smokey modding questions - DC, power soak and any decent mod

[Narcosynthesis]

right, i rehoused a smokey that i had and ditched the speaker, amd am wandering about making a few modifications to it...

here are a couple of pictures of it
http://gallery.aberdeen-music.com/data/500/108smokey-med.JPG
http://gallery.aberdeen-music.com/data/500/108smokeyin-med.JPG

i would like ot be able to power it from dc power, i have a dc jack that i had bought but couldnt use with a normal enclosure (it wasnt isolated, so with center negative power it put positive to the enclosure and therefore ground)
it has a tag for the center, and two for thesleeve connection (that would be connected when the jack is inserted) so is there a way i could use this to remove the battery from the circuit when i stick in the jack? it already switches the battery of/off with the input jack, but i would like to do it with the dc jack too so it will switch over to dc when i plug in the power supply

also, i want to make a small power soak type thing for it, but i have no idea how to go about it, it was giveing a cool fuzzy distortion with a half dead battery, so it would be cool to get that from a fresh battery or cd (probably using a knob of some sort)
any ideas how i would go about it?

and lastly, are there any cool mods i could do to it?

David

[javacody]

The best mod you could make to it would be to start over and build a RunoffGroove Ruby.  

You could add a master volume to it, see the RunoffGroove.com site and look at the 25 ohm pot on the Little Gem.

You could also add an input buffer, see the Ruby mentioned above.

Even cooler would be to add a simple effect onto the front of it. Try a silicon fuzz or a RunoffGroove Tube Reamer.

[Narcosynthesis]

looking at ggg, for the dc supply they are mentioning using a switched jack, so is it even possible to use the jack i already have?

and any ideas for reducing the output from the battery?

David

[javacody]

Narco, I use a wallwart that has switchable voltage settings and if you go even lower voltage (I think it was about 5 volts), you get a wild octave down sound.

As for how to do this, I'd imagine, you'd just throw a pot in there (kind of like how you use a trimpot to bias a transistor or JFET).

[Narcosynthesis]

the way i think could work would be to use a pot over the battery as a potential divider (one side to ground, one to positive on the circuit, and the wiper to the battery positive) but i am not sure if this would work too well

David

[vanhansen]

You can also use the Fetzer Valve WITH the Ruby.  Just replace the existing Ruby input buffer with the Fetzer Valve.  This is in the Runoffgroove FAQ.


For a master volume, use a 25 Ohm Rheostat from Radio Shack and hook it up after the output cap (see Little Gem schematic).

[Narcosynthesis]

if i wanted to add a master volume too, all i would need to do would be to add a pot at the end of the circuit, the side lugs connected to the hot and ground on the circuit, and the wiper to the output.
if i wanted to do this, what vale pot should i use?

David

[javacody]

Umm, do people read the other posts in the thread before they post?