The Burlingames

Chronicling the adventures of the B's
June 8, 2008

The New Loop Pedal – Part 1

by Dave

I have a great loop pedal, but wanted an additional loop to isolate things a bit more. Here’s the new configuration: the signal comes into the loop pedal, goes out to loop one (the Small Stone and Little Big Muff), back to the loop pedal and then out to loop two (Ampeg Sub-Blaster and MXR EQ), then back to the loop pedal and out to my preamp.

I wanted the additional loop because of the Small Stone. It’s a big-time tone-sucker when in bypass mode. I like it being paired with the Little Big Muff as it tames the distortion a bit, but the octave pedal likes a clean signal with a lot of treble so it can easily duplicate the signal an octave lower. Now, to the construction.

First I made a cardboard mockup to get the measurements down.

Everything fit nicely, so I drilled the new enclosure. It quickly became obvious that I need a drill press (the holes are not centered or lined up as well as I had hoped.

Part two will show the rest.

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June 7, 2008

Teaser

by Dave

Here’s a teaser for you late-night blog cruisers: the new loop pedal is complete and will make its debut tomorrow right here. I couldn’t get my pedalboard rewired in time for church in the morning, but it will be finished tomorrow afternoon.

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June 3, 2008

Ampeg Sub-Blaster LED Addition

by Dave

After much planning and some patient soldering, my Ampeg Sub-Blaster now has an LED and is still wired for true bypass. Here’s the pedal before the addition.

And the guts of the pedal…

And the backside, too…

First I soldered the wires, LED, and resistor together (mostly so I could get some confidence as this was only my second time using a soldering iron). I then replaced the DPDT switch with a 3PDT switch. The additional pole and throws allowed me to add the LED without sacrificing true bypass switching. After that I attached the LED/resistor/wire strand to the switch and effect PCB. Here’s the final result.

Here’s a closeup of the LED lead where it’s tapping into the power supply.

I was very pleased when I plugged in the pedal and it worked on the first try. I then turned my attention to drilling for the LED bezel. I think I made it more difficult than it needed to be, but the result was good. Drum roll please…

And with the ridiculously bright blue LED on…

There you have it, kids. A sweet pedal is even better thanks to the internet’s endless information and my willingness to experiment on expensive gear.

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May 31, 2008

Weeks 14 and 15

by Dave

Here I am at week 14. I’m still feeling really good, which I’m very thankful for. Not a whole lot going on right now. I did get to hear the baby’s heart beat again this week, very precious. I’m excited to have an ultrasound to see the baby.

Here is week 15. Now I’m starting to just feel fat. I wish I could feel the baby moving around so I felt like I had a reason to be fat. :)

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May 30, 2008

Small Stone Forever!

by Dave

I bought another phaser the other day to compare with the Electro-Harmonix Russian Small Stone. I love the Stone; my only gripe is that it’s huge and takes up a ton of space on my pedalboard. So, in my attempt to create the perfect board, I bought the MXR Phase 100 to compare sounds.

The MXR meets the prerequisite of being much smaller than the Stone. It also has the added versatility of choosing between four different waveforms for the phasing in addition to the standard speed knob. The sound, however, was not what I am looking for. There was a very noticeable cut in the bass frequencies when I kicked it on. BOOOO!!! Overall it sounded kind of tinny and unnatural compared to the Stone. The Stone is so warm and doesn’t cut the bass at all.

I especially like my Russian Stone better than others I’ve tried. I tried another that looked exactly the same, but it had a much brighter sound and didn’t have the character mine does. I also tried the new Nano version of the Small Stone, but the waveform sounded a lot different. As far as I know I’ve exhausted all the options within my price range, so I think it’s safe to say SMALL STONE FOREVER!

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