Opening Day: Pedal Building 2025

For months I had been excitedly waiting to building my Southland overdrive clone. All I needed was to find the perfect day to start my 2025 build season, and that day was March 13th. The day was beautiful, the animals were out in full force, and the temperature was set to be the highest it had been in months. I gathered everything and set up my work station outside. The build went pretty well, but there was a sense of agitation in the air the entire time. Although I was finally building the overdrive I had been wanting to build, it just wasn't feeling like I normally do, or hoped it would. I'm still not sure what it was exactly, but there have been a few things going on in my life that could be the culprit.

Even testing wasn't what it used to be. Normally I'm an neurotic mess as I plug everything up; ready to be completely let down by another failure, or at least another troubleshooting session. Deep within myself I felt like this was no longer what I wanted to do with my time. Something is different, something has changed. The strange thing is this circuit came to life immediately. Not even a single second of delay to sow the seeds of doubt. It just worked outright, and perfectly. I can't remember the last time that has happened.

There is a lot going on in my head right now. I'm closing a chapter that I worked on for fifteen years, and now I'm starting fresh. All of this has me in a shaky headspace, more so than I already am. I still have builds that need parts ordered, but I'm not sure how much longer I'll be building. Is this an ending, or maybe a shift? I'm not sure. All I know is life is about to get very complicated soon, and I'll need to adjust everything to accommodate it. While some things are falling into place, I need to wrangle other aspects to keep them in line. Getting old is far more complex than just aging gracefully. A lot of things, despite your best efforts, simply don't, and won't go the way you want them to.

I guess in a way, it's a lot like building a pedal circuit. You can plan it to a T, but there are always things you never planned for. No matter how I feel, I'm trying to urge myself to be excited about the Ram's Head Muff clone I have planned. It's one of the builds that still needs parts. I have a lot of simple builds this year, with fewer bigger projects. Maybe in this new chapter I'll have a more inspiration to build, and this year's season just started off in a funk as a sign thing can only get better. We'll see.

Hello, Semi-Hollow!

It all started when I saw an Ibanez AS93FM (emerald green one), and a desire was born. A lot of my blues heroes used a semi-hollow guitar, so I think it's finally time to see if I connect with one. I looked into the Ibanez Artcores, used Gibson ES 335s, Epiphones, Firefly guitars, even an ES 339 caught my attention, but I decided against all of them for one reason or another; most of them weren't in my current budget anyway. Ultimately I decided it had to be a cherry red Harley Benton HB-35 Plus, as it addressed my biggest concern about gelling with a 335 style guitar. On most 335 guitars the input jack is on the front, while the HB-35 Plus has it on the bottom, like most guitars. It also had a lot of features that I like, such as a flame maple top, the switch at the top like a Les Paul, and push/pull pots to split the coils of each humbucker.

I told my brother to keep an eye out for 335 style guitars, especially a used HB-35 Plus. Both Friday and Saturday he texted me a ton of pictures of guitars, but nothing had all of the features that made the Harley Benton my favorite. Then he sent me a photo of a cherry red, flame maple 335 style guitar with the switch at the top, and I got excited! At first I thought it was an HB-35 Plus, because the headstock wasn't visible, but once I noticed the gold hardware I could tell this wasn't a the HB-35 Plus I was looking for. If it looks like an HB-35 Plus, but isn't, what could it be? It' a Peavey!? Yes, a Peavey JF-1, to be exact. After my brother sent me a photo of the headstock, I quickly went to work researching what it was. In most of my research I found a lot of people seemed to like them, so that helped me decide this was the one for me.

The Peavey JF-1 retailed for $399.99 many years ago, so I wonder if the HB-35 Plus was based on it. These were Peavey's entry into Jazz Fusion, thus JF model. The only feature the Peavey lacked, compared to what I wanted from the HB-35 Plus, was the push/pull pots. It did surpass the HB-35 Plus in the pickguard style, which is much more 335-esque, compared to the LP style of the HB-35 Plus. It had some bumps and bruises, but nothing I couldn't overlook. Overall she's in good shape, although she does need a setup. To its credit, as per the Peavey website specs, the tuners are Grover, the neck is set-in mahogany, and it is completely wrapped in cream binding, including front and back of the maple body. If I had any complaints at all I would say I'm not a fan of gold hardware, but that will continue to wear over time.

