An All New Thagomizer... Almost Literally...

Unless you've been under a rock, you know I really like the Colorsound Power Boost circuit, especially clones that use vintage components. Unfortunately, there are a finite number of vintage components available in the world at this point, and eventually supplies will run out. Vintage components are also more expensive than their modern counterparts, so I wanted to build a Power Boost clone on the AionFX Nucleus board with new components to see what impact it made on the tone of the pedal.

I Scream, You Scream - Cloning the VFE Ice Scream

The VFE Ice Scream is a boutique overdrive / boost pedal that, according to their website, "...are designed to push higher gain amps into meltdown. It all starts with a mid boost stage before the gain circuit. Tune the voicing of the mid boost with the MID knob, and then use the variable low and high cuts to further sculpt your tone to cut through the mix."  Unfortunately VFE Pedals shut down around 2020, though there are Gerber files available for a lot of their designs (I actually picked up several, so there may be some cool odd builds in my future). You can still get new pedals for $199 or so, so they're not incredibly expensive... yet. PedalPCB offers a board for this pedal as the "Frost Drive" - and they offer three different "flavors" of the board (vanilla, mint, and sherbet) so I decided to take the plunge and build all three!

King of the Stone Age? Cloning the Limited Edition Mad Professor Stone Grey

Back in February I built the AionFX clone of Mad Professor's Stone Grey Distortion pedal. It was a neat pedal, but the clone wasn't 100% accurate as I ended up using clipping diodes rather than transistors (essentially used as diodes) in the original. I also became aware of a limited edition version of the pedal and figured if I could figure out what changed in that version, it would make a far more interesting build! So, I did something fairly rare, I actually bought a pedal and set about trying to figure out what made it tick. 

Early Style Fuzz - Cloning the Jext Telez White Pedal

Fuzz effects are some of the earliest guitar pedals produced, and now they come in a fairly dizzying array trying to capture specific tones. The Jext Telez White Pedal tries to capture the sound from the Beatles White Album among other stacked 60's vintage sounds, and honestly it does a good job of it. Unfortunately like so many boutique pedals, used examples of even the Version 2 pedal will set you back over $600, with Version 1 pedals quickly climbing above $1000. Fortunately PedalPCB provides a platform to build your own clone as the Conqueror Fuzz!

Aion Convex - Dinosaural OTC-201 Major Steggo Update!

Almost exactly a year ago I posted my first Dinosaural OTC-201 build. Since that time, the pedal has literally lived on my board. It is one of my most used and useful pedals, and has in the intervening months completely taken over compressor duties on my board (in fact, I recently sold my MXR Script Dyna Comp as I simply wasn't using it). If you can find one of these beauties, they still run in the $300-$400 range, but a quick check revealed none for sale. So, I decided it was high time I moved on from the borrowed graphics of the first version, and create a truly Steggo version of the pedal!

Vemuram TSV808 - Now With a Dino Enclosure!!!

When I built the Tone Geek Above Top Secret clone of the Vemuram TSV808 a couple of months ago, I was incredibly impressed, not only with the pedal, but with how the full functionality of the pedal could be accessed from the front of the enclosure. I decided I needed to make a fun dinosaur version of the pedal as well, and once again I collaborated with my wife for some of the enclosure art! So without further ado!

Doom Fuzz - Cloning the Mountainking Megalith

Distortion and fuzz pedals are an absolute effects pedal staple. I've built a wide variety, but I wanted to build something a bit on the harder side to compliment my hand-etched International Style clone of the Brutalist Jr. Looking through some of my available options, I thought that the Mountainking Megalith would be an interesting choice because of its wide functionality and utility for metal guitar and bass. PedalPCB offers a ready-made board as the Arkaim Fuzz, so I decided to take the plunge!

Site Changes and Updates

Steggo Studios is churning right along. The last few months have been really good from a sales perspective both through Instagram and the Reverb store. That being said, I'm not getting any sales traffic through the blog - so I've decided to remove the "pedals for sale" gadget from the sidebar (which you couldn't see in mobile anyway). That being said, I'm keeping the "Contact Steggo" form, so anyone can get in touch to ask for custom pedals. So what does that mean for the blog?