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How to turn up Crabby Matt's music??

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How to turn up Crabby Matt's music??
Posted by ballastbob on Thursday, December 30, 2010 9:47 PM

I got one of those Lionel Crabby Matt's Diner accessories for Christmas.  When one of the buttons is pushed a short 5 or 6 second jukebox tune is played.  Pretty nice!  But there is no volume control and the music is faint.  The Lionel service people tell me there is no way to turn up the volume.  Can anybody suggest a electronic fix I could try on my own to boost the sound?

Bob

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  • From: Central Vermont
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Posted by cowman on Thursday, December 30, 2010 10:26 PM

You might want to go over to the Classic Toy Trains forums, more folks deal with Lionel there.  Someone else there might have one.

Good luck,

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Posted by wallyworld on Friday, December 31, 2010 7:59 AM

I had the same issue with the inexpensive MRC sound generator ( bells- whistles- chuffs etc) and found that the sound of the trains drowned out the effects generated by the MRC. So..I went on line to Ebay and found the least expensive amplifier I could find ( one with axillary inputs) and routed the speaker wires into the amplifier jacks input and then used an old ( larger )speaker I had hanging around. Now the sound of the MRC can be heard at a decent level..granted, it is a run around tactic, but it worked. For what it's worth.

Nothing is more fairly distributed than common sense: no one thinks he needs more of it than he already has.

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Posted by DennisB-1 on Friday, December 31, 2010 8:03 AM

The only way to increase the sound would be to run it through an amplifier. However, that would mean tapping into the output, if that's possible. An easier way would be to place a tiny microphone in the structure and route it's output to an amp.

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Posted by wallyworld on Friday, December 31, 2010 11:11 AM

DennisB-1

The only way to increase the sound would be to run it through an amplifier. However, that would mean tapping into the output, if that's possible. An easier way would be to place a tiny microphone in the structure and route it's output to an amp.

If it has an internal speaker, it would simply be a matter of soldering or tapping into the speaker wires. My only concern with a microphone would be distortion as well as picking up other sounds and amplifying them.

Nothing is more fairly distributed than common sense: no one thinks he needs more of it than he already has.

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • 286 posts
Posted by DennisB-1 on Friday, December 31, 2010 5:43 PM

I agree that tapping into the speaker wires would be best but maybe not quite so easy.

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