What to do with an old telephone.

[smile_man]

Well, I bought an old telephone from a thrift store the other day with hopes of doing something fun with it, the obvious answer would be to use the receiver as a microphone, I've sort of succeeded in that attempt in that it works, but only if it's boosted to shit.

SO! I was wondering if I could put an output jack on the body of the phone and then run all the dial tone noises and such into my amplifier. It's a clock/radio/phone so there is a speaker in it so I assume I could put a jack in place of it, but then I realized that it needs to be plugged into the phone jack on the wall for power to get to that part of the circuit.

Is it possible to re-route the power and have my phone noises?

thanks.

[multi_s]

i think usually there are 4 wires that go from the base to the receiver (thing you hold with your hand and talk to). 2 of them for the mic and 2 for the speaker. Try to figure out which 2 are the speaker and just hook them up to a jack instead. If its too crazy loud you can use resistors to lower the signal.

[aen]

shoulda used theearpice for your mic. much more responsive, and a bigger diaphragm.

[Monkey]

There was a how to on this in Tape OP magazine a few months back. Free subscription too,check it out.
This month is diy reverb, plate, spring etc. Past issue included modding a shure sm57 or 58 for a darker tone.
i think you can view the articles online.

[smile_man]

shoulda used theearpice for your mic. much more responsive, and a bigger diaphragm.

I am using the earpiece, the mouthpiece doesn't seem to work much at all.

[aen]

BAH! Inferior fone! Bummer dude.

[smile_man]

BAH! Inferior fone! Bummer dude.

I fixed it! there's a small circuit inside the receiver which I think amplifies the signal. I soldered the speaker to the normal mic input on this circuit and everything was fine! I was also using the wrong kind of jack...

moar questions! is it possible to run my guitar into the dial tone circuit? Isn't there a copilot pedal like that...? also, could I run my guitar into the radio and use it as a lo-fi amp?

[Scruffie]

BAH! Inferior fone! Bummer dude.

I fixed it! there's a small circuit inside the receiver which I think amplifies the signal. I soldered the speaker to the normal mic input on this circuit and everything was fine! I was also using the wrong kind of jack...

moar questions! is it possible to run my guitar into the dial tone circuit? Isn't there a copilot pedal like that...? also, could I run my guitar into the radio and use it as a lo-fi amp?

Yes although i'm unsure of the result and yes, you can use radios as amps easily, find an old Tube Radio or Record player and you can get a great vintage amp out of it.

If it has chips in the circuit be careful, some very valuable BBD chips are used in some telecommunication circuits.

[theavondon]

Though, the smaller diaphragm is still perfectly fine. I mean, that's what Lightning Bolt uses. Or, so I've heard. And, who can argue with these results?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1OkjR6VVMs[/youtube]

[Gilmourish]

i have an old fashioned telephone in the house... would love to use it as a lo-fi crazy microphone that i could plug into an amp.. how would i go about it?

[smile_man]

i have an old fashioned telephone in the house... would love to use it as a lo-fi crazy microphone that i could plug into an amp.. how would i go about it?

Connect the wires coming from the speaker (NOT the mouthpiece) to a 1/4" jack.

[Acecare]

I remember the time when I also bought my old telephone from store because of the amazing handset. I definitely use the handset as a headset and it really works if you know the diagram how to construct it. As of now, I have no problem of using it.