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.

The Setup! The setup I will be running the demo through consists of my Gibson Nighthawk (1994) I just got it back, so I'm uber stoked to be playing it again. I will be feeding the guitar into the various pedals separately, no pedal chains here. Then from pedal into my VOX AC4TV on "1watt" mode. Volume at about 2 or 3. This will be tracked using the TUL G12 prototype, dynamic guitar amp mic. (Designed by Tully McCully to run on axis! To any nay sayers out there) That will then be going through my Yamaha O2R and Digidesign Digi002 interface to Pro Tools 8. Slight compression using waves plugin version of the LN 1176. Slight dip at 700Hz (Narrow Q) and export.

My first attempt  turned out very well. The 88Fuzz was based on the "Muff" fuzz from general guitar gadgets. A very basic set up comprising of two 2N5088 transistors and couple other wingbats and some little battery looking things (I do know what a capacitor looks like by the way.) The build was surprisingly very simple and the instructions from GGG where great. Just anyone can do this.

As far as the sounds are concerned. The 88Fuzz has all the muddy fuzz gain you could ask for. After dropping the volume pot on yo guitar a little the mud cleans up to nice sparkly cleans and crunches. The pedals sounds particularly good through my 94 Gibson Nighhawk, middle pickup selection. I would recommend this pedal build to anyone starting out. The parts a cheap and easy to get hold of. And it is a real confidence booster.

88FUZZ by rockitdog

The Orange Squealer was an amazing build. I really enjoyed this one. This pedal is based on but modified from General Guitar Gadgets, May Queen Project. Apparently based on Brian May's tone guitar tone. More like an over drive maniac than a funny looking fella with big hair and a pirate shirt. There wasnt really any issues with this one. I had some problems with the trim posts when I first tested it. But after fiddling a bit I got some of the nicest overdrive I have ever heard.

This pedal has loads of gain. Loads of sustain, and it doesnt clean up at all when you drop your guitar volume. This was the first pedal that I made using high quality components. Low tolerance metal film resistors and capacitors. Along with parts bought from Small Bear Electronics.  Listen for yourself. I needed something like this, something with loads of gain, no bass and super cut through. It sounds like there is some compression there as well. Just so much sustain.  


This pedal accidentally received a different value cap in a certain position which resulted in t

he way it sounds. This is not a May Queen any more. 

Orange Squealer by rockitdog

The Wobbler came about very quickly. Still my fastest build. I woke up one Saturday morning and decided to build a pedal. I decided on the Kay Tremolo from GGG (It was there a few weeks ago). I wanted a pedal that did something other than fuzz. So I popped down to my local electronic's hut and bought all the bits very easily. By that afternoon I had a working (Unpainted) tremolo pedal. Only thing was, it still made a fuzz sound. Well, instead of getting all emo about it, I decided to call it the Dirty Wobbler. Basically because it sounds very dirty. The Speed knob got renamed "Meth" knob, because I was watching breaking bad while I was building it. And the speed up thingy reminded me of being on speed. This pedal sounds cool. It has more uses that you would imagine. It reminds me of the sound at the beginning of Green Days Boulevard of broken dreams. Also, That track off that Black Grape Album that no one ever listened to.

Demo Below

Dirty Wobbler by rockitdog

Prof tweed by rockitdog

More pedals to come very soon. I'm currently working on a Matchless head inside a guitar pedal. So stay tuned for more demo's n such.