Guitars 'n 'at
I've been playing guitar since 94, mostly as a hobby but once with a band that I assure you no one who did not go to Penn State New Kensington in 1997-1998 has ever heard of. Recently I have begun to really get into achieving that perfect and elusive guitar tone I have always wanted (potentially making up for my average playing ability). This seemed a perfect way to use the geeky soldering and electronic skill I acquired during my ham radio building phase.
The Guitar
The guitar I have always had is my 1994 sunburst, made in Mexico Fender Stratocaster. I've improved this guitar (in my opinion) beyond that of the more expensive American Strat by adding locking tuners, Callaham Bridge, Fender Hot Noiseless Pickups, and improved electronics. Having played both, I really prefer the Mex Strats (although their quality seems to vary more from guitar to guitar than American Strats do), and with a little extra money can be made into a truely great guitar. Probably not worth as much on the resale market, even with the additions, but I bought the guitar to play.
I may someday acquire a Telecaster (or build a clone) and if I happen to end up with way too much money I would love to get my hands on a Rick Turner Model 1.
The Pedalboard
True guitar tone depends mostly on the player, closely followed by the guitar, then the amp. Last is the effects but they are more fun for me so let's look at them now.
Let's look at each of these effects in order
Crybaby Wah
There is nothing special to this. It is a totally unmodded GCB-95. I have plans to someday either gut it and build a new board for it using a higher quality Fasel inductor, or at least put in a switch so I can swap input and output jacks (the only way to get that seagull sound in the middle of Pink Floyd's Echoes)
BYOC Fuzz Face
This is electronically the simplest pedal to build, but the second hardest to get to sound correctly. I spent many hours trying different transistors (various combinations of germanium and silicon) before I settled on a matched pair of NPN Germanium OC140. I set the bias by ear then was later pleasantly surprised it was the exact recommended voltage. This is a great pedal for Cream (White Room) or Hendrix style tones. Cleans up very well with the volume knob and when backed off it sounds very much like a treble booster (which is good because my overdrive is usually set to boost bass frequencies). Surprisingly, the poor signal buffer in the stock wah in front of the pedal does not affect the clean up.
MXR Dynacomp
The only other stock pedal currently on my board, the Dynacomp gives me nice compression and sustain when I am playing clean or semi-clean. I do not generally use with a distorted tone except when I am trying to get that Shine On You Crazy Diamond lead tone. I'm considering replacing this at somepoint with something home built but I am happy enough with it that I am in no hurry.
GGG ITS8 Overdrive
This is possibly my favorite pedal. A truly great sounding overdrive that can give me anything from a clean signal boost to a warm tube sounding overdrive to a raw screaming overdrive. I've done the standard GGG mods with a three way selector switch to go between asymmetric diode clipping, LED clipping, and no clipping (just boost). I've also added a switch to give a strong bass boost. I highly recommend this mod and I am considering putting this pedal into a larger enclosure in order to make this a foot switch option as I end up using it a lot.
GGG Big Muff Pi
I've built this to the vintage Triangle Version Specs. This is also the first pedal kit I built. This is my standard workhorse distortion box for when I need something heaver than the ITS8 (although I frequently use the two together with the ITS8 acting as a booster before the Muff) and do not want that Fuzz Face Tone. Think Comfortably Numb solo type tone (notice how so many of my tonal references are Pink Floyd related?). I generally do not ever tweak this one. I have the tone, volume, and distortion set where I want them and just kick it on when I need it.
MXR Phase 90
This is a block logo Phase 90 which I have modded to Script Logo specs (a few component lead cuts and some solder and you have saved a lot of money to get the same tone as the reissue or used Script Logo phaser). I like having modulation in my tone so I am almost always either using this or the Flanger (they do not sound at all good together). Not much to say about it, the Phase 90 is a one trick pony but it does it trick very well and ends up being more useful than I expected.
Homemade Electric Mistress Flanger Clone
Unlike the kit pedals, I started this one with just a PCB from GGG and an increasingly hard to obtain Reticon SAD1024 delay chip from SmallBear. From there I sourced all the parts (mostly from SmallBear and Mouser) and build something that is not quite to the normal specs, but still very flanger sounding. I experimented a lot with this one, probably more that I should have since I blew the SAD1024 once and almost melted the resistor after the voltage regulator when I inserted the opamp backwards). Despite being a little finicky in its settings, this pedal has quickly become a mainstay in about anything I play. It does not suffer from the noise and volume drop that the original has. I need to spend some more time adjusting the trimpots to get better control over the speed, but overall I am happy how this turned out.
GGG PT-80
I love echo (we have established I am a Pink Floyd fan) but I hate how digital echo sounds. I love the warm decay of a good analog or tape echo and that is just what I get with this. I've recently added a toggle switch to double my echo time (at the expense of audio fidelity). This pedal gives me really good Another Brick In the Wall style syncopated echo sounds, however it reacts very oddly to the flanger which seems to severely cut the level of the repeated notes. Still have not figured that one out, but not a huge problem as I do not often really want to use the two together. This pedal also had the most complicated board, and probably took the longest to build if you don't count the times I rebuilt the flanger over and over again.
Layout
The layout is always subject to change, and is currently where it is as a result of many hours reading up on pedal placement theory, and many more hours of ignoring what the experts had to say on the matter and figuring out what sounded good to me. The Wah is first because it really needs to be since I like to use it with the Fuzz. The Fuzz otherwise would be first because I want the purest signal going into it (too many buffers can affect the guitar volume knob cleanup). The compressor is next mostly because I use it to control the volume into the overdrive and distortion boxes. The overdrive is before the Muff because I like to drive the muff with a little extra boost occasionally. The phaser is often considered a filter effect and placed with the Wah. I personally think it sounds better in the modulation section at the end. At any rate I do not like the sound of a phaser before distortion. The Flanger is placed after the phaser mostly for physical layout issues, I don't use the two together so it really does not matter. The echo is of course last so I get a true echo of the generated tone. The entire board is wired up with George L's cables. And if you are really curious, the board itself is a plywood door to an Ikea desk with metal handles I bought at Home Dept (along with the roll of velcro).