, which made them all the familiar to the viewer. She was beautiful, talented, and made each role memorable. The internet exploded with tributes to her, which was well deserved. However, the most beautiful quote that she uttered when asked what her favorite role she has ever performed was “the mother of my children.”

Ms. O’Hara, you brought so much joy into my life with your comedy. You have taken a piece of my heart with you.

Last weekend I attended an antique radio swap meet in Waterford, Michigan. I go each year, looking for vintage microphones, 60s-era transistor radios, and any music stuff that is interested AND cheap. Most of the items I was interested in was way out of my budget range, but I did find a dealer selling some as-is transistor radios for $2.00 each. I grabbed six of tem, with one being of great interest. Made for Radio Shack and its Realistic brand, it is an AM radio with additional bandwidth to tune in airplane traffic if you are near a large airport. I always wanted one as a kid, but never got one for a gift. I grabbed it, with the intent to just put it on my display shelp of radios. When I got it home, YES, it actually still works! Only one other of the group is working, but I am completely satisfied with that find.

There was also a dealer there selling some guitar-related items. Again, most of it was either not interesting to me or way too pricey. However, I was able to get a Yamaha bass guitar practice amplifier for $15.00. The speaker grille cloth is torn, and whoever previously used it actually poked a few small holes in the speaker cone to get a more ratty sound, probably to use it for guitar. The amp works, although a bit low in volume at regular setting, but when the Drive switch is engaged, it seems to boost the volume considerable. I will probably take the front apart and replace the cloth when I get a chance.

Chew on it and comment.

Categories
Consumer Electronics

I Miss Radio Shack

I was recording some background vocals to a demo a few days ago, and it hit me: I miss Radio Shack!

I was using a small-diaphragm condenser microphone sold by RS. I actually have three of these buggers, and they have never let me down. Rather than a phantom power supply, they run on a 1.5-volt AA battery, which when I bought them about 20-25 years ago was a life saver, considering that I couldn’t afford a studio condenser mic and elaborate mixing board with built-in phantom power supply.

RS was the perfect store for a guy like me, a musician who liked to tinker with electronics. It had tons of electronic components, including integrated circuits to build early non-spring reverb units. I remember that IC chip was expensive, around 50 bucks, and if you zapped it with static electricity, then you killed it. I built one, and while it was a bit noisy, it sufficed instead of purchasing a music store model for five times the price (it also marketed a reverb unit that was meant for connecting into your stereo system, but with adapters, worked with a guitar amp as well) I also built headphone amps and distortion effects from the RS parts, and I learned a lot about musical instrument electronics back then.

Besides components, RS sold guitar and mic cables, mic stands, mixers, small PA systems, amplifier tubes and microphones. I am not even going to go into the radios, stereo systems, computers, and alarm systems that were available. As for microphones, RS’s higher-end mics were actually made by Shure, so you got a good quality dynamic mic that was comparable to the SM48 but cost a lot less. Just before the company’s downfall, it did sell actual Shure mics on its shelves. They also had books on electronics, either general instruction and theory or how-to booklets to build simple circuits.

RS was my second home. I knew a bunch of the sales people by first names. I even dated a sales girl (unfortunately, that was 18 of the worst months of my life, but I digress). The print catalog was a pseudo-bible, and I remember having a card to get a free battery every month. There was a store about two miles away from my boyhood home, and another three stores within a short drive. Today, the closest store (and that is just an authorized outlet store) is over 30 miles away.

Times changed, and RS did not change with them. Probably half of the people that I knew growing up had a Tandy computer as their first PC (including me), but the company never bothered to pursue expanding on that product sales. The same with televisions, radios, and other consumer electronic equipment. Best Buy beat them to it, and RS basically became a cell phone store and not much else.

Today, I do a lot less electronics tinkering. I can make some simple repairs and part replacements to electric guitars and amplifiers, but technology has overwhelmed me. To secure the parts to build a decent distortion pedal for a guitar from electronics outlets will cost you two- to three-times more than buying a mass-produced one from Guitar Center or Sweetwater. The educational experience of building something like that does not exist with today’s young musicians. Even those that are choosing to use vintage equipment shy away from learning something about the circuitry.

RS was a great resource for me, it was the right place at the right time. Perhaps I should have forced myself to delve deeper into the technology, but I looked at it more as a hobby than as a career. That was probably the situation for thousands of others like me. And that was what may have put some of the nails into Radio Shack’s coffin.

Chew on it and comment.

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