BYOC kits & more!

This pedal is a 'clone' of an MXR Phase 90. It is a kit purchased from BuildYourOwnClone.com. You get the metal enclosure (unpainted), footswitch, knobs, potentiometers, capacitors, diodes, resistors, trim pots, LEDs, jacks, an unpopulated circut board, and wire. You do the rest. I soldered everything together, painted the enclosure, and wired it up. This was my second pedal build attempt, as the 'Lazy Sprocket' below was my first. Didn't turn out as well, or I jacked it up. One of the other. Didn't want that pedal anyway, so it made for good practice. This guy may or may not make it onto my pedal board as I don't have any more room and I don't have any more 9v a/c power cords available on my board.
The picutre below is what the guts of my pedal build look like. Keep in mind, I put every stinkin little chip and wire on that thing.



















The 'Lazy Sprocket' is a fantastic name for this pedal. This kit was actually what I recieved in the mail after requesting the above Phaser. Still, the guy running BuildYourOwnClone.com is a great guy and promptly responded to both of my emails and let me keep the sprocket kit for free, even sending me the few extra parts I needed to complete both kits for the price of one. However, like I said, this pedal is the 'Lazy Sprocket.' Sold as a swell pedal, its swell is so quick and slight that the pedal is extremely limited in its use. Perhaps if the Sprocket weren't quite so Lazy, I wouldn't have farmed several of the pieces out of this guy to soup up the above Phaser.


And this is always good to see again. Doesn't happen very often and, when it does, I usually hate it the next day. I'm not tearing up or throwing anything away anymore. If I'm ever going to do anything with music, I need to write my own songs. Nobody wants to listen to cover songs all the time.

Book 7

The 7th and final Harry Potter book now officially has a name.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

The publisher has not announced a release date yet, though many fans predict the book will be released on 7/7/07. If you're not familiar with the series, that may seem cheesy to you. If you AREN'T a muggle, then you understand the significance of the number 7. Also, this is a Saturday (all of the HP books have been released on saturdays by JKR's request so as not to interfere with school) and is the weekend before the release of Order of the Pheonix movie. JKR has said for sure that two main characters will die in the 7th and final book, and when questioned whether Harry would be one of the two, JKR would not say. With the deaths of Sirius Black, Harry's godfather, and Albus Dumbledore, Harry's headmaster/protector/guide, still fresh in reader's minds, fans can only speculate on who will die. Some speculate that Harry, who's life was saved in his infancy by his mother's doomed attempt to protect her only child from the world's most evil and powerful wizard, must also lay down his own life at He Who Must Not Be Named's hand (or wand). Voldemort's weakness has always been his fear of death and his inability to understand love.

I don't know how things will turn out, but I do know that I will be pissed if Neville doesn't avenge his parents (who were tortured to permanent insanity by Death Eaters) by killing Bellatrix Lastrange.

Still think these are kid's books?

Toys for boys

This admittedly esoteric post is showcase of my favorite new toys. A Keeley mod Blues Driver (note the bitchin blue LED((power light in the middle)) to make it stand out from the standard red) is featured to the right. This pedal gives the sweet overdriven tube amp sound. Nice and clean if played lightly, biting and distorted if you crank on the strings. The Keeley mod itself just replaces strandard Boss pedal componants with higher quality ones. Changes to the standard pedal include a boosted mid-range signal and the 'phat mod' toggle switch. Flip it up for normal pedal operation, down for 'phat' mode. This boosts your lower frequencies (ie: Low E and A strings) for a more even sound. This really opens things up. No longer is one limited to soloing/riffing on the higher strings.

Next up is the pedal that knocked out my Distorion pedal in the contest for pedalboard space. The TS-808 reissue TubeScreamer is one of best pedals used in blues and modern rock as an overdrive effect. This means that regardless of what other effects you've got going on, kicking on this guy 'overdrives' the signal, pushing it up and over the rest of the wall of sound. Great for soloing over already distorted or loud music. This pedal is essentially a volume boost, as the level (right) knob controls just how much boost you're getting while the overdrive (left) knob controls how distorted or crunchy your sound is. This pedal was made famous by Stevie Ray Vaughn among others. Listen to and SRV & Double Trouble recording to hear it featured. This is used in combination with the BluesDriver above for a sweet (and very loud) Hendrix-y sound.

Here is the complete board thus far. My baby. The chain of effects, for my own enjoyment:
Guitar--> A/B switcher (blue)--> Tuner (below)--> Volume/Swell--> Wah-Wah--> Keeley mod BluesDriver (blue) --> TS808 Tubescreamer (green)--> Phaser--> Delay-->Loop Station --> DI box--> Amplifier.

Again, the DI box, Delay, and tap tempo on top are for a Vocal Mic. I recently completed my first pedal build, which will be added shortly. It is another Phaser, slightly less transparent than the Boss Phaser, to be used seperately or for an Incubus-like dual phase effect. More to come...

Strat work

After purchasing a TS-808 TubeScreamer reissue as well as having my BluesDriver 'keeley moded,' I recently decided to do some work to my Strat as well to celebrate my new tone.

I decided to replace my strandard strat tremolo bridge with a hardtail or 'fixed' bridge. (tremolo is that bar coming out of guitars that some guitarist crank on to give a wah-wah effect. its also really hard on strings/tuning/yourguitaringeneral) Having a fixed bridge keeps your string in tune better and increases sustain and improves all-around tone of your guitar. I also cleaned the bejesus out of it and reset the intonation, action, and pickup height. When all was said and done, it looks and sounds fantastic. Still, having your baby torn apart with it little electionic guts hanging out while taking a DRILL to the body and desoldering wires would make anyone a little scared. Here's some pics with the finished product at the bottom:

Before, with tremolo bridge

















During (the scary part)

Don't Stay Home this time...

"we don't have to, cause we don't want to."

Blogging at home... this hasn't happened for a very long time.
Its so damn cold! I used to say that my favorite season was winter. What was I thinking?! I hereby change my favorite season of the year to.... (drumroll) ...Fall! That's right, good ol' leaves-turning-brown, jacket-weather, Football-season, school-year-starting, not-cold-as-shit Fall. Look for him on the next email/profile quiz and/or survey.

So I think I have gig-commitment issues. I'm starting to think that maybe some subconsious part of my mind is preventing me from ever attempting/practicing to entire songs without stopping. I know that I can, and I know the whole song... I just don't. Which leads to apprehension about playing live, ie: never playing outside of my bedroom, as Roscommon says. As long as I just noodle, I'm safe from ever having to play in front of people. I need to break this habit if I'm ever going to progress. Step One: Identify the problem. Step Two: Listen to the Decemberists new album, because apparently, it was the best album of 2006. Step Three: rectify the problem in step one.

"don't break the mold kid, just eat around it, yeah thats what I did..."

Aural Projectiles

Incubus fans:
Go get Light Grenades. Its good. Grows on you like a fungus (amungus). Good overall sonic clarity. Good ambiances, atmospherics, flow, and delivery. These guys keep on changing and I keep on enjoying their music. Songs (and moments) to check out on the new album: A Kiss to send us off (2:40-3:40), Dig, Anna Molly, Earth to Bella part 1 (1:25-1:40), Oil and Water, and Paper Shoes. Get the acoustic version of Anna Molly if you can (b-sides), good stuff. Plus the album art rocks. Check out the "On the iPod" link to check out this album.