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. 

The Dark Side of the Steggo??? A New Gilmour Inspired Combo Pedal!

 Combination pedals are a great way to get multiple amazing circuits in one box. I've built a few pedals that are either physical combinations of two separate PCB's, or clones of pedals that involved multiple PCBs in the past. However, all of these combinations were essentially clones of existing pedals that were combination pedals in their own right, including the Steggo versions of the Cheese Source, Hoof Reaper, and Heavy Water. However, I wanted to do something that was a combo of two different pedals to help create a specific sound, so I went back to the pedal board of one of my favorite guitarists, David Gilmour, for inspiration.

An Pair of Updated Thagomizers!

The Colorsound Power Boost is one of my favorite utility / boost pedals which I've built under the "Thagomizer" name in several varieties. Given all of these have the volume knob modification, the pedal can be used as a very nice clean boost and equalizer, or it can be used to add bit of a dirty overdrive depending on where the drive / gain knob is set. I worked with my friend in Ukraine, South Obolon FX, to finally develop a Steggo version of the power boost board with a charge pump, and I've now finally gotten a couple of varieties of the pedal together!

New Allen Bradley Thagomizer I - With a Few Modern Replacement Capacitors

I knew the day would eventually come when some of the New Old Stock components I'd been using on my Thagomizers would start to dry up, I just didn't expect it to come so soon! While I'm pretty well set for resistors, tropical fish capacitors, ceramic capacitors, etc., it's the older validated (as opposed to dead) electrolytic capacitors which are drying up - which I guess shouldn't be a surprise. At this point the 22μF Bianchi - Phillips capacitors seem to be gone. I've therefore had to make a modern substitution, but it appears to be the same substitution my European source of parts is making on his sets with the Iskra and Phier resistors as well.

A Third Thagomizer!?!!??? Another Vintage Power Boost Build

I have a real weakness for vintage pedals. Over and above that, vintage pedals built from vintage components probably reach the level of my kryptonite (along with chocolate, or a good steak... good seafood... I'm doomed...)! I've made a few forays into that territory with my Big Muff Pi builds (most notably my recent Violet Ram's Head build) and my builds of the Colorsound Power Boost (also known as "The Thagomizer I"). The army green enclosure version uses Iskra resistors (as well as tropical fish capacitors and vintage axial capacitors) while the orange enclosure version uses Phier resistors (and the same mix of other components). I'd sourced these parts as sets from a wonderful chap in Italy, but the problem with vintage parts is there is a finite number of remaining NOS in the world. So if the supply of Iskra and Phier sets dried up, I wanted to have another option for building vintage Thagomizers - so I decided to go shopping and assemble my own set of parts.

More Thagomizers Inbound! Vintage Colorsound Power Boost in a Modern Box!

In February I posted my first build of a Colorsound Power Boost pedal using the AionFX Nucleus board. I'd initially been interested in the pedal and is sibling, the Overdriver, as they were some of the early pedals used by David Gilmour. For my Overdriver build, I'd gone with all modern components and an enclosure which harkened back to the original case. For the Power Boost, I sort of went the opposite direction, I used all vintage components and created a unique dinosaur themed enclosure for it to sort of establish the "Steggo" brand version of the pedal. Honestly I really love this particular pedal, and I think in terms of build enjoyment it is right up there with the Big Muff Pi and Distortion+, so I decided I'd try and build a few more to "support the habit" as it were.