V Tech musical dj junior

[shifty101uk]

Hey, I'm really new to this circuit bending lark. I got interested in it after a practice with my new doom/noise band. I was looking for sources of new, strange and scary sounds. I have all the required equipment and have been TRYING to get my first successful bend. But to no avail, I bought a V Tech musical DJ junior from oxfam. Plugged around in the back for a while and couldn't find any sort of glitches apart from making various noises like monkeys when the elephant was playing his tune. Then the stupid thing died. All is not lost i have salvaged switches, LEDs, a microphone, a speaker which I am hoping to use and would have cost me more than 3pounds in Maplin.

I need some pointers so if any of the more experienced benders could help I would be very grateful.

What was your first successful bend? Why does my soldering iron seem to not want to solder at the tip and only along the sides? Should I take the iron back to Maplin and stick it up their arses? Would a furby be a good first bend?I have heard they can be bent rather easily. Does anyone know how to bend the god awful Daphon delay E20DL pedal?

[the_zombiest]

hey shifty. firstly may I offer my condolences over your first fried toy.  It happens but knowing that doesn't make the grieving process any easier. 
Unfortunatley it's part of the process.  Some things will bend like a mofo and others will just burn up.

The first thing i bent was a Mix Me DJ that I got for 50p at a car boot sale. It's residing at the bottom of the pile now minus pots and switches cos I needed them for something better... or newer, i forget which.

Furbies are fairly easy to bend but are also prone to frying too.  I've not had much use for mine.  He's not too talkative. You'll get a loop or two and a few glitches but thats pretty much it.

The soldering iron conundrum is one I suffered too.  You're supposed to 'tin' it as it heats up the first time you use it. 'Tinning' is where you melt the solder onto the tip of the iron.  I fucked it up first time but remedied it by using a needle file to get rid of the tarnished/anodised/fuckerised coating.  You can buy re-tinning stuff for you soldering iron tips,  i've never used it but it's supposed to prolong the life of your tips.  It would probably fix non-tinned tips too.

I've bent a daphon e10mt, it's ace now. the delay will be different though so ican't really help there.
bending pedals is pretty much the same as bending anything else.  just be careful when probing not to fry it.  using a 470 ohm - 1k resistor between two testleads can help.

I've bent a rocktek delay and it had two trimmers inside to tweak delay and decay... thats a good place to start. The main thing you should be wary of is component placement... there's not much space at all inside the casing aside from the battery bay.  It's a good idea to check every bend you find with the next bend and the next bend.  there's nothing worse than finding loads of bends, drilling all the holes, mounting all the components, screwing the case back together and then plugging it in to find that none of the bends work together... I was careless with my delay and I can't really use it as an effect pedal anymore and just use it as a mad feedback generator... I'll get around to fixing it though... eventually.

good luck with it all

[shifty101uk]

I think I just tried jumping in the deep end expecting a mad bent thing after a few hours, but sadly ideas in your head most of the time dont turn into reality hehe. I will give the bending the delay pedal a go, even now at the moment it can turn into a mad feedback machine because the circuitry is so cheap its that noisy! I will buy the worst practice amp I can find on ebay.

Thanks for the tips and Im sure that I will be asking more questions tomorrow. I am liking this new hobby which gets me out of the house more! One more thing, I guess the power inputs of any device is a no no as this would definately fry anything once short circuited with anything else.

[andy_wheels]

something to think about when bending toys for young children is that they normally contain a fuse, often disguised as a resistor. they blow, and i quote our wonderous host crustypaul here, 'if you look at them funny'. pop.

i've had quite a few brightly coloured noise making toys appear to fry but magically come to life again when you find that tiny bit of wire wrapped round a 100ohm resistor and replace it with a direct connection.

look out for the casio 'sa' series keyboards at your local charity/thrift shop/car boot for a joyful and easy bendy session. no chance of frying them either (well, little anyway...) i reckon a well timed 'deep crash' would sound lovely in a noise band. you'll find lots of info on the bends for the 'sa' on this very forum if you search in the keybaords subforum around.