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I've been really busy lately, I haven't even posted or anything for ages, but I've been learning guitar, have a girlfriend, that kinda stuff. Anyways, I was on vacation for a couple weeks and couldn't bring my bulky amp with me so I made a make-shift one with headphones and tape, and it actually worked surprisingly well. I'm not sure if this has been done before, I Googled it and didn't find anything, but then again I'm not totally sure what I'd search for anyways.





First I used a headphone adapter (1/8 to 1/4) just to attach the headphones meant for an mp3 player into the jack. This isn't really necessary to amplify the sound because the amplification is purely from the cords picking up the guitar's vibrations, but it was an easy way just to attach it on so the cord won't slip on. I'm sure duct tape would work just as well.
Then I looped the cord around the first strap clip-on a couple times, looped it around the back of the guitar, keeping it taut, wrapped it around the second clip-on and then put the earbuds into my ears. The most important part of all this is that the cord is taut through out, so it can pick of the vibrations. It should look something like this at the end:



Anyways, it worked really well for me on vacation, it gives it a lot more bass and gives it almost an acoustic sound to it.

EDIT: Image links fixed, my bad. I incorrectly assumed since it worked in the preview it was publicly viewable.


images resized, with love

You can't link directly to picture that are gmail attachments. We can't see them.

hairscapades wrote:You can't link directly to picture that are gmail attachments. We can't see them.

I have no idea how to resize the pictures though unfortunately, is there a way to just resize it to set measurements without opening it up and editing it with a program?

Your first two pictures could be a little clearer. I think I missed something.

(And to resize pictures just stick them into any image editing program and change the percentage...?)

Curse Of The Colonel wrote:Your first two pictures could be a little clearer. I think I missed something.

(And to resize pictures just stick them into any image editing program and change the percentage...?)

I'm on a computer that for some reason that eludes me, doesn't even have MSPaint right now, so I can't really fix it at the moment I guess. I'll try and resize them when I can get on my laptop.

Amadeus wrote:

Curse Of The Colonel wrote:Your first two pictures could be a little clearer. I think I missed something.

(And to resize pictures just stick them into any image editing program and change the percentage...?)

I'm on a computer that for some reason that eludes me, doesn't even have MSPaint right now, so I can't really fix it at the moment I guess. I'll try and resize them when I can get on my laptop.

http://pixlr.com/editor/

I'm confused as to why the headphones have to be taught around the back, or at all. It sounds more to my like you just have low resistance earbuds, and the current created by the pickups is actually just enough to drive them. Could I get a full picture of the front or is that part irrelevant?

smartalco wrote:I'm confused as to why the headphones have to be taught around the back, or at all. It sounds more to my like you just have low resistance earbuds, and the current created by the pickups is actually just enough to drive them. Could I get a full picture of the front or is that part irrelevant?

I'm not sure to the whole science, but I'm positive the headphones have to be taut, presumably for it to pick up and transmit the vibration to the earbuds? I've experimented where the headphone cord to my ears was loose, and there was no amplification, so the cord has to be taut enough that it fits snugly in your ear and pulls down slightly, so there's no slack.

EDIT: And yes, the front's irrelevant. This isn't really a high-tech thing, the cord's just picking up the vibrations from the guitar and the earbuds are amplifying them, surprisingly well, and giving it a louder acoustic sound. There're definitely other ways to rig it up, I just put some pictures how it worked best for me.

Amadeus wrote:I'm not sure to the whole science, but I'm positive the headphones have to be taut, presumably for it to pick up and transmit the vibration to the earbuds? I've experimented where the headphone cord to my ears was loose, and there was no amplification, so the cord has to be taut enough that it fits snugly in your ear and pulls down slightly, so there's no slack.

Judging by this, I think you've got a tin-cans-and-string effect going on. Try cleaning out a soup can, punching a small hole in the bottom that you can put a string through, tie the other end to the guitar neck, and see if you get the same effect.