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Cool guitar, cooler wife!

You are doubly blessed!  As awesome as new guitars are, there is nothing on earth better then an awesome Wife.

Thanks for the replies guys.  This is one of my next projects.  Not as fun as pedals, but it needs to be done.

Jacob,

Do you have a source for bulk instrument cable?  I would try Canare in a heartbeat if I can buy it in bulk and build my own.....

Thanks

Anyone here making their own instrument and patch cables.  I've been reading various boards and blogs on the topic of cables and their effect on tone.  I have to admit, I've gone pretty far down the rabbit hole.  If you believe half of what you read, you absolutely have to have Van den hul cables for your entire chain.  You should also not complain that your new cables cost more then your amp and all the boxes on your board combined.  After all, you can puff your chest out for days on the gear page   If you can't tell, I'm pretty sceptical.  That being said, I do believe based on experience, that some cables to do sound noticeably better then others.  Especially if you have more then one or two effects in your chain. 

So, I'm wondering if any of you DIY types are building your own cables to go along with your roll your own boxes.  If so, what are you using, other then solderless?  I have an acquaintance that swears by Lava cables.  You can get the small diameter Lava cable for pedal boards for about $1.90 per foot.  I think I'm going to buy about 20 feet, and enough Neutrik plugs to re-do my board.  I haven't been able to find their regular instrument cable in bulk, however.

Anyone have any suggestions for high quality instrument cable for the DIY'er?

Sweet!

I love Blondes!  I'm sitting here playing mine now.  It's a little lighter in color (body) but they could be twins.

After I got my Tele, I was on a quest to find a strat with a Maple neck.  I just sold my rosewood board Strat.  I much prefer the maple to the Rosewood board.

Congrats on the new addition to your family!

Yeah I really wanted to find a black one and do the gilmour thing with a black pickguard but the burst is really cool too. It reminds me of ronnie woods strat.

The guy who sold it to me also had a MIJ 62' reissue basically the same strat with a rosewood fretboard and a mint pickguard I told him when he's ready to sell it to give me a call. It played really nice and had the trem bridge.

I am really thinking about building a 5e3 kit from weber this christmas to go with this guitar though. vintage on a budget thats my thing. I am just a little scared of working with MAINS voltage but I have a friend who builds amps all the time and another friend who builds boutique amps so I know I can get good advice.

I love Gilmour's black strat.  I bought my second MIJ strat because it is a maple neck.  I've been looking for the right black strat body to put one together.

As far as the 5e3 build goes, I have some advice, for what it's worth.  I've built a 5e3 clone.  It was my first amp build, and I looked around for a while before I decided to go with a kit.  I had never built an amp before, so I figured a kit was the way to go.  I decided against Weber based on parts quality.  I built a Mission Amps kit.  I'd highly recommend Mission as a great option for a couple of reasons.  First, the kit comes with top quality parts.  Second, Bruce Collins, the owner of Mission Amps, is a great guy to deal with and offers great customer service.  If you have problems, he'll help you.

Since you have a couple of amp building buddies.  You could also have them help you source parts and go without a kit.  This would allow you to build the amp as a head with high quality parts.  Something you really won't get from Weber.  If I had it to do over again, I'd get a beefier output transformer to help tighten up the low end.  That's the only sniggle I have with the 5e3 circuit.  Parts quality definitely makes a difference in amps.  Get the best Transformers you can afford.  Don't go cheap on pots, switches, and tube sockets.  Also, consider the SOZO blue Astron replacement capacitors.  They make a very noticeable difference, though they are expensive.  Some will tell you to use all carbon comp resistors, but I don't think you have to use them everywhere.  Here is a link to an article on the use of carbon comps to get that "magic mojo".  If you need help sourcing part PM me, and I'll give you links to some of suppliers I have used.

http://www.geofex.com/article_folders/carbon_comp/carboncomp.htm

Also, I wouldn't worry too much about the hype that working with amp voltages can kill you.  It's possible, but if you are careful, you will be fine.  The most important things to learn are to keep one hand in your pocket while you are working inside a chassis when high voltage is present, and how to drain your power supply caps, so high voltage is not present.  Amp building, like pedal building,  it is addictive.  I can almost guarantee that you will want to build several more amps when you are done with the Deluxe.

Good luck and have fun!

Congrats!

I love the MIJ strats, and I'd love to have a "50's" model sunburst like yours.  I have two, and they are both blonde.

Have fun with it.

If you can try to fix your wah that would be the cheapest way to go. I modded my dunlop wah and it sounds alot better now. I just did all the mods on http://www.stinkfoot.se/andreas/diy/mods/dunlop.htm except I left the buffer in. I did do a fasel upgrade but I think the few simpler mods are really easy and improve the sound alot. The fasel upgrade does help a little but it isn't that big of a difference.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gzn-A0Wp1uY
I did a comparison video of my modded crybaby to a stock crybaby.

