My Own Hentor Sportscaster Tribute!

Long time readers of this blog will know that I'm an absolutely huge Rush fan and that Alex Lifeson is one of my favorite guitarists. I love trying to learn their songs - not only because I've loved listening to them for many years, but because of how technical many are. It forces me to really expand on and develop my technique as a guitarist. As a pedal builder (who has ventured into amps and building guitar kits), I'm also fascinated by the gear that Alex has used over the years. My goal in developing the Dimetrodon Distortion pedal was to take the MXR Distortion+ as used by Alex, and update it a bit so it would work with solid state amplifiers to really nail his tone at the lower gain settings - which it does amazingly well! In terms of guitars, Alex used a wide range over the years starting out mainly with Gibsons (and ending up with Gibsons), but during the 1980s when Rush began to experiment more with synthesizers, Alex changed-up his guitar of choice. In the early part of that decade he used modified HSS Fender Stratocasters - which after a few iterations became known as the Hentor Sportscaster. As I enjoy playing Strats as well (given that David Gilmour is one of my other favorite guitarists), I thought it would be really great to have my own Hentor Sportscaster.

Alex's "Limelight" Hentor - a steal at $187,500!

A Fanciful Steggo Reverb Pedal

Reverb pedals occupy an interesting niche in the effects world. Many amplifiers have some form of reverb (either digital or spring) built in, while others don't. The reverb effect is designed to shape the amplifier's sound to replicate the effect of playing in a large room - sometimes complete with echos. Steggo received a request for a reverb pedal, and decided to go all in and create something fun!

A Two for One Overdrive Pedal!

The JHS pedals SuperBolt has long been a staple of many pedalboards as it's a really decent overdrive pedal. A while back, however, JHS released the limited edition "TacoBolt" - a different take on the SuperBolt. It was more of a gated fuzz than a overdrive / distortion in a lot of ways. It was allegedly discovered when a normal SuperBolt had been mis-biased. TacoBolts at this point start at about $275 on Reverb, while SuperBolts are typically cheaper. I'd gotten a request for a TacoBolt from a friend, so I went in search of a good board.

Updating the Miragaia

A couple of years ago, Steggo released an awesome doom fuzz clone using the PedalPCB Arkaim Fuzz board. The build actually ended up being surprisingly popular, and I've even built a custom version in a totally unique enclosure. That new enclosure came out so well, I decided it was time to go back and re-visit the original Miragaia enclosure, as Tayda had expanded the range of enclosure finishes available since I'd done the original design.

A Slightly Different Archaeopteryx Fuzz

Last month I finished up a fairly old school version of the Octavia fuzz pedal with a ton of ceramic capacitors, etc. I'd intended to build about three of these, but ran out of some of the more vintage bits to actually go full ceramic for all of the capacitors. Since I'd already populated the resistors for the third pedal, I decided to substitute some of the same red metallized film capacitors like I use in a lot of my Klon builds for the ceramics.

A Different Blues Driver Mod!

I've previously built a few versions of the Galaxie mod of the Boss Blues Drive BD-2 pedal. The most common of which is the version I'd sold as a part of Steggo's ongoing support of Ukraine's defense. There are other versions of the circuit out there, and I'd at one point (in the sadly far too distant past) gotten a request for the Keeley modded version of the pedal. A quick search of the internet showed that one of my favorite sources of all information pedal, the Tone Geek, had a write-up detailing his version of the Keeley mod (as it was used by John Mayer). I thought this was a great start, but decided to see if I could take things just one or two steps further. So here's Steggo's take on the Tone Geek's take on the Keeley mod of the Blues Driver. 

A New Dimetrodon Distortion Variant in an Amazing Enclosure!

The Dimetrodon Distortion was Steggo Studios first original pedal design. Like most analog guitar pedals these days, it has DNA that can be traced back to earlier designs, but it fills a niche that none of the designs it is based on don't - at least for the tones I've been after. Last year I'd given away a prototype version of the pedal when my Instagram channel hit 1000 followers. It is getting close to 1500 now, so I decided it was time for another giveaway, but this time with a few twists!

Another Awesome Vintage Fuzz - Steggo's Take on the Octavia!

I didn't plan this on purpose, it just happened to be when the various projects got done. A couple of weeks ago I finally finished up my first Fuzz Face builds, and today I've just finished up another amazing vintage fuzz - the Octavia. This is another fuzz effect made famous by the legendary Jimi Hendrix. Originally designed by his sound engineer Roger Mayer, the pedal blends an octave up signal with a distorted signal to create one of the first (if not the first) octave-up fuzz effects.

An Alternate Brachyceratops Overdrive

A little over a month ago I posted a new combo pedal build I'd gotten a request for - a combo I likely should have done long ago - a Klon plus a Bluesbreaker circuit. I sort of went all out on that original build as I used one of the amazing Tone Geek Mini-Taur boards and paired it with a brand new in-house layout of the Bluesbreaker that provides early and late tone options along with clipping options. It came out really well, and included an order reverse switch. However, I wanted to do a version using the same technique I had used on my BMP / power-boost combo pedal. In that version, there are four jacks - you can't reverse the order on the fly - that has to be done with patch cables, but you can use the pedals independently or include some sort of effects loop between them. 

Steggo Finally Builds a Fuzz Face!

Introduced in 1966 by Arbitrer Electronics, the Fuzz Face is one of the earliest guitar effect pedals. It gained a great deal of popularity because Jimi Hendrix made extensive use of the pedal. The circuit itself is fairly simple, only consisting of 2 transistors, 4 resistors, 3 capacitors, and 2 potentiometers. The catch is the gain and leakage of those two transistors is vitally important to the overall final tone of the effect. In modern clones, variable resistors are used to help individually bias the transistors to ensure good tone for both the silicon and germanium versions of the circuit. I'd always wanted to put together a fuzz face, but which one?

