HISTORY / INFO:
This was my fourth bend. I think I picked up this little alphabet toy from Once Upon A Child, a reseller of childens clothing and toys, as well as a VTech Super Smart, Vtech Magic Letters, Large EZ Tec Alphabet and the blue Elmo guitar (featured elsewhere on this site). One setting on the toy says the letter when you press on the button; the other setting plays music when you press a letter. It, from when I can tell, does not say 'apple' or 'boat'... it only says the letter. This was the first toy where I added feedback bends. One squeals when it is talking. Another squeals when it is playing music. I also tried something different for body contacts. I found some furiture tacks at Lowes and thought I would give it a try. They were 25 for 89 cents and they looked good, bright and shiny. However, after I hooked them up, it seems to have added distortion and the range is not quite what it was prior to hooking them up. I might just have some bad solders, the solder wasn't really liking the chromed surface, and before I roughed up the surface a little, wasn't sticking at all. *shrug* It still sounds okay, but I was hoping for better. Oh yeah, I believe that this is also the first time I tried using the square-mount switches. They're a pain to mount at first, but once you get the science of it down, it's not too bad, though it will always require more time than drilling a single hole.
PRE-MODIFICATION PICTURES:
MODIFICATIONS:
1) Pitch up and pitch down - The toggle to turn on the pitch contacts is the same switch to turn on the glitch. I used a DPDT switch so up turned on the glitch and down turned on the body contacts. With the switch off (down) the toy acts normally.
2) Vocal squeal - When the toy is in vocal mode, it emits a horrendous squeal. It's horrifying and I still wonder why I hooked it up.
3) glitch - When the toy is in music mode, it emits a a weird phaser kind of sound. Then in voice mode it emits clicking sounds.
4) 1/4" phono audio out - I yanked this pre-fabbed audio out from an old 200 watt amplifier which only had a left channel. This I believe works with a guitar amp, so my guess is that there is a little bit of extra wiring inside the little box. Since it wasn't made for panel mounting, I super glued a round, hollow piece of plastic to one side and the screwed it into place. Another butcher job. I was still not willing to fork out $3 for 3 audio out. I regret it now, but I am certain that every bender goes through this phase (and some are still in this phase!)
POST-MODIFICATION PICTURES:
 front view |
 back view |
SOUNDS:
small-talknlearn.mp3 - Just a small sampling of me going through some of the mods
FUTURE MODIFICATIONS PLANNED:
1) I may disconnect the glitch from the toggle switch and add a momentary switch for this mod. I was being cheap and it bugs the crap out of me.
2) I want to try to figure out the distortion problem. I'll probably try re-wiring them first. If that doesn't work and it appears that it's the furniture tacks that are causing it, then I will replace the body contacts with something more suitable.
3) The EZ Tec toys seem to be not very bender friendly, but I will try to find some distortion points using diodes or caps.
Last Modified: February 13, 2005