Messages

16

Open Discussion / New to me guitar day

« on: March 19, 2023, 08:39:23 AM »

I'm always talking about how I struggle to find a humbucker guitar I like. Most are too dark sounding, too muddy to me. I like P90s but only when they do that certain P90 grind. I'm always searching for that perfect HB guitar that is like a tele on steroids. So I got a tele on steroids.
I found a deal on a 2021 vintera telecaster deluxe at guitar center and took the plunge. Turns out the perfect scale length for me is 25.5". I play teles all the time so this felt like home. These are the revoiced alnico wide range HBs that Tim Shaw worked on. They are very clear, bright and articulate. And after years of playing Les Pauls the control layout felt like second nature.
I replaced the pick up selector switch and jack with switchcraft parts as the stock stuff felt cheap. While I was in there I added some treble bleeds and an electrosocket jack cup like I do in all teles. I want to clean up the wiring because fender always has too much wire but that's for another day. I polished up the frets and did a full setup and man does this thing fuck. My SG is jealous already. RIP Gibson. Also a family photo of the current fender stable.

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17

Open Discussion / Re: Finally leveled up.

« on: March 18, 2023, 01:04:23 PM »

Congratulations Jimi, that's a real achievement at any age!

18

Build Reports / Re: The Fraud Hacker

« on: March 17, 2023, 09:38:01 AM »

glad you got it figured out, always a triumph. That is one good looking pedal, the outside looks stunning but the inside...and that wiring fucks. killed it, and I'm not just saying that because I love this circuit.

Thanks, Chris! This pre-bonded wire, man. I can't go back now.

Love the graphics man!!!!

Thanks, Justin!

Nice!  Glad you got this one sussed out.  It turned out great.

Thanks, Clinton! Yeah, I'm glad it was just that one (minus two) thing. Bonus is now I can focus on making that Pork Barrel work properly

Excellent!  This came out so nice. Glad you got it sorted. 

Thanks, my dude, I'm glad as well. Like I say, better it was simple than a rats nest.

Once you discover good wire it's a game changer and you never go back to sub par stuff

19

Build Reports / Re: The Fraud Hacker

« on: March 16, 2023, 07:33:56 PM »

glad you got it figured out, always a triumph. That is one good looking pedal, the outside looks stunning but the inside...and that wiring fucks. killed it, and I'm not just saying that because I love this circuit.

20

Build Reports / Re: Nordic Metal

« on: March 15, 2023, 04:57:25 AM »

That is awesome!!!


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Thanks Jimi

Have to say it's Hela awesome! Well done.

Thanks dude

Have to say it's Hela awesome! Well done.

There you go again

No love Will? 😂😂😂

Sick build, Chris  That graphic rules. 

Most of the Boss haters just want to be different, same for Strats.  But us pedal junkies know the real deal    

Thanks John. For years I used a lot of boss pedals and those were the times I was happiest with my sound and focused more on playing. I bought the boutique hype, many of which were just boss circuits  in disguise lol.

21

Build Reports / Re: Nordic Metal

« on: March 14, 2023, 12:59:07 PM »

Clean build, as always.
Be sure to try it out if the fx return. Not the loop, straight into the return.
If you have a loop bypass capability on your amp, you now have an extra channel.
If you have a parallel loop, split the clean guitar signal, one split to a fuzz into the amp, the other split to MZ to parallel loop return and blend to your dooms content.

Thanks, but I don't have an effects loop or amp with technology past 1965 lol I play a 35w deluxe reverb hahahaha It still chuggs

Killer build as always my man!  I never quite understood all the hate the metal zone gets.  For something that's supposedly garbage, Boss sure did sell a shit ton of them. 

Thanks Clinton. I agree, I think for what it's supposed to do, it does it well. Like most things it's user error and not the pedal's fault for yielding good results. I'm not gonna hold it against boss for people with bad taste running it into a solid state crate with cardboard speakers lol

22

Build Reports / Nordic Metal

« on: March 14, 2023, 07:00:10 AM »

What is one of the most polarizing distortion boxes ever? It's associated with many bands that are equally polarizing and it's one of the best selling distortion pedals of the past 30 years. The other end of the boss metal sound...the Metal Zone. If the HM-2 were heads on a coin, the MT-2 would definitely be tails on that coin. There are so many bad examples of this pedal and it's written off so much, but why? It's like the limp Bizkit of metal pedals and like many things in this collection I'm working on I have to ask is it better than I remember it back in the late 90s?

