[sdiy] [OT] How did you start?

[John Mahoney]

My father (RIP) did a lot of electrical work (and plumbing and 
carpentry and masonry) around the house, so tinkering and soldering 
were instilled at a young age. One day I got a Radio Shack 100-in-1 
lab toy as a gift, spent hours putting projects together -- i.e. 
clamping tinned wires into spring terminals -- but I was too young to 
really learn much.

When I was a teenager, I subscribed to Guitar Player magazine at the 
time that Craig Anderton started writing his columns. That led to 
getting the PAiA catalog, Polyphony magazine (now EM, it featured 
lots of DIY by Thomas Henry and others, including list members John 
Blacet and Jim Patchell), and Craig's guitar electronics book. An 
early Forrest Mims book was another influence. I didn't actually 
build much, aside from a few guitar effects, and then I bought a Korg 
Mono/Poly when they came out. Finally, my own synth! (I still have it.)

I should mention that I was very interested in synths because of what 
I heard from Carlos, Emerson, Tomita, and Wakeman, and, later, from 
New Wave bands, especially The Cars and Gary Numan. I even loved Hot 
Butter's "Popcorn" when it was a Top 40 hit, but I was too young to 
know that a strange new instrument was what made it so cool.

Oh... a small influence was our Magnus chord organ (hi, Magnus!). 
Sure, it was a toy, but it had me making music. I would flick the 
power switch off and on to modulate the volume at the beginning and 
end of songs -- cool trick for a 6 or 7 year old to think of, IMHO.

Almost 2 decades pass. I don't do much of anything synth related, 
aside from messing with the Mo/Po once in a while, and Al Gore's 
Internet becomes a part of our lives. One day I stumbled upon the 
synth-DIY list, and here I am! I haven't built a *lot* of stuff, but 
my output is slowly increasing, and my interest is still high.

In short, Dad and John Simonton* share most of the early "blame", but 
this list is what really got me going. :-)
	
John

* See http://paiafans.blogspot.com/ and be sure to check the comments.