Messages

LOL, love the knob, that's great. But I think I'd be afraid to play that in my socks.

I'm gonna stick up for the OS-2. I think it's a cool pedal, especially on the OD side. It's bright and can be harsh/brittle sounding at some settings, but I find I can get a fantastic bright boosted lead tone from it. I think it would be an interesting candidate for modification, so I would also be interested in a PCB if one was available.

Sweet builds. Putting a list of programs on your FV-1 build is a great idea. Every time I use mine I'm lost in a sea of "wait, is the bitcrusher to the left or right?" or something like that and it gets annoying. I'm going to do that on mine.

Awesome build. Love your little paintings, Jimi. Always puts a grin on my face.

I have an MJT body but it isn't reliced. The basic quality is good, but their finish is on the thicker side with a particularly thick white fullerpast-style undercoat. I think they make it so the undercoat and colourcoat don't adhere particularly well on purpose to make it easier to relic after it cures. But it's a different than the Fender Road Worn type finish (if that's important to you).

I've done a couple partscasters and they've turned out, but you have to understand you're taking a risk. Sometimes the particular components just aren't going to come together in a good way and you're going to end up with a dud. I think of it like how you can play multiple examples of the same model of a guitar in a shop and one will sound great and another will sound terrible. There's just no getting around that risk. At the same time, since you're in control you can always swap parts out to bring it more in line with what you want. It's just that it takes time and gets really expensive. IME you don't save money with a partscaster. I guess that's the one thing I wish somebody would have
emphasized to me. Then again, you're doing the relic thing, so maybe it is a money-saver if you're comparing it to a Fender CS.

I think your biggest obstacle is getting your neck finished in a relic-appropriate way. You can't Tru-Oil yourself to that kind of result. Relic style necks pretty much have to be finished with lacquer. But you can have a neck from Musikraft (or Warmoth, I think) drop-shipped to MJT and they will finish the neck along with the body. I know that MJT
recently bought USAGC as well, so eventually they will be building necks themselves. I can't speak to the quality of their relic work because I've never done the relic thing, but there are a lot of pictures on their website which I would hope are basically representative. Your comment suggests a certain amount of skepticism, though, and that's probably wise. I'd imagine any company that's expanded as much as MJT has in the last few years has its share of QC problems. I look at their bodies on eBay from time to time and it seems like there's a lot of variability there (some look decent some look awful)...and that kind of scares me.

The only other thought I have is I'd want to be damn sure I knew my own expectations. Relicing is so subjective. One man's great is another man's disaster. It would be so easy to be disappointed. I think that's the reason Danocaster and the CS makes their money: it's practically the only way you can buy a custom relic guitar and know you're going to get what you want.

Sorry for writing a book. Hope you get the guitar you're jonesing for and you post a pic or two when you do.

Hopefully this meets your "simple" requirement, but you can (and should) build this:

https://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/2012/08/germanium-transistor-tester.html

Very easy build and it works great.

There is an RG Keen article that explains it that should be easy enough to find via Google.  [EDIT: it's linked on the page given above]  RG Keen...is there anything the man can't do?

That graphic is the best thing I've seen in a long time.  Came out great.

When I read the first message I was going to post a link to that RG Keen article but Mich beat me to it!

Love me some RG Keen articles.

I just tested my original unit both with gain and tone controls maxxed and then with everything maxxed.  There is no oscillation on any settings that I could find on that clean boost.  Great sounding boost, too.

Sorry about the delay, I just saw this. 

I have an original FZ-2 and the clean boost function (as far as I can recall) on my unit does not audibly oscillate.  In fact, it sounds very clean.  I've used it as a mic pre before with shockingly good results.  But I can pull it out sometime this week and see what happens with the treble jacked if that'll help.  Would that be helpful?  You didn't really ask a concrete question so I'm a little bit unsure on what you're looking for.  Could you clarify?

I don't know what it is about 5AR4s but I've heard people complaining about problems with that model for years now.  I normally like JJ tubes just fine (and I've never had any problems with a JJ other than this one and a stray EL84 that blew quickly), but my 5AR4 from them blew out in record time.  This in a 15W Lightning style amp.

FWIW, the people at the Trinity Amps and many of its forumites all swear by the Chinese tube.  They say they aren't super fond Chinese tubes in general, but that their 5AR4s are better than the Russian and Slovakian models that are currently being produced.  More robust, they claim.  They're cheap as chips so it might be worth a look.

Not a big fan of metal, but I do like those newer-aged plastic picks (e.g. V-Picks, etc)  I think they're made of some kind of acrylic.  Especially if you're a pickdropper, the combination of more thickness and the tackiness of the plastic might be something you'd like.  I have a couple and I'm pretty fond of one design in particular.  It has a more serverely bevelled edge that makes it easier to get a bright, clear attack.

The OCD side of my brain is drowning in a vat of its own gooey endorphins right now.

The board.  The complete lack of visible wiring.  Even the solder joints look absolutely perfect.

Gorgeous.

Great build.  Very swanky.  I can feel the cold, clean modernism through my cold, clean modern screen. 

I would also like to know how you made the cutout--it's really tidy and impressive.

If the Distortion+ has enough gain for you, then that's the ticket.  It's a good sounding circuit and it's really easy to mod because of its simplicity and the fact that there's so much great info out there already.