Saturday, August 9, 2025
Spare Parts Slasher (Keeley Katana Clone)
Sunday, July 27, 2025
The Best Bluesbreaker Overdrive Ever? *shrug*
Tuesday, July 22, 2025
Bittersweet Bluesbreaker Build
On this day, Tuesday 22nd of July 2025, I sat outside blissfully putting together one of my most exciting builds of the year. Six months ago I saw a post on Reddit where OP had built a Bluesbreaker overdrive and used J-fets instead of 1N4148 diodes in the clipping section. I was so impressed I put the kit together that night. Of course I had to order the J-fets, which were the tiniest little things you would ever see, and converter boards, but once they arrived I was excited. As much as I was excited, I was also quite put off by the fact I was going to have to solder the J-fets to the converter board. My micro soldering is absolutely horrible, but I knew I eventually had to make it happen.
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Roosevelt is using a J-fet as a bluetooth ear piece |
I was actually quite concerned about soldering the J-fets to their converter boards, but I did the micro soldering inside, in case anything went fucky, thankfully it didn't. The next day, today, I built the pedal and put the J-fets in the clipping section. It was a beautiful sunny day, with low humidity and decent 80 degree temps. I listened to my music as I was soldering, and just as I finished up and was about to head inside to test the circuit, I received a message saying Ozzy Osbourne has passed away. My heart sank.
On this day, the birth of this circuit, it also happens to be one of the saddest days in heavy metal. The overdrive turned out great by the way, but the glee of another successful build was smothered by the passing of heavy metals God Father. May he rest in piece.
Crazy ... but that's how it goes.
Wednesday, July 9, 2025
Bluetooth Headphones Are a Blessing... and a Curse!
Ever since I can remember headphones have been my most preferred way of listening to music. In the past I've discussed, and even reviewed, a few sets that I've owned over the years. It must have started when I was young, and I would sit in a Little Tikes plastic chair in front of my Dad's stereo cabinet. (70s, 80s and 90s kids know the one) One of my parents would set it up for me and I would listen to either the radio, their cassettes, or their vinyl records. My Dad had these puke green colored headphones from the 70s that I used. The main issue though was the fact I was tethered to the stereo by the headphone's cable. Being the rambunctious little scamp I was, I couldn't sit still. What if young Sam wanted to listen to his music AND get a snack, or some Mountain Dew, or my Teddy Ruxpin?
Back in the day there were some, let's just say very primitive sets of wireless headphones on the market. The ones I've tried weren't very good. They ate batteries quicker than a Sega Game Gear play-a-thon, and the range was pretty abysmal. My parents bought one set, which was meant mainly as a means to listen to TV quietly. There was a microphone which mounted onto the TV's speaker, that plugged into a transmitter, which sent that signal to the headphones. The transmitter could also be plugged into a headphone jack. Overall, they functioned, but they just weren't very good. There were probably much better, and more expensive, options on the market, but this was my experience with early wireless headphones.
It's now 2025 and I finally decided to delve into the world of bluetooth headphones, just to see what they're all about. Bluetooth has been a thing for quite some time now. I remember the days of thinking people were talking to me in stores, only to be 3 responses deep before I finally saw their bluetooth earpiece. Thank goodness those embarrassing days are gone, right? Right? I picked the least expensive pair I could find, just in case I hated them, and I have to say they're actually pretty nice. I've never been one to scrutinize the fidelity of headphones, so this pair may not be for someone who does. All I really require is something that delivers music to my ear holes. Most of my MP3s were ripped from CDs years ago, in mud quality, so I'm not a purest by any means.
It took me a while to adjust to wireless because I kept worrying about the non-existent cable in situations where I previously had to worry about the cable. After a while I noticed myself really letting go of the whole cable notion, to the point where I would sometimes forget where I left my phone. Now that I'm not tethered to my cellphone, I would set it down, walk around, and listen to my music as I went on about my day, forgetting where I had left it. I think the worst part is that sometimes I even get so caught up in what I'm doing that I forget I'm even listening to music, or that I have headphones on at all! I love the freedom of bluetooth headphones, but throughout my first 42 years of life I had become accustom to headphones being a certain way, that now I had to unlearn. Once I'm adjusted to them I'm sure everything will be alright. Finally at 42 I've learned it's better than being tethered to the music source, unable to listen to my music AND go get my Teddy Ruxpin.