Another minor gripe is these pickups may get changed at some point. The neck pickup seems to sit around PAF territory, where I want it, but the bridge is a bit too hot for what I want to do with this guitar, at 14k. I may also install a push/pull on the neck, if I change out the pickups, for the out of phase sound. Overall she sounds nice acoustically, and plays really nice. After some elbow grease she cleaned up nice too! It's great having another guitar that rings out acoustically, like my Les Paul. I've already bonded with this one in less than 24 hours of having it. Really nice for what it is, and I got it at a super deal. An easy pick up and play guitar to help me test pedal builds too!

Say Hello to Cherrie King!

Hello March 2025!

We've finally made it into March territory. Being my birth month, March has always had a special place in my heart. Also, being from the mid-west, March's weather potential has always fascinated me. In elementary school I remember being told March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb, or vice versa. We would color in lambs or lions and predict which way it would go. We never really paid much attention to which way it actually went though. We were kids, and by the time April came along we had already forgotten what even happened in March.

Here in 2025, March has came in cold and rainy, so take that whichever way you want. It does look like a few nice days are about to pop up though, so that's when I plan to start build season 2025. I've added a few more circuits and ideas to the build list, bringing our total number of projects to eighteen for this year. This still includes the 5F1 that I need a lot of parts for, and especially guts to test. Speaking of small amps, for some reason my Fender Mustang Mini has decided it wants to join the team again. Since it's back in semi-working order I won't be using Buddy (my 386-based amp) as much as I did last year. I always felt the test results with Buddy felt a bit off. Not sure why, they just did.

I won't even lie and say that I'm going to stop at eighteen builds this year, I'll just say that's where we are for now. Will I build more treble boosters, even though I already have tons? You bet! Will I build more overdrives even though I already have tons? Yep! Will I build another amp? Maybe! Will I need to order a ton of parts? Can confirm! Is 2025 going to be a good year? shrug For now I'll take it one day at a time and see where that puts me. The key is to not make too many moves too quickly, but progress has to be made. Let's get after it!

Building Season 2025 is Almost Here!

With 2025 off to a very rough start (long Covid), I know I can at least look forward to a brand new build season in spring. Last year I left off with three kits that were ready to build, and eight that still needed parts. In the past few weeks I've been looking for more circuits to build, but the layout sites have slowed way down with their posts. Despite their slower output with new layouts I've actually added two new builds to the 2025 build roster. I have a third waiting in the wings, because it requires such off the wall parts I'm not sure I'll fully commit to it. There is also a Bluesbreaker variant I'm wanting to build, but it's a bit off the wall too, so it too is waiting in the wings for me to decide what to do.

Among the newbies are a Sun Face clone, and another treble boost, with a Danelectro Breakdown clone being the oddball in the wings. I've wanted to build a Sun Face clone for a while, so I figured now would be the time to give it a try. All together I have thirteen kits, again most of them still need parts ordered, with the Danelectro Breakdown, the Bluesbreaker variant, and the Fender 5F1 build still hanging in limbo. The 5F1 is mostly because I'm still not too keen on messing with such high voltage.

For my sanity I'm hoping the layout websites stay slow with their output this year. As we've seen in the previous two years I make a claim early on, only to end up going wild and surpassing it by some crazy number. Once my parts order is made that will most likely mark the end of prototype building. I need to switch over to repairing circuits that didn't work out the first time, and housing all of them. I have so many circuits in little bags I want to plug in and play, but it's not as simple as that. Even worse, I'll hear something I really like and do all the research into building it, only to find out I've already built one.

Hopefully 2025 starts looking up and I can finally get to writing and recording. I've got a few demos planned, I just need to get some of my pedals finished to aid me in that pursuit. Fingers crossed everything goes better than I expect!

