Friday, December 2, 2016

New Music Room Monitor


Several weeks ago the den’s big LCD TV’s picture started messing up in a way that made it tough to watch moving pictures. Between the monster being eight years old, the lack of TV repair shops nowadays, and the low cost of modern TVs we decided to replace it with a new Smart TV. Good move – the new 4K TV has a noticeably better picture.

Since static images still looked okay on the old television, I decided to relocate it to my music room for use as a sheet music monitor since it was essentially twice the size of the room’s present music monitor.


The original issue with the picture is almost a wash when the phenomenal size of the old TV’s screen is taken into account in a small room.


The monster’s first location atop an old wardrobe was too high for practicing my brass instruments comfortably and too far away from the piano to be useful.  The second prospective location on top of the bookcase was better, but still too high to stand in front of.  A stand would have to be built.

Most of the time I build prototype cabinets/stands out of MDF because it is fairly cheap, and machines & paints well.  But this week Lowes had 15/32” Paraguayan plywood for around the same price. For a variety of reasons it was declared the project’s construction material.  Once a couple cans of flat-black spray paint for $1 a can were added to the cart, I headed for the checkout counter.

After determining an optimum height, the paraply was cut, glued & nailed to corner mounted 2X2s.  Free weights laid in the bottom served to shift the CG of the two-man-lift TV downward, and make it safer to roll the works around on casters bought for a never-built, roll-around bread table.



Success!  It always brightens my day when something can be repurposed instead of trashed.

Not shown in the first image is a 1956 Olds Recording Trombone (their professional line) just purchased for me as my Christmas present.  What a wonderful sound it has compared to the Olds Ambassador model pictured.  Carnegie Hall – Here I come!



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