BOSS Tone Studio without a Pedal

I was trying out the BOSS tone studio before I bought my BOSS RC-3 looper pedal. I wanted to see if there were loops I could use before I got the pedal. The software doesn’t let you download the loops without the pedal plugged in.

What I realised though, is if you use a USB or SD Card and rename it BOSS_RC_3, and then create the same directory structure, you can download all the loops without the pedal.

Les Paul Junior / Tele Hybrid – Fano SP6 Clone

Every since I first came across the Fano SP6, I’ve wondered if it was possible to build something similar. It’s a really great looking design, half Les Paul Jr. and half Telecaster. It took me a while to find any parts that would suit this, so I thought I’d list them out here so it’s easier for you all to find:

BYO Guitar do a complete kit that’s very similar, you could buy a Les Paul Special pickguard and you’d be set:
http://www.byoguitar.com/Guitars/BYO-Elite-Jr-T-Kit__BYO-Elite-Jr-T.aspx

There are a couple of sellers on eBay that do bodies that have Strat style neck pockets:
ToneBomb
Rosser Guitars

Finally if you want to go completely custom, Precision guitars can custom CNC you any body shape with any routing:
https://buy.precisionguitarkits.com/product/whole-guitar-design-programming

Precision Guitar Kits have a custom junior that can be used to do something similar:
https://precisionguitarkits.com/product/junior-customizer

Update:
Just found the Rondo Agile AL-2500. Pretty much a complete clone. The control plate looks a bit in the wrong place though.

Switchable Volume and Expression Pedal

Update: Hotone have now made one of these, check out their Tuner Press.

Here’s a quick video of a 2 in 1 Volume and Expression pedal. Like a wah it has a footswitch built in that lets you switch between volume mode and expression mode without switching cables. I modified a bespeco weeper wah to build this which is a switchable volume/wah.
– It had a dual pot which meant I only needed a 3PDT switch, but I had a 4PDT, so I could add an LED in the future.
– If you only have a single pot, you need a 4PDT to do the switching.
– Mine is a buffered volume pedal, with true bypass switching, in case something fails I can bypass everything.
– You could easily modify it to be buffered bypass so that tone stays consistent between switching
– If you had a 500K pot you could probably get away with no buffer, although in expression mode it would then be 500K, and most expression inputs specify for 10K to 100K. It should work, but might not work in every circumstance.

I haven’t had time to do a schematic, so the pictures will have to do:

Fender Medium Jumbo Frets (.103 x .046)

Been doing a little bit of research for a partscaster I’m building, and found some of the forums have mixed information about what is truly Fender’s medium jumbo frets. Anyway found that the fret wire they sell as medium jumbo is .103″ (2.62mm) wide and.046″ (1.17mm) tall according to this link on fender.com:

http://intl.fender.com/en-GB/guitar-bass-parts/misc-parts/standard-guitar-frets-medium-jumbo24/

This makes it pretty much spot on with dunlop 6150 fret wire unlike this post which is one of the top results on Google:

http://www.tdpri.com/threads/fret-wire-help.513926/

Cleartone vs. D’Addario NYXL

I recently swapped my the strings on my guitar from Cleartones to D’Addario NYXL. Here are a quick few thoughts comparing the two:

– Cleartone strings definitely lasted a long time with showing much corrosion
– Cleartone were definitely louder, I was surprised how noticeable this was
– Cleartone were louder in the fundamental, but NYXL had more harmonics
– Cleartone were much higher tension for the same string gauge and required a new setup in order to have correct intonation. The high tension also made it harder to play and felt like I was playing a higher string gauge.

Overall I think NYXL sound much more like conventional nickel strings, because of the balance between the fundamental note and harmonic content. I understand that for some styles of music, some might prefer the sound of Cleartone strings, but for me, I’ll definitely be sticking with the NYXLs.

Enable Social Media Links on YouTube (2016)

YouTube recently changed the default settings for channels (including those that already had links enabled) so that social media links don’t show up on your channel banner. To enable these, here’s what you have to do.

1) Click the gear link under your channel banner

enablelinks1

2) Enable “Customize the layout of your channel”

enablelinks2

3) Add social media/website links as per before

2 Channel Guitar Amp In A Pedal

I’ve been experimenting with some of the cheap class d amplifier boards available on eBay from china. This is the PAM8610 board with a Wampler Euphoria clone as a preamp. I added a footswitch that footswitches between clean and overdrive. It switches between two separate gain pots for clean and overdrive, removes the clipping diodes for clean, and adds a lead master in overdrive mode. I did some tests with this setup in separate enclosures, and there was very little hum, but as you can see from the video, there is tons when in the same enclosure. Maybe I have something poorly soldered, or maybe things are just too close together. Still it would be cool if a real manufacturer did something like this and sorted out all the issues because it doesn’t sound bad other than the hum. I might get another one of the boards and put it by itself in it’s own box. I’m powering it with a Mooer 2000mA power supply, but a one spot or anything over 1000mA should work, and it should take anything up to 12V.

Here’s some pics of the project. Notice I had to cut some of the plastic housing from the input jack, as well as bend the legs to make it all fit. The chassis is grounded, but the speaker output is isolated from the chassis. I kind of wish I’d used the deeper 1590BS instead of a 1590B so that there was a little more room.

List of DIY Guitar Pedal PCB Manufacturers

After building a 2 in 1 overdrive, I’ve got interested in building more pedals, so here’s a few of the PCBs manufacturers I’ve found. Please let me know if you have more to add.

Title Description
BYOC The classic kit shop
Aion Electronics Large selection of PCBs with detailed analysis and history
Fuzz Dog UK based, large selection of PCBs and kits
Delyk PCBs Unique selection of PCBs including an effects tester
General Guitar Gadgets Huge number of PCBs
Musik Ding German based site
Arcadia Electronics Good selection of PCBs with board mounted jacks and footswitch
Muzique A few boost/drive PCBs
Jeds Peds Another UK based company
MadBean Pedals Another great site
Tayda Electronics
Rully Wow
GuitarPCB.com
MusicPCB.com
JMK PCBs
1776 Effets
Pedal Parts and Kits
Lectric FX