Adventures in Pedal Modding 2: Hitting the First Wall

Adventures in pedal modding 2: hitting the first wall

A while back I thought I’d do a post for fun about my foray into the world of effect pedal modding. The first mod was a success, but in all fairness was a simple capacitor swap to give my Ibanez TS-7 tube screamer some more low-end response. It’s been a while since I’ve updated things beyond that because well, with the next mod I ended up hitting a wall that I’ve been trying different ways around for months.

I found a mod online that was supposed to be a “boiled down Analogue-man silver mod” that only required three component changes. If you’re not familiar with Analogue-man he does pedal upgrades that go up by quality and price. (silver, gold, platinum, etc.) It was a bit more extensive as far as taking the pedal part to get to the boards, but it still should have gone simply enough if I had just been careful…

What you see here is a good example of impatience. I used my solder sucker pen to desolder the component, but didn’t have any braid handy to suck up the last excess bit to easily remove the component. I stupidly tried to persuade it a little bit with pliers and ended up cracking and chipping the board right there, killing the circuit. I looked up some ways to fix the broken pad or jump it to the next solder point but so far all my efforts have been in vain. I once briefly completed the circuit by using a spare piece of wire to connect the broken trace but the signal only stayed for a moment. I gotta say it was a pretty cool moment though because when I tested it I temporarily got this glitchy fuzz that I had certainly never heard out of this pedal before. I still don’t understand how that happened, but oh well.

Since then the circuit has been dead, the pedal gets power, but no sound. Since the pedal was free I can’t say it was a great loss if I don’t get it fixed, although it would have been nice to have around. Lesson learned: if the component doesn’t fall right out, take your time and press some wick on there. Don’t try to push/pull it out!

NAMM 2014 Picks

I may not be enough of a gear-nerd to follow NAMM like a hawk each year, but inevitably there are always going to be some items of interest I get excited about and I thought I would share a few here.

New Earthquaker Devices pedals:

I’ve had chances to hear Earthquaker Devices products in action and it’s no wonder that they are one of the most hyped stompbox manufacturers out there right now. I can’t afford to buy pedals anywhere near as much as I would like but rest assured effects like the Rainbow Machine and Organizer have been on the top of my wish-list for the past year or more. Well, time to put even more strain on your finances and decision making because Earthquaker just unveiled two new awesome effects; The Pitch Bay and Terminal.

I’m a sucker for a good pitch-shifter, and the Pitch Bay also packs in distortion and a polyphonic harmonizer to make sure you’re getting you’re money’s worth in out of this world weirdness and sonic experimentation. The Terminal, on the other hand, is the true fuzz-lover’s fuzz. But hell, take a listen for yourself and see what you think.

http://earthquakerdevices.com/pitch-bay-polyphonic-harmonizer-and-terminal-fuzz-at-namm-2014/

Spector unveils new Dan Briggs signature model bass:

This one takes the top prize in “holy crap!” and “it’s about time they finally did that”. Dan Briggs’ bass playing in Between the Buried and Me is already the stuff of prog-metal legend as far as I’m concerned, but it was his tone on the Trioscapes’ debut record Separate Realities that cleared up any unlikely misconceptions regarding his bad-assery. It was through him that I first heard about Spector,  now I love my Q4 Pro like a child and it’s not even one of the more expensive models. The full specs aren’t available as of yet, but it’s based upon the NS 2000 5-string and will have a figured maple top,  EMG-HZs and a TonePump Jr. Preamp. More info will be available soon and I’ll likely be salivating over this one for a while since it’s supposed to carry a $1,999 price tag upon it’s release (I can’t remember if that’s list or not but I hope so). With it being built to his specs I don’t doubt that it will sound amazing, as Dan’s tone in the aforementioned record strikes the perfect balance between modern active sensitivity and old-school passive growl when he digs in with distortion engaged. This thing should be close to everything I would personally want in a bass if his range of clean and effected tones on his recording portfolio are an indication.

New Digitech Bass Whammy:

I’ve hard praises sung for Digitech’s whammy pedal for years but I’ve never owned one for myself. Looks like I might need to change that soon because this thing sounds pretty rad, especially the chord modes and the extra pitch-shifting intervals such as 10ths.

http://www.guitarworld.com/namm-2014-digitech-introduces-bass-whammy-pitch-shifter-pedal

Although I’ve decided I’m definitely either going Ampeg or Sunn tube with my next amp, I’m also digging the new Orange OB-1K. It’s a 1000 watt solid state bass amp that sports a look similar to the Orange tube guitar heads such as the Rockerverb models.

Oh, and Hiwatt bass! Man I wish…maybe someday.

That may not be much but like I said, extensive Namm coverage for all things bass-related isn’t really my thing. These few items I just talked about however, are.

Company Spotlight: Blackout Effectors

I’ve heard the name Blackout Effectors in passing but didn’t begin to give them much notice until I heard the awesomely heavy and out of control things the Musket fuzz was capable of in a video that Juan Alderete and Jonathan Hiscke did for http://www.pedalsandeffects.com (fuzz wars vol. 2). I found out not too much longer after that these guys are based right in my own backyard, Asheville, NC to be precise. I’m not sure how this stayed under my nose so long with the national recognition that I now see that they are getting. Unfortunately now I’m too broke to actually get any of there stuff and review it but I found a review of the Whetstone phaser on bass that’s really making me want one. Any thoughts on this company and the cool stuff they are making?

Home

Also check out the awesome heavy psych band that one of these guys plays in!

http://softopening.bandcamp.com/