The metal zone is like someone at boss was dared to make the most over the top stompbox and they simply said hold my beer. The amount of gain is ridiculous and I think that's why people hate it so much. The key imo is to not max the gain out. You could run it at 9 o clock and still have gain for days. The EQ is the other problem. It's powerful and has so much control over shaping the sound that people don't take the time to learn how to use it effectively. Boss pedals are notorious for having the reputation of setting everything at noon and you get a great sound, and this is not that. Diming everything like a. HM-2 and it seems like a lot of people think this will work on the MT-2 but that's not the case. So many sounds are available in this box that between this and the HM-2 I could get any heavy sound I want.

What it's not...not heavy. You want something that can do low gain, crunch and high gain? This ain't it. This is metal zone 100% of the time. I think with taking the time to sculpt the EQ and exploring the lower ranges of the gain pot this is a versatile high gain pedal that has so many great sounds as well as an equal amount of terrible ones. In the end, I highly recommend this if you want the chug and will take the time to tune it to your rig, or you want a box of angry bees.

The build itself was simple minus one issue, albeit an easy fix. In typical guitarpcbmania fashion there was an error, the gain pot is working in reverse. Would have been nice to have this documented.I simply wired the pot in reverse and the gain pot now works as it should. Also, I couldn't find a 50kb dual gain pot so I used a 100k dual gang and used parallel resistors to drop it to 50k on each gang The noise floor is better than the original and the circuit has tons of mods available that are documented in the build doc. Also I wired the optional clipping switch for just stock silicon. All in all a straight forward build that had one hiccup. Matte dark grey tayda box with simple UV print. Went with Hella to match the Nordic metal name and the goddess of the death had the vibe of the sound as well.

In spite of the guitarpcbmania issue and their reputation I will recommend this project if you want to build a metal zone, if all else because it's the only board available for the project as far as I know.

23

Build Reports / Re: Echo Fuzz - MB Splunker

« on: March 13, 2023, 08:48:44 PM »

Killer build John, still got it!

24

Build Reports / Re: Argent Fuzz

« on: March 08, 2023, 08:28:15 AM »

That graphic just leaps off the front.  And for it to work as chrome on silver is too cool.  Well played Chris!!

Thanks Gordy, sometimes everything in a comes together as planned.  I'm just glad the pedal doesn't suck 😂

25

Build Reports / Re: Argent Fuzz

« on: March 07, 2023, 01:25:09 PM »

This whole thing just super Radd, man. Cosmic, even.


Okay, heraldic puns aside, nice work on this. The sparkle, chrome, and matte silver tones are killer. Also, I had no idea Aion did anything but black PCBs. That's a fun addition. I'll have to listen with headphones, but I like the sort of crackle that's going on with this one.

It tough for me to like a fuzz, but this one is growing on me, like the Superfuzz.

if you like the superfuzz then my fz-2 build might be right up your alley

Love it!

Thank You!

Man, that’s so clean looking, I’ve never seen a silver circuit board I don’t think.


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Kevin has a whole bunch of different colored boards that I didn't realize could be done.

26

Build Reports / Argent Fuzz

« on: March 07, 2023, 08:27:35 AM »

Fuzz, I like it, but just like adolescent girls, it's hard to live with. I've struggled for years to find fuzz that wouldn't sound terrible in my rig and be riddled with placement and impedance issues. Well there is no perfect pedal but this is perfect for my needs and go figure it would be the short lived and hard to find Boss FZ-3 that would tickle my fancy and become my go to fuzz of choice and get a fuzz pedal back on my board.

The fz-3 is like the Boss engineers took a fuzz face and a tonebender and put some George Michael on and made a shameful love child. It's a flame thrower. Like anything boss in the 90s, it's over engineered but it solves the issues of impedance and placement. Does it clean up up like a germ FF? No, but the cleanup is still pretty good considering the amount of volume and gain on tap. The tone knob is a helpful addition to tame any harshness or help bring the edge back. I was really surprised with this one since because boss is not known for fuzz (fz-5 🤢) and the fz-2 is like the golden child, this was a nice vintage style fuzz that should be getting more love. Did I mention it doesn't care about wah and buffer placement?🤡

The build was simple, I used mmbfj201 smd jfets and the rest is all generic simple to get modern parts. For the enclosure I went with a winked silver tayda box with UV printing. To go with the argent theme (silver) I found the dopest silver surfer image I could find and rocked that. Thanks to @SYLV9ST9R for exploring new ways to work text into vectors and getting the argent text incorporated into the surfboard. For the demo I used my strat with treble bleed and low output vintage wind single coils on the bridge into my blackface set clean. Volume, tone and gain set just shy of 1 o'clock. I highly recommend this circuit.

