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Ah, us American tourists! When my family and I went to Australia this past June, people in Queensland kept guessing that we were Canadian and/or expressing surprise that we're from the States. A friendly local in Townsville shed some light, mentioning that we were the nicest Americans he had met. It also seemed like visitors from the U.S were comparatively rare in those parts other than Cairns, so maybe a few bad apples really stood out in peoples' minds. I'd say Bali is where I witnessed the most bad American and European tourist behavior.

Between Australia and New Zealand, I'd say people were equally friendly when we visited. On the West Coast of NZ's South Island, people may have been a bit crankier, but with that amount of rain I can hardly blame 'em. And yes Stephan, we totally want your PM to come over here and take over!

Yeah I guess the friendly cheeky rivalry between US and Canada is somewhat similar to OZ/NZ shenanigans ....

That comparison was at the front of my mind when I read this.  Something along the lines of, "Hey, Kiwis are like Canadians!"  The extreme (excessive?) politeness of the responses also hits that stereotype pretty hard.  At the same time, I also thought there was something really beautiful about it.  Maybe obsessing over it for the better part of two weeks is a bit much and I'm guessing that Kiwis have a bit of identity-based complex about Australia that can go over the line from time to time (god knows Canadians can take the American thing too far--and it also works less because I don't think Aussies actually have a reputation for rudeness/self-absorption), but IMO not letting the bastards drag you down into the muck with them is entirely praiseworthy.  Usually when stuff like this happens the people calling out the bad behavior end up coming off just as badly as the people they're criticizing.  Looks like that didn't happen here, and that's pretty cool.

Now bring on video clips of The Clean!

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.

For museums, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art are at the top of the list.

I second those recommendations.  The Met is just incredible.  The breadth of the collection is just astonishing.   Kind of like the Lourve in that way, you could spend days there.  They have a great collection of arms and armor if you're into that.  They have that suit of Henry VIII's armor that you see on all the history shows--kind of like the ultimate DIY project if you ask me.  MoMA is also crazy good.  But I'd also add the Guggenheim to the list.  Not just because of the collection but because of the building.  Really cool Frank Lloyd Wright design. 

I'd also consider the Whitney and that newer museum dedicated to film (I googled it, it's called "The Museum of the Moving Image".  Maybe they should have thought harder snappy name...), but I've never actually been to those places--I've just read about them.  But they look cool.

Also, now that I know there's a U-Boat in Chicago I'm dying to go back.  I've always wanted to see one of those, even if the staff and other patrons aren't likely to appreciate my solo attempts to recreate scenes from Das Boot.

+1 to alanp's suggestion.  Rangemaster is the pedal that comes to mind.  If you make one with selectable input caps you can control the nature of the boost and it works well with an edge of breakup amp.  Maybe while rolling back the guitar volume some.

Another kind of off the wall suggstion is to try boost an amp with an older VCA compressor like an orange squeezer.  I've had considerable luck getting nice compressed rhythm OD tones that way, especially combined with another pedal.  Like a rangemaster.

+1 to the Field Museum.  If you like art I highly recommend the Art Institute of Chicago.  Very fine art museum, right up there with the Met and MFA Boston.  Grant Wood's American Gothic.  That Seurat painting that everyone loves but nobody knows the name of (I'm kind of ashamed I don't know its name).  Fine impressionist gallery.  And that famous painting of the lonesome diner at night that you've seen a million times but nobody knows the name of (Edward Hopper, Nighthawks)  Also recall a decent collection of arms and armour if you're into that, and nice Asian gallery.

If you like roller coasters, Cedar Point really isn't that far away.  Kind of the Mecca of that sort of thing.  Good times.

Could you be more specific?  "60s style overdrive" is not at all specific.

I dropped off the radar for a week and I totally missed this.  Way to go, neets!  Your build turned out every bit as beautiful as I expected.

Selling pickups is perfectly normal--not weird at all.  Selling a wiring harness is less common but by no means unheard of--especially if it was purchased from a reputable/known dealer.  As far as prices are concerned, you'll have to do the legwork on your own.  I usually start by looking on eBay.  Click on the completed listings filter and look at what people have actually been getting (not what they've been asking for).  Reverb is probably the other obvious + useful place to look for prices.  So long as you're asking for a reasonable price, are honest in your descriptions, and the items are in servicable condition there are no moral/ethical problems with selling your stuff.  So stop beating yourself up for no good reason!

Welcome to the forum.

Looking at your first post on this, I'm mostly struck by the fact that you've done your homework.  You read enough to know what kinds of parts are generally endorsed by the community and gone through enough BOMs to get a great sense of what you're likely to use and use with good results.  So if you're a newbie, keep this up and you're not gonna be one for very long.  You didn't just do a good job.  You basically hit it out of the park.

mjg pointed out the only obvious things your list missed.  But the only thing I'd add is for those of us who don't live in the USA it often makes sense to bite the bullet and buy a bit more upfront in order to avoid/minimize shipping costs.  So if you're reasonably sure you're going to build a significant number of projects, you might want to buy jacks or ICs 10-20 at a time.  You can get bulk discounts and the shipping savings really add up quick.

That enclosure is a beauty.  And the board ain't too shabby either.  Congrats on the build.

Power tubes are perishable goods, so it could well be that they're starting to fail and need to be replaced (I'd want to be careful to rule out other causes first, though).  Your other tubes, on the other hand, can and probably will last for decades.  My deluxe reverb still has its original 12ax7s and 12at7s and it's more than 45 years old.  The idea that you should replace all your tubes is an old wives' tale made up by sellers to part you with your money.

Please do that, since I am planning on building a similar attenuator I'm interested.  Some people seem to really like them (at least for smallish levels of attenuation), others seem to think they sound constipated and dull (but then again that's the same thing the haters say about every other kind of attenuator).  I'd like to know what you think.

The short answer is that it'll be probably be fine.  Your amp is going to see a little bit more of a load when attenuation is active, but the amount is going to be relatively small.  25 ohms to 30 ohms isn't too much--especially if it's interacting with higher (8 or 16 ohms) loads.  You'll have to recalculate the taps if you want to get the attenuation steps just like the original, but if I was in your shoes I'd probably just build it more or less as is and try it out.  My guess is that you'll be plenty close.

According to the datasheet there is no 30 ohm version of the tapped resistor cited in that layout.  Do you have a datasheet for the specific one that you've got?

I'm a little confused.  There are two kinds of power resistors in your layout.  One is tapped, the other is not.  Are you saying you have a 30 ohm normal and a 30 ohm tapped, and that they are the same type as the two shown?