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I saw this referenced in the most recent edition of TapeOp and thought it might interest some folks around here.  It's a different take on the whole "third hand"/"helping hands" deal using silicone.

http://www.thecheese.biz/

Looks pretty cool, particularly if you are doing much in the way of guitar/amp/studio tech work.

https://slate.com/human-interest/2019/01/new-zealand-tourists-john-johnson-tina-cash-arrest.html

I saw this yesterday and thought it was both a good laugh and strangely heartwarming.  The gist is a group of uncooth Brits on vacation to NZ behaved badly and the entire country basically turned against them.  My favourite part is when the locals try to voice their displeasure but can't quite bring themselves to say anything truly venomous, although the statement by the father is classic ("I've been looking at the Hobbits my whole life, since I'm born, that was originally what our plans was, but it's all been f–ked up now." ), and the horrible little boy ("I'll knock your brains out!") is great too.

In the news today: the Trump administration was to have China's postal classification altered to reflect its recent growth.  This would potentially raise the now heavily subsidized shipping rates we all rely on for a lot of the parts we use when building.

I'm not really sure what to make of this atm.  From our perspective, the cost of certain parts could go up substantially--footswitches and toggles most especially.  But at the same time, a lot of the stuff isn't being shipped from China, but from other Asian countries like Thailand.  If those countries aren't also reclassified, doesn't that mean there's a ready-made workaround for Asian sellers?

Anyway, here's a link:
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/10/trump-changes-terminal-dues-and-epacket-rates/573337/

I just finished a pair of lovetone builds using alanp's boards--Cheese Source and the Meatball--and I have a question about the Big Cheese side of the Source (thank you alanp).  Is the gated fuzz position supposed to have output at all gain settings, or only when you push towards the last section of the range of the pot?  Mine doesn't seem to quite have enough signal to push the bias to "on" unless I go towards the end of the dial.  Also, the trimmer which I've read is supposed to set the level of "gated-ness" (if that's a word) doesn't seem to do anything much at all.  Is this normal?  Or am I looking at a build that's almost-but-not-quite-working?  Any insight would be very much appreciated.

I was cleaning out the old hobby drawer and I came across an ancient green madbean PCB that I had no idea I had. It's a Gruntbox v.1 [(c) 2009 madbeanpedals(!!!)].  Any chance of getting the build docs for this?  I haven't fully traced it but the first part is identical to the current Mudbunny w/just a small change to the power section.  Anyway, any info would be appreciated. 

I recently finished my Total Recall build and it turned out great.  Now I'm wondering about mods.  The most obvious mod I have in mind is adding a rate control to the mod section of the circuit.  Looking through schematics from other mod pedals and delays with modulation makes this look pretty straightforward: replace R51 with a 1Meg pot and a resistor to set a floor - this is what the Dirtbaby does. 

My problem is that this is so straightforward that I'm wondering if I'm missing something.  Why else wouldn't this be included as an option in the TR project?  Being true to the original?  I don't want to start mangling my build just because I'm failing to see the obvious.  Please advise!