The Bass

In 1999 I became more interested in learning to play the bass, just to add another feather in my cap of musical prowess. May of that year saw a dear friend by the name of Joe offering me his old bass guitar, one he said he never played anymore. Joe brought the bass to school on a Friday, handed it to me and told me to take it home for the weekend. The last thing I can remember him telling me was to let him know how I liked it on Monday. The issue being, our school district had a funny way of rewarding me with more days off from school when I had previously not shown up to school. I was suspended most of that following week, and by the time I returned it was too late. I went back to school with the intention of returning the bass to Joe, but Joe had passed away that Thursday night. Meningitis. He was only 15 years old.

I tried numerous times to get his bass to his sister, but our schedules rarely ever crossed paths. From 1999 until about ten years ago I continued to try and make it happen, but things never worked out. It was as if Joe was telling me this is where he wants the bass to stay, and it has ever since he gave it to me. On the surface it's nothing special. It's a red Mako brand, P style body, maple fretboard, single pickup bass. The strings are still original, as I can't bear to take them off. They're the last set of strings Joe played. Needless to say I've not played it since 1999. It's more a keepsake of a friend who I guess decided I was the safest home for his bass.

I think this year I might just go through and give the bass a tune up, see how it performs. After leaving school in 2000 the bass moved with me to Michigan, then back to Indiana. It's been packed away in box in my closet untouched, but not forgotten, for decades. A new pack of strings, a thorough cleaning, make sure the neck is doing alright, and it might be ready to rock. I still feel as if this belongs with his family, but it's just never happened. I think at this point they've probably long forgotten it.

DIY Wah, or DIWAH?

Checks notes Back in April of 2023 I built a Colorsound Inductorless Wah clone, without any real plan beyond building it. Afterwards I thought that maybe I would come across a dead wah pedal and just put my circuit in that housing. The reality is, if this scenario were to ever present itself, I would most likely just repair the original circuit, leaving my own circuit to remain homeless. So what is a DIY wah clone circuit supposed to do? Go to Aliexpress, of course! Aluminum wah enclosures are all over the place on that website, and during their holiday sales I decided it was time for me to go ahead and bite the bullet on buying one.

Now, I currently have my brother's BBE Ben-Wah in for repairs, so I can compare this enclosure to a genuine wah. Alright, I hear you snickering at the fact I just called the BBE a genuine wah. I know, I know. Anyway, the BBE is MUCH heavier, and feels much more substantial than this enclosure. My only concern is the longevity of this aluminum. The 1590B and 125B style cases are fine, because they're smaller, but this one being bigger gives me a bit of concern for how many wahs this pedal will let out before it wahs no more from stepping on it too much. Time will tell!

As you might have noticed I had to do a little modification due to my supplies. Most wahs use an internal power jack, as where all mine are external, but it works. The treadle tensioner is an oldschool design, but it also seems to work. Instructions on this are really tough to find, but if you're curious look up Mammoth Electronic's tutorial on their 4SWAH enclosure. Pssssst. It's the same thing! Shhhhhhh. Keep that between us. In 2023 I built the Colorsound inductorless, as well as a Bespeco Weeper clone. This one will be the Colorsound and when the Weeper will get a home is beyond me. If you do decided to buy one of these from Aliexpress please note that sometimes they're missing parts. The parts with mine came thrown into the box, and probably fell out of the cracks in the box in transit. Just a buyer beware situation. Overall, not a bad deal for a DIY wah pedal.

My Christmas Gift to Myself: Healing

For the past twelve years of my life I've dealt with pretty serious anxiety off and on. This year was one of the worst relapses, and I'm still having a hard time shaking it. In previous years, when I had a relapses, I relied heavily on the most amazing support systems I've ever had, but sadly she decided in 2019 that was all she could take. I understand, sometimes I don't want to be with me either. She always promised me, up to the day she left, we were going to be together. It was never a matter of if, it was a promise of someday. Either way I have to stop staring at that closed door hoping it will ever open again. What hurt me the most was, to semi-quote Take That, in the twist of separation she excelled at being free. It was as if her escape was planned very well in advance. That's her choice, and I fully support it as I'm sure she's happier without me.