I am constantly on the prowl on craigslist for broken wahs so I can either mod or build them. The empty shells are about $45 over at small bear and they don't include the pot! I am hoping to build a wah either use ggg's or tonepads or I know madbean is working on a wah board (weener wah).

I am thinking about doing a heavy mod to the stock one I have and put everything on external pots on the side. top freqency, q, volume boost.

I was really scared to drill the enclosure for the led because I had bad experiences with sheet metal but the cast metal they use for the dunlop wahs is ridiculously cheap. I put my drill bit in place to get ready to drill and it pushed straight through the case without the drill even being turned on! I am amazed those pedals don't just crush beneath the weight of players.

Thanks for the link.  That is like "making your crappy wah useable for dummies".  Which is exactly what I need.  Thank You!  I'm going to play with the existing PCB and see what happens.  I still may completely re-build it later, but based on your video, I may not........

Jacob,

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll check it out.  Have you built the GGG wah?

I'd like to have the vox wah but I need to do something with the wah I have, because money is really tight right now.  Anything would be an improvement over what this wah was before it died..........

I have never been happy with my Dunlop wah, so I can't say that I'm really upset.  I rarely play it, but every now and then I get the itch.  It worked the last time I plugged into it, and nothing has been done to it in the interim.  It just decided it was done I guess.

It passes signal when not engaged, but no signal when engaged.  I just checked continuity quickly yesterday, and it seems to have continuity where I would expect it (no obvious breaks in circuit path at first blush).

So the question is, should I try to fix a wah I've never really cared for, or use the parts to build up a custom wah?  Next question.  If I wanted to build my own, does anyone have any suggestions or links to boards or layouts?  I was thinking i'd like to do a Perf board version with clips or turrets.

Well, sure. But tone is subjective. We're kinda talking about 'what's your favorite chocolate'? Dark, semi-sweet, milk, white.......


To be honest, tone is still in the hands. You can make any muff sound good with any rig and any guitar on any given day.

Thanks for the reply.  I agree.  One man' meat is another man' poison.  I guess I'll just have to take the jump.  I'll probably build both the Darkside and the Mudbunny eventually. 

Jacob, if you do socket the various components, and swap back and forth, it would be cool if you could review the differences.  I for one would be really interested in how you perceive the differences.

It would be interesting and informative if Madbean had a place to post comparative clips of the various OD's, Muff variants, fuzz variants, etc.  It would be cool to be able hear some of the differences.  I know it wouldn't be perfect because they would not be recorded with the same mic, guitar, amp, player etc. but it still could be quite informative.

Best muff derivative I have EVER played is Madbean's Darkside.

Can you describe why this is?  It was the Darkside that first brought me to this forum.  After checking out what few clips and vids I could of the original, I lost interest.  I know that Youtube is not a great way to make decisions on tone, but the original Cornish pedal sounds like Shite in every vid or clip I've seen or heard.  I love Gilmour's tone, but I can't afford a couple of Hiwatts, WEM cabs with Fanes, Doppolas and the other $100,000 worth of assorted and sundry racks and effects that he uses.  I just kind of thought that the Cornish muff couldn't sound too bad given the other gear, but in a more "budget" rig must sound crappy.  Maybe I'm wrong.  I really could use a stellar distortion.

I don't want to hi-jack this thread, I was just wondering what makes a great muff, cuz I'd love to have one.

I am only familiar with the Hammond enclosure that Madbean attached.  PPP carries them, as do others I'm sure.  I don't really like the looks of them either.  I was thinking of building a looper a while back and did some research.  I contacted a couple of sheet metal places to get quotes on what they would charge to bend the enclosures for me.  I was mildly surprised by the price.  They were definitely more than the mass produced Hammonds but not as much as I thought they might be.  One small shop quoted me around $30 for an enclosure large enough for 6 loops, a master by-pass and a tuner out (I think it was 2 1/2 x 2 x 16) and that was out of heavy guage aluminum.  If your near a larger city, you should check out the yellow pages.

I didn't end up building mine, because there are other things that I need more.  I haven't got those built or bought either.  Gotta love this economy.   

I bought this cheap solder station from Parts-express for $12.  It's up to $15 now.  I've used it for about two years, built 3 amps, and soldered some effects with it.  It's no frills but works great and you can't beat the price. The wand feels good and the tips are pretty good quality.  I'd buy it again in a second if this one craps out.

www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=374-100

Cool!

I like the idea of having the Rawk mode selectable by footswitch.  I am planning on doing the same when ever I get around to building this pedal.  I also prefer the look of pedals executed in the larger box.  They just look cooler, even if they're not as pedal board friendly. 

Give us a review of the 2nd edition when you get a chance.  Seems like you could almost use this pedal alone for rhythm and lead set up the way you have it.  Was it necessary to go with the 1590 size box or was that a stylistic choice?