New Designs Coming Soon!!

I have some new pedals in the works. I built myself a homemade etching bubble tank using a plastic spaghetti strainer and fish tank bubbler (photos coming soon) and I'm anxious to try it out. So I just finished designing out a full page of new PCB layouts and I'm looking forward to getting back into the nerd lab. I will keep you posted!


Jeff

Mega Couch

My roommate and I finally when through with a project we dreamed up a while back. We wanted to build a riser for a 2nd couch to create a stadium seating arrangement. Really it just came down to waiting for someone to give us a free couch. Well that moment happened last weekend when we got a nice couch and matching chair for free from a neighbor down the street. 3 days later, we spent about an hour and a 16" couch riser built from scrap 2x4s and plywood was completed. We finished it off with lining the outside with black heavy plastic tablecloth material.

... and Mega Couch was born.

Young and Old: a new pedal (and an old one)

Here is a new pedal I just finished this afternoon. It is a clone of a Fulltone OCD overdrive. The thing is SICK. It actually gets pretty close to what good amp drive sounds like which is saying a lot for a pedal. I've had it for about a month or so, but it's been sitting inside a sad, unpainted aluminum enclosure. So today I finally got around to painting. I also realized today that I never posted pics of the first pedal I ever built from scratch. It is a Tube Screamer TS-808 clone that sounds pretty dang terrific if you ask me.

This was my first attempt at a snake skin tutorial I found. I used a fishnet stocking stretched over the pedal to make the pattern. (thank you to my friend, Chandra, for making that purchase for me so I wouldn't have to...) I think it came out pretty clean and I'll probably do more of them in the future. It's a gold metallic paint over several coats of basic white primer.

A little close up to show the detail of the paint job.

This is the first pedal I ever built almost 5 years ago. Funny story... after I finished this pedal, my next one ended up being the OG2. I'm not really sure how I came to that level of insanity, but I guess it paid off in the end.

Here's a little guts shot. Not the prettiest, but gimme a break since it was my first...

The switch on the left is a clipping diode switch for symmetrical or asymmetrical clipping. The switch on the right is an input cap switch which puts a frequency boost in either the mids or low mids. The Gigantor knob in the middle came off an old piece of hifi stereo equipment. It was what I had on hand at the time so I used it. Also, in the photo below you'll notice the black electrical tape all around the outside perimeter of the enclosure. That's because there are several holes in the enclosure that I drilled but didn't end up using for various reasons. :)

The young pup and the old dog. Nice looking family.

11 for 11

I stole this idea from a couple friends. This is not a list of things I would like to accomplish this year that eventually becomes a list of things I wish I had accomplished this year. It is a simple list of things to do or add to my routine that I hope will make me a better person.

- MY 11 FOR 11 -

1) read a newspaper regularly
2) do something service related that returns no recognition
3) thrice per week, wear something other than a t-shirt and jeans
4) learn 5 new (big or small) things a week on guitar and play something for fun once a day
5) spend time with my jr high small group boys a couple times a month outside of church
6) when making meals, reach more often for the refrigerator than the pantry
7) drink more water
8) sponsor a child through a world outreach agency
9) learn how to make clothing
10) once a day, affirm someone or tell them why I appreciate them
11) take 15 minutes every morning to close my eyes and be silent

New Years Resolution

Thought: Too many people who are looking for purpose are really looking for recognition. I'm no different. Being a musician, most of the ways I serve at my church involve being on stage in front of people. So what are my primary AND ulterior motives behind my service?

Action: My new year's resolution this year is to look for ways that I can serve without recognition.

random projects: part 1

Pickup Simulator:

This little "pedal" was made to help me create and tweak new circuit designs. It allows me to plug in an ipod to it with clean guitar riffs and rhythms and this unit changes the tone and impedance to make it sounds like it's coming from a guitar pick up. So now I can tweak and create without having a guitar on my lap with one hand strumming and the other swapping parts. Hopefully it will expedite that very time-consuming part of building effects.

Circuit Design Rig:

This unit is essentially all that I need to create and modify effects. I build the circuits on the 'breadboard' and then the pink unit is basically a pedal without an actual circuit so I plug my guitar into the input, it goes through whatever I have on the breadboard, and then the output goes to an amp.

the crunchy creme

So this is a pedal I built for my band mate, Steven Wesley Guiles. The name idea came from a moment of inspiration at the NAMM show last year. I was walking around with a friend and we passed by a Krunchy Kreme ice cream vendor. For some reason it popped in my head that Krunchy Kreme would make a cool pedal name. Fast forward to now... done.

The Crunchy Creme.

This pedal has a ton of "flavors". (pun intended) There are technically (3) different effects in this beast. The 'crunch' is a circuit modified from a Fulltone OCD. The 'creme' is a modified Ibanez Tube Screamer TS-808. And the 'boost' is a MXR Microamp Clean Boost. The OCD has its stock LP/HP filter switch and the Tube Screamer has an additional 'fat boost' switch as well as a diode clipping switch that yields (4) different colorations of distortion. There is also a DBS (dying battery simulator) knob which allows the user to dial down the voltage to simulate a dying battery. This was a common "mojo" trick back in the 60s/70s. Some guitar guys like Jimi Hendrix and Duane Allman swore by almost dead 9Vs. They claimed the dying batteries 'sweetened' the tone. Lastly, on the back is a bypass buffer switch so the user can toggle between true bypass and a buffered bypass.

customary guts shot. :)

You'll probably notice the little "thing" by the word "Ice". This was a courageous but stupid bug that decided to check out my artwork while the epoxy clear coat was drying and curing.