Now I look at my life and realize I can't let everything around me fall into disrepair anymore. I need to take my health, my happiness, and my life more seriously and find what I deserve and where I deserve to be. It's going to be a long, hard road, but I've got some really great people on my side already. I also have you, the readers. If you've come here for a new pedal building update, or small electronics fix tutorial, I'm sorry. That's why this blog is called Sam's (or my idiot younger self chose Samz) Asylum. It's my little place on the virtual world; a hodgepodge of all things I'm feeling, working on and what I want to share with whomever will read it. For those of you who have stuck around through all my personal entries that aren't fun to read, thank you. I promise you 2025 has some more pedal builds, and hopefully here soon I'll be able to give an update on a build from 2023.

No longer can I wait, unhappy and longing for the past to return. No longer can I sit back and let life pass me by. It's time to take charge of what I can control, and hope what I can't control shows me a bit of grace and mercy. I'm super excited about a few major events in 2025, and we'll just have to hope for the best with everything else. Hopefully things will be better than the past five years have been. Hey, I love building pedals, but I was never doing well emotionally. Now let's put a positive mental attitude and my pedal building skills together and see where that gets us. I'll keep those of you who wish to know updated. For the rest of you, the pedal build stuff will start back up in Spring, so only a few months to go. I'll see you then and wish me luck. I'll need it!

Virginia's Run (In With the Trailer Park Boys)

Here we go again! I watched a movie just to find the Trailer Park Boys connection. This time I watched Virginia's Run, which had been on my radar for quite some time. This movie doesn't focus around any of the actors from TPB, but rather a little girl, named Virginia, whose mother died in some horse related accident. The father, being so angry at the horse that killed his wife, has sold the horse, but Virginia still tends to it. The horse bites the dust while giving birth, so the foal imprints on Virginia as its mother. From here we have your typical, cookie cutter early 2000s coming of age movie. Father and daughter disagree, father makes a huge (and financially irresponsible) gesture to apologize to his daughter, and now magically has complete and total faith in adolescent daughter's decision making skills, after having spent the first part of the movie questioning them.

I know this movie isn't aimed at me, so I won't judge it too harshly. I'm not into horses, nor could my family ever afford one, so two strikes right there, but that's on me. Much like with Dawn, Her Dad & the Tractor I hope the target audience find their solace in this film as well. After the huge apology gesture from her father, Virginia enters into a horse race, but not before she has an interaction with the town bully, a rich kid, whom Virginia and her horse completely smoke in an unsanctioned race. As revenge for this, and to avoid losing in front of the whole town, the rich kid horsenaps the horse, causing Virginia to be late to the race.

This is where all four of the Trailer Park Boys actors meet up. In the first few minutes Mr. Jeremy Akerman appears, and later comes back as the overseer of the horse race. While recovering her horsenapped horse, Virginia runs past a traffic stop, where none other than John Dunsworth is portraying the sheriff. Once Virginia is escorted into town, by Sheriff Jim Lahey (not really the character's name), she is held back from entering the race by Mr. Akerman's character, who is a DICK! Which causes a pair of men in the crowd (credited as JP and Rob, aka Julian and Ricky) to chant "Let Virginia ride!", repeatedly.

This is where all four of them interact, before Akerman's character finally relents and allows Virginia to enter the race. The scene switches to Virginia who is now mounted up and in hot pursuit to catch up to the race, even though she's like fifteen minutes behind. Do not fear though, as this is a feel good, coming of age movie it only takes a few minutes before she's battling for the win. This leads to a side by side battle between Virginia and her rival, which results in him pulling some typical rival bully tricks and causing Virginia to take a tumble. In true feel good movie fashion she recovers and within a few more short minutes they're both battling it out to the finish line.

Sheriff Jim Lahey!

