i have just made a copy of a tb500. its turned out quite good. very heavy as i left the neck solid, not scalloped out inside. i am in australia and am looking for australian owners of tb500's [if there are any] so i can compare the sound. also if any owners of 500's are visiting australia in the future and have time to check it out there thoughts would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

I'm from across the ditch -although and in the UK at the mo'-, and own a TB-500.

If you want to compare the sounds just listen to any Shellac record. Steve's settings on clean are a pure sound coming from the Travis without any tricks or effects, the distortion sound is another story.

Seriously, that is exactly what they sound like. Plug it in and if you sound like you're play Billiard Player Song you've cracked it.

played the start of billiard player song and it sounds pretty damn close

can we see it?

What pickup are you using? TB-500 have old PAF soap-bars

Here is a picture of my latest DIY ribbon mic, if it inetersts anyone.

It uses a Beyer fig. of 8 ribbon element and a small Beyer transformer which I have not shielded yet.

Sorry the picture is so big.

Rodabod wrote:Here is a picture of my latest DIY ribbon mic, if it inetersts anyone.

It uses a Beyer fig. of 8 ribbon element and a small Beyer transformer which I have not shielded yet.

Sorry the picture is so big.

Then make it smaller

Hey Roddy-

never completed that ribbon mic that I was working on (seems 40 dollars for a transformer is beyond my reach or something). Anyway, I did build a phantom powered condenser mic out of crappy RadioShack parts. By the way, i'd like to see the TB-500 and the ribbon mice, but I can't see it buttruck!

Vince Clortho wrote:i'd like to see the TB-500 and the ribbon mice

The ribbon mice! Man, I can't wait! I love those little guys!

Well done with the radio shack mic. I have done similar stuff with radio shack PZM mics. Those omni panasonic electret capsules are actually quite good.

I'll maybe have a look again for very cheap ribbon transformers you could use. Maybe you could buy a broken ribbon mic off Ebay and rebuild it. That's what I have done sometimes.

I, Clortho wrote:

i'd like to see the TB-500 and the ribbon mice

the tiny rodents that live inside of obsolete equipment.

Thanks for looking, Roddstrom-your not too bad for a guy that doesn't come from Appalachia.