Fortunately and PedalPCB has a great board called the Twin Face which combines both the silicon and germanium versions into one pedal!

Another Plateosaurus Preamp!

I'd previously built a couple of the PedalPCB clones of the Benson preamp - one for a friend to gig with, and one for myself. As these are a little tricky to get set up right, I only make them on request as a part of a custom order. Another regular had requested one as a larger batch of pedals, so I pulled out my last PCB and started working!

Another Cool Custom Pre-amp! Cloning the Peavey Decade

I got a request for a pedal that recreated the pre-amp portion of the Peavey Decade amplifier. The Peavey Decade is an old-school solid state amp that has been used by a lot of bands. It has waxed and waned in popularity over the years, but it is popular enough that there are a couple of fairly boutique guitar pedals that emulate it's preamp section. PedalPCB makes a preamp board, called the Decadence Preamp. So with board in hand, I got cracking!

The Very Model of a Modern Master General? A New Steggo Fuzz Clone!

Steggo had gotten a request for a clone of the EQD Fuzz Master General. That pedal is an update of the vintage Ace Tone FM-2 Fuzz Master Professional, which was famous for it's fairly untamed octave up character. Fortunately PedalPCB had a board ready to go in the Fuzz Cadet, so I grabbed a couple of boards and got cracking!

A New Combo Pedal - The Brachyceratops Overdrive

Sometimes I get a request for a pedal and then immediately wonder why I hadn't already done something along those lines. One popular combination pairs a Klon Centaur with a Marshall Bluesbreaker. I've done several different versions of the Klon Centaur over the years, and I really enjoy building them. I've also recently done a new dinosaur version of the Bluesbreaker, the Blues Brachiosaurus. In the background I'd been working on my own version of the Bluesbreaker, so when I got a request for the combo pedal, I decided to go all out with the new Bluesbreaker board and one of my favorite Klon boards as well!

A Custom Miragaia!

A couple of years ago I'd built a few clones of the Mountainking Megalith using the PedalPCB Arkaim Fuzz board. These have been somewhat popular, and I have an updated version of the "Miragaia" enclosure in the works. In the interim I'd gotten a request for a custom "doomy" pedal - with Steggi on it. So we aligned on using the same circuit - with a custom enclosure!

Another Amp Project - the Dino Deluxe 5E3!

Back in February I finished my first Amp project, a 5F2-A Tweed Princeton. It is an amazing amp and has taken over upstairs / family room duties as it sounds great and the volume isn't loud enough to scare everyone else out of the house. Eventually I'd like to build some higher end amps, like a Hiwatt DR-103 as used by David Gilmour, but those are notoriously difficult builds. I wanted to get a few intermediate builds under my belt before moving on, and I went in search of another project. I ultimately decided on another Tweed style amp - the 5E3 which has been used by many amazing guitarists including Neil Young and Billy Gibbons.

Capturing a Legend's Sound - Cloning the Cornerstone Gladio SC

Stevie Ray Vaughan was one of the greatest rock / blues guitarists of all time. Many people have attempted to capture his distinctive tone, and many pedals have tried to capture that tone as well. The Cornerstone Gladio SC standalone preamp takes a somewhat unique approach by allowing a blend of the clean and driven signals - along with volume and tone control. There is even a toggle that allows for compression to be added to a signal. The end effect is you can essentially get a tone which sounds like it is running through a dual amplifier set up with one clean amp and one overdriven amp. I had a request to build one, so I went in search of a PCB and got to it!

Steggo's Dimetrodon Distortion an Honorable Mention on Chappers' Top 10 Distortion Pedals List!

Steggo's first original pedal, the Dimetrodon Distortion recently got an amazing shout out from Rob Chapman on his YouTube channel! He was doing his round up of the Top 10 Distortion Pedals of all time. Many of which I know, agree with, and have built in the past. However, there were a few that I haven't had a chance to play with, so I have some more research to do. While the Dimetrodon didn't quite make the Top 10, it did get an "Honorable Mention."

A Custom Vintage Thagomizer!

Unless you've been under a rock, you'll know that the Colorsound Power Boost is one of Steggo's favorite pedals - especially with the volume knob mod. It can work anywhere from a mostly clean boost to a very nice dirty boost. It's also an essential piece of kit if you're wanting to try and replicate David Gilmour's pedal board. I've built several versions of the pedal, but the ones with vintage bits are usually my favorite. They're fun to build because, well if I'm being honest, I love to mess around with old components. To my ear they also sound a bit different, though I admit it could be confirmation bias. I don't think there's any inherent "mojo" in the bits, I just think they vary in different directions than modern components do. The vintage resistors and caps I've measured frequently tend to be a bit over spec, whereas most of the modern ones I've measured tend to be a bit under spec. 

An Interesting Take on the Klon Centaur - the Skelekloned Kentrosaurus

The Klon Centaur is one of the most popular overdrive circuits in the market today (largely because of the number of clones available). I've built several Klon clones of various types and by and large these all work extremely well. There is, however, an issue with the Klon. Because the design includes a charge pump, that charge pump and buffer can sometimes create interference when coupled with clock-driven modulation effects - like the vintage Electric Mistress and other similar effects. Since a lot of people (including me) like to couple a Klon with more vintage effects, I went in search of designs that eliminated the charge pump - and hopefully the interference with vintage modulation effects. I found a couple of options and this is the first one I've gotten built up.