My only real complaints about this movie are the jaw harp that had to be used for almost any reason at all. Does it need more cow bell? No! It needs more jaw harp! And Gabriel Byrne did a pretty abysmal job with his accent. His acting was good, but his accent wasn't sure if it wanted to be his native Irish, or hillbilly American. As for the Trailer Park Boys connection, Mr. Akerman, JP and Robb were all featured pretty heavily throughout the final part. As for Sheriff Jim Lahey, well he was there at the end, but didn't say much else. Now shit hawks here, folks!

Freedom 35?

A Quick Thank You

Yesterday was Thanksgiving for us Americans, and no the irony of the holiday is not lost on me. I figured I would take a moment to thank all of the readers who have put up with my ramblings for over thirteen years now. On the backend of my blog I can see where views come from, and sometimes I'm surprised at where my little island of incoherency is being viewed from. While these are purely statistics, and put no face to the viewers who actually take the time to view the blog, I want to say thank you for reading, whomever you are. I've tried to make sure that my blog is accessible to everyone who wants to read it. If the page doesn't automatically translate I've made sure there has been a translation option on the right-hand side of the page.

I'm not a writer, a fact that is obvious by reading any entry in this blog. I just wanted a small space to express what I find interesting in the world, and to share my hobbies and my (very limited, and sometimes questionable) knowledge. I've done reviews, some might call needless, and I've done some tutorials, some might call those needless as well, but I've always tried to be helpful in some way or another. I can see my blog has been quoted a few times in forums seeking help, and I'm glad that I could be useful. After all, that's really all I've ever tried to be. I don't know who you are, but if my blog has helped you in any way shape or form, I thank you for taking the time to read it.

Sam's Movie Review: Dawn, Her Dad & the Tractor

I've mentioned it here a few times that I love Trailer Park Boys. That show came to me at a time in my life where nothing made sense. Even though it was a comedy mockumentary, to see that I wasn't alone in life making absolutely no sense made it make sense. Does that make sense? Apart from Trailer Park Boys I knew there were a few other film projects the cast and crew worked on such as The Cart Boy, One Last Shot, and even Virginia's Run. More recently I watched Vandits, starring Robb Wells, and enjoyed it quite a bit. After that I decided to see what else Mr. Wells had been in, and a movie by the name Dawn, Her Dad & the Tractor showed up, so I decided to give it a watch as well.

I have to preface this by saying, while I did enjoy this film, there were so many moments where I was like "This is totally connected to Trailer Park Boys.". Aside from starring Robb Wells, this movie was written, produced, and directed by the lovely Shelley Thompson, aka BARB FRIGGIN LAHEY! Whose scalloped potatoes, I am sure, are not fucked. There were a lot of moments where I could see Ricky coming out of Robb. I totally admit that's wholly on me, because I went into this movie with the mindset of finding the Rickyisms in Robb's other work. For that, I'm truly sorry. Again, I did enjoy this film!

The story focuses around Dawn (formerly Don), who transitioned from male to female, and trying to circumvent the tribulations that brings to one's life. Robb Wells portrays her father, who just lost his wife, and both Dawn and her sister, plus her sister's boyfriend, come back to be with their father to help him through this tough time. While back in town Dawn's family slowly but surely accept her for who she is now, but there are some typical troublemakers in the town whom needlessly cause quite a bit of trouble. While trying to reconnect with her father, Dawn takes an interest in her mother's old tractor. As a way of showing support for his daughter the father helps her restore the tractor. Said troublemakers complicate this by burning down the barn in which the tractor was stored, which only causes an outpouring of support from the community in restoring it one final time, so that it could be used in a communal event.

I'll say it again, I did enjoy this film. It felt like a low budget, tight-knit community film to me, which is in no way a bad thing. The actors who normally do plays at the Blandford Recreation Centre finally got their time to shine. (Sorry, I couldn't resist!) I grew up in very rural America and I understand the small town mentality, so much of that felt very genuine to me. Transitioning isn't something I've personally experienced, but just like Trailer Park Boys helped me feel less alone in my life not making sense, hopefully this film will help those struggling in the same way as Dawn find their own solace.