Wednesday, November 9, 2011
The first of a new generation - Doppel Guitar pedals.
9:59 AM | 
Posted by
Rocky Dee |
Well it seems that my pedal building powers have matured a little. I have been doing a lot of work on the actual look and design of the pedals rather than copying a circuit and bunging it in a little metal box. The Orange Squealer was one of my first pedals. Built from scratch and heavily modified from the original schematic this pedal was the product of accident through process of elimination. The Orange Squealer is a high gain booster pedal. Giving you only a high gain overdrive that sings and squeals like some kind of howling banshee. Loads of sustain makes it a great lead pedal that rocks mids and highs like nothing else on earth. This pedal produces high frequencies rather well. Pinched harmonics are easier than ever and its range gives great cut through for the mix.
The controls, or rather control on the Orange Squealer is a simple Boost / Cut knob with the middle setting giving you a "unity" gain that matches the bypassed signal. The pedal boasts high quality components a true bypass switch and a swanky blue LED as a power indicator. The battery cuts off if the input is unplugged to help save accidental "on-age" from eating yo 9 volts. The pot is super smooth, I mean really! I could sit here all day playing with this 
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Sunday, November 6, 2011
Gibson Nighthawk - The Prodigal son returns
This beautiful example of one of Gibson's better experiments has got to be genius. The Gibson Nighthawk was Gibson's attempt at creating the worlds most versatile guitar. And to be honest, they actually pulled it off. This guitar has a huge amount of range. You can get glassy Stratiness out of it and with the flick of a switch you can fall into full creamy Humbucker "Les Paul" heaven. Originally scorned by both Fender and Gibson fans, the Nighthawk never really took off and was discontinued just a few years after its carnation.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Trouble Shooting a Non Working DIY Guitar pedal
From R.G.
http://www.geofex.com/
Sunday, October 16, 2011
New Addition - Marshall Class 5 Combo
DIY guitar pedals - Less of a hobby and more an obsession
I have been very busy just lately. Guess that's why I havent posted anything ina little while. I've been building pedals alright! At least its been something worth doing. A whole lot better than sitting around in my cave looking at the cave paintings on the boulder I use for a pillow. I've been through quite a learning curve I can tell you. Just a couple months ago, I knew absolutely nothing about electronics. Now, I still know absolutely nothing. But I did manage to learn enough to slap a few pedals together. There was a post a little while back on the prototype "Tank" fuzz pedal. Well. Now I have 4 pretty cool finished pedals and they have been painstakingly made by hand. Very burnt hands that is. I managed to record some demos and post them here for your enjoyment. I will also post some links to the wonderful sites that provided me with this info.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Epiphone SG - Modifications complete. (For Now!)
The upgrade kit I ordered came from Stewart McDonald in Ohio. Took about 3 weeks to arrive at my local post office here in South Africa and was worth every minute of the wait. I installed the Golden Age Pickups. Re-wired the entire guitar using high quality cables, posts, sockets and switches. This upgrade alone resulted in a massive improvement in tone. It was mammoth! Really! The guitar has character now. It sings and jives. It used to just kind of plod along and horrible cut through that really didn't sound good. It used to sound like an old fella with a cold trying to get up the stairs. Now it sounds more like a hot blond in a Ferrari on a summer afternoon driving to Vegas! I cant believe how much of an upgrade this has been. I actually want to record with this guitar now, because nothing else I have sounds quite like it. And the pickups look pretty sick too! It doesn't look like a "standard" guitar anymore.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
D.I.Y guitar pedals - They actually work really well!
Wow! I went on a mission the other day and decided to make me some guitar pedals. It cant be that difficult. I was pleasantly surprised that is was a lot easier than I thought it would be. My first project was a simple "Muff" styled transistor based fuzz pedal. Built around two 2N5088 transistors for a nice high gain but vintage type of tone. What really blows me away is how it cleans up after the volume is dropped on your guitar. And riding the volume down to 4 or 5 gives you a nice clean boost with a slight touch of hi-freq crunch. It sounds really nice. In fact I hate my DS-1 even more now.
Above is an image of the finished "Prototype". Its living in a pretty "South African Defense Force" or "unpainted Army" looking housing at the moment and would probably withstand a direct nuclear attack in that case. But it looks like shit. Oh, and I diddnt buy any knobs because the SADF use ones that don't fit on the pots I already had in my box. So it's kinda like a generic pedal / tank. I intend on ordering some Hammond 1590BB enclosures for it. Thing is, they come in boxes of 10 from my local electronic nerd. Will have the bux at the end of the month. If I don't spend it all on booze and loose women before then.
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