Get Bent 3

I initially intended this to be a simple introduction to re-casing which wouldn’t require a lot of detail. Then, in a later article, I could re-case something more complicated. Then Murphy had his say . . . Re-casing an instrument is less like a science or an art form, and more like groping blindly in the dark.

Since it makes a psuedo-heartbeat sound, it made sense to re-case the instrument in a heart-shaped case. I figured finding the case would be easy and that dollar stores everywhere have heart-shaped boxes. Well, they do . . . in February. In July or August, there isn’t a heart shaped box in sight. So I purchased the cheapest one I could from ebay. Hell, for $0.95 I bought two in case I broke one. Two weeks later and my heart shaped boxes arrived.

It turns out they were too shallow to house the whole unit, but I figured if I glued them together, drilled some holes, cut out the battery housing and shoved the circuits in one half and the output jack in another, it should be fine.

When re-casing any instrument, the first thing to do is identify where the batteries are located. This will help you figure out exactly what parts are necessary. In some situations, it is important to cut down to only the essentials in order to conserve space.

Finding the batteries

If you are lucky, the unit will be detachable. You can also buy battery cases and install them, but usually it is easier to find them for AA or 9volt batteries. So my only alternative was to saw off all the excess pieces and isolate the battery housing so I could put it into the new case.

Sawing the battery case free.

I have a tiny hacksaw which is perfect for this purpose. If you take a look, you can see these two yellow circles in the picture. They actually hold the screws that secure the back of the battery case on. Sometimes sacrifices need to be made for the sake of space conservation. If worst comes to worst, you can always tape the back of the battery case on.

Hmmm . . . seems like there is a problem.

I like to call this an “oh shit” moment. As you can see, it does not fit in the case. Two weeks of waiting for heart-shaped boxes, telling my editor it is “super important” for me to wait until I get these specific boxes to do the article (and as a result, postponing it for several weeks), and sawing the battery case free seems to have resulted in nothing but a waste of time.

Well, it looks like I have to find a new case since waiting another two weeks for heart shaped boxes that may or may not be the right size is not an option.

I ripped through my house at 5am this morning trying to find something to house this instrument. What I found was an old cardboard jewelry box. I hate cardboard housings mainly because they are not durable. But it will have to do for now.

It fits (thank God.)

The first step is to mark out a potential lay-out. Keep in mind you need to have your battery case accessible. Eventually, you will need to change the batteries. As you can see, if I used this box in the first place instead of being aesthetically stubborn, I would not have had to saw through the battery casing.

Once you have a layout, the next step is to mark out where you plan to drill your holes.

Before you drill, you are going to want to clamp your case down to a table or work bench so it will not move. If you are drilling a hole for your ¼ jack, you will need a 3/8 drill bit.

Since this is cardboard, drilling isn’t particularly necessary. In fact, it is pretty damn hard to do without having the cardboard bend. You can just poke holes with a screwdriver.

Another thing to keep in mind is how the sound will escape the instrument (besides the ¼ jack). Unless you like the slightly muffed noise it makes, you will also need to drill holes where the speaker is to let the sound escape.

After drilling your holes, the next step is to get anything that needs to go outside the case to match up with your drill holes. Once you get things the way you like, secure them. Personally, I like to use double-sided tape. I couldn’t find any. So I used some duct tape.

I would strongly caution against glue, especially on your fragile circuit boards. Only glue down things you do not care about.

The only thing I glued was the bottle cap used to prop the button on the circuit board up to the hole. I give you this advice because you may have to reposition things more than once to make sure they line up with the holes. Using tape is also a good idea if you have concerns about the durability of your case and may need to re-case your instrument in the future. If you find that you need to glue something (which sometimes happens), only do so if you are completely sure not only that it is in the right place, but the case can take a beating.

Here is the finished product:

And this is what it sounds like:

Telltale Heart (instrument) Play Now | Play in Popup | Download