Another John Hollis Easy Vibe

These things are great. So great in fact the guys from Dutch Uncles were quite taken with mine when I met them a few weeks back. After the successful first collaboration on the Mr Wooding, guitarist Sped asked me to make him a Vibe pedal, with the graphics an (ahem) loving homage to the lovely Hayley from Paramore

I used an idea I picked up on the Tremulus lune for this build. I used vero for the pots again, and I used the vero in the middle to mount the LED, with leads flying back to the DPDT footswitch board. Looks cool, seems robust, and holds the LED solidly. Winner! I used some cheap LEDs from Rapid which I was a bit concerned about (different to ones Ive used in previous builds of this pedal).

Thankfully the effect works as it should. Im yet to thoroughly playtest but it sounded nice through my little test rig. Encountered a couple dumb issues - wired both pots backwards which was dumb of me, ill need to check the schematic, Im sure I did it right. Anyway, I fixed that. Second was the Tip of the input jack was pushing against the back of the pot. Luckily I used the nice plastic coated ones. I ended up twisting the jack round as it was a pain.

Some pics:

Pot assembly with LED mouting

Gut shot of the completed build

Front pic. I think I sourced the perfect knobs for this!

Temple Tone, for Everything Everything

Another commission! Hot on the heels of Dutch Uncles, another friendly local band asked me to make a tremolo as a suprise birthday present for their guitarist.The band is question is Everything Everyhing who really are out there making some highly interesting and eclectic music and Im proud to say they are from Manchester. There debut album Man Alive is really great, check them out: Everything Everything


Anyway, a tremolo you say.
What better to base it on than the evergreen Tremulus Lune!?

I used one of the vero's floating around on the net and added the modifications (fine rate control and waveshape symmetry). This was one hell of a build.

Here are the guts:

The graphics were the guys choice:

This thing sounds soooo good really I dont say that cos I made it. The options offered by the controls are vast and comprehensive. The symmetry to vary the waveshape from sine like this \/\/\/\/\/ to ramping like either this l\l\l\l\l\l\l or l/l/l/l/l/l/l/ is awesome.

Looking forward to working with more local bands as and when.
For the future ive decided to invest in some PCBs

From MadBean I purchased some zvex boards (MAchine, 2 in 1, Fuxx Factory) a CE-2 called the pork barrel and a BJFe Honey Bee.
From Guitar PCB I have custom ordered Lovetone Ring Stinger workalike called the String Ringer, the EA tremolo (though I reckon itll suck compared to the Lune) the MIA Crunch Box and a couple of MAgnus Modulus. Ill be building forever!

Over and out.

NGD (New Guitar Day)

Hi folks, been away on vacation to Romania and while there I selfishly bought a new guitar (via the wonders of Wifi, who'd have thought it in Rural Transilvania? - on eBay).

Its a stunning (IMHO) Mexican made 72 Telecaster Thinline in natural ash.
My best mate had one of these as a kid when all I could afford was a lowly Squier Tele copy (korean of all places). Now, 15 years later, I have my own, albeit not a MIJ like his was.

Street price on these seems to be £800 - wow, times have changed. I remember my mates MIJ was £500 brand new. I think this mex is made pretty well though and it sounds on the money. Its a bit heavier than the one I remember however, poorer quality ash perhaps? Still, I paid £400 which I think is reasonable.

Here is a little video of me improving when I got the guitar home this evening. Pedals are Creamy Dreamer > Mammoth > Easy Vibe > Echo base.