Thursday, June 26, 2025
140th Circuit Built
Tuesday, June 24, 2025
Another Involuntary Internet Detox
Imagine paying way too much for the internet you get, but only getting it occasionally. Or more accurately, only getting it at your ISP's leisure. That's the BrightSpeed experience. They are firmly amongst the world's most detested internet service providers, if you can even call them that. A few years ago our internet was out for an entire month, and more recently out for two weeks. Since BrightSpeed took over from or previous ISP, who themselves were pretty deplorable yet BrightSpeed is somehow worse, there have always been moments where the router needs reset, the internet drops out random, or slows down for seemingly no reason, amongst the complete outages without warning. BrightSpeed, should really run an escort service; as long as you're paying you're getting fucked. Everyday. Guaranteed. They lied about there being an outage, then acknowledged it and said it would be fixed in a few days. That time came and went, then they claimed it was fixed, when clearly it wasn't. After far more hassle than they're worth they finally said they would send out a tech, in a fucking month! Which proves they are such a mess of a company their techs are backed up fixing their horrible mess for a month.
I've been housebound since I had quite a hellacious anxiety relapse in June of 2018. I was making good progress in my recovery, that is until the plague of 2020 derailed that. In 2024 I decided it was time I made a massive change in my life, so I started seeking medical assistance to overcome this once and for all. I even started doing virtual therapy, which was pretty abysmal. Don't get me wrong, my therapist and I got on very well, but it just didn't give me the confidence I originally hoped it would have. In fact, I would be filled with anxiety a few days before the next session, so much so to the point it was actually better to just stop. Well, here we are over eight months later and I'm finally getting out of the house! After the first week of having no internet I finally decided it was way more advantageous to get out of the house and risk it than sitting and rotting away. For anyone else suffering with debilitating anxiety, let me assure you; I was in the house – apart from medical outings – for seven long years, and getting out isn't anywhere near as bad as your brain tells you it will be. I promise you! I PROMISE you! And it's worth it! The world is fucking amazing! So much has changed, but yet so much has stayed the same. Again, if you're reading this, and you been housebound for any period of time, please try it. Baby step it. I promise it's worth it. I'm actually finding getting out of the house has become addictive.
So, what have I learned from all of this? Firstly, I missed the world far more than I thought I did. I'm having a blast creating a network of places with open wifi. There are almost enough places that my VOIP phone app could get me through without ever activating my phone. Secondly, I hate normal TV these days. Without internet I only had access to local digital TV, which is mostly reruns of stuff I've seen ten years ago, or more. I hate the massive quantity of hokey infomercials trying to sell me junk too. The upside is, being forced to watch normal TV I've officially decided which local news anchor I have a crush on. I'm pretty sure she's married, but she is beautiful! Sucks to be me, I guess! I'll update you on circuit builds in another entry. This lack of internet stuff has really been draining.
Saturday, June 7, 2025
Humbled by Humbuckers
Saturday, May 31, 2025
100k Views! Thank You!
- First post - June 23 2011
- Total posts - 349 (Including this one - so far)
- Total views at the time of publishing this entry - 106,000+
- Most viewed post - 3234 (Gameboy Color Speaker Repair)
- Most views in a single day - 9806 on August 31st 2023
- Country outside of the US who have viewed my blog the most - Singapore (24,600+ views)
- Oldest Unpublished Draft - September 18 2020
- There is one post with an Easter egg. It looks funny, because it was formatted to have a special message along the left edge. The person for whom it was written couldn't care less, but I had fun making it work.
- Last year I published entries in a certain order to spell out the essentially same secret message on the backend. Again, the person for whom it was done couldn't care less, but I had fun.
- I have written numerous entries simply to get it out of my head and delete, never to be seen.