Ive been busy...part 1

Damn its been too long. I got reminded recently that people still read this blog. Really genuinely lovely to hear that, and also that people are finding it a good read, which is important too. Not just reading it to laugh at my efforts making effects pedals.

So what have I been up to you ask? First up, I have been doing some more custom work for nice people.
Firstly, I finished a Tone Bender style fuzz for a guy in a band called Modern Alarms. www.myspace.com/modernalarms I think. Check them out. Anyway, he wanted a fuzz pedal to cut thru a mix, and with 2 or 3 knobs. Knowing a tone knob would be vital, we settled on three. In the end I prototyped 3 circuits for this, the first two just werent doing the business for me. He wanted a fuzz that could be subtle but also go all out carnage. Fuzz Faces were tried. Some silicon tone bender variants were tried. In the end I settled on some tweaks to a Silicon TB design found at Freestompboxes. The guy wanted something with a guy called "The Bunk" on it, and the controls to say (pardon my French) Motha Fucka, so who was I to stand in his way! Designed this myself, using a google image.

Suffice to say, David loves the pedal.

Heres the internals. Used some nice enclosed jacks which seem robust. Definitely space conscious!

Next up I was very happy to be commissioned to make a Hot Cake for Ed Nash from up and coming band Bombay Bicycle Club. They have just released their third studio album and I think this one will really break them. They had a first single called Shuffle check it out and if you like it go see the album. Its really fantastic. So Ed's commission was much simpler. He knew exacly what he wanted. A Hot Cake, with a picture of his cat on it.

Keen eyed will see the name Gigahearts and a heart hexagram logo on this pedal. You will see it on other ones to come. I have started a small company, or more to say I have a brand name. I will make a whole new post on the subject after this one...

Here are the guts. Annoyingly, my trusty DPDT daughter board switching arrangement doesnt ground input when in bypass, so I subsequently rewired this with a 3PDT Cliff high quality stomp because the pedal was oscillating in bypass :( Odd as this has never been an issue with MANY builds of mine including very high gain stuff like the Dr Boogie. Anyway, not a massive issue. Good learning point for any readers, if your overdrive or distortion device has oscillation bleed in bypass, it is most likely due to the input not being grounded in bypass. Certain arrangements for DPDT with millenium bypass and 3PDT schemes do allow for this, and its definitely worth doing. Check here for all the details http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=33&Itemid=27

Thats it for now, I will be back shortly with part 2 and maybe part 3....

Thanks for reading. Happy soldering.