27

Build Reports / Re: Aquaboy Deluxe

« on: March 02, 2023, 08:16:21 AM »

Hot damn, this is a banger! 

Thanks Clinton

What an unlikely combination of colors to come together so nicely- it's tripping me out a bit.  Very well done.
Looks great inside too but that pink is quite remarkable!

I like bright vibrant colors and we don't see pink enough on pedals, so I had to do another upcoming build with pink as well.

28

Build Reports / Re: JMK Paralyzer *EXTREME* (now with series bypass)

« on: March 02, 2023, 08:14:28 AM »

That's a massive knob and switch and the etch is so clean. I'm not sure exactly how I would even use a pedal like this, I'm gonna have to look up uses. Great job again.

29

Build Reports / Re: Aquaboy Deluxe

« on: March 01, 2023, 06:35:54 PM »

 

Damn! When did Namor go full Quetzalcoatl?! I haven't read since the '90s, so I'm dated

Super clean, man! I'm always impressed by this, because there's NO trace of rosin anywhere. Do you ultrasonic clean these? All the same, very impressed.

And you're crankin these things out like a madman while making every piece of the guts rank and file…

That's namor from wakanda forever. I love the Aztec flare they gave him. As for the boards, no special method of flux removal, I really don't make a mess when I solder.

Maaan, very clever!


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Thanks Jimi

Beautiful looking build, as usual!

I'm loving that shade of pink, too. Killer.

I had to use this since it was like the original dm-2

Amazing build as ever man! Your reports are always fantastic but a double edged sword as I always end up thinking "Yeah, totally need this one too".

Love the on-brand knob choice too!

Thanks, another great layout and project from Brian.
Gotta have reflectors on a boss builds, and they are my favorite knobs now so I wanna put them on everything.

Another banger, Chris!   

Thanks John

You bet it is! This is awesome.

Thank you

Gor jee us!!!

Very nice!

Ahh shucks 🥴

30

Build Reports / Aquaboy Deluxe

« on: March 01, 2023, 09:45:16 AM »

"I have many names. My people call me K’uk’ulkan, but my enemies call me Namor." What a Boss. Speaking of Boss, this is the boss of boss, the aquaboy deluxe, what waza craft wishes it would have done for the dm-2w.

The aquaboy deluxe is a reimagined dm-2 with expanded delay time and added modulation. The delay has been expanded from ~300ms to 550-600ms. The longer delay times make the repeats darker and softer. The signature dm-2 tone and percussive repeats are still there though. The optical modulation on the repeats is very versatile, from slow and shallow to deep and fast it's all there. The waveform switch can go from none in the middle, standard triangle wave or extreme square wave. The pedal is also given higher headroom with the addition of a charge pump for 18v and regulated to 15v.

There is also an added tails switch that allows you to switch between true bypass or a buffered style bypass that simply cuts the wet signal prior to the compander and giving you a tails fade out when used. I don't use the tails or care for it and wanted to streamline the bypass switching so it was ommitted in my build. The trimmer for maximum feedback is a nice addition as well for customizing how soon the pedal will oscillate, and the dm-2 spaceship oscillation is the best of any analog delay I have used.

I had one issue during the build, I had a low distortion on the repeats. After audio probing and following the signal path I traced it down to the compander and narrowed it down between 2 capacitors and it was a bum 220n cap. Once that was replaced all was perfect. On larger complex builds like this I didn't follow my own advice if checking each part before populating. Also an important reminder to build an audio probed and learn to read schematics. I calibrated according to the boss service manual.

I went with a matte pink tayda 1590BB2 enclosure with my boy Namor for the artwork. Really happy with how this one turned out and the sound is fantastic and perfect for my playing style and rig. Excellent layout and simple to bias I highly recommend the AQBDLX if you are looking for the DM-2 sound with added versatility.