Proud Pappa Moment

[bradicusmaximus]

I just wanted to share a moment of pride I had with some people who would probably appreciate it more than most.

My daughter started her second year of college and transferred into a new school. She's going for a degree in bioinformatics, which is basically like combining a biology degree with a computer science degree. It's a pretty intense course of study and she was getting her feet wet adjusting to the program and the new school.

As she got a month or so in, she made friends with the head of the program who is also a female and appreciates her challenges in a male dominated field. After talking for a while and seeing that my daughter was doing well in programming (top of the class), the professor said, "would you be interested in working on some electronics projects for the college?" Of course, my daughter knows well enough to say yes on something like this. So the professor took her to the electronic lab where they are working on specialized drone aircraft and embedded sensors to help with amputees walking again. All very cool stuff.

The professor asked her, "would you be interested in helping us put together a guitar amplifier that a student several years ago started but never finished?" Of course, when my daughter told me this, I chuckled quite loudly. I asked her what it was that was begin put together and she said she thought it was something I had in the workshop already by the looks of it. Now, my mind figured it was a nice tweed deluxe or something like that. Nope, the previous student was trying to put together a Blackface Deluxe. Again, I laughed because I will say that's quite a challenge for a college kid with no experience and a lab not even remotely set up for it.

It started out a long time ago as a Mojo kit. However, probably 60% of the parts were missing and the work that was done was pretty nasty. Most of the solder connections were poorly done with lead free solder without much regard for anything and based off only the ab763 wiring diagram that came with it.

So, over the past couple months, I put my daughter through a crash course in electronics. I taught her to read a schematic and understand the components. I explained the limited tube theory I knew and taught her how to solder (at least somewhat passibly). I had to teach her to fabricate a board from G10 and we decided turrets were the way to go since they were a bit easier for her to work with over eyelets. I was able to give her most of the parts she needed and found some ways to put it together so everything was safely mounted.

Finally, after a couple months of working steadily in the lab at school, she brought the amp home over break for final finishing and testing. Yesterday, we got the last bits put in, the chassis mounted, and everything tested up. It's not perfect and there are some stubborn oscillations going on, which if it were mine I would take the time to track down; but it works and sounds pretty good for the most part.

Today, she's going back to college with her finished project and looking at some major brownie points. As I say, I couldn't be more proud of her for taking on a huge project, doing 99% of the work herself, and seeing it through to a finished product.

[Teleguy61]

Very cool!

[NickC]

Nice!!!


I have tried and tried to get my kids interested in music and guitar/amp electronics. To no avail.

Congratulations! Well done!

[bradicusmaximus]

Nice!!!


I have tried and tried to get my kids interested in music and guitar/amp electronics. To no avail.

Congratulations! Well done!

Thanks!

Me too - my daughter always thought I was crazy for playing with this stuff. Then opportunity landed in her lap and she suddenly got interested. I doubt she'll stick with it, but it was definitely a great experience and provided some nice father-daughter time.

[Firestorm]

The only thing we leave behind is our kids. Hopefully we've formed them well.

[drew]

Seems like an odd project for a lab devoted to drones and embedded sensors. Kind of makes you wonder if maybe one of the professors always wanted a Deluxe Reverb, ordered the kit, found he was all thumbs with the soldering iron, and hatched a plot to get a student to finish it . . .

Good on your daughter. That's not an easy project for a complete novice, that's for sure.

[cbass]

Cool. Good job on the parenting

[Blackburn]

Nice story. I bet you didn't think something like that would happen!

[bradicusmaximus]

Nice story. I bet you didn't think something like that would happen!

It shocked the crap out of me to say the least. I've seen college projects where some prof gets into tubes a bit in class and has done some simple champ or 5e3 circuits. When she said it was an AB763 Deluxe, I was left pretty amazed that someone would get something like that.

From nosing around and talking with some of the people, I get the impression one of the physics professors has a passing interest in tubes. There are a few small displays set up of some tube-based test equipment and blow-up diagrams in the science building. Of course, I may never know the full story, but the amp is done and it's put my daughter into the good graces of the department and the school, which could mean some scholarship opportunities.