DIY Stompboxes

[fade]

http://www.diystompboxes.com/wpress/

Google Reader recommended this site for me. It's exactly what it sounds like: DIY instructions for wiring up guitar stompboxes. As you can imagine, if you have any electronics experience, the circuits are really simple. Most involve amp circuits and modulators. He sets up a simple boost as the first project.

It took me a minute to figure out the site setup. Apparently the Wordpress blog is the pretty face, but the action (including the instructions) are in the forum (sounds familiar, huh?),

One thing I really like about this guy is that he debunks the whole "vintage is better" myth (electronics, not guitars). I may be new to the electric guitar, but I am old hat at electrical engineering, and it never made sense to me that something doing essentially the same thing to the electrons could sound significantly different, better or worse.

 

[strawman]

Nice find! Bookmarked for later browsing...

 

[KCWM]

I've read that site before for modifications to a Carving Vintage 33 amp I'd traded into. Build Your Own Clone is pretty popular as well with clones of plenty of pedals. A boost pedal is the place that most people start, and is actually a VERY useful pedal to have. In fact, one of the overdrive pedals I bought has an independant boost built into it...very nice pedal.

Vintage vs. Modern CAN be overblown. However, there are some effects that vintage just simply sound better. I've had a vintage MXR Phase 90, a modern Phase 90, and I've heard a couple of DIY clones. The vintage one wins hands down. It was a fuller, crisper, and smoother effect. It's not a HUGE, in-your-face difference, but it's noticeable for me. I will admit that I do not have a full understand of the electronic side of pedals, amps, and guitars...so my points might very well be easily dismissed. Most of the components that modern pedals, including some kits, are made with are not of comparable quality to the components used to make the pedals 25-30 years ago.

Amps and guitars are a totally different story. There is little room for argument that Vintage and modern are of more or less equal quality.

 

[drawn_inward]

I own an acoustic, and have only goofed around a little bit with an electric. I understand that you can use a pedal to get a different sound, but how do you get so many different sounds? Do you have to have a different pedal for different sounds?

 

[fade]

There are different pedals for different sounds, but a lot of them, electronically, come down to boosting the signal up hard enough that it clips out (meaning the peaks of the vibrations get chopped off, resulting in kind of a robot-voice sound) or starts to beat against itself. That's where a lot of those crunchy distorted sounds come from.

 

[KCWM]

Here are the common effects (and An attempt to explain them) with possible examples:

Delay - Takes the signal and creates a delayed copy of varying quality depending on pedal and whether the signal is replicated digitally or via analog. Edge from U2 utilizes delay on quite a few songs.

Chorus - Uses a very short form of delay to simulate multiple instances of the signal. This is a forum of "modulation", so it's a little different than your standard delay. If you listen to Nirvana's "Come as You Are", this is an example of chorus.

Phaser - Another form of modulation. If you listen to Live's "Lightning Crashes", the beginning guitar has a phaser effect on it.

Flanger - Another form of modulation that people often describe as a "whooshing sound" or "jet plane taking off". Eddie Van Halen was known for his flanger use in the 80's and actually has a signature Flanger Pedal.

Tremolo - If you listen to the first chord of Metallica's version of "Turn the Page", the guitar has a very light tremolo effect on it.

Compressor - Does what it the name describes. It takes the sound and kind limits certain frequencies. Is nice for preventing some volume spikes...kind of levels off the amplified sound.

Wah - Used in a lot of guitar solos. Jimi Hendrix, 70's music, and the list goes on and on.

Hopefully that helps give you an idea.

 

[The Pumes]

I personally love Rotary Speaker pedals, they create an awesome trembly-organ type of sound to them that can create some haunting melodies.

All Phaser pedals should be called the 'Prog-Rock' pedal.

 

[CynicismKills]

I own an acoustic, and have only goofed around a little bit with an electric. I understand that you can use a pedal to get a different sound, but how do you get so many different sounds? Do you have to have a different pedal for different sounds?

The general idea is that most guitarists will have a whole array of pedals set up to give a different form of sound to the guitar. If you go to any live show wherein electric guitars are used at all, odds are the lead (and even rhythm) guitarist will have at least 3+ pedals at his feet, not to mention the array of guitars that are pre-tuned or equipped with clamps.

 

[KCWM]

Oh, i forgot about rotary/leslie speaker. A great example of that is the high guitar parts during the verses of Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun"

 

[fade]

I had to try Lightning Crashes after I read this. That's a hard chord progression in standard tuning. Dropping down a half step makes it easier. I love barre chords. They were hard to learn when I was little, but they're so easy once you get the hang of them.

 

[KCWM]

I'll have to look up the chord progression. I always faked it as F-C-G barre chords. I'll admit to not listening to the song too closely, so maybe I missed it.

 

[fade]

The thing is that C barre chord doesn't sound quite chunky enough. I think he's playing a C5, which means you've got to reverse your finger order. I find that hard, but it may just be that I'm way out of practice.

 

[drifter]

The thing is that C barre chord doesn't sound quite chunky enough. I think he's playing a C5, which means you've got to reverse your finger order. I find that hard, but it may just be that I'm way out of practice.

Huh? Maybe I'm confused, but isn't the finger position for C5 on the A string the same as a barre chord? Anyway, I remember buying a guitar magazine long ago with the tabs for that song, and they had the C and G as open chords, if that helps any.

 

[fade]

It's similar...I don't know, maybe it's psychological. Going to an A-style barre isn't as hard as the power chord shape the me. Something about the power chord---I have trouble sometimes with buzzing strings. Probably because I've known barre chords for years, but power chords are relatively new to me.

 

[KCWM]

I was playing around this past week after hearing it on the radio and it might be something along the line of the attempted chord diagram below (the strings are listed first and then the frets to play), which is a C2 or something, I think. I can't remember the name of it.

1|--3--
2|--3--
3|--5--
4|--5--
5|--3